day 4: beijing underground city and jing shan garden

this is one of the highlights of the trip. many ppl said so too. an eye-opener. who would have thought that beijing actually has an underground city?? the tunnels added together are even longer than the great wall!! there were cinema, hotel, toilet, factory, etc here. if i am not wrong, it was built in the 70s when china received threats from KGB. it has now become a tourist attraction but not easily accessible too. the ppl handling the city acting as guides and workers are members related to the arm force. there is a silk factory/shop selling silk comforter, bedsheets,etc here. photography is not allowed in the underground city...hehehe...but if you scroll down, i broke the law!

entrance of the underground city. it was cold in the tunnels and wet because water seeped in. brrrr.....
this is the only clear photo of the tunnel. those with ppl one is not clear at all. dunno why, like the lights reflection all gone wrong. i tried with and without flash, but the result was still blurry ones. those taken of the tunnel as it is, turned out fine. anyone wants to answer this question?

all the ladies's favourite...fruit hawker! everywhere they go, when they found fruits they got so excited. and somemore they dunno how to speak chinese! hahaha...all those fingers and gestures, so funny. some learnt simple phrases already in this trip. what you want to buy, you have to bargain to get the best deals. buy fruits from carts also bargain!!!

*half of the tour members do not know chinese. some have not spoken a word of chinese their whole life. and they do not know how to write their chinese name. (faint) it is shameful isn't it?

the construction site we passed through to go to the underground city.

chang an street, the widest street in beijing. they did not draw lines on the road, as many rows as you can form lah. oh, i really like the road system in beijing. very organised. all the roads are straight because they divide them again according to the 4 directions: north, south, east and west. no winding ones at all!!! so you will move in squares. and you won't get carsickness travelling in these roads.

after lunch it was to jingshan garden. it is perched on a hill overlooking the forbidden city. it is not a natural hill but again man-made. there is a story behind it lah, but i have forgotten. but this garden is famous because of a suicide. it is here that the last emperor of the ming dynasty, chong zhen hanged himself. but it was an assisted suicide. the king was too pampered and did not know how even tie the rope, an assistant had to help him. so was it really a suicide?

the tree where the king hanged himself. but again, not the original tree. a similar one has been planted in its place. the original one was burnt during beijing's cultural revolution as in many things in beijing. how sad. history all went down in the fire.

jing shan garden from the exit of forbidden city.

bird's eve view of the forbidden city from the top of the hill. see all the fog? tour guide said not pollution. could be the change of weather...the heat trapped in it gua.

could not resist from taking this! hahahaha! porkers!!!

ok...another visit to the 'rip' shop. this time selling pearl. they asked us to guess how many pearls could be found in an oyster and only yours truly managed to guess the closest number. clever leh? no lah...been to one last time in shanghai, so i know loh. there were about 20 plus in this one. reward...i got a seedy pearl. dunno where i threw it already.

once the oyster is opened, it is alreayd dead. the piece of flesh is nutritionless already because all the minerals have been absorbed by the pearl.

the sales room and jason!!!! hahaha...finally. now you know which one? this is where everything started. we only got close here. everyone was busy looking around and both of us were bored to tears. so we sort of wander around aimlessly poking our heads here and then there acting as kpc. ok, mystery revealed!