Beijing Trip Day 3

163 days in Shanghai (12/02/08)

Woke up at 7.30am to get ready to meet our driver at 8.45am and all of us started slacking until about 8.20am, when Jie Ying on HP and realized that the driver actually messaged her informing us the change of time (meet @ 8.30am, the timing Yu Hong requested the previous day but the driver said that he couldn’t make it at first)

All of us started rushing, changing our clothes (winter time so we have got a lot of layers to wear), preparing to go out.

Set off to the Great Wall of China and we went to 幕天玉, one of the more famous tourist sites of the Great Walll.

Had a 1½ hour car ride there and we bought students tickets =)

Took the cable car up and started with the Great Wall Climb. The scenery is so much nicer then the one I went to last year and the weather was just so right. Clear sunny blue sky. Just the weather for outdoor activities,.

Took lots of dangerous photos where we started to climb on the walls to take nicer shots, standing at dangerous spots just to get a nicer view and etc.

By the time we finished out Great Wall hike and crazy photographings, it was near to 2.30pm already. Had a quick lunch at the foot of the Great Wall (just a bowl full of noodles when it is supposed to be minced meat noodles) and headed off to Summer Palace, 颐和园.

Took us another hour to reach there, bought our tickets and this time, there were a lot of tour guides asking us if we want them to explain the history and etc to us.

When we were at the entrance, the fee of the tour guide was RMB 30per person and we rejected all of them. Then when we went in, the tour guide rate drops to RMB50 for the group and we bargained till RMB20 for the group.

So, this lady guide started bringing us around Summer Palace, telling us some of the history about the place and I am so not interested in it.

Walked to this Kun Ning Lake, which takes up almost half of Summer Palace and the entire lake was frozen. A lot of people were walking on the ice and when we want to go to the lake and play, the lady guide didn’t want to allow us as she wants to finish off her guide as soon as possible.

And as all of us weren’t very interested in what she was saying, the tour ended shortly and we heading off to the frozen lake.

We were supposed to walk straight to the entrance that we came from but Yu Hong want to take a look at the bridge right opposite the entrance. So, all of us headed there and by that time, it was near 6pm and the sky was dark and no one else was on the lake except the four of us.

And since it was freezing cold, both jie Ying and I can’t wait to get out of that icy lake. Searched for the stairs back up to the pathway but couldn’t find any and by that time, there were totally no one in the lake and people are starting to shout for us to get out.

Saw this small little platform and the only way that link up to the platform was a pile of ices; not sure if they were stable a not but confirm they are slippery.

Yu Hong tried climbing up first but got stuck halfway. Lucky there were this few people that walked past and offered to help us. They pulled Yu Hong up to the platform and went off as he said tat we can settle on our own.

So, I was the next to climb and that piece of ice was sure slippery. I almost slipped and fall into the crazily cold lake.

Before I can even get myself ready and stabilized myself, Yu Hong and Jia Wei kept on pushing me and all the energy I have was to start laughing and grab on to Yu Hong’s leg like a tree trunk.

Not long later, all of us managed to climb up to the platform. Called the driver and asked him to drive us to紫玉饭店 for dinner. Angeline and Kelvin strongly recommended us to this place to try out their Beijing Duck.

Jia Wei’s friend joined us and when it was only supposed to be one of them, it turned out to be 4 of them joining us.

So the table turns out that we became the minority like from they join us for dinner, it has became we join them for dinner -_-.

After diner, it was back to the hotel to slack and we went out again to 天安门for some night shots.

Spend some time along the streets taking photos and we ended up in Wang Fu Jing’s MacDonald’s again.

Then there was this 2 young boys that started talking to us asking where are we from and etc. Guess they are from some orphanage and the care taker brought them out for dinner. Yea, it was late at night and they brought 2 10 years old boys out for super.

These boys are quite cute and it seems that they have a sad family background. Chatted with them for a while before heading back home to rest.