Beijing - Day 2

NOTE 1: Click the links to read detailed information about that particular place/thing.

NOTE 2: It is a very long post. Sorry if you think I am very long-winded.

Finally after so much of procrastination, here is my 2nd day trip in Beijing. Haha Kae Vin was already saying me being a lazy pig. I hate you Kae Vin!! =)

There are a few things that I love about China - the history, ancient culture and the breathtaking sceneries.

I am embarrassed to say that being a true Chinese who came from Chinese school, I do not really know about the history of China and those famous historical personage. Besides, I am never too keen to read up books and articles about them. But then, I am very much fascinated by the ancient buildings, sculptures, workmanship and ideas. I think I will really consider the option of learning more about its history when I am free.

So for my 2nd day, basically below are the few places that we went to. But first let me introduce my tour guide in Beijing whom we called Xiao Wang.

He thinks he looks handsome. So Hua Loong, what do you think huh? You or him? Haha

1. National Grand Theater of China (中国国家大剧院）

This was our 1st destination.

At far

You must be wondering, why of all shapes, it must be built in a hemisphere shape surrounded by water? WHY??

Work your brains. Relate facts about China, a country that strongly believes in Feng Shui.

It is believed that everything must be in BALANCE (like Yin Yang concept). So, when there is a square, there must a circle too. Same applies to buildings. There is a squarish building facing it (not directly opposite, it's more like North-South or East-West thingy). To balance it, it is built in hemisphere. The water surrounding it will create reflection of the building, making it into a complete round building.

What a brilliant idea, isn't it?

Our 1st family group photo - 11 of them are related.

Then we walked all the way to The Forbidden City (紫禁城/故宫).

On the way I noticed something, something that you will not get to see in Malaysia. The flowers planted on the pavement or beside the main roads were all so colourful and eye catching. The colours were even more vibrant than the colours of the flowers planted in my own garden. LOL

Here's only 1 sample. There are other colours like yellow, orange etc. I think even if this flower can be planted in Malaysia at the pavement, within hours, all you can see is just a dead plant.

However the traffic in Beijing is no different to the traffic here. Jam to the max during peak hours. The only difference is, there is no special lane for cyclists in Malaysia. And we do not see a bunch of cyclists cycling down the road to work.

Some public buses are operated by electricity.

If you say Penang people drive recklessly, then we are no compare to China people. Not only their traffic is jumbled up, they practically do not follow the rules. Do not ever trust the traffic lights when you cross the road, because drivers will still drive on even though it is time for them to stop and let pedestrians to cross the road.

See? He is stuck.

And they can make U-turns at nearly anywhere whenever they like. 1 word to describe - Geng!

"Zheng Yang Men" (正阳门）. Will talk about this in upcoming posts.

Cute huh?

Full of bicycles.


Their version of trishaw.


Most of the roadside shops are about this size.

2. Forbidden City (紫禁城/ 故宫）

I am sure many of you have heard about this place. So I will not talk more about it but instead let the pictures do their job alright? *getting lazy lol*

Bro, Me, Mei Lee and Shyuan

Behind us is Gate of Heavenly Peace - "Tian'anmen" (天安门).

Who is more handsome? My brother or Mao Zedong?

From far, the portrait looked like a high-resolution photo. It is said that the portrait is very special in a sense that no matter from where you look at the drawing, Chairman Mao's eyes will always look right into your eyes. Well out of curiosity I tried to look at his eyes from various directions and came to a conclusion, which is - Bullshit. All those crap was just human's psychological reactions (心理作用）.

Anyway I am quite amazed with the painter of this portrait. You know, the portrait is 6 meters high. To draw such a hell big portrait and make it looks soooo real is really not easy. Salute!! And 1 more thing, they need to change the portrait annually. I wonder if it is the same painter who draws a new portrait of Chairman Mao every year? If so, then his life is devoted to drawing this portrait LOL.

Heading into the 'city'.

The main gate is so huge and heavy. Wonder how those ancient people could open or close the door in such a short time?

So many...

Imperial roof decoration of highest status.

Bottom: Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿)

As we were not allowed to enter the hall, maybe because tourists might spoil the historic items, so all we could do was to squeeze with others just to have a look and to snap a few shots. Seriously I hate this kind of situation.

Part of the city

Even on normal working days, many of the tourists were China people from various parts of China. Don't they need to work?

1 of the halls

Wall design



Notice the colour difference between the dragon's head and body?

You know why the head is so shining and is in its original colour? Haha Chinese are always superstitious. They believe that by rubbing the dragon's head it will bring you good luck. Well no harm trying anyway.

A human-look tree.

A huge piece of Burmese Jade (if I am not mistaken)

Gilded lion - “Pi Xiu" (貔貅）

Quite a nice garden.

As we exit..

I would say, the 'city' is really really huge. Well actually everything is huge in China because what they have is SPACE. But won't it be tiring and time consuming to walk from 1 Court to another Court? If I were to live in that century inside the palace, I think I will be very slim with all the walkings =)

3. Fangshan Restaurant (仿膳饭庄)

As the name says, it is a restaurant which serves imitation of imperial court cuisine that the royals used to eat. Wow, sounds cool huh?

Undoubtedly the food was quite nice, but undeniably, there were dishes that we found quite weird. Anyway this was not the best meal I had in Beijing. Will talk about the best meal I had in the later posts.

This Fangshan Restaurant is situated inside Beihai Park (北海公园).

Inside the park,



we felt very relaxed.



Mainly because there were lots of trees (very green),

and it was breezy.

Actually we were very hungry but we still need to walk along such a long hallway to reach the entrance of the restaurant.

Then, we were greeted by waiters and waitresses dressed in "Gege"(格格) and "Taijian" (太监) uniform.

My beloved grandmother was of course offered the seat (should be throne) of the Empress. Sitting beside her were my dad and uncle, who at that time looked more like her maid.

Tour guide became our waiter voluntarily because he was thirsty.

Appetizers

Main dishes

4. Temple of Heaven - "Tiantan" (天坛)

We spent our entire afternoon in "Tiantan". Personally I quite like this place, mainly because of the uniqueness of the structure.

Basically it comprises of 3 main sections:

1. Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿)
2. Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇)
3. Circular Mound Altar (圆丘坛)

(I) Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

I wonder why such a big building must be built for the Emperor to pray for good harvest?

Anyway, this building has some stunning architecture facts:

1. 32 meters high with a diameter of 30 meters
2. only 28 pillars are used to solely support the whole structure
3. there are no beams no nails

1. inner 12 pillars represent 12 months of a year - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
2. outer 12 pillars represent the divisions of day and night
   
   
   

(II) Imperial Vault of Heaven


It is a place used to keep wooden tablets for worships. This structure also has a few interesting facts:

1. 19.5 meters high and has a diameter of 15.6 meters
   
2. built entirely from wood
3. supported by 8 pillars
4. the roof has no beams but has brackets entwined within each other (dynamics principles)
5. the wall around the structure is called the Echo Wall (回音壁）
6. the center marble pathway is known as Triple-sound Stone (三音石） [I do not have a pic]
   

Is the bride pretty?

If not mistaken, the wall behind her should be the Echo Wall. We tried and we succeeded hearing the voice of the men on the opposite side of wall.

As for the Triple-sound Stone, we failed to get the desired results because the place was rather noisy.

I am very amazed at the cleverness of these builders. Really marvelous.

(III) Circular Mound Altar

This platform was where the Emperor used to pray for favorable weather.

See the circular thing that my mom stood on? It is the highest terrace and it has interesting acoustic effect. Your voice can be magnified (resonant and sonorous) magically, if you stand on it and speak out.

I failed to magnify my voice at the beginning. But then I managed to find out how to do it. Your voice must not be sharp but must be low and firm, like an Uncle's voice. I am not sure why but at least it worked for me and the rest of people.

But anyway, acoustic effect was because of the echo of our voice. The balustrades around the platform send our voice back to us when we speak.

Very colourful background

I wish I could lie down on the grass and sleep. So comfy.

5. Beijing Red Theater (红剧场）

To end the day before dinner, we were brought to Beijing Red Theater to watch Kung Fu performance.

Frankly, I did not really enjoy the performance. In fact it was quite boring and some of us actually dozed off a while.

Kung Fu performance should be very lively, full of energy.

But this performance was like a short play about "The Legend of Kung Fu". I personally feel that they danced more than they performed kung fu LOL. If I get to choose, I would rather go and watch "Bian Lian" -- Face-changing. But since I have watched that before during my previous trip Jiu Zai Gou, I should just take this as a change.

6. Wangfujing Street (王府井大街）

After dinner we headed to Wangfujing Street. Vehicles were not allowed along the street so it was packed with people.

The shops ranges from discounted shops to high-end shops.

There was a shopping mall too.

I totally heart this Nike shop!!!

If you are someone who loves to read books and at the same time buy them, it is a MUST to visit Wangfujing Bookstore, which is 1 of the largest bookstores in Beijing. A group mate who made research before joining this tour said that the books were sold at a quite fair price. Too bad I did not do my homework before going to China so missed out the opportunity to visit it =(

Traffic lights specially for cyclists.

So, the trip for 2nd day officially ended after cruising around the city for a while to look at the night scenery. Everyone was exhausted because we walked extremely a lot on this day.

-sherril=xuele-