Friday, October 9, 2009

Beijing Rediscover 2


1. I am sure most bloggers know the name of these 2 beautiful architectural structures:-) they are the Olympics Stadium (Bird's Nest) and the Grand Theatre of the Performing Arts (nickname: Bird's Egg).








2. It was really a rewarding shopping spree holiday. On 3rd day, we cant resist anymore and went to the well-known Xiu Shui Street 秀水街 shopping mall, Hong was overwhelmed, many things to browse from the latest design of shoe, bag (all brands) to sports attires and accessories, at the end we bought a LeSportsac backpack to stuff in all our collections of the day. After a simple lunch opposite at Yong He Soya Bean永和豆浆 fast food, we proceeded to China World 国贸shopping mall, very few shoppers compared to Xiu Shui street but it offered all the genuine brands Gucci, Loewe, LV, Feragamo, Long Champ etc and some with good discounts, however, after conversion, the price is still at least 20% higher than Singapore, so we prefer to come home to do the purchase and let Singapore earn the spending. Our dinner was at a well-patronized Golden Lake 金湖Hong Kong Restaurant in 国贸which offered tasty Cantonese cuisine at affordable price. A very satisfying and delicious meal.

3. On 4th day, we decided to go slow and got up late but still have a packed programme for the whole day. We proceeded to take a look of the nearby Chang Fu He public park菖蒲河公园, it was very serene, and we envied beijingers to be so lucky of having such a green lung right in the heart of Changan street and Tiananmen Square, then visited the must-see National Grand Theatre for Performing Arts国家大剧院, it is architecturally wonderful (but the theatre management and flow of human traffic control require immediate and serious improvement, maybe our esplanade can share our expertise with them). We bought tickets to see orchestra performance at night, ticket price RMB 200 (reasonable good seat). It was a very high standard performance by the over 100-strong亚洲青年交响乐团. We enjoyed it thoroughly. On the same day, we had lunch with friends at the famous ducking restaurant大董烤鸭, yummy and Hong kept asking me to go back the next day, but I advised her to try other things as Beijing got a lot more delicious things to sample. Late afternoon, we went spa with my local friends at 8号公馆, soaping, scrubbing, relaxing and refreshing. Singapore lacks of this type of enjoyment and pampering service to make us feel like a queen.
4. The 5th day I did a brief catch up with Singapore friends over lunch and bumped into many Singapore embassy officials whom I know over the years, an unplanned gathering. Next, we took subway to another happening place in Beijing ie 三里屯. At first I am not so sure whether the subway will bring us there or not but I saw the station name the day before when I was in the taxi, so my guts feel is that if we take to 团结湖 station then 三里屯 should be somewhere near. It turned out to be true and三里屯has been transformed with so many interesting fashion outlets in addition to the forever Ya Xiu Fashion Mall, it now has a range of huge stores of Apple showroom, Uniqlo, Addidas, Mango, Chanel, 3.3, bars, boutique hotel etc. Can u imagine, the most unbelievable thing I bought was a ipod nano @ RMB 100.

5. At the eve of our trip, we decided to visit grand hotel and find a unique place to sit down and have nice lunch to treat ourselves. We went to check out Grand Hyatt, coincidentally met my ex colleague Dayne who I have not seen for moons, then proceeded to lunch at the quiet Zen Restaurant 采蝶轩 at 23 前门 (a good and recommended place to have a quiet and tasty tim sum at Singapore price). Finally we go to the internationally known attraction of the Bird’s Nest. We went there by subway as we reckon that it would cost us a lot of time and money if we go by taxi. It was so sleek and cheap at RMB 2. We took the subway at 前门,go to 建国门 station, change to line 2 to China World 国贸,then change to line 10 for Bird’s Nest,alight at 北土城, then transit to Olympics Park奥林匹克公园, that is, we arrive in Bird’s Nest. We highly recommend friends and bloggers to try it when u next in Beijing. As it was very stunning hot in Beijing in the late afternoon, so guess what, we spent the next 4.5 hours in our favourite Taipan Regency 大班丽晶in the evening for massage and dinner. We both like in the heaven.

6. The morning before we went airport for our SQ home flight at 4pm, we went book store in Wangfujing王府井, have tim sum in Crystal Jade, then took our friendly taxi limousine to airport, and guess what, we bumped into the friend at the custom queue, that we are supposed to go and meet in Tainjin but due to lack of time, we scrapped it. It is all fated, god will always answer our calls to bring the people and things we want before usJ

7. It is a wonderful Beijing trip with our very own and unique programme. For this trip, we purposely took subway to experience Beijing, and we found that it is not only super economical, the subway route is really very convenient and effective as it brings commuters to all the key commercial and attractions at a cheap rate of RMB 2, everywhere u go. This is a very efficient and economical way to better know and understand a city and destination especially Beijing as it is highly congested and people get very frustrated over traffic jams.

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