yinnytheyin: Beijing, China Day 1

This is probably my most anticipated trip my whole life!! Going to Beijing?? How incredible is that! I've always wanted to see the Great Wall, The Forbidden City.. I've always been fascinated with all this historical things, so it was great going there to see it with my own eyes. So mum has booked us for 5 days and 4 nights tour. But last minute, Kit cannot make it. So sad :(

So our flight was at 12.30AM. Yup that's right, AM. So i was thinking, hmm so we'll reach there at 6.30am, so we'll probably go to the hotel from the airport, rest for a bit then start our tour. But I was wrong, 6.30AM we reach the airport (and I couldn't sleep on the plane, the journey was very bumpy), so with my panda eyes, I was told by the tour guide manager, Kelvin, that we're going to start our tour right NOW. So, okaaaay, haven't slept the whole night, I hope I won't snore in the van.. like I did in Hong Kong. Our tour group consist of us, a Chinese family and a retired couple. All of them are super super nice.

Okay, so our 1st stop of the tour is.....

Tiananmen Square! It's so big here!! And there were just so many many tourist here. It's really hard to take pictures. Oh by the way, it was so freaking cold in Beijing, do you know it was 2 degrees?? COLD! Great way to start your morning! Frozen cheeks!

So we wouldn't get lost, our tour guide held out a Malaysian flag everywhere he takes us. (Thank God he didn't ask us to put on a colorful cap)

We walked passed this huge Beijing Olympic slogan as we were walking towards Tiananmen Square.

In the west of the Square is the Great Hall of the People

In the center of the Square stands the Monument to the People's Heroes

Our tour guide Duncan, said that the flag is changed everyday and stored in the museum. Dunno whether true or not... Never seen a flag so heavily guarded

Meridian Gate (Wu Men). This is one of the entrance into the Forbidden City. Did I not mention how huggge it is in there?? HUGE!

The crowd!!

In the Outer Court, there are couple of cannons there. Decorations??

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, this is the largest hall among the other 2. This is where the Emperor discuses affairs of state or held ceremonial purposes. I didn't take a picture inside the hall because it was too crowded and I kept getting shoved away..

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, or also known as Tai He Dian. In every part of the Forbidden Kingdom, they have English illustration on what is what, which is pretty cool if you don't have a tour guide taking you around

See every little detail put into drawings? By the way, that's real gold..

Now we're at the Hall of Central Harmony or also known as Zhong He Dian. This is the smallest hall used by the Emperor to prepare and rest before and during ceremonies.

Oh, I remembered, this was when my camera ran out of battery :( Good thing mum brought an extra camera. So on into the inner court, is the Palace of Heavenly Purify or Qian Qing Gong. This is the place where the emperor lives. But Duncan said that instead of living here, the emperor usually sleeps with his concubines, which he has hundreds.. This is also a tactic, so his enemies wouldn't know where he is sleeping all the time

Mum and May posing

This was located at every Palace, it was used as a fire hydrant those days. Of course now it's empty.

It's heavily guarded in here too!
Okay, after playing around in here, our next stop is..

The Beijing National Stadium, or Bird's Nest! If you don't know what this is, you've been living under a rock last year!

Since our tour didn't include going into the Stadium, we just took shots of it outside. It's freezing by the way

We were there in the afternoon, at night it's suppose to look even more spectacular with the lights

Jumping

and running to keep warm, hehe, nah, just posing

And right next to the Bird's Nest is the Beijing National Aquatics Center, or better known as the "Water Cube".

Swim, swim

So after taking loads of pictures, it's close to evening, so we went to a restaurant close to the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube for dinner. No pictures, because the dinner was just normal rice with dishes. Boo! So, finally, we get to go to out hotel and rest. I was sooo tired, technically, i was up the whole day! Our hotel, was fabulous, but it's out of nowhere, me and May were hoping we would be right smack in town or something so we can walk around.

Our room was incredible.. It was so nice and cozy in there. Since it was winter, there were no air conditioner, but heater. So we had to open the window, and freeze our asses off. I was the victim here, cause I'm the one closer to the window and May was closer to the heater. Hey, she was the one who suggested opening the window!!!