The Travel Bug: Beijing, Water Cube @ Olympic Park

One of the things I didn't like about being alone as I wandered around the Olympic Park was the many touts who approached me asking if I wanted my photo taken. For a fee of course. Fortunately a simple "bu2 yao4 xie4 xie4" (or no thank you) usually sufficed.

Between the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube was an open park area, decorated with 2 rows of Christmas trees. There were a surprising number of people there, considering that nothing much was opened and it was sub-zero and totally freezing.

I liked the Water Cube enough to brave staying out a bit longer, and walked up close to take a few photos of it.

Apparently to be allowed to swim there, you need to pass a proficiency test first. It didn't look open to me, although there was a little gift shop in a separate building next to it where I sought refuge for a few minutes to thaw my frozen hands...

In all, I spent a full hour walking around to take photos of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. Even though I was warmly wrapped up, the temperature and wind chill were so bad that my eyeballs were hurting!!! Next time I come back here will be in summer...

The Travel Bug: Beijing, Bird's Nest @ Olympic Park

For some reason, despite not having that much free time, I was very very keen to visit the Olympic Park, if only to view the external structures. After consulting 2 friends, a very complicated subway map involving 4 changes and more than 1.5 hours, I succumbed like the lazy tourist and decided to hop into a cab instead. It took me only 30minutes and CNY30 and was a much better decision considering I managed to leave work only around 5.30pm.

Night had fallen by the time I arrived, and the Bird's Nest was already lit up in orange and yellow lights.

I didn't manage to go in because closing time was 630pm. Believe it has been converted into an ice skating rink of sorts. If you take a peek from the gate, you can see the various country flags still hanging around the inside.

I love the complex metal patterns that encompass the stadium.

The shape of the Bird's Nest changes as you walk around it, as you can see from these series of photos I took as I walked around the huge building.






to be continued...

The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: Beijing duck!!!

I love Beijing / Peking duck. There are 3 main restaurants most well known for this, and since this was one of the rare times I was in town, a good friend decided to splurge and take me to dinner at the classy (and more expensive) Duck de Chine.

The restaurant located in a small complex that they call 1949 - The Hidden City. Its an old traditional Chinese house broken up into different restaurants and clubs. It well deserves its name, considering what a difficult time my taxi driver had finding it. He had to call the restaurant twice for directions, before dropping me in a dodgy deserted carpark and pointing me vaguely in the direction of the back door!

All that was forgiven when the food came though. The Peking duck arrived whole and was swiftly carved up into thin crisps little slices. It's self wrap here, either in the thin popiah skins, or in the special biscuit for a little extra cost.

Hot soup is always delicious in sub-zero temperatures. Even if its just the basic simple "dun4 tang1" (soup of the day).

I liked the lamb quite a lot, it was soft and tender and cooked in a nice mix of garlic and onion. Unfortunately it got cold really fast.

In order to be "healthy", we also got some beancurd. I don't remember much about this dish except that there wasn't a bad dish at Duck de Chine!

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Duck de Chine
Gong Ti Bei Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100027
Tel: +86 10 6501 8881
http://www.elite-concepts.com/Promotions/1949/DuckDeChine.htm
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The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: Beijing, the forbidden food???

Just next to my hotel was WangFuJing Street, a large pedestrian only shopping area. While Oriental Plaza was filled with expensive high-class international brands, WangFuJing has the large local departmental stores selling more affordable fashion and local food items. Other than the large high rise buildings, I spotted this little side-alley that looked interesting...

It was lined with food stalls displaying skewered meats ready for grilling.

On closer inspection... well... Even though I am normally quite adventurous when it comes to trying food while travelling, I couldn't bring myself to try this one. I wasn't sure what the meat was either, but I heard that dog's meat was common here.

Did you spot the scorpions and seahorses too?

The starfish looked really pretty though. I wonder what they taste like! Next time if I come with a more experienced friend, maybe I won't be so afraid to try it. Maybe...

The Travel Bug: Beijing, the Forbidden City

Can you believe I've never gone to China for leisure before? (unless you count Hong Kong...) Been there a few times for work before, but usually spending only a few (waking) hours in each City. My previous time in Beijing was a hurried 3 hour private tour of the Forbidden City and Tianamen while en route back to Singapore from Dalian... This time round though, I would be there for a conference with free time in the evenings to meet up with people and explore Beijing a little more.

The Grand Hyatt hotel was a pretty good place to be at for a conference. It's at the "old" financial district smack in the center of town, with easy access to the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square as well as the shopping district. The "new" financial area however is a good 40minutes away. One thing I learnt when I was there.. Beijing is BIG.

I mostly had time in the evenings only, so one day while waiting for a dinner appointment, I decided to take a walk "only 2 blocks down" to the Forbidden Palace. It looked really near on the map, but turned out to be a cold (but enjoyabe) 20minute walk. Again, a reminder that Beijing is BIG.

Everything was of course closed by the time I got there around 6 plus. Was ok with me since I had already visited it before, so I just stood around joining the other camera-totting tourists (Chinese and otherwise) taking photos of the guards in front.

Tianamen Square was just across the road, but I was a little too cold to bother looking for the underpass to cross over.

Headed back after that, to the safety of Oriental Plaza, the huge shopping / hotel / office complex linked to the hotel. With sub-zero temperatures, there's a limit to how long you can spend outdoors!

Pathetic...

Isn't it bad enough that we only gave US$50k to Haiti? Must we now make a public admission that donations depend on "the nature of our relations with the affected country..." and are "not intended to match the scale of a disaster"??

Sure of course Singapore government can't very well go around donating large sums of money each and every time a natural disaster happens, but a miserable US$50k???!!!

As one reader on Mr Brown's website points out, US$50k is exactly the same amount Cambodia donated! (Coincidentally Cambodia is one of the recipients MFA explicitly mentions having supported last year in their letter of excuses...)

Me thinks it would have been wiser to
a) shut up totally about the donation; and
b) not responded to all the comments / criticism

End-Hol Report Card (2009)

Was way too busy with work in Dec to do much blogging, and for a period of time I was afraid I wouldn't get to enjoy the annual office holiday shut down. Luckily I still managed to, and then I was too busy having fun to be blogging.

Here are the results:

General
# of calendar days not working: 11 (including 2 weekends)
# of leave days taken: 3 (phew!)
# of minutes on blackberry: <1 min per day (just to make sure nothing urgent)

Food & the like
# of ice-cream tubs purchased: 8, for the...
# of parties attended: 5, of which...
# of parties thrown: 3, for which...
# of roasts cooked: 4 (2 beef, 1 chicken, 1 pork) , and...
# of other meals out with friends: 6

Entertainment
# of movies watched: 2
# of hours at massage/spa: 4