It was said that a visit to Beijing would not be complete without an acrobatics show or an opera show .
We were taken to an acrobatics show .
The performance took place here
Walking on a steel rope
Spinning a piece of cloth
Head to head , still spinning the cloth
We enjoyed the show , especially the ping pong ball juggling and the highlight item at the end . The men in the group cheered like little kids during the last item , when 5 motorcycles speeding inside an enclosed steel globe .
I think , we should suggest to our government, to build such big steel globe for our young , ruthless motorcyclists known as the ' Mat Rempit ' . Instead of making stunts that endangered innocent citizens , might as well provide them a place for their stunts ....enclosed !
Upon arrival that very morning , we were brought to a restaurant owned by Hong Kong businessman, for dimsum. Cantonese cuisines were quite similar to our cooking and we should enjoyed it . However, we were served with 2 buns each onboard at 2am, and a box of ' nasi lemak ' each at 4 am , breakfast at 8am was a bit too heavy .
With the tour leader's reminder in mind , we arrived at Datong for lunch at 2pm . That was really a different stream of cooking, our first taste of northern cuisines. That night, a szechuan styled steamboat dinner was arranged .
The sesame dipping sauce is quite tasty
The individual steamboat set
The Szechuan spicy steamboat was not really spicy , but a small teaspoon of the chillies added to the soup was enough to make your tongue numb .
Our second lunch in Datong before we return to Beijing, was at another restaurant . Even though this was outskirt, the dishes were presented nicely .
The chinese cabbage in pumpkin sauce was tasty .
This bun's hollow is for the vegetable fillings.
This papaya custard was good and almost the only dessert we had throughout the week .
It was in this restaurant that we had a surprise . A waitress served us this dish by mistake ......
Can you believe this ? It 's DOG'S MEAT !
Beautifully presented on our dining table , was this dish . It was lucky that we asked the waitress before we moved our chopsticks. She coolly answered : DOG's MEAT . None of us touch it at all . No way !
In Beijing , of course we went for the famous Beijing duck at QuanJuDe . Look at how the chef sliced the duck .
Sliced duck meat were taken back to the kitchen to be cooked in other dishes before served.
A duck's meal means we had crispy duck's skin to be eaten with dumpling skin , duck's meat stir-fry with vegetables, duck's bones soup , etc.
Another dinner , we had the so-call official's dishes which includes mutton-papaya soup . Well , I was not fancied and forgot to snap a picture of it .
This trip to Beijing, tasted mostly good restaurant food . As for road side delicacies , we only managed to try the pancake .
A savoury crispy pancake in Beijing .
This 5 RMB piece of pancake was something different . Worth trying !
We stayed a night at Datong , more than 300 km away from Beijing city ; and 3 nights at one of the hotels along the Xidan area in Beijing city. We noticed that the hotel in Datong had a real good variety of food for breakfast compared to the hotel in Beijing city .
Firstly, the main course variety in Datong offered a variety of green vegetables , fried rice , fried noodles and congee besides the western cereal ; Beijing offered less choices. For dessert, Beijing hotel did not even offer any cakes .
Let's look at this :
This plate has about 8 types of vegetables , hot or cold .
And a few variety of cakes, even pizza
However , in the Beijing hotel, there was not much to choose from . So, the fried egg section is the busiest each morning .
If you read Chinese , it says Cat's ears.....and that shocks me . Are they really eating that ? It was actually macoroni & the shell paste .
Other than these , can't find other things attractive to eat .
One thing for sure, these northern dishes were all very oily......to our standard . For lunch and dinner , it seemed to be their standard to include two bottles of the local beer on each table . However, during lunch at this tourist restaurant near the Great Wall , this liquor was offered on each table.
This is a tourist restaurant cum souvenir center
Note the little alcohol cup next to a normal sized teacup
This is the 56% alcohol content Chinese wine
It tasted like DOM , with strong herbal smell . A tiny cup is enough to make you blush .
The souvenir center had a good variety of souvenirs signaficantly Beijing , like this beautiful horses ......
Our ancestors mainly migrated from southern China century ago . Thus , we cooked the southern China way back home , adapted version of course . We have been influenced by the Malays, Indians , and Siamese way of cooking too . Our tour leader had forewarned us on the first day that food that we are going to taste , are definitely different from home , especially the soup. So ,I am there to try and see.
I remembered too, that on my first Beijing trip eight years ago, we noticed that we had lots of vegetable on every meal. We had a plate of onions fried with tiny strips of pork, or a plate of stir-fried sliced winter melon which we had never tried cooking back home .
This trip , we had paid for better meals , and different streams of cuisines were included . Let's see some of these places and dishes served .
The interior decoration
And who knows this restaurant chain made famous by the recent engagement of a Taiwanese actress ?
An interior decoration built from fresh gingers
The dining rooms
And the dishes served in this restaurant of Szechuan stream of cooking ...
This is the appertiser - fresh vegetables & sesame sauce
Black fungus & walnut salad
cold cuts
roasted duck & dumplings
This is the signature northern cuisine - deep fried rice pieces
These were dishes served on company dinner in Beijing !
The first time when i was in Beijing , I was excited and marveled at her historical places, eg the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square & the Temple of Heaven . Stepping on the Great Wall was a dream came through in history .
This second time around in Beijing, I was more interested to see her changes, the city & her people . No doubt the people on the street was a good reflection of her changes.
Looking at their fashion, and the price tags of clothing in departmental stores along this street , one can't help start culculating their income .
The Sidan area in the city boast of the most happenings according to the tour guide. Yes, the changes are obvious.
Escalators in the street............not just one , but about three in a distance of about 2 km.
Fashion on display is refreshing now .
However, there are a couple of things that changes seemed impossible . Firstly , cleanliness of the public toilets & the people's habits of using it , is a real challenge, I had not taken any photos of the toilets, because you just want to get out fast once you enter .There was one toilet that we had to pay to enter, only to find that there was no doors on all cubicles !
Secondly, the spitting habits . You will still hear these people "khaaaaaaaa...............pui " anywhere you go. It was disgusting . We heard it in the restaurant, in the hotel lobby, by man in suits.
Gambling is still a good pass time for the senior citizens . That's parts of life in Beijing .
The name suggested that it was a temple , but it was not actually, so said the local tour guide . It was actually the place where the Emperor prayed for good harvest for the country , and it was the last venue in our itinerary.
So, Temple of Heaven or Tian Tan in Mandarin, is at another corner of Beijing city . We passed by the outer city gate before we arrived at the Tian Tan park .
It was a sunday morning . There were many people in the park.....tourists as well as locals. The locals were having their usual activities, exercising, dancing, chatting, or gambling in the park .
dancing
chatting , resting , napping ....
The Temple was magnificient ,looks like three storey . However, it had only one storey.
The beautiful Tian Tan standing against the blue sky. It looks three storey but it actually is only single storey.
The beautiful interior .
Look at the design, the pillars in it were special too . The layout design of the pillars supported three storeys of the roof wonderfully, 4 -8-12 significantly .
Beijing , and the glamour of the past....this is part of the rich history of China .
After visiting the Forbidden City, Tiananmen , the hutongs, and the Great Wall from the past , we came back to the present . We were brought to the Olympics Park to visit the Bird's Nest , the 2008 Olympics' main stadium .
This is the pride of millions of Chinese all over the world . Here it is , to enter, your bus need to pass through this place like this :
The 'auto gate'
Then , the great achitecture stood proudly in the hazy sky :
The steel work at a closer look
The neat , numbered seats in the stadium
The ladies
Water Cube - the stadium built from donations by overseas Chinese , used for water events
The Torch Tower
This is a different feeling looking at these achievements !
