Photos!

天安门

The Imperial Palace (故宫) was built by the 3rd Ming Emperor. To date, only part of the building remained untouched. The rest are either rebuilt (after fire) or renovated. But it is still MAGNIFICENT!

To find out more about this place, you can go to this website

One of the 18 tanks (if I recalled correctly) that was used to store rainwater.

故宫

I realised what I heard from others was true, this palace IS really most awe-inspiring.

中国电影博物馆

“起来，不愿做奴隶的人们，把我们的血肉筑成我们新的长城。”《义勇军进行曲》的世代传唱被法定为中华人民共和国国歌。

One of my favorite Chinese movies: 赤壁

我的偶像：金城武

颐和园

You may wish to find out more about this lovely summer palace here.

示范如何自拍

I demonstrated to Win and Sarah how to take photographs that would make your face appeared smaller than it really is.

The moral of the story?

What you see may not be the truth.

Beauty is not only skin deep, it depends on various tricks used by women i.e make-up and camera angles.

Another photo illusion heheh

It was lovely strolling at the garden, the elderly folks enjoyed themselves singing, exercising and yes, writing beautiful calligraphy on the floor using home-make appliances. The ink is actually water so we quickly snapped pictures before they dried up.

我的字好丑

I was given the chance to write and gosh, I felt so embarrassed as the characters I wrote looked so ugly!

这位老先生还送我他的书法呢

My greatest takeaway from the trip!

虽是中午，但天上挂着一轮明月

I was exhausted once again..strolling through huge garden is tiring!

I am supposed to dress up as an Empress but somehow I kept thinking it looked like a traditional Chinese wedding gown....duh

Oh, the photographer here was extremely rude, she kept shouting to my ears and at one point, I had to tell her to lower her volume as I can hear her quite clearly.

Win kept saying this garden (圆明园, also known as Old Summer Palace to distinguish it from 颐和园）looked like the Chinese Garden in Singapore but alas, he was ignored and we continued to snap lots of pictures.

It was really a great pity that this magnifient garden was burned down. It took the Chinese many years to build it and a few days to destroy it.
I watched the video clip played in the shop, totally mesmerized by the 3D replication of its former days of glory. It really saddened the heart to view it as it is now. What used to be an exquisite garden which showcased the best of eastern and western architecture and priceless artifacts, burnt and destroyed by greed.

I snapped a photograph of an artist's works which depicted the destruction of the old summer palace.

Incidentally, the maps in this garden provide inaccurate directions so it is better if you ask the locals how to get out from this garden rather than reading the maps.

The famous birdnest!

Security is really tight in Beijing and entering any tourist attractions required lots of scanning and in some places, we even had to show our passport in order to enter the museum.

The watercube. Did not go in as this means another entry fee -_-

We had dinner in this lovely steamboat restaurant where the food and service is really world-class.
To date, this place has the best service I ever encountered!

The staff at this steamboat restaurant are always smiling and their smiles never fade from their faces. No matter what the requests are, they will cheerfully try to accede. I would like to know what their training entails as their service attitude is simply impressive.

We were given a free plate of fruits, beautifully decorated as we are overseas visitors.

This is in addition  to the plates of fruits served after our steamboat meal.

Great selections, beautifully arranged.

The 麻辣锅is really spicy and almost all on my table abandoned it in favor of the other soup.

Great performance by the staff when you order their noodles.

Now when the Chinese want to style it up, they really do so!

The second floor is a playpen for children..talk about quality service yeah

Beautiful presentation even for their vegetables.

Flowers anyone?

The famous peking duck restaurant "全聚德" where I ate my most expensive meal in Beijing.

Duck liver anyone? We all found this dish too rich for our liking.

Verdict? Erm, my money can be better spent :D