Sight Seeing in Beijing 2 – Great Wall and Ming’s Tomb

Last week, I went to Great Wall, Ming’s Tomb and Temple of Heaven in Beijing. For Great Wall and Ming’s Tomb, I joined a local tour, which cost only CNY 150.

This is the outside of Ming’s Tomb. When I went inside, dare not to take photo because it IS a tomb. Got to observe the rules… Anyway, I was very disappointed with this. The tour brought us to 长陵(chang ling) instead of 定陵 (ding ling). The latter one is already been dig and opened for visiting, you an actually see the underground palace. The former is only some stone roofs/architectural built on the ground, and it has not been opened, basically nothing to see at all. When we were at Chang Ling, I was very excited thinking we could go down and see the underground palace, didn’t know it is not opened. At that point of time, I didn’t know Ding Ling is the one that most people visits. Have to blame on my lack of research. (Really embarrassing because I am a researcher but I never do my own homework)

As for the Great Wall, am glad that we were given 2 hours to climb up. It was very tiring given that I have not been worked out in the past 2 months, since Chinese New Year (my pilates teacher is going to complain liao!). But I think the climb was worthy, though I didn’t see much scene due to air pollution.


This is what I saw from the highest point I reached (looking back). But, the highest point I went is not the highest achievable points… I didn't have the time to climb up to the highest because I headed for the wrong route. Should have gone out half way to the 好汉坡 and walk along the dirt then join the other path. Instead, I reached a dead end, looking at the other side but not reachable (see photo below)…

BTW, we took an auto cart up to half way before walking up with foot. Maybe we should have taken the cable car, which is on the other side of the Great Wall. That one is closer to the highest point. Actually I think back about the auto cart, it doesn't look safe at all, and I wonder how safe can the cable car be. This is definitely against HSSE policy in my company, I should have avoided it…


On our way down the Great Wall, there were so many bears (not Panda though) around. They look so adorable. People feed them with dried apples.

When we were back, we headed straight to WangFuJing 王俯井 hawker street to have some dinner. I ate at the roadside for the first time, together with the locals. Bought the 过桥米线 (a type of meehoon soup) and ate by the roadside. It didn’t taste well, but we bought it because we saw so many people queuing, naturally we thought it was very good. Anyway, while we were eating, we saw real beggar. Unlike some of the Malaysian beggars, I think they are real – this guy he was waiting at the waste bin. When there are people who throw the bowl in (disposable), he quickly went and search for leftover. I felt so sorry for him, and I left half of my meehoon – put on the ground so he could eat them. But come to think of it, my act actually encourages more beggars to be there, which I don’t think their government will like. OK, I will not do that again…

Sight Seeing in Beijing 1

During my last business trip to Beijing, I extended 1 day on my own to sightsee. This was the 3rd time I went to Beijing. During the 1st trip, as the return flight was at 4pm, I had the morning to so short visit to the Forbidden City. 2nd trip, return flight was early morning, so didn’t have the chance to sightsee.

I have visited the followings in my 1st and 3rd trip:
- Forbidden City (故宫博物院)
- Great Wall (长城)
- Ming’s tomb: Chang Ling (长陵)
- Temple of Heaven (天坛)

Of all those that I have visited, I really enjoyed Forbidden City. There is an auto audio guide for rental, at only CNY 10 (around RM4.70). The audio guide explains very well on the history and structure of the palace, and it also has an electronic map indicating where you are. The only weakness of the audio guide is, it is activated by some sensors in various points of the palace. If you walk to a new place before it finishes explaining the previous one it will not repeat nor continue what it has not finished. So, just watch out for that, and let it finish before you walk into the next section should be ok.

I did not carry a camera during my 1st trip, so didn’t have any photos to share for Forbidden City. I spent 3 hours, walking every parts of the palace that are opened for visitors. It was a slow and relaxing walk, I really enjoyed it. I never liked going anywhere alone, but this is so enjoyable that it changed my attitude towards being a lone-ranger. It is definitely worth going. BTW, the entrance fee is only CNY 40!

Event book vs Diary (事记/日记)

Many years ago, when I was still in school (cheh, sounds like I am very old already – next time should not use this to start), I used to like writing diary. Well, I always WANTED to write, but ahem… lazybone me, I never write ‘diary’ everyday. The gaps between my ‘diary’ entries have been increasing until sometime reached 1 year!

So, I have given up writing diaries. I call my little booklet 事记, i.e. event note. I only write when I feel like writing, or when there is ‘big’ things happened, or when I am very upset. Actually I have a very bad habit, I feel like writing stuff when I feel very upset. So, my little booklet is full with unhappy moments. Sometimes it is very demotivating when reading those entries. I remember reading somewhere that, someone only records happy moments in her diary, so when she is upset she reads them and makes her happy. Hey, why am I doing something reverse?

Actually, I did that because I need a channel to release my frustrations/upset feeling. Writing is a good way because it will not betray you, nor upset you by telling you what you should or should not do (hey I just need a listener!). So, my little booklet is my loyal listener.

Of course, I also try to record down happy moments, e.g. the birth of Ian, DH did something for me etc.

And now, looking at blog… at first, I thought maybe I could convert my blog to the ‘event book’, but I realized I couldn’t do that. You just don’t know who is reading, maybe your boss is there, your friends are there, etc. So, I would still stick to my little booklet for any sensitive matters. :D

Blogging vs Essay Writing

Blog is really a new term to me. It is kind of infections bugs, and I can see a lot of bloggers around, suddenly everyone is writer already, including myself!

When I was still a school kid many years ago, everyone hates essay writing. Even writing diary seems so difficult to many of us. We didn’t like to write, and we thought we were lousy writer, and in fact we wrote lousily.

Now, with this infectious blog bugs, everyone seem to be talented in writing. I do find a lot of good writers in the blog world. Why is it so? Hmm… puzzled.

Anniversaries

There are so many anniversaries or important dates to remember and celebrate. In my family (excluding IL and parents), we already have the followings (anything that we need to buy gifts):

• DH’s birthday (Oct)
• Ian’s birthday (Apr)
• My birthday (Nov)
• Paktor anniversary (Jan)
• Wedding anniversary 1 (official registration date) (Feb)
• Wedding anniversary 2 (actual Chinese ceremony date) (Nov)
• Mother’s day (May)
• Father’s day (June)
• Children’s day (Nov)
• Christmas (Dec)
• Etc
  

Almost every month there is something going on. If we really celebrate all these days, I think we will be broke. I guess only the trades would love it. ^_^

So, we actually only celebrate Ian’s birthday and Christmas (for the fun) only. All the other days, if we have time, if have the mood maybe we celebrate -- actually this way there is more surprise element! But we have to agree first, that if nothing is done, cannot get angry. So far so good.

Sleep

I am terribly sleep deprived. I can’t believe I can still walk and talk like normal. Many years ago, I dare to tell people that I need a lot of sleep and I need minimum 8 hours sleep a day. I loved sleeping anyway.

But, but, but… Sigh! Ever since getting on this job, and got a baby, sleep is like a luxury to me. When I don’t have to travel, it is Ian who wakes me up at night. When I have to travel, I work round the clock!

Why I always sleep very little when traveling? That’s because my travel companions or my counterparts in other countries just don’t understand that breastfeeding mothers’ day ends 45 min later and starts 45 min earlier than any other people – we have to spend time expressing breastmilk!

So, when I worked in my boss’s room on day 1 in Houston until 4am – I actually slept at nearly 5am. And when the meeting started at 8am the next day, I had to wake up at 6:30am (if no travel to meeting venue is required). To other people, I would have slept for at least 3 hours (from 4am to 7am), which I actually slept only 1.5 hours.

I am really thirst for more sleep. Oh, my golden school days – now I truly appreciate those days that I could sleep until 12 noon. Sob, sob, sob.

Now, I have decided, when I retire later, I want to sleep as much as I like – but then my DH told me when I reach that age I would want to do as many things as I can rather than sleep. Wait and see how it is in the future.

No time to blog

Double Happiness has been ‘pressuring’ me to blog. Actually I really wanted to blog, a great channel to put down my thoughts and get feedback from others. But…, well, as you can see from my blog title, I am lazybone, so – I AM LAZY TO BLOG!

Hehehehe! Actually not really because of laziness. I have been working very hard lately. I have been traveling a lot and sleep very little. When I have the time, I would rather spend it with my darling son, Ian, than sitting in front of the computer blogging. I’m sure DoubleHappiness would understand me, right? ^_^

I have been trying to avoid the thread about ‘sharing your blog’ in MMB, because I am guilty, I just dare not to see if there is any posts from DoubleHappiness questioning me where is my blog. Actually have registered and posted a few articles earlier, but too few that I am too shy to announce it yet. Wait till I have a decent number of articles first…