Day 1 & 2 : Tianjin - Beijing (Acrobatic & Great Wall of China)

From last entry to this one, we did a little kickboxing (invited by Evie for trial class), followed by a Baskin Robbin's night (wed: buy 1 scoop free 1 scoop), got myself a new purse for Christmas (mine already has a hole in it and that's bad luck!) and plenty of dancing as usual (what's new?).  The only difference was, it was doubly plenty of dancing this weekend, woo hooo!  Both Friday and Saturday.   A little crazy I know.  Nah, it's ok.  Not everyday we do that.  ;)  Oh ya... a gossip updating lunch session with a girlfriend too.  Now, that's destressing! hahaha...

About a month ago, the husband and I, together with our mothers went on a 7d/6n trip to Beijing which was planned approximately 6 months prior to it.  Finally gotten around to blog about this.  I would have forgotten all the details if I were to drag this entry any longer.  :p  Somehow, the brain doesn't seems to be working as well as how it used to work these days.  Too preoccupied with other things.  And I really wonder what other things.... lols...

The trip started off pretty well with our agent, also a family friend, booking us onto the premium class on Air Asia X.  I was a little apprehensive initially having to fork out the extras for it.  But I am glad I took it.  It was worth every penny spent.  The seats can actually be lowered down flat like a bed.  The husband snoozed throughout the 6.5hrs journey except waking up for meals/toilets.   And me, I was alternating between snoozing and curling up to read.  It was nice.  Always love to read on long flight.  Uninterrupted block of time. ;)  The verdict is, in future, for any destinations that is longer than 5hrs, we shall get the premium seats (i.e. if it is not too pricey).

Our flight departed Kuala Lumpur at 8:30am and arrived in Tianjin at approximately 3pm.  We flew to Tianjin and not Beijing cause Air Asia only serves Tianjin's route.  Spotted the peak of a hill as we were preparing to land.

A bird's eye view of Tianjin.  No, Redbabe's eye view actually.  A big part of Tianjin are covered in agricultural land which we observed later, on the road, was mostly grown with maize.  Plenty of maize' farms everywhere.  A little researched revealed that 40% of Tianjin are farmland that grows rice, wheat and maize (their important crops).  However, their main industry still lies in the manufacturing sector which consists of 54.8% of its total economy.

Was greeted by the first taste of early winter as we got out of the airport walking towards our awaiting bus.  The first thought was, "Hmm... if this is how cold it is, it's not too bad.  Nice!".  Having been born and bred in Malaysia, a country of tropical climate all year long, I don't have much experience to know what to expect of a winter.  All that I can do was to compare it to the few trips that I had years ago.  Let's see, it was autumn when I first in Perth and that was chilly when the wind blows.  It was winter when I was in HK years ago and that was really cold.  Or more recently, Spring in HK and it was pretty cold at night.  And all that, decides the clothes I packed.  Lols...

We were greeted by sights of sky scrappers all over as we were entering the once upon a time, ancient city.  I couldn't help but feeling in awe of the development that have taken place.

Our first taste of China's beer at dinner - Yanjing Beer, which doesn't taste like a beer at all.  More like some kind of sparkling with a very very light tinge of beer flavour.  :p  

The weather was getting rather chilly into the night as we got out of the restaurant.  Still nice.  Went for an acrobatic show in the theater above after that.  Not sure what's the name of the theater.  I may look like a Chinese, speaks like a Chinese, eats like a Chinese, but I can't read like a Chinese. :(  Maybe just a few words here and there which I picked up from karaoke mostly.  Lols....

The show was good.  After all, acrobatic has always been China's forte.  Seeing how they twist and fold their body is enough to make me feel queasy.  Seriously, do they even have a bone in them?

And this guy here, walk, jump, flip, summersault on this thin line of wire.  No security wire hooking on his body at all.  But then it was quite low la... won't die even if he fall.  Probably a broken bone or something which like I said, not sure if they even have.

A girl balancing stack of bowls on her head while doing that stunt.

This guy can play one hell of balls.  Not only does he juggles 8 balls at one go, he was doing all sort of stunts while juggling them.

This one here is interesting.  The light that you see inside it were actually the head lamps of motorbikes.

These 5 bikers were in that little sphere, going round and round in all directions without knocking into each other.  This is a pretty common stunt.  But, 5 bikers???!?  The most that I've ever watched were just 3 bikers and even then, the sphere were much bigger.  Quite scary lor...  It takes only 1 to miscalculate and all will end up in a pile of metals.

After the acrobatic show, we finally checked into our hotel.  

Next morning, on way out, we passed this conceptual architecture.  It supposed to house CCTV (a tv channel in China) but apparently due to some unforeseen circumstances, it has been left unoccupied for many years.  What a waste right.  

Our first stop was at the Beijing Waxworks Palace of the Ming Dynasty.  If you think Madam Tussaud's is great, this is superb.  Really.  Comparing the waxworks in Madam Tussaud's HK and here, this is far more realistic.  It was so realistic that I sometimes just stare at it hoping to catch it blink it's eyes.  Lols...

Those in Madam Tussaud's looks pale and like mannequins.  Those here, have rosy cheeks, healthy skin tone.  Just like real human.

It was so detail right down to every fine lines, wrinkles, arteries... I wanted to touch his face to feel it's texture but afraid it will offend him.  Lols.... It is so real that it could give you that kind of emotion.  Lols...

Lunch was good that day.  As it was only our second meal in Beijing, we haven't got bored with it yet.  :p  The cold weather makes it even yummier.  All I know is, yummy or not, I finished my bowl of rice at every meal for the 7 days.  

There was this bottle of liquor which contain 56% of alcohol.  We decided to have a go at it and boy...!  It feels like drinking fire.  It burns right thru from throat to stomach.  I think I would've blown fire if I've lighted a match in front of my mouth.  Imagine Norbert (Hadgrid's pet dragon in Harry Potter)... yeah... like that la... hahahaha... The husband and I found out later that evening, from a supermart, that it cost only 6 yuan per bottle.  Seriously, are they for drinking???!  Nevertheless, it does keep the body warm.

Stomach filled, we attempted The Great Wall of China, one of the wonders of the world!  Never have I imagine I would one day step foot on this ancient rocks.  Like the Angkor Wat, The Great Wall of China  is equally magnificent.  Built since the 5th century by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, thru the 16th century.  Majority of the wall was built during the Ming Dynasty and it stretches for approximate 8851.8km (include actual wall, trenches & natural defensive barriers such as hills & rivers). Amazing huh?  Imagine from Johor Bahru to Kayu Hitam, up and down at least 9 times or from New York-California-New York. 

At a particular stretch of the wall we visited, there was a long chain with lots of padlocks of variety sizes, colours and make, locked onto it.  On closer inspection, there were names engraved on it with messages like 'forever in love' and so forth.  I guess these padlocks are symbols of locking in the love for each other.

The toddler above were so mesmerized by all those shiny padlocks.  No, I didn't lock anything there.  Love should be free.  What's the point of love if it need to be locked in?  

We were told that we arrived in Beijing at it's best.  The weather was good and we still get to see the colours of autumn.  I totally agreed.  This shot was taken as I was hiking up the The Great Wall.  Can you too see the colours of autumns?

Check out the long stretch of Great Walls in the background.  Love this picture.

Me and mom having done two wonders of the world within a week!  (Angkor & Great Wall)

Most historical buildings in China basically look like this one above.  More or less the same.  Red, blue, green in colours with sentient animals (Qilin) decorating the corners to ward off evils.

Some buildings have 5 Qilins at the corners of it's roof, some have 3.  And some, as much as 7!  I am sure they have different meanings to it.  Anybody knows anything?

Still having plenty of time to spare (found out later it was miscommunication), we decided to enjoy the cool weather with a cup of hot coffee at this beautifully laid out cafe.

And I tell you, having arrived in China just slightly over a day, I was not used to it's currency yet (Seriously, it was not that difficult getting used to, just that, I wasn't thinking.  Caffeine withdrawal I think.).  Went to the counter and ordered for ourselves 3 lattes and 1 cappucino and happily handed 200yuan to the girl when she told me the bill came to about 190yuan.  When the husband asked me later how much it cost, only then it hit me how expensive that 4 cups of drinks cost.  Almost a hundred ringgit and it doesn't even taste like coffee, wtf!  I told both mothers and the husband to make sure they drink every drop of it.  Lols...  Of course non of us did cause like I said, it was horrible. :P

I guess I know why their coffees are so expensive.  Cause they uses Louis Vuitton dustbins.  :p