allenaw88: Xi'An / Beijing Trip Part 2

After much procrastination, I've finally found some time of which I got so bored I decided to publish the 2nd entry of my trip to China. Well, I'm just lazy, what can I say about that?

I've completely forgotten what places we exactly went, so I guess I'll just have to say the notable places which can easily be remembered. The first one was a ride with trishaws in a small town, beside a big and beautiful lake. "Beer Street" is what they call it, as there are a whole lot of shops where they sell beer. Apparently beer in China is much cheaper compared to soft drinks and even mineral water. We also went into some house where they owner talks about the town's history and showed us how to make dumplings, which is a common food in Beijing. After tipping the nice and friendly trishaw guy, we got on foot along a shopping street. Doesn't have much attraction besides the cultural design of the buildings, and this shop aptly named "Sex and the city" which obviously grabbed my attention. "What does this....shop offer?" was my thought the second I saw the name. When we were about to leave, we came across this aged man. He was holding what looks like a large Chinese ink pen and started writing on the floor. Apparently all he used to write was water, and the floor was brick so the Chinese characters appear clearly on the floor. His writing was very beautiful too. If I remember it right, he wrote "Have a happy time in Beijing" to the tourists (us). Everyone was impressed by his ability.

Next thing I know, is the anticipated trip to the Forbidden City (sorry Shannon >.>). We got off the bus in a large square in front of the forbidden city to get a walk and snap some photos, there are quite some stuff to see on the outskirts too. Holy cow the road to the Forbidden City itself is so long, it took about half an hour from the square to the front gate. Inside, it's obviously huge. It took hours to walk from start to finish, and we didn't even look at everything there is to look. And thanks to some big shots visiting (Probably for the Olympics), our trip was delayed. The notable things inside the Forbidden City would be the Emperor's bedroom, dining palace and the large places I don't remember what they are used for.

The next trip will be the Summer Palace, the "backdoor" of the Forbidden City. It has a very beautiful garden with a lot of decorations. There are also statues of animals. Notable ones are the "Kilin", a mythical beast with a dragon's head, lion's tail, ox's hooves, deer antlers and fish scales on its body. The dragon, resembling Emperor's, and the phoenix, resembling the Empress'. This time, the phoenix is put in front of the dragon because the Summer Palace was built while it is ruled by and Empress. We then walked the "Long Corridor", which is 728 meters long, and has more than 14,000 different painting decorations. That corridor itself took us about half an hour to finally reach the end. Then there was this big "Marble Boat", which can't sail due to its weight. It's used as a dining place for the Emperors.

That's it for the first part of Beijing. Here are some pictures.