Summer Trip 2009 Part 2

Continuation from here.

June 16, 2009: Mom and I woke up earlier than the other pair (bro and “wife”) to get some food for our excursion to the Great Wall, Badaling section.  The driver actually called us at 7 a.m. letting us know he was waiting for us but our appointment was 7:30.  Good thing bro and wife were up and about before 7:30.  The morning was damn gloomy – rain and mist.  What a waste.  It definitely dampened our mood.  We rather have the hot sunny days.  Anyways, it was Mr. Lai’s brother who became our driver for the day.

Instead of putting pics up, here’s the slideshow of our wet visit to the Wall.  I didn’t take very many coz there were not much I could see.  However, my bro took more pics of me at the Wall. 

After the visit to the Badaling section of the Great Wall, the driver took us for lunch.  We asked him to take us to a restaurant where we can taste Peking duck.  We tasted duck alright.  It wasn’t what we wanted plus that restaurant was a cut throat.  I should have taken a picture of the restaurant, but I didn’t, just wanted to get out of that restaurant swarming with flies.  Yuck!

The next destination was Ming Tombs, the underground tombs.  Below is the slideshow of the pics I took at the Tombs, Temple of Heave, and some shots at Wangfujing Street.  I didn’t take a lot of pictures inside the tombs.  I was told not to, so, respect sikit la.  The experience of going down the tomb was a good one.  We had to walked down flights of steps, which seems like no end at all.  The walls, the entire tomb is made of marble.  The temperature as we were walking down were getting cooler and of course, damp.  The original tombs are gone but just the fake ones.  But there are some other marble fixtures, seats for the emperor/ress are still there and the big marble door which is the original main entrance to the underground tomb is still there.

After the tombs, we went straight to the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.  What a waste of money for parking.  My opinion of the “Nest” is it looks much better from a far.  And the Cube, of course, it would be better if we were there at night.  Anyhoo, at least we can say we went there.

Next is the Temple of Heaven.  Another lovely place.  I kept thinking of how the fung shui folks works.  The temple definitely has great fungshui, built high up, facing the Forbidden City, it is a wonder.

From the Temple of Heaven, we walked to Wangfujing Street.  We wanted to take the cab, but for some reason, we walked and walked till I sure felt my feet, knees and thighs were coming off me!  Needless to say my mom and I slept like a log when we were in China.

Part 3 coming up: Summer Palace.