back fm BEIJING(: & Xi’AN

im BACK!! i guess u can see tht i didnt really manage to blog in china. i did reply all /or most of yr smses back in spore or i replied them via email if u sent me smses when i was in beijing. the trip was AWESOME! Beijing’s BEAUTIFUL and the weather is freezing. i guess the temp was almost like negetive degrees c most of the time except for when the sun was up. followed a tour/free n easy this time. i guess there are so many benefits going with a tour and im so glad tht i did make many new friends and the experience was unforgettable. not only that, the tour leader and guide are so so so professional and passionate in what they are doing, i really really dont mind going on tours! haha. loved every moment of this trip to china!!! i think if we went for this as art trip, we wont be coming back. the sights are so awesome we can spend an entire day at the forbidden city, greatwall, olympic village and so on just taking pics!!! haha (: so heres what i did:

12thdec- flew to BEIJING, arrived in the afternoon, headed to a hot spring resort which was incredible!, steamboat for dinner! rest for an insanely packed next day!

13thdec- visited the Summer Palace, Kunming lake, Yonghe Lamastery then lunch. thereafter, walked the Forbidden City for like hours! the forbidden city is awesome. like many of the other places i visited, it is truely a piece of history and an architecture marvel! visiting the true place really beats watching any chinese movie and trying to imagine the scale of the place!haha and Tianan men square, Changpu river park, followed by shopping at Wangfu jing and a stroll along the Donghuamen night market then dinner and the beijing night show(: ohoh. checked into a 5star hotel for the rest of my stay in beijing!!!(:

14thdec-visited a Jade retailer runned by the government in the morning, then climbed the Great Wall b4 lunch!!!the great wall is rather tough to climb! yes. with snow covering the steps, one wrong move, and its a Great FALL! climbed more than 800m above ground level, then climbed back down! took like 2hours! the view was so worth it! lunch followed then it was a visit to the Ming tombs followed by a visit to the OLYMPIC venues like the Birds Nest Stadium and the Water Cube! the venues are so amazing and the architecture is just jaw dropping especially when you get so close to the structures! truely man made marvels! After dinner, headed to watch an acrobatics night show which was pretty cool too(:

15thdec-visited TongRenTang, a traditional medical hall with more than 300 years of history. the doctors there are truely amazing and have healed and helped many world leaders with chinese traditional med. mum and doug did get some meds after the consultation, but i didnt. just by feeling my pulse, the professional doctor told me to stop sleeping after 11.(ps: i didnt have eye bags!), and that i had previously used western medication for a period of time. these are truely professionals. instead of going to the doctor to tell him yr problem and get medication, these doctors tell you your problem by checking pulse and yr tongue. i think this is truely what doctors should achieve! anyways it was truely an honour to meet them as they are not open to the public and it was a by-invitation only thing. thereafter it was a visit to the pubstreet, followed by a trishaw ride along the old streets. went to beihaipark after and then it was a dumpling feast for lunch! visited the temple of heaven park after lunch, then Yaxiu market, then it was a Beijing roast duck dinner, before a World class Wushu Performance at the Red theatre(:

16thdec-free n easy day! fell sick in the morning:( went to the beijing zoo to see pandas!haha then went to XiDan to do some shopping. XiDan is a good place to get stuff as locals get their things from there. much cheaper than most places. forget about shopping at wangfujing! its really so expensive u can shop in orchard road! haha. anyways, i was sick so i went back to the hotel to sleep the day away. lunch and dinner was room service. much better after dinner(: Thank God!(:

17thdec-lastday in Beijing- went to Olympic venue for foot reflex- these people give massages to the Olympic athletes after their trainings. Was so so honoured to get a foot massage by this guy, who, together with a few others, massages LinDan, China’s no1 badminton player! this place too is not open to the public and it was truely a once in a lifetime chance to get this experience! i did also get medication from this place for my back injury from golf. hope it helps! its what olympic athletes use, so it better be good(: then it was a visit to a teahouse, and lunch, then it was a sad farewell to Beijing and off to Xi’an!

18thdec- Xi’an is very unlike Beijing. Beijings weather is so nice! the sky is so blue and there are no clouds. NO pollution and so CLEAN! (: Xi’ans more laid back, very misty and insanely dry. no pollution too! visited Terracotta Warriors in the morning, then HuaQing HotSprings, a Silk retailer and ‘Dream back to Tang Dynasty show’ (the Biggest Music Fountain Square in Asia) at night, a relaxed and wonderful day(:

19thdec-visited the Dayan Pagoda in the morning, followed by the Xi’an Ancient City wall. the walls so long that it takes 4 hours to walk from one end to the other. if you cycle, its 2.5hours and if its by buggy, its at least an hour! thats really long! then it was lunch, a visit to a Pearl retailer (which i managed to get mum her christmas gift) and then we proceeded to a shopping street for some last minute cheap bargains before we left for the airport. caught a late flight back to Beijing!

20thdec- ate dinner at the Beijing airport, then spent abt an hour in starbucks stonning and reflecting. time really just passed by so quickly and i was reflecting about the entire trip and the fantastic experience i had! the christmas music in the background was also so appropriate too! took the midnight flight and arrived in sg this morning! didnt do much today, unpacked and slept! sry i couldnt go for rehersals today! i’ll go tomorrow. i just came back fm a christmas concert with chris and alvin! thks for asking me along. it was so nice to come back and praise and worship god and just stand in His presence(: the message was rather interesting too on ‘Impossible is Nothing’ and the drama and dance was good too(: let all continue to spread Gods love esp during this season of Christmas!

will upload some of the pics on flickr soon so u can go see what i experienced. there are like over 700pics, but i’ll just upload some(: sry tht the pics in this post are in no order whatsoever. its just randomly scattered! concert rehersal tom and soccer in the evening. long day ahead! god bless!

~ by andrewtay7 on December 20, 2008.