day 5: cheng de

we were finally leaving e-house z-park!!! yahoo!!! i have no complaints about the hotel room lah, but the breakfast provided really sucks. imagine, they gave you bread, but no butter! they only gave some jam..dunno what jam. and every morning their breakfast would have rice ah. their sausage sucked! soft...dunno what meat. was so glad to escape that breakfast. on the last day, i got my own buns from outside and my nescafe 3-in-1, brought all the way from malaysia....aaaa...h

the road trip to chengde was going to be a very long one. it would take 4 hours. so in between the journey you know what they would do lah. more shopping! this time was to a tea shop. this place is in the olympics village. everything is still under construction here. the athletes villages and the stadiums.

this tea shop sells more pu-er tea. no one bought except a couple. haha..as usual the sales girls were really pushy...and as usual, no one bothered with me lah. dunno whether to take that as an insult or what.

the famous bird nest stadium. again very foggy. it will only be used for the opening and closing ceremony. athletics stadium, there is another one specifically for that. china is not saving any penny to make next year's olympic a great one. can't wait to see. too bad, volunteer is not paid. hahaha....okok..i know...volunteer.

dong dao gate...still in beijing. they stopped here for another 'rip' shop selling pi xiu. a mythical creature. they carved the creature in jade and sell them as lucky charm. a few members of the tour group bought. those feng shui masters are damn clever one. they call u, read your palm, then tell you this and that. makes you worry and apprehensive. one even bought quite a big one to put at home. that one is more than RMB2000! somemore cannot bargain.

the road to chengde started after that. we passed by one of the parts of great wall on the way. wow, those half-ruined towers still looked as majestic as ever. again, i was in awe. the roads were hilly but not as winding or narrow as one expected it to be. saw many lorries along the way, carrying mountains of goods, mules, pigs, metals, etc. haha...we went through many tunnels. this road to chengde is new i heard. new highway. and it is a good highway. no potholes whatsoever, so it was a smooth journey. by the time we reached chengde, it was pitched dark. chengde is much smaller than beijing. something like malacca city only.

we stopped at one of the shops here. toilet break. they also sold local goods and the ladies again started bargaining: crytal bracelets, jade pillows, etc. shop everywhere.

this is one of the best meals we had in this trip. it was so different from the either too salty or too much vege. here we had man tou (steamed bun) and potato dipped in caramel (melted sugar only la). this latter dish is the specialty here. also had a lot of stewed pork. their pork is very nice ah. oh, why do i take photo of this meal and not others meals in beijing? this one, all dishes came out at the same time, so while there was still food on the plate, i did not miss the chance lah. unlike in beijing, dishes came out one by one...cannot take good photo.

the hotel we stayed in chengde, only for 1 night. looks ancient. the name: shangke tang, puning temple hotel. a spider ran over the bed cover when i switched on the light!!!

the view outside my room.

the corridor.

the receptionist counter.
lobby.
my room. it is very unique.