day 2: summer palace and tian an men square

ok day 2. after a long rest for those who stayed in the hotel, we started the 2nd day at about 10a.m. why so late you ask? well, we had to wait for another group of 10 malaysians who arrived that early morning to freshen up. yeah, the group is getting bigger and all together they were 32 of us now. apparently the 10 did not have a tour guide so they joined ours instead. it was ok lah because not one caused any trouble or whatsoever during the whole trip.

ok..first destination: imperial garden summer palace(yi he yuan), famous for being the resort of the dowager ci xi. there is a big lake which is made to replicate the one in hangzhou or suzhou. i din take that picture. the lake view in these places are famour for its beauty, so the king made the sculptures and builders built exactly the same one in this palace for his mother to enjoy. i still think that nothing beats the original one in hangzhou and suzhou. haha..been there, seen them ;)

you see a lot of these boards everywhere you go. so they are really informative for ppl like me who do not know much about the history of that emperor and that era. but unfortunately, the tour guide always did not stop long enuf for me to read thoroughly what is written! idiot!!! he was always pushing us to move on, move on, move on.

this is the entrance to the summer palace. many tourists were already there. well, it seems like many tourists were everywhere in all the attractions in beijing. be it the locals or foreigners. but mostly were chinese. i even met ppl from bidor and my excolleagues from ipoh! the tours in beijing must have followed similar route.

people...people, everywhere!

wenchang tower

hill of accumulated elegance (dui xiu shan), all the rocks here are accumulated from different places in china. above the rocks is a temple.

jiao tai dian...hehhe.i dunno what it stands for.

a temple the emperor built for his mother on a hill.

the many criss-cross ceiling pillars commonly found in most buildings.

king's hall.

dragon beard tree

ancient well

ancient wooden wardrobe. note the intricate carvings and imagine how many years they have lasted! good wood.

not so auspicious stones outside the empress dowager's living quarters. they brought bad luck to those who owned it. also collected and transferred from others places in china.

the next destination: the infamous tian an men square. one day after i came back, 4 june, they celebrated the 18th anniversary of the tian an men massacre. there were less people in the square that day as seen on tv but more soldiers marching and making sure that nothing happened. according to the guide, there is 1 policeman placed for every 6 people on the square. and most of them are in plain clothes. we saw a lot of patrol cars and policemen in uniforms too. i think this is the biggest square in the world.

on the square, looking at forbidden city.

national museum with a patrol car parked in front and the countdown board for beijing olympics.

china's parliament building.

we took our group photo here. i paid RMB50 for this thing ah! if you want this photo to be in a nice thick book with photos of attractions in beijing, pay RMB100. since i have most of the photos in the camera, i saved RMB50. all the 32, and include another 2 guides, were in the photo.

this portrait of mao ze dong is new eh?? it was just replaced because a mad man burnt the old one few months ago. they were really fast. i wonder if they have any more spare ones in their vault.

wu men, meridian gate. the main gate which the emperor will use to get out of the palace.

haha...it was such a hot hot day. this ice-cream was courtesy of the malaysian guide. i was just kidding when i asked him for one since he passed one to the chinese guide. anyway, almost everyone in the group got hold of one ice-cream to cool the body. mine was crispy rice crackers coated with chocolate.

someone posing in front of the stone carvings next to the stairs in cheongsam. must be local chinese. they have barricaded these stairs.

one of the newer buildings in forbidden city. everyone was either under their umbrellas or in caps.

the older building. the colour looked rusty and faded.

the older pavement bricks are placed diagonally. newer ones are placed either horizontally or vertically.

ok...this is not good. all covered up for renovation. i think this is one of the main buildings in forbidden palace. must be where the king's main foyer is. sigh...they are preparing for the olympics. so must renovate.

after lunch, we went to hutong. it means well (water well lah) surrounded by houses. many houses would circle one well and shared the well. i am not sure whether they are still using water from the wells. we did not get a change to go into any house or see any well. we just went on trishaws and they drove us around the hutong. i know zhang zi yi and faye wong grew up in this sort of area.

trishaw drivers waiting for business.

the widest and deepest man-made river in beijing. next to the river are many bistros serving beer which is a favourite among foreigners. the three ladies in the photo...3 sisters!

bing tang hu lu...read that in mandarin. sugar coated fruits. RMB5 a stick. bought the red stick...but not nice because it was haw. so it was not sweet except for the sugar. din know what it was until it was in the mouth. they had some coated in pineapple slices and banana. someone said banana was not bad.

the lane in hutong.

ok this is one of those entrances of a house in hutong. no invitation, so din dare to go in. but as you can see, it is quite a long entrance. according to the guide there are more than 5 families staying behind one of these main doors. i can't imagine how small, crowded and narrow the living place is. well, that is life. some get to live in big houses, some get to live in hutong. it is better than having no roof above the head.

jet li's alma mater and some other famous chinese athletes'.

dong cheng district library theater hall. this is where we watched the acrobatic show. ok lah...got to see mask-changing performance too. but the performer was still a novice, so the change was not that fast. not allowed to take any photo during the show, so could only take this. this is the place where i notice a big group of malay malaysian at the back of the hall...right at the top. they came together with adibah noor. remember her? the kak yam in sepet. i din dare to approach her for photo even though the opportunity was there. i could not remember her name!!! hahaha....no one else in the group knew her except one college student. but she also din know her name. just said, 'hey, she was that lady in sepet right?'

the night ended after the show.back to the hotel.