Blogger's Note:
During my stay in China, I recorded down certain events that happened each day on the writing paper provided at each hotel that I stayed in throughout the 10 days.

Beijing Day 1, 7th December 2009 (Day 1 of 10)

The flight took quite a toll on me as it was a lenghty 5+hours flight from Singapore - non-stop - to Beijing. I barely slept through the flight presumably because I was just too excited. On board the plane I was greeted with warm smiles from the air stewardesses. I got to my seat and settled down. I noticed that I got a good seat - I got a window seat and I could see the aircraft wing very clearly.

First thing I did was to grab the remote control stowed onto the handles of the seat and started to explore the controls. It has been quite a number years since I last flew on a plane. I was very eager to start exploring the games and movies they offer on the plane but was rather disappointed by the lack of choices. The games were old and rather dumb too. So instead I watched G-Force (which reminded me of someone) and it caught my interest. It was quite a cool show but was unexpectedly short somehow, or at least that was how I felt. I manage to catch a nap in between the flight for an hour or so, just so that I would have some energy to enjoy my first day in Beijing, China.

When the plane was above the clouds over mainland China and it was about 5.00am, I witness a beautiful scene through the window panel - the main advantage of a window seat. I saw the horizon. The sun was rising and at the edge of the clouds I could see a rainbow of colours. I supposed that would be something you would not get to witness in Singapore due to many factors which I shall not elaborate. It was just spectacular. I was very tempted to capture that moment down but the camera was not within my reach, sadly.

During the flight, I attempted to listen to music using my handphone (on OFFLINE mode) but was 'encouraged' by an air stewardess not to as it would affect the navigation system of the aircraft. That turned me off. I was embarrassed and at the same time bemused. They deny the use of handphones even though it might be on Flight Mode?! Gosh. Somebody explain why please?! I was reminded that Clara at least had her mp4 with her for company during her flight when the movies and games did not appeal to her and was frustrated for a moment over it. Oh well.

I was greeted by a VERY cold weather as I walked out of the airport to get on to the tour bus. Luckily I had sufficient fashion to add on to. Mind you, I had already 4 layers of clothing on. The bus journey to the hotel to pick up the other family that arrived the night before was interesting. Along the road I saw bald trees and other nature sights that were rather intriguing. These are sights that you won't get to experience in Singapore, mind you. A trip worth going after all, I thought.

Lisa, our tour guide explained the culture and answered many of our question with regards to Beijing and our trip during the bus journey and after we had picked up the other family, we headed for lunch. Lunch was horrible and it immediately gave me a bad impression of the place. I seriously hoped that the rest of the meals would be much better. As the weather was freaking cold - around 0 degrees Celsius - the food would not stay warm for more than 3 minutes, seriously. It was a buffet and the food tasted awful. The only edible food (exaggeration noted) was the fries (which reminded me of Sharon who mentioned during the class chalet the calories two small fries from McDonalds would offer - which apparently would not suffice in such a cold weather like that of in Beijing, China).

After lunch we headed down to 恭王府 and XiShui Street. It was an awesome experience. XiShui Street offered many fake goods that looked almost like original branded goods, seriously. Now I can understand why some said that the branded goods that KC have are fake products made in China as if I hadn't known beforehand, I would not be able to notice the difference.

I got a fake LV waller to replace my old and dirty Addidas wallet, that cost RMB50. I also got a hoody for RMB105, a pair of 'Converse' snickers for RMB80. The owners always give a crazy starting price like for example the Converse snickers, it started off with around RMB300 after that we slashed the price to RMB80. It's crazy on the whole. I suppose they just hope they could catch a big fish some how. The whole slashing-the-crazy-price-down experience was very interesting. That again would not be seen in Singapore; uniquely China I suppose.

We also watched awfully exciting acrobatic performance! It was splendid like seriously. It just so happens that Derrick watched the exact same performance in Shanghai during his trip as I later found out. It was really awesome and thrilling. I liked the last part the most where 6 motorbikes went round and round and round inside a metal sphere cage. 360 degrees and all sorts of other stunts. Can you imagine that?! I doubt so. Oh well. While we waiting for the show to start I took a nap and meanwhile, we were also waiting for the arrival of a couple that would be arriving and joining us on this tour too. (This couple would be highlighted again in later date.)

Dinner was rather crappy on the whole. Nothing spectacular and it followed on in a similar pattern in terms of the dishes served in the later days in Beijing, China. It was supposed to be called Emperor's Banquet, but it didn't taste anything like that.

For photos, click here.

Beijing Day 2, 8th December 2009 (Day 2 of 10)

Breakfast at Crowne Plaza (北京新云南大饭店) was excellent. That brought me some hope that the meals to come would be better after a poor experience on Day 1. We were arranged to set off at 7.30 am and morning call was set at 6.30 am, however we woke up earlier so as to get ready - 5.30 am. Imagine that, having to wake up so early in the morning even though it is the school holidays and you are going to be running around all day long, in addition from the lack of sleep during the flight.

We headed for Summer Palace (避暑山庄 or 颐和园) that morning. How beautiful it is? Follow up with the photos taken duh?! I liked the Long Corridor best as there were plenty of drawings of the old tales like 西游记 and some others. The scenery is just magnificent.

It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

So after the walk we had lunch a native restaurant. The food was very simple and plain, so much so that I would give it a poor too; however, better than the lunch yesterday. There was a dance performance put up for us too which was kinda crappy and the stage was very big and the 3 dancers were widely spread across the stage and there were only another tour other than ourselves that was present. The dancers were like starring into mid-air as there wasn't a crowd.

After lunch we went snow skiing! It was a replacement for some amusement park that would not be able to get 50% of its machines functioning in this weather. It was quite an experience on the whole. When I first stepped into the 'village' the weather and winds shooked me very badly. It was just too cold! Then the crowd that surrounded the tour shocked me. The crowd was made up of Chinese trainers that were waiting to be hired. It costs RMB 200 per trainer and I was very reluctant to hire one especially after the overwhelming treatment that I recieved from the trainers. They practically stick to you like leeches hoping to be hired and it was really a frustrating sight. The lack of sleep caused me to be in a rather foul mood to take such nonsense and I thus was very determined to just fool around by myself, without the help of a trainer.

The trainers sticked around and offered to help you with the equipments free of charge. But of course, we all know where this was heading too. I was still in a foul mood and was very reluctant to recieve help from them. Things just keep getting better. (Note: Sense the sacarsm.)

After being equipped, one of the trainers guided me some where close to the edge of slope. I was definitely not ready and being in a foul mood, I wasn't thinking well. I had initially decided to stay around the flat surface and yet that freaking b*tch just had to bring me to the edge. So when she release her hand from mine, as she was helping me to stand upright, I couldn't control my movements and slided down the slope. I could not control where I was going and I could immediately identify the effects of adrenaline.

Damn that bitch, I am so darn sure she had did it on purpose just so to get hired, to make me look like a fool. It could have cost me my life! Well, slightly exaggerated. Luckily, I titled my body and allowed myself to lean against the slope when I realised that the trip down the slop ain't going to be a nice experience, and so I stopped in my tracks.

I took off the gear and managed to climb back up the slope. Meanwhile, my mother was apparently convinced that they should hire them to teach us. I was very mad actually. I was on the verge of screaming. Very mad. When I reach the top, I saw my father walking into the hut-like building with some trainers and I knew what was going to happen. And so I screamed across and told him to stop what he was going to do and threatened to take off my gear and just rot in one corner instead. Deep down I know that I cannot. Cause no matter what, it isn't their fault; it was that freaking trainers fault. I gave in and thus started my 1 1/2 hour of snow skiing lesson.

The whole experience was tiring and I could barely feel my legs after the whole 2 hours. I was very unwilling initially and being the forgetful person I am, the matter was thrown at the back of my mind during the lesson most of the time. I seriously felt cheated of my money and pride. I had made it very clear that I would not be using any trainers to help, in the end I had to swallow my anger and unhappiness and pride.

So after the snow skiing, we headed for the Olympics Garden (奥林匹克公园)! The Olympics Garden consists of the Water Cube and Bird's Nest! That ends off the day's itinerary which is rather tiring. Thank goodness we got to end off the day early.

For photos, click here.

Beijing Day 3, 9th December 2009 (Day 3 of 10)
First on the itinerary today would be 北京明皇蜡像馆. It showcased the rise of the Ming Dynasty to its fall through wax figurines. At each exhibition, it would show a scene of the life of a particular Emperor, portraying and sending a certain message across to the viewers on how great/good or bad a particular Emperor was.

As we had to pay a fee of RMB10 to get the licence to take photos of the exhibitions in the wax museum, I took plenty so as to not waste money. So that would be followed in the photos at the end of this section.

After learning of the history of the Ming Dynasty through the wax figurines, we had lunch. Lunch was excellent as we had hotpot! 涮羊肉，牛肉，鸡肉，猪肉. The mutton and beef were excellent on the whole. I had a very enjoyable lunch that day. I will definitely missed that now that I am back in Singapore. I was actually preparing for the next activity, you see. You would need lots of energy for the next activity as our next destination would be the Great Wall of China! We were going to visit the Great Wall at Juyong Pass.

The scenery was very nice but however, as the Wall was very steep and the climb was really very tiring - not to forget the weather was very cold too - the tour stopped at the 1st fort from the pass at our own timings.

不上长城非好汉。This was said by Mao Zhe Dong (毛泽东). During my trip to the Great Wall at Juyong Pass a Chinese National said this, "不知这句话害了多少人。" I thought it was rather funny and kinda cute. It's rather true. I truly wonder how many people risk their lives and push themselves to the limits just to fit the criteria of a hero. Along my journey up the first fort, I saw many signs with grammar mistakes and many writings/carvings of those who were there before too. I was very tempted to carved my name down too but didn't have the necessary items and so I dismissed the though. And about the grammar mistakes, I captured them on camera so that everyone can have a good laugh at them.

For photos, click here.

Beijing Day 4, 10th December 2009 (Day 4 of 10)
Okay! Early in the morning we headed of the Temple of Heaven (天坛)! The scenery was spectacular! If you should see the album for this you would notice I tried to capture the sun in the sky. It was very very tiny, seriously tiny. It had barely any effect on the temperature and the weather was just cold as usual even with the sun up in the sky.

The elderly are really very active in Beijing, or rather the elderly in China on the whole. They wake up very early to work out, to exercise or do street dancing. Yeap, they call it street dancing over there. It's similar to line dancing in Singapore but they just happen to have different names. They also play a lot of chapteh over there, the elderly especially. They also have a very interesting game that looks like tennis just that it the racket is smaller, the ball is lighter and maybe something else which I can't recall.

Then after that we had lunch at Quan Ji De (全系得 - unsure). We had Peking Duck! Supposedly it is known to be nice which turns out to be a false opinion. Or at least we didn't feel the same. Only a small portion of the Peking Duck was served and thus maybe that was why we didn't not get to enjoy the full taste of this well-known dish. Or it could be because it just didn't suit our tastebuds.

After Peking Duck it is time for the second highlight of the trip after the Great Wall - the Forbidden City (故宫/紫禁城)! But before that it was Tian An Men Square which was near the Forbidden City. I took plenty of photos that day too. Did I mention that I am supposed to be the camera man for trip? Okay, that's extra information. So anyway the photos would most probably relate better then through the use of words given my limited vocabulary.

After both sites we hop onto a tricycle and went on a Hutong tour of about 15 minutes. Then we had dinner. During dinner, some thing interesting happened! Remember the couple I mentioned? I would have never realised how small Singapore or the earth until that day. The guy is called Alvin Yong and he is a teacher. That's not the big deal, not at all. The deal is that he is a Chemistry teacher of AJC. Like 'WOW!' My father had heard before dinner that Mr Yong is a teacher and so he was just going to confirm what he had heard. Personally when I heard that he is a teacher I was rather surprise and was very tempted to ask which school does he teach in but was very hesitant. Lucky for me, my father initiated the conversation topic and revealed the unexpected.

So I actually asked him on one of the weird questions that was in the O level paper.

The question was: How does a hydrogen fuel works?

If I'm not mistaken, or something along that line.

In which he gave me his explaination/answer: The reaction between hydrogen and oxygen is a spontaneous reaction. Hydrogen loses elections at the hydrogen electrode to the oxygen electrode and the electron flow creates a current.

So he also further explained that why the electrons flowed from the hydrogen electrode to the oxygen electrode was because of some electrical potential or something, which I can't recall anymore.

Anyway, that's the side dish. Cause the main deal is that it's a small world and I was on a holiday with my future Chemistry teacher (that is I if get into AJC). It felt really very cool.

I never knew you could use tea bags to relieve dark eye rings (panda eyes) until that day too. My sister was using them herself which kinda work. So girls out there, you found the recipe and might as well try it out the next time to stay up late for a number of days. It reminded me of Sharon's fake cuccumber that she used during the Choir Camp so that she would not have panda eyes the next day for Prom.

For photos, click here.

Beijing Day 5, 11th December 2009 (Day 5 of 10)

TO BE CONTINUED...