Beijing City Tour

My first time spending weekend in Beijing. It was a relaxing day yesterday after one week hard fight. So I just went for body message here yesterday afternoon. The one I went for is a local one called, Trendy Stone Spa. Other than the 60 minutes Hot Stone Spa, I also did body message. The service is ok but the facilities is considered old to me. During the message, I was told that my liver and gall are not very good as my neck and shoulder are so tight. Besides, I also have Breast Hyperplasia and the left side has more severe symptom. The therapist was jocking with me that it could be because I don't really speak out my mind to release my emotion. So the left side also where the heart is has more serious symptoms. So today, I try to relax further more as I plan it a Miniature Palace Day as I'm not yet planning to visit Forbidden City.

The first stop of the day is Yong He Gong(雍和宮). It was a residence place for one of the Qing Dynasty Empire before he assumed the Empire position and therefore, it kept this place and make it a temple for Budda.


I actually can smell the smock far far away because there are a lot of people praying there but it's not allowed to take pictures inside those temples. There are quite a number of temples there for different Budda and others. A very beautiful place to see the traditional Chinese buildings and I can imagine how magnificent Forbidden City would be.

After this, I went to Guozi Jian Street where, Confucius Temple and Guozi Jian (the highest education institutions back then), are. This street is famous for those traditional buildings/sites and the nice scene.


Confucius played a very important role in Chinese History and Culture. The concept and behavior they provoked are the guidelines for people even nowadays.

Interestingly, this statue was actually donated and devoted by a Taiwanese, 楊清欽, from Taichung 鹿港.

This is the very few places that I can take pictures inside the hall and from the setting and decoration, we can tell the Qing Style it has because of the Manchu style decoration.


Then, the next stop is Guozi Jian, the highest education institute, at that time. There is an interesting place for people to pray for their examination result to pass and enter the schools they want.



Along the street, there are some interesting cafe place and shops, that I found the interesting combination of Modern and Traditional at one of the oldest areas in Beijing.


It was very hot today and I had been sweating like hell. After visiting these few place, it's about noon time already and the next place I want to go is Price Gong's Mansion & Garden. Therefore, I decided to go Jiumen Beijing Snack Restaurant(九門小吃), where they gathered all the famous local snacks.



This place is full of people and the NO AIRCON. I was sweating like hell but I think since I've came all the way here, I just picked some interesting food to try. To be frank, I don't really find them very testy and it seems to be selling the "NAME" actually. Or maybe, it's just too hot that I can't enjoy the food.

After the snacks, I went to the Prince Kong's Mansion. It only opened up the garden side to public as the building side itself was campus for Beijing Musical School and there is nothing much left to see already. The garden was not so big though it's really quite beautiful but those in Southern China are much better I believe.



I was heading back to hotel after this as I have been walking non-stop from morning. However, the taxi driver was very chatting and shared with me some more history about Beijing as he is the so-called OLD BEIJING because they have at least 5 generations living in Beijing. He told me about the Royal Temple (東嶽廟) as that is the temple only for Royal and high level people until 1999.

So I just went as he suggested. The entrannce price is double as most of the places I visited and there is a guide bringing me along the way. This temple has been established 700 years ago and it was very famous for granting Wishes. They have 8 types of different wishes for oneself, parents and children. Since I'm here and convinced by the taxi driver, I decided to take the 8 wishes as well though the cost is quite high. So I'm would be getting better and better as I've just walked through the path all the previous emperors and famous people walked to go for their goals.

Haircut

Had haircut this evening at Franck Provost, a hair salon at Beijing. It was highly recommended by our chairman when he visited Beijing. Then our GM also tried and brought me over. It's my 2nd time doing my haircut here and I found it quite good. It's not very different from my usual hairstyle as I want to keep it long. I like the service here and it's really quite easy to manage and maintain my hair.

Malaysia Food in Beijing

Just arrived this evening after leaving from Taipei in the morning. As the direct flight between Taiwan and China is only available during weekend, I still need to transit via Hong Kong as it's a TUESDAY. So it practically takes me the whole day traveling from Home to Beijing.

This time, I also helped one of my colleagues relocated from Taipei to Beijing bring one of his luggage. Therefore, he treated me for a good dinner tonight. We went to Awana and we didn't know it's Malaysia food until we reached there but we still decided to go in as it's recommended by someone.

Food is quite OK but the price is VERY VERY high. Maybe to us, it's like any Hawker food in Singapore and Malaysia but it became a delicacy here in Beijing. We ordered one Otak-Otak (really just ONE), Nasi Lemak, Sayur Tohu, Teh Tarik to share and it costs RBM130.


Would not really recommend unless you really really hungry for Malaysia/Singapore food because of the price but it's really a good restaurant with nice food and atmosphere.

Singapore

Back in Singapore last week to register my Singapore citizenship but I didn't really get it done actually but that's the story on Monday. Let's start from the weekend as my best friend, Grace, happened to be in Singapore as well.

The hotel cost in Singapore has been more than double because of the whatever demand. So I booked Grand Central Hotel at Orchard because they offer 130nett for 7 days stay. That's considered good price based on the location. However, the hotel room is really terrible. I have very high threshold for accommodation because of my traveling experience. I can stay at backpackers place or even some those budget places but I can't really stand places old, smelly and suffocating. On that night itself, I just moved to Grace's hotel at Swissotel and of course it's much much better as it's the 5 star standard.




Swissotel is also one of my favorite places in Singapore as I really love the City Space at the 70 floor because of the view, atmosphere and the drinks there. On Sunday night, Grace and I decided to be the tourist to visit the newly open Singapore Flyer. Can't really take any picture because of the blue light inside the capsule. The conclusion is the view and atmosphere at City Space is really very good. :)


On Monday, I went to Taipei Representative office in SG to renounce my Taiwan citizenship but only then I realized that I need some other documents from the tax office and also the police. I actually checked with one of my colleagues on what to prepare for this renouncement but she total forgot about mentioning this part to me. Therefore, I didn't renounce my Taiwan citizenship and therefore can't continue with the registration part in the afternoon. When I know about this, I started to wonder if it's a sign to ask me not to do this conversion as things happen for a reason. Anyway, in the end, I still decided to do it but just not sure if Singapore government would allow me to delay until Oct as I won't be able to be there for another 5 days until next quarter.

Anyway, the only thing I realized this trip is the cost of living in Singapore is SKY HIGH right now. I used to say the taxi fare there is very cheap but nowadays it's easily double digit for any trip with all the surcharge. As to hotel, it's even more terrible. After the first 2 nights at Swissotel, I moved to Hotel Link.


This kind of place is charging SG$225 nett which is terrible to me. I would really need to book early for my usual backpacker's place at Hive Backpackers Hostel.

Taiwanese v.s. Singaporean

Going back to SG again next week as I decided to register for my Singapore Citizenship after my application 2 years ago. It was approved last June and I just got the final notice from Singapore government late May.

I have been delaying this action as I'm still thinking and working out some other possibilities to find a best way out. The main reason why I applied for the citizenship was the traveling issues I got back in SG. However, I'm currently working in Taiwan now and this might cause some issue for me as I would become "FOREIGNER". Anyway, I still decided to go for it as I can see some advantages for my work, life or family. So when I return to Taiwan on 19th Jul, I would become SINGAPOREAN. I can foresee the confusion coming along the way but worth a try I think.

Blackberry

Got my company Blackberry last Friday. Normally, only team leaders in my company would have one but our GM decided to give me one because I would start to travel between Taiwan and Beijing officialy starting from Jul 2008. It would be a great convenience on the road as internet connectivity won't be easily available anywhere especially when we got flight delayed.

I'm used to my Dopod as I have been using it for more than 3 years and there are some good application softwares such as finance or others that I've been using for years. However, these are not available on my BB because of the IT policy from the company. So I do start to think if I should get the latest HTC Touch Dimond as well because my Dopod 818pro is dying soon but the issue is I'm going to bring 2 BIG phones. Besides, I just got my Sony Ericssion 810 beginning of the year and I do enjoy it's camera function. Anyway, would find a few way out. : )