Finally We Go Beijing: Day 2, Tiananmen, Gugong and Qianmen Street

The hotel has a gym! It is one of the few hotels that comes with a gym and doesn’t burn a hole in my pocket. I toyed with the idea of jogging outdoor but I think that is suicidal for somebody who lives in a tropical island. I do see people doing so and are all wrapped up while doing so. I opted for the safer option. 

The gym is opened 24 hours. Of course there were no other guests. I am the only crazy one. 

With a slower speed and some time to get used to the air and heater, I managed to clock 5km. Not bad! 

We had bfast. This time, only Daddy Lim and I bcos both kids couldn’t wake up. Ok, save us some money. We did tabao some cakes and pastry for the kids. 

The plan for the day - 天安门, 故宫 and some random shopping. We had arranged through B for an English speaking gudie. That cost us RMB1,000. If we had use an anyhow Chinese speaking guide, it would cost us only 15% of what we paid. However, I doubt Daddy Lim and the kids would understand a Chinese guide and their accent. So much for jiejie’s O levels A2. Lol. 

We took a didi to the hotel. We were told that it would take us about 1.5 hrs given the peak hours traffic. 

The traffic was really heavy. Fortunately, we arrived on time to meet the guide, C, on time. We left our luggage at the hotel and then took another didi with C to 天安门. 

Why did we opt for a guide? Bcos it is very difficult to get information in English about the places of interest and I am very lazy to read all the Chinese. I somewhat figured out that there are some ways to skip the queues to these 2 places, assuming that they are crowded. Apparently, it is really the off peak period and there was barely any queues. 

C did a good job explaining. But after awhile, I cannot really tell the difference between this building vs another building. I know they all looked different but…

Plus, the cold wasn’t helping. It was cold and windy and it felt even colder than Universal Studio. 

Look at how we were all bundled up. Whatever that we can find, we wore to keep out the cold. Still, it wasn’t enough. We were very amazed at how C didn’t look like she felt cold at all. You can barely see my face. Lol.

From 天安门, we walked over to 故宫. We have very limited pictures bcos only Daddy Lim was braved enough to not wear gloves and take pictures. This is the must take customary picture.

Entering through the main entrance. 

The big ass door. We were told that each royal door has 9 x 9 door pins and it is a sign of royalty. Not all doors are deserving of such door pins. 

It was crazy windy and it didn’t help that the place is super opened and thus no place to hide/ block the wind. The most amusing thing must be the frozen gold fish. 

It wasn’t dead. We saw it wriggling every now and then. 

C again did a very good job explaining the history and the small little details.

It is me.. I got lost with the different dynasties, so many kings and their concubines. Yada.. yada.. yada…

The wind also didn’t let down. At some point, it was announced that the halls would be closed bcos it was blue alert for the wind. I duno what that meant other than the fact that we were very cold. 

The entire tour took more than 4 hours and we had to ask C to cut short. We skipped lunch too bcos we wanted to have lunch outside of 故宫. It was already 3ish by the time we ended the tour. 

The sadder part was that there were no eateries nearby and we had to walk to another part where the didi could pick us up. We wanted to go to Qianmen Street bcos that is nearby and I read that there are things to see and eat. 

We were very hungry. When this happened, Daddy Lim and the kids would want to walk into the 1st restaurant available. The situation would be very tense bcos if I take a bit longer to decide on what/ where to eat, they will give me dagger eyes. 

We eventually decide on a Chinese restaurant - we wanted 北京烤鸭. Hoho. It didn’t feel like a cheap restaurant but the hungry tummies didn’t allow us to decide otherwise. 

The 北京烤鸭…

Yum, yum. This duck is damn fat. There was a layer of fats under the crispy skin. The rest of the duck was made into different unique duck dishes. 

We ordered another dish to go along, as well as a noodle and a fried rice. They were all very delicious. 

Of course we wiped out everything. We asked the waitress on what were there to see in 前门街 and was told that other than 小吃, there isn’t much. S**t, kena cheated. Lol. 

It is ok, eat, we will. The 冰糖葫芦 has started calling out to Nana now that the main meal had been settled. 

We finally tried the real 冰糖葫芦. The ones that we usually have are the fruits ones. The 冰糖葫芦 really tasted like haw flakes. Hoho. Other than these, we also had some fried beef steak that tasted like chicken. 羊肉串 was everywhere but we didn’t fancy the 臊味. We saw this old school china snacks shop.

The street wasn’t super long or maybe bcos it was really too cold for us to want to explore. We walked from one end of one street to the other end and decided that it was time to go back to the hotel. The challenge then was to find the pickup point. The didi took 15 mins to reach us bcos it was so jam and it was a one-way street. I also stupidly chose a pickup point that is like 500m away. We had to brave the cold and asked for direction a couple of times to be at the right place.

We were finally back in the hotel safe and sound, only to be told that their computer system glitched up, all check-in done before 4pm had disappeared and check-in cannot be done until 9ish. We were given the alternative to move to another hotel for 1 night or wait. The alternate hotel is supposed to be less than 500m walk away. 

Given how tired we were, we opted for the replacement hotel. Maybe bcos we were tired and cold, the walk felt so much longer than 500m. We simply followed the uncle who was tasked to bring us and he was just turning here, walking fast, another turn and walk some more. Each time we passed by a hotel, I wished that it was the One. 

Finally after duno how long, we arrived! Checking in took a bit longer than usual but we made it safe and sound eventually. We booked 2 rooms and I got to sleep with Nana this round. We all huddled in one room, snacking away until it was night time.

Our rooms were opposite each other and I was busy walking from one room to another to unpack stuff. We survived! We also managed to wash some of the heat tech. We didn’t see any laundromat in Beijing and read that there are far and few. I bought this dryer especially for the trip and it is good! 

Coupled with the dry air, the wet clothes were dried overnight. The only problem is that it could only hold 4 pieces at one time. 

Sleeping was so easy bcos we were so tired from the waking and the cold. Sleeping with Nana is very comfortable as well. She is a good sleeper. Hoho. 

Mummy Lim