And even more pictures... Some pictures look a little pale in colour as the day was very foggy. Pic 06 - Nice night shot - I have forgotten the name of this place. I took several shots at it (at different settings) and only 1 came out right. Pic 07 - As you can see, cyclists are everywhere. It's easy to travel there with the bicycle. Pic 08 - This is a view of the Forbidden city. The place is so huge, it took me 6 hours to walk 3/4 of the city. I wished I could walk longer but they close the place at about 4.30pm as it gets dark at 5pm. Pic 09 - My girlfriend took this interesting shot of me sitting down reading the `Rough Guides'. These are among some of the benches provided at the Forbidden City. Pic 10 - This is how an imperial room looked like in the past. Did you notice the little blotch of blurriness in the middle of the picture? This shot was taken through a window and the camera's lense must have perspired a little...! We are not allowed to enter the room - everything in there is claimed to be authentic.
Pic 11 - Here at Wang Fu Jing, you can find a whole street filled with hawkers selling you local delicacies and some exotic food. Mainly targeted at tourists, food here are overpriced. You can the same food for much lower else where. Pic 12 - I really wanted to try the grasshoppers. The ones I saw selling in streets of Thailand in National Geographic looked nice. The ones found here are huge! I couldn't imagine another episode of Fear Factor... Around it, you can see fried silk worm, scorpions and other wierd insects. Pic 13 - Fried Starfish? I haven't seen one before! Can you eat a Starfish? Pic 14 - Okay guys! Trust me... food in Beijing is cheap! I ate a huge bowl of Wan Ton for only 1RMB (50 cents) Guess how much this meal costs. I ordered Lamb meat, Fish and Vegetables with mushrooms. The portion is huge and we didn't manage to finish all that. The pictures does not do justice. You have to be there to see the portion. There was so much meat!!! Pic 15 - A very nice place at the Summer Palace. This is called the Suchow Street. The small city is surrounded by water and in the past, people travel by boat here. They would just dock the boat at the side - something like what you'd find in Venice but the buildings here are so beautiful. Oh! Before I forgot, the meal on Pic 14 costs only 28RMB which translates to about RM14. It's cheaper than the entrance fee for 1 person to the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace or the Temple of Heaven.
OMG! Jeremy, we have to go there! These two reasons are good enough to make me go China this life time. Superb shots Jason!
If I was in China I'd take.. (1) Pictures of Tiananmen Square.. stand there and imagine a tank in my face. Then imagine the gunshots, people being shot and running. That was a piece of history. Wonder if there are still bloodstains or it's all cleaned up. Maybe they forgot one.. would make a nice pic (2) pix of all those bicycles.. more bikes than cars. I hear bicycles own the roads there.. have gotta see that. (3) Chinese farmland. I hear they have no electricity or running water. I've got to confirm this.. see whether it's true and if anyone can survive that way (4) Chinese military on the streets. You hardly see anyone with uniforms or rifles on the street here. Wonder what rifles they use. And what else they carry. (5) I'd also want to experience Internet censorship.. see whether it's true.. whether the net and news are really that heavily censored. Do they have magazines and newspapers ? do they have TV ? what do they show on it ? (6) Do they have shopping centers ? what are the prices like ? how would your average Chinese salaryman afford anything in there ?
Tiannanmen Square is really nothing other than a huge square of about 400 000 square feet. It's supposedly one of the largest squares in the world. No bloodstains whatsoever. It's a place for locals to play kites though Well, I think they have equally as many bikes as they have cars. The traffic jams there are horrible. They have 5 huge lanes and still, you still cars crawling. There are dedicated bicycle lanes in all major streets. I haven't really been into the farmland but even the old hutongs have now been equipped with electricity and running water. The tap water is not safe for daily drinking - just like in Malaysia. Yup, you see military personnels everywhere. That's how they instill fear in the people, I guess. They do carry a gun but not anything bigger except for some of them. I even witness them doing live training (in public) such as kung fu, acrobatics, marching... in the compound of the Forbidden City. Their training looks pretty tough. We are not allowed to take pictures of them though. I did not use their internet, so I wouldn't know about this. They do have magazines and newspapers (only 1 type of English newspaper). There are all kinds of magazines but only certain international publication are allowed to be sold. Newspaper are posted in strategic places around the city so that those who could not afford the newspaper could still read it. They have TV with many channels. More channels than our local channels here. It's usually about places of interests in China, local news and foreign news, opera, singing and performance shows, talk shows, Chinese serials. Yes, they do have shopping centers like we do here. It can be quite huge and usually, you could only find local brands. Imported goods can only be found in streets like Wang Fu Jing. Well, you can get a long sleeve shirt for as cheap as 35RMB (RM17) and my girlfriend bought a very nice Cheongsam for only 60RMB (RM30) Local goods there can be quite cheap as they mass produce it. Just to give you some idea on the brand names they have there - Robin Hood, I feel 100% and Ibdenxilu (Dunhill copycat). From my observation, all the shirts are of the same quality and perhaps from the same manufacturer branded with different names. Even winter clothings of decent quality are affordable. You could buy a winter jacket for about 50RMB (RM25) The locals can now afford to buy anything - cars, luxury items, house and condo. China is now more liberal. The rich is getting richer and the poor, even poorer. As long as the people pay their taxes, they can earn as much as they want to. You can see the contrasts now compared to back then. It used to be people are all equal. Now, you can find beggars nearly everywhere.
Just to give you an idea how the square looks like. It's really nothing more than a huge space with people walking on it. Luckily they don't charge an entrance fee to walk the square because even if they did, I wouldn't bother... But of course, I wouldn't deny it feels good to tell you friends that `Yes! I have stepped foot on Tiannanmen Square'
absolutely splendid! great pictures... i think you picked the right time to go. if you went during winter it would be all dull and grey and overcast and freezing... this leaves me wanting to go to china! great job! btw... was this a free and easy tour? how long did were you there and how much did it cost?
So despite the bicycle lanes, the bicycles are all over the street ? oh yes, this reminds me.. friend who went to China told me that the drivers argue right-of-way with the traffic policemen ? I don't know. I wouldn't put it past them to declare the rural areas "off limits" to tourists "Gun" meaning handgun ? wow, live training in public. Did you see anything critical of the government ? Yeah I have a pair of jeans someone gave me. Quality sux really badly but was cheap So I see. Why's the square so hazy ?
Bicycles are everywhere because the bicycle lanes are actually part of the road, unlike the motor lanes on Federal highway here.
Thank you for your feedback. Yup, I guess this is quite a right time to go to China. At least the cool weather there compliments the long hours of walking. I did not follow the tour. In fact, I do not encourage anyone of you to follow any of the tours. They cram a lot of places of interests in 1 day and only bring you to those sites they think worth visiting. Travelling alone gives you more time to stroll around, read the provided signage articles as you go along and be free to spend as much time trying to take that perfect shot. I used the `Rough Guides to Beijing' and a huge detailed map which I downloaded from the Internet to travel. It's pretty easy to backpack there. I stayed nearby Tiannanmen Square and therefore, I walked to most of the interesting sites within the city centre. For places outskirts, I took the subway, bus, cab and even hired the bicycle for a day. Being able to speak at least basic Mandarin would definitely help a lot but if you don't, I suggest printing out all the points of interests, hotel location and food names in Chinese characters so you can show it to the locals there and hopefully, they will point you to the right direction. I was there for about 10 days and everything (accomodation, food, souvenirs, entrance fees and etc.) inclusive of air ticket costs me about RM1800. I got very cheap flight tickets from a charity auction. Furthermore, it's slack season from November 1 till March 31. Therefore, there's entrance fee reduction (30% - 50%) to most tourists spots. Hence, the savings again. Food is also very cheap there; or at least the ones you find along the streets.
Here are even more pictures... Pic 16 - It's still in Autumn and the trees here are so beautiful. I don't know why but this picture look a little too soft for my liking. Maybe I used the wrong setting. Pic 17 - This building at the Temple of Heaven is made entirely of wood (No screws or nails were used). One could actually smell the wood (and the paint) if you walk close enough to the building. Pic 18 - Another building at the Summer Palace which is really massive in real life. Pic 19 - We were looking to take some shots by the lake but the sunset is still too bright for anything direct. Even the water reflection is too bright for my liking. I wanted to soften the effect of the bright sunset. I told her to stand by the tree, set the timer and then Voila! Pic 20 - Haha... I like this pic very much - just because the Malaysian flag is there. I know this may sound cliche to some of you but I just had to do it I wanted to give this flag to a friend of mine from Beijing and since I still have it at that time, I decided to take this shot.
