day 6: cheng de

day 6 was still reserved for cheng de. half a day here, then after lunch, headed back to beijing again in that dreaded 4 hours journey. we started the day by visiting the imperial summer palace villa. this villa was where the emperor spent the hot summer. as chengde is surrounded by mountains, its temperature is 5 degrees lower than else where. it was really a cool day as well and i had to put on a light jacket. the villa was used during the filming of my fair princess (huan zhu ge ge). those who have watched the show, see if you can recognise any building or not...but then again, all building structures in ancient chinese palaces are quite the same.
2 of our tour group members did not join us this morning. her daughter vomitted and had diarrhoe in the middle of the night. she was too weak to even wake up in the morning. morning call was at 6.30a.m. so the mother and daughter together with the malaysian guide, went to an army hospital recommended by the local guide. there, they had to hide their malaysian identity and said that they came from guangzho instead. reason? they will charge you sky-high prices knowing you are foreigners. so the mother and daughter kept their mouth shut as they did not know chinese and let the guide did all the talking. in the end, they paid more than RM300 for the treatment which included various tests and drip. they bought insurance, so they would make the claim with the bills lah. phew!


watermill?
entrance of the imperial summer palace villa. we also took a group photo outside but i did not buy. one is enuf lah. want to rip me again ah? a video gal also followed us around in our visit of this villa and recorded all our moves here. unfortunately, no one bought the vcd from her. only some bought the group photo. they really know how to make money hor.


a bronze plague salvaged from fire. look at the intricate carvings.

villa courtyard.

photography is not allowed of this emperor's foyer. but again yours truly managed to escape. just stray away from the group, cover your camera with your big body, and press the button...no flash please.

mr kong, our one day guide in chengde. he was singing one of the local songs here.

everyone take your seat! i got a seat at the front of the boat. haha...clever me.

replica of the famous west lake in suzhou brought here by the emperor.
a view captured from the boat. someone said this boat ride was ridiculous. we just went from one end to the other, could have just walked! and for this, they charged us RMB20. i totally agreed. been on a longer ride on the actual westlake. i guess they just wanted to give the tourists the same experience.


the famous misty rain villa...ok...only for those who watched 'huan chu ge ge' (my fair princess).


another part of the summer villa is made to replicate the mongolian field. this is the entrance.



yurt...yes, these rounded tents are called yurts. here, they are hotel rooms. and nope, they are not made of skins, just some plastic covering the brick wall. one yurt, 2 single beds and a toilet. oh, they were cleaning one of the yurts, so i peeped in. curious as usual.

a buggy ride to get to the mongolian yurts. free? nothing is free in china lah...oh, except toilet use. we paid RMB20 again.

the 'wild' deer. but not so wild anymore, they are not scared of ppl. you can feed them if you want...as seen in the video above.

mini potala palace...the emperor did not want to go all the way to tibet to pray, so he created a similar one in chengde. how convenient


the gate of faith, job-promotion and health, from left to right, if you go under these archs, accordingly. well, you can only choose two, one on the way up, the other on the way down. i chose the second and third. let me pass my exam!!! hahaha!


view from the palace.
another entrance gate.

wall of the mini potala palace. see those windows, they are closed for two purposes. one is to block the noises from obstructing the disciples from praying and two is to avoid the lures of the outside world getting into the place.

steps leading to the palace. 52 steps in one flight. they are 2 flights. step on them with pure heart and you will be cleansed.



another view from the mini potala.


a local dance...tibetan i think.


the second arch once after you enter.

inside mini potala temple. we were given a flag each once we entered the temple. each colour signifies different things. i got a yellow one which signifies wealth. but the catch is, if you want your wishes fulfilled, you should raise the flag on the poles you see here. you just write your name and your wish on the flag, the raise it. but of course, you have to pay! the small flag is RMB10 and the bigger one is RMB30. since i dun believe in this things, i returned the flag. hehe, after all, the flag reached me half way already (in my grasp for a while), so maybe i will have just some wealth if not all. hehe.

back to beijing after lunch!! more caramel potato. reached beijing, they brought us to another of those malls where they sell a lot of imitation goods. shop again. and tonight, we get another hotel. a better one. the room was much bigger but i forgot to take photo ah! it had a sofa and a kitchenette. it was near a mall, this is a proper mall like our parkson. called new world mall if i remember correctly. i did not go out with my roommate and her sisters because 3 of them went to look for their youngest sister. i went out with jason and another family instead. prices of things here are slightly cheaper compared to malaysia's. one of the ladies said those airtight plastic containers of a reputable brand are cheap. i saw my nike backpack. it is sold for RM129 in malaysia. here they are selling for RMB268. so if you convert, the price is cheaper in china. but of course it is expensive for the ppl there.
had supper this night with jason's family. went to one of the beef noodles shop. this was where i saw jason's prowess at slurping noodles. hahaha. we had dough fritter (my favourite), 2 bowls of noodles, and dumplings. could not finish the fritter, so took them back for my roommate and her sisters. they loved them too. so next time if you go to beijing, must try their yau char kwei.