China May 2008 Day 9 & 10

Hello all! This is the last post of my China trip.. Haha.. Like finally I know..

Day 9- 31 May 2008

We had a late breakfast at Mac again.. Haha.. After that we cabbed to the Summer Palace..



And this was a manmade lake that Empress Dowager Cixi build to watch the navy train..


And this is the longest corridor in the world.. Dunno how long le.. It's for Cixi to take a walk after her meals.. See all the pictures on the top of the corridor? There are over 8000 of them and they're all different! Cixi wanted them drawn as she felt bored walking down the corridor everyday.. Diaoz..

And they had a variety of boat rides to choose from at the Summer Palace.. We chose the big boat as we were too lazy to peddle ourselves.. Haha..

Look at this poor scrawny dog.. It was shivering like mad and the owner said it was just cold.. More like scared ok?


Wanted to cab for some shopping but the cab driver introduced a few more places and so we followed him.. First stop was the Beijing Movie City.. A lot of shows were filmed here including Huan Zhu Ge Ge etc. We were also introduced to a lot of filming tricks..

And this boy who's like only 5 years old is able to do such difficult circus acts.. Bravo!

Hehe.. This is where Xiao Yan Zi and Ziwei walked down when filming.. Man.. I miss that show..

And this was the horrible tour guide that we got.. She was talking so boringly and as if she was talking to herself.. Look at the picture above.. She was explaining some filming venue in here and look where the hell she is facing and who in the world is she talking to? Gosh.. They should really improve their services..

Our next stop was the CCTV Tower.. Nice right?! Haha..

This 4 lovable creatures are everywhere in Beijing! Haha.. I'm sitting over there if you can see me..



I was quite shocked that they had Sentosa listed as one of the 150 destinations you must visit.. Haha.. My father said they were just giving Singapore "face" as it was the only Singapore destination mentioned on top of the whole tower.. Haha..

And we signed on this Olympic banner.. They were aiming to create a new Guiness World Record for the longest Olympic banner with dunno how many people's signature.. Haha..

And this is the press conference post that they use everytime they have to make an annoucment regarding the Olympics..
Our last stop of the day was the Underwater World..



Hehe.. I like this shot.. Their Underwater World was not as nice as the Sentosa's one though..

And we got to watch an animal show before leaving.. The water was damn dirty lah.. But the sealions were cute.. Hehe..

We cabbed to the nearest MRT station after that cos the roads were all jammed at that time.. And the driver dropped us at the wrong place.. We had to climb over a fence to get into the station.. And my father hurt his leg in the process..

Next, we headed to Xiu Shui Jie.. A lot of stuff to buy there but I got exposed to the real horrors of bargaining in China..

I caught my eye on this Ferrari shirt that was damn nice.. As it was my first time bargaining at the street, I was quite gullible and didn't lower the price much.. My father told me he would bargain for me and started to lower the price dramatically.. So the shopladies were like bargaining with him.. Suddenly, the two girls grabbed me and my father into the shop and held on tightly to our hands.. I tried to break free but they wouldn't let go.. In the end, my father got damn angry and shouted at them.. And finally, they let us go.. Damn horrifying.. Caught there like prisoners.. As we look around, there were also lots of reports of shop keepers harassing customers including grabbing on to them (that's us) and following customers until they buy the item.. So scary..

However, eventually went around shopping at other shops.. And I managed to buy 2 jackets to use in Adelaide.. Kinda pleased with the last purchase.. My father managed to lower the price from RMB1250 to RMB110.. Haha.. Big difference..

And it was back to the apartment where I started another horror of packing my bag.. Haha.. Bought too many things le..

Day 10- 1 June 2008

Time to go home! Woke up and headed this time to KFC for breakfast.. I'm gonna miss the papaya portugese egg tart.. Watch abit more TV and it was time to head for the airport..

Bye Bye China! The flight back was not that nice.. My KrisWorld was down so I had no movies to watch on the way home.. =( And I spilt apple juice on my sister twice.. Haha.. We were laughing like mad after I spilt the 2nd time.. And the whole family except my maid and second sister came to fetch us.. Haha.. What a welcoming compared to my Japan trip.. Anyway, China was quite ok after all.. Expected it to be worse.. But don't think I'll want to go there for a holiday in the near future.. Haha..