Back from Beijing

Out of 5 stars, I would give this trip 3 and a half. Gorged myself on dirt-cheap dumplings, sweet and sour fish, Peking Duck, gelato, bird's nest and other delicious food stuff. The places of interest were rather disappointing, with the exception of the Great Wall and Temple of Heaven. The Summer Palace, like most of Beijing, was undergoing renovation or reconstruction in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Btw, the mascots (Bei, Jing, Huan, Ying, Ni) are ugly. But cute. And can you believe it, the guy who designed them was paid lump sum of one yuan or his efforts. So I looked ahead, expecting to see glittering red ceramic tiles, ornately adored with lifelike dragons. And behold! I see a lot of scaffolding. Bleh. I'll stick with the picturebooks. I sort of noticed Chinese Structures have a distinct pattern for names: Noun -of - Adjective -Noun/Adjective. For example, Hall of Supreme Harmony or Sty of Muddy Tiles (I'm kidding).
Beijing is larger than 2 Singapores; a journey from the North to South can clock 2 hours worth of travelling time on a bad day. You can see bicycles everywhere you turn and on an unrelated note, I think everyone who drives can try stunt driving. It would be nice to see more greenery though but that's just the Singaporean in me feeling jingoistic. Didn't get to buy any T-shirts because all the clothes stores, from the wholesalers to the fashion boutiques seemed to be selling coats, jackets, sweater (winter wear). My mum da-baoed leftovers from our meals to give to the poor and spoiled the moment by saying we should learn to be compassionate like her -_-. The daylight in Beijing is fast fading by 5ish so we were usually back in our situated in the middle-of -nowhere hotel by 6 plus. At least I can comprehend the TV programmes even if I don't quite enjoy them. Though when you're utterly bored, anything goes. Our tour guide lost her purse and with it, all her tips from our fellow tourist companions O_O.