Beijing: Day 2

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace). This place is really a huge plaza that spans across a total area of 440,000 square meters and according to Wikipedia, it's one of the largest open-urban square in the world. Beneath it, sits an underground tunnel with many branches linking the following places together:

From there, we were told to form a group with our backs facing the Mao's Mausoleum. Instead of saying... "Smile...", "Siao Liu" asked us... "Si gua tian bu tian?" (is the watermelon sweet?) - and we all responded by saying "T-I-A-N" and 'chiak' our photos were taken. If you don't believe hor, try pronouncing "tian" in front of a mirror. You'll look like you're smilling one...

After that, we visited "Forbidden City".... but "Siao Liu" didn't mention the word "Ji Gum Sing" or anything close to it. That fucker said "Gu Gong" and since my Mandarin was rather half baked and I had difficulty understanding his Mandarin, I took it that the place was some palace. Halfway thru the palace, I asked my father... "So... when will we be going to the Forbidden City ar?" - to which my father responded by laughing out loud. Somemore the place was being refurbished left right and centre (for Olympics in 2008) and so it wasn't immediately recognizable to a banana like me la! I mean, check out this palace... doesn't it look like some kind of normal palace??? How would I know la right...?

Anyway, the weird thing bout Forbidden City is that there is only 1 way in and 1 way out. The entrance and the exit is opposite one another and given the sheer size of Forbidden City (it's like a fucking city in there - that's why the name I think), we spent like half a day walking! The end of the palace was the garden that boast to have trees as old as a million years old...

Thereon, we were taken to a place where the Olympics will be held... In Mandarin, this building is called "Niau Chau" i.e. bird nest... Look at it... quite similar what huh...

Then it was lunch followed by a "con-session" at the tea house. But at night, they dropped us off at Wang Fu Jie street. A cool place made up of 4 different streets that are joined in the middle - a square. Here, they've got one stretch occupied by shopping centres, another one occupied by small boutiques selling all sorts of imitation clothings and shoes and one occupied by branded boutiques... I got my bubble jacket at u2 Beijing cos the designs they have there were different from the ones here but I think it's more expensive cos I paid like a whopping RM700 - RM800 (after conversion) for it.

But best of all, they had this sreet that has many many little stalls selling local delicacies...

They even had deep fried lizards, scorpions, crickets, pig's tongue... you name it, they have it! Did I try anything interesting? Obviously NOT! Hehehe...