Today is Friday, the 27th November, my last day of work for the week, wooohoooo!!! Today is going to be a really rushed day for me. As soon as I finish work I have to go home as soon as I can, shower, pack for SH and get back to the Beijing station (which is right behind my workplace) by 8.15pm.
Our train is not until 10.09pm but we have to board onto the train at around 9.30pm. There are four of us travelling together, Marta, Arthur, Jordan and myself. Marta will meet us at 9pm at Beijing station, and the rest of us will be around 8.15pm at the station to have dinner together.
I finished work at usual time, and unbelievably, this is the first time I experienced traffic jam in Beijing. Normally the bus I ride will take around 45-50minutes, but this is the first time I took the bust right after work. I got onto the bus at 6.15pm and man, this is such a bad traffic condition. I was aiming to be home by 7pm but until 6.50pm I was only at Yonganli Street (which is about 2 or 3 stations away from work). This is just insane. Eventually I didn't get home until 7.45pm.
I felt terribly sorry for Arturs who should be waiting for us at the station from 8.15pm. There's no way that I can contact Arturs because he have this very interesting philosophy that he told me when he called me. He doesn't use cellphone in China!!!!!!!! Can you believe this?? He told me that he decided to give himself a break and be off the instant contact networks. He usually communicate via email, or he will call friends from his skype account, or he'll use payphones to call friends when he's out. So hence, I have no way of contacting Arturs and tell him that I'll be late. sorry >_<>
As soon as we briefly introduced ourselves, Arturs started selling us the idea of not using a cellphone in China, immediately, Marta, Jordan and myself yelled out 'no way, that's impossible for me'. Arturs' point was that if we don't rely on instant messaging, then we have to rely on timeliness and therefore everything should actually improve, however, we just don't think it's realistic, especially we are all foreigners in China.
We started waiting in the line to go into the train station. Our train is at platform 2, level 2. Inside the train station there are lot of shops for food and gifts. Jordan and I each bought some snacks and water, Arturs went to KFC to buy his dinner. This is where our interesting discussion all began. Arthur, (after chatting with him on the train) was a professional sportsmen (in running), studied in a Unviersity in the States, and he obviously dislikes fastfood, especially KFC (but he had no choice due to the limited time we have at the station); whereas Jordan, who LOVES chicken, strongly defends the his favourite KFC. Artus is Latvian and he represents AIESEC from the USA. He also introduces himself as Arthur (english name) but I personally like Arturs better, more unique, haha! Marta is Polish and she represents AIESEC from Poland. Arturs is matched to a kindergaten for ET, have about 3 hours lunch breaks daily; and recently started teaching at a local university (more conversational english for local university students). Marta is matched to a Chinese windmill company working in the HR department (sourcing international talents for the company). Both of them have been in China for quite a few months now. Arturs is leaving China before Christmas so this will be his last chance to travel far outside of Beijing. Marta is staying until end of Feb 2010 but she may or may not continue to work for the company. Not too long after we started chatting we already became quite comfortable with each other. We were sharing some snacks, talking about sports, about China's life so far, about travelling China, about our own AIESEC LCs, funny and scary experiences in China and many more. Other passengers around always looks at us, because we are such a weird combination and we only spoke in English! This is something that I had to get used to, look Chinese but speaking native English at times. Shanghai here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 12 in Beijing
Today is another misty day. Thursday the 26th November is my twelveth day in Beijing, China. The weather today is very much like yesterday, misty, dark, dull, foggy. It's not too much colder but the sky definitely looks more plain and lack of excitement. I researched about Beijing winter, apparently there's quite a bit of rain during the winter time. Personally I don't favour rain, I think rain increases the distances between people because people would prefer to stay indoor rather than meeting ups etc; rain increases stress, especially for transporting across the city etc. I hope it won't rain today. Today my manager and one of my colleague left to Shanghai for a day-training. I stayed at the office to be responsible and taking care of the projects we have on hand.
After meeting Marta, Jordan and I started walking towards the Tian'anmen and National Opera House. I found out from the National Opera House website that on the 7th December there's a piano performance by Lang Lang!! I am so lucky!!! I just had an idea to check out the website and I found this performance! It's the only show that Lang Lang will perform in China this year and there are only a few tickets left! The price ranges from 180RMB to VIP ticket for 1280RMB per person. But by the time I checked, the cheapest ticket left is 780RMB. I struggled a lot, 780RMB is a lot, especially in China, but it's Lang Lang, he's too good to be 
missed. I told Jordan about this, about Lang Lang, about his successes so far (the winner of Lizst competition, performing for Obama, for the England Queen, for China's 60th anniversary and many more) and both of us got so excited about this performance! We are both pianists, so we both understand how lucky we are to have this opportunity. We're in!
We went into the subway line 1 and got off at the Tian'anmen West station. As soon as we walk out from the station there's direct entrance into the National Opera House (even without having to going to the ground level). We reserved the tickets online earlier and now we're here to pick it up! 780RMB for Lang Lang's performance for the memorial of 200 years of Chopin, this is too goo to be missed.
After getting the tickets, the excited Jordan and Nancy walked towards Tian'anmen Square. I told Jordan, Gerard and Josi about the night that I walked to Tian'anmen and how amazing and stunning the scenes are, and now it's Jordan's turn to experience the historical scene. Gerard and Josi are waiting for us at Xidan shopping centre already so we will all meet up for dinner and shopping very soon. I can't really describe how excited I am the second time I saw the Tian'anmen again. I had a better look at the square and at the buildings, around. These architectures possess the Chinese history and glory, success and failure, sense of proud and unity as a country.
Josi arrived about 10 minutes before the shopping mall started to close down, so we quickly had a tour inside the mall and took some photos. I saw this MASSIVE teddy bear (OMG!!!!) and it's only 138RMB!!! It'll cost 400NZD for the same size of teddy bear in Auckland, this is so crazy. If I had the luggage space I would sooooo buy it!!!!
Today the most important thing on my to-do list is to buy the train tickets to Shanghai. Yesterday a guy called Arturs called me from Skype and told me that he's an AIESECer from the US, ethnically Latvian, who's currently doing an ET with AIESEC BJTU in a kindergarten 1 hour outside of Beijing. He got my contact details from the email I replied to the Shanghai intern tour and wish to travel with us to SH. There's another girl who will travel with us (who's already friends with Arturs), called Marta, from Poland, currently doing a MT in a chinese windmill company in the HR department. The four of us will be travelling together to have some accompany on the journey and watch out for each other's back.
Marta checked the tickets online for the hardseats, apparently there are few tickets for hard seats to SH departing from BJ at 10.09pm Friday night and arrives at SH at 11.09am Saturday morning. Although that means we'll be late for the start of the tour but at least it's only around 300-350RMB per ride. Jordan, Marta and I met up at around 6.30pm at the Beijing train station and FINALLY we got our tickets! We kept on being standing in a new line again and again because we forgot to take cash out, then we were told to go to another line for tickets within 3 days. The tickets we bought costs 327RMB per person. All the tickets from SH back to BJ were sold out at the BJ station so we were told by the ticket lady to buy it when we arrive at SH (fingers crossed).
After meeting Marta, Jordan and I started walking towards the Tian'anmen and National Opera House. I found out from the National Opera House website that on the 7th December there's a piano performance by Lang Lang!! I am so lucky!!! I just had an idea to check out the website and I found this performance! It's the only show that Lang Lang will perform in China this year and there are only a few tickets left! The price ranges from 180RMB to VIP ticket for 1280RMB per person. But by the time I checked, the cheapest ticket left is 780RMB. I struggled a lot, 780RMB is a lot, especially in China, but it's Lang Lang, he's too good to be 
missed. I told Jordan about this, about Lang Lang, about his successes so far (the winner of Lizst competition, performing for Obama, for the England Queen, for China's 60th anniversary and many more) and both of us got so excited about this performance! We are both pianists, so we both understand how lucky we are to have this opportunity. We're in! 
We went into the subway line 1 and got off at the Tian'anmen West station. As soon as we walk out from the station there's direct entrance into the National Opera House (even without having to going to the ground level). We reserved the tickets online earlier and now we're here to pick it up! 780RMB for Lang Lang's performance for the memorial of 200 years of Chopin, this is too goo to be missed. 
After getting the tickets, the excited Jordan and Nancy walked towards Tian'anmen Square. I told Jordan, Gerard and Josi about the night that I walked to Tian'anmen and how amazing and stunning the scenes are, and now it's Jordan's turn to experience the historical scene. Gerard and Josi are waiting for us at Xidan shopping centre already so we will all meet up for dinner and shopping very soon. I can't really describe how excited I am the second time I saw the Tian'anmen again. I had a better look at the square and at the buildings, around. These architectures possess the Chinese history and glory, success and failure, sense of proud and unity as a country. We walked to Xidan (which is one subway station away from Tian'anmen) and finally met up with Gerard. Apparently although Josi called Jordan earlier that she finished work at 5.30pm but she got told to stay back for OT at the very last minute. Feel sorry for her for doing so many OTs. Initially our plan to come to Xidan was to help Josi to buy a jacket, but she's again being told to stay behind, so I guess we'll have to help her some other time.
Josi arrived about 10 minutes before the shopping mall started to close down, so we quickly had a tour inside the mall and took some photos. I saw this MASSIVE teddy bear (OMG!!!!) and it's only 138RMB!!! It'll cost 400NZD for the same size of teddy bear in Auckland, this is so crazy. If I had the luggage space I would sooooo buy it!!!!As a group we really want to find some more time that we can all meet and just travel. We preliminary made a brief plan that if Gerard can get the weekend off on the 12th and 13th December (after my birthday) that we would have a Beijing tour. It would be so good if we can finally meet together.
Day 11 in Beijing
Misty Wednesday, the 11th day of Nancy in Beijing....hmmm started off with a not so good weather... misty misty. This is the first day since I arrived in Beijing to actually see a completely grey sky. Hope it doesn't rain....I personally really don't like rain... lol. But I remember hearing from someone that in 2009 there are more than 260 days of sunshine in Beijing, that's really good isn't it?! hoho, I wonder how many sunny days do we get in Auckland??
Cold weather + hungry Nancy = reminds me of the best meal option = hot pot!!! Haha, yeah, mmmmm winter and hot pot are just a perfect match! This is the plan for after work. Meeting up with Jordan and Jian, wait for Gerard and Josi to finish work, and go for a nice hot pot.
I eventually got out from the Wudaokou subway station. What I see right now is exactly how I imagined Beijing (China) to be like. Lights from buildings/street lamps all around, endless roads of shops; pedestrians coming from all directions and going to other directions, if you look at the crowd from a bird's eye view, it's more like a spiderweb type of crowd. As soon as I got out from the station I'm already swamped by street food stall operators yelling and selling their products. Right outside the station there's a smelly-tofu stall, then there's a stall selling all sorts of Beijing traditional food (like pancakes and candied fruits- I even saw the process of making the candied shaws!!), there's the newspaper stand etc. Jordan and 
Jian are waiting for me opposite the road, but looking at the amount of traffic and pedestrians, I really worried about how would I be able to cross this street? I stood underneath the lights for few minutes, seeing people around me just crossed the street regardless, pushing through the crowds, walking right in front of moving cars and just squeezed their way to the other side of the street. I stood there, completely lost, I have no idea how to cross the road. Few minutes later, the pedestrian light turned green, so I can go right? But NO! Cars are still moving, pedestrians are moving too (from all directors regardless of the traffic lights). I started to follow some pedestrians next to me, but very quickly I was stuck between honking cars and people squeezing around me. I am literally stuck. I have no idea how am I supposed to cross this road. Jordan suddenly came over, he started crossing the street and came to the middle to get me. He guided me through the traffic to the where Jian is standing. They told me that they saw me standing on the street for a very long time and looked confused. Well, I was very confused, I admit that, I was very lost and scared of the busy traffic.
The restaurant we went to is on the 5th floor of a shopping mall in Wudaokou, the restaurant is called Donglaishun 东来顺. There's a restaurant with this name in Auckland as well, I think it's quite a well known name serving northern China styled food. We ordered a 鸳鸯锅 (Yuanyang pot), which is the pot is split in two flavours, usually one spicy and one normal soup based (check photo above). Then we just look through the menu and order the dishes that we want to eat. We ordered few plate of meat (fish balls, beef, lamb) and few plates of vegies (lettuce, chinese cabbage, mushrooms, turnips etc); Gabrielle also ordered some noodles and some desserts for us to share at the end. We each ordered a fresh-squeezed 
watermelon juice (12RMB each) as well, and mmmmm nothing is better than watermelon juice with spicy hot pot, hoho. The boys really went hard out with the meat, within a few minutes the plate was empty!
We had so much fun during the dinner! Although Josi couldn't make it because she have OT (again) and Gerard joined us after dinner, we had some really funny moments at the table. Jian (being a non-chinese speaker before coming to China) was popping out Chinese words that he learned from school. Gab was also really good! He's only been in Beijing for 2 months but he has been studying Chinese for a bit back in Canada, he even ordered his own watermelon juice and noodles from the waitress!!! How cool is that?! He told us that since he got here he have always been approached by local university students who wants to become a 'language partner' with him, haha, that sounds really weird, 'language partner'. LOL. 
Our dinner finished with some lovely desserts: fried rolls with taro, and fried sticky rice ball with sesame. They're Gab's favourite. Jian started telling me about this chocolate fish thing that a little stall sells outside their campus. He said that every night there'll be heaps of people waiting at the stall to buy this chocolate fish, mmmmm it sounds so good and I really want to try, hoho.
Gerard called us not too long after dinner and said he's on his way to meet us. After Gerard got here we went to this very interesting cafe called, 'Bridge cafe'. This is a cafe inside a little building and occupies the second and the third floor of the building. The cafe is actually quite big and VERY crowded! The cutsomers inside the cafe are mostly unversitiy students and language school students from around the ara. There are quite a lot of students who ordered some coffee and snakcs and studying Chinese at the same time. We saw quite a few tables of westerners as well. This is exactly how I wanted my cafe experience to be like. Warm and cosy inside; small tables with some customers readinga book, some talking to friends, some laughing, some dating. 
Hot coffees make the windows steamy and misty, the street lamps outside the window blends in with the darkness and blurred by the steams on the window glass, it's so romantic. 
After the cafe we started walking towards the chocolate fish stall, Jian said it's located outside their campus grounds. But to our greatest dissappointment, he's not there today. Jian, Gab and Xiaoping all said that the man is there everyday, but not today. It's just so weird. But oh well, I was equally happy when Jordan, Gerard and I went to buy some chestnuts, hoho, my favourite.
Misty Beijing gives me this chill from behind. Looking outside from the 14th floor into the CBD, lights from offices and lamps on the street shimmering in the mist, a bit blurry, a bit mystery, a bit scary. Misty Beijing is a little colder today, I couldn't resist asking my colleagues whether this weather indicates rain, or even snow? They laughed and said usually Beijing snows in January, this year snowfall was early but the weather now is not cold enough. I look forward to a white Christmas, a cold Christmas, and a white Beijing.
Today I went to check on the train prices to Shanghai for this Friday. The Beijing train station is actually right behind the COFCO Plaza that I'm working in. Jordan came over during my lunch break so we can go get the train tickets. But, OMG! It's SOOOOO expensive!! Return train tickets from Beijing to Shanghai then back from Shanghai to Beijing on soft sleep beds is 1320RMB!!! Can you believe this??? I really need to source other transport options, this is just way too expensive.
After checking train prices, Jordan and I went to have lunch around the train station. This is the worst experience I had so far related to food and restaurants in Beijing. We went to this nearby restaurant that serves dumplings and other normal family food. As soon as we went in we were directed to be seated, and the waitress gave us a menu. We ordered a bowel of noodles, a plate of dumplings, and some buns. The waitress asked for 40RMB (which is quite ok) to be paid at the time of making an order. After we paid the waitress we asked if she can bring us some water or tea, she replied that will be another bill. We looked at her and asked if she can just bring some normal tea and she replied she will. After we started drinking the tea she brought us and also the dishes that arrived, she suddenly came up again and said 'you gave me 40RMB before but the bill is now 67RMB, I need 27RMB'. Jordan paid the extra without really asking for the reason, however I became a little concerned. I asked the waitress what is the extra 27RMB for and she said '1RMB per person for the utensils you're using, and also 25RMB for the tea'. WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!! 25RMB for a pot of tea?! WHAT!!!!!! I asked her what kind of tea is it that needs to be sold at 25RMB and she said I told you it will be another bill. I asked her why did she not tell us the price before giving us the tea, just like what she did when we ordered the food? Why did she not ask us for the money for the tea (then we would have known the price and refused to order tea) just like how she asked for the 40RMB for dishes? She refused to answer but said that in Beijing we'll never find any restuarants that offer free tea. This is BULLSH*T! Every restaurant I went to I was offered tea! A manager of the restaurant came up after hearing the dispute we have at the table and the waitress ran away. This manager is even worse: no eye contacts, didn't want to talk to me, kept on saying that the waitress told us the price (lies!!!). At the same time, I saw the same waitress that served us starting offering tea to the table next to us, and without saying the price too!!! Some of the customers from that table overheard our dispute and started looking at the waitress too. Another manager looking person came over and said to me 'I'll come over soon and sort this out for you' and indicated for the first manager to leave. I was so angry!!! This is the worst customer service ever, giving out false information to customers and not telling the prices; and customers will have no way of arguing out of it after consuming the tea! The second manager NEVER came back to us and we decided to leave. They've collected our money already so there is really nothing we can do apart from getting really angry (which they don't give a sh*t).
I got really angry today. Not only because of their service, but their attitude and the ways they used to 'cheat' money out of the customers. I haven't been angry for a long long time, I was even shocked myself at how angry I was. I didn't speak a word after got out of the restaurant, (felt sorry for Jordan, having to see an angry Nancy for the first time). But what more can I say? When these people don't care about it, I just have to get over it and not let myself get too angry or upset. A lesson learned.
Highlight of the day
Cold weather + hungry Nancy = reminds me of the best meal option = hot pot!!! Haha, yeah, mmmmm winter and hot pot are just a perfect match! This is the plan for after work. Meeting up with Jordan and Jian, wait for Gerard and Josi to finish work, and go for a nice hot pot.Jian is studying Mandarin/Chinese in a language school neary Wudaokou 五道口, the North West of Beijing. Wudaokou is a very populated are with students and I heard that it's a place for cheap food, cheap shopping, and be part of the younger generation of Beijing city. From my workplace to Wudaokou I must walk from work to Dondan subway station (about 10 minutes walk), then take subway line 1 to Xidan subway station, then transfer to line 4 and get off at Xizhimen, then transit again to line 13 and get off at Wudaokou. This whole transit/journey took me around 90 minutes (Beijing is so HUGE!!!).
I eventually got out from the Wudaokou subway station. What I see right now is exactly how I imagined Beijing (China) to be like. Lights from buildings/street lamps all around, endless roads of shops; pedestrians coming from all directions and going to other directions, if you look at the crowd from a bird's eye view, it's more like a spiderweb type of crowd. As soon as I got out from the station I'm already swamped by street food stall operators yelling and selling their products. Right outside the station there's a smelly-tofu stall, then there's a stall selling all sorts of Beijing traditional food (like pancakes and candied fruits- I even saw the process of making the candied shaws!!), there's the newspaper stand etc. Jordan and 
Jian are waiting for me opposite the road, but looking at the amount of traffic and pedestrians, I really worried about how would I be able to cross this street? I stood underneath the lights for few minutes, seeing people around me just crossed the street regardless, pushing through the crowds, walking right in front of moving cars and just squeezed their way to the other side of the street. I stood there, completely lost, I have no idea how to cross the road. Few minutes later, the pedestrian light turned green, so I can go right? But NO! Cars are still moving, pedestrians are moving too (from all directors regardless of the traffic lights). I started to follow some pedestrians next to me, but very quickly I was stuck between honking cars and people squeezing around me. I am literally stuck. I have no idea how am I supposed to cross this road. Jordan suddenly came over, he started crossing the street and came to the middle to get me. He guided me through the traffic to the where Jian is standing. They told me that they saw me standing on the street for a very long time and looked confused. Well, I was very confused, I admit that, I was very lost and scared of the busy traffic. 
Jian introduced me to two of his friends who came along too. They're all Jian's school mates, both studying mandarin at the language school. One of them is called Gabrielle, a Canadian guy with French mother tounge, a professional translator and now wishes to add Chinese into his career. The other guy is called Xiaoping, a dutch man from Holland, and he is Xiaofang (Jian's friend I met last week)'s brother.
The restaurant we went to is on the 5th floor of a shopping mall in Wudaokou, the restaurant is called Donglaishun 东来顺. There's a restaurant with this name in Auckland as well, I think it's quite a well known name serving northern China styled food. We ordered a 鸳鸯锅 (Yuanyang pot), which is the pot is split in two flavours, usually one spicy and one normal soup based (check photo above). Then we just look through the menu and order the dishes that we want to eat. We ordered few plate of meat (fish balls, beef, lamb) and few plates of vegies (lettuce, chinese cabbage, mushrooms, turnips etc); Gabrielle also ordered some noodles and some desserts for us to share at the end. We each ordered a fresh-squeezed 
watermelon juice (12RMB each) as well, and mmmmm nothing is better than watermelon juice with spicy hot pot, hoho. The boys really went hard out with the meat, within a few minutes the plate was empty!
We had so much fun during the dinner! Although Josi couldn't make it because she have OT (again) and Gerard joined us after dinner, we had some really funny moments at the table. Jian (being a non-chinese speaker before coming to China) was popping out Chinese words that he learned from school. Gab was also really good! He's only been in Beijing for 2 months but he has been studying Chinese for a bit back in Canada, he even ordered his own watermelon juice and noodles from the waitress!!! How cool is that?! He told us that since he got here he have always been approached by local university students who wants to become a 'language partner' with him, haha, that sounds really weird, 'language partner'. LOL. 
I also took photos of the boys 'going Asian', haha, refer to photo. The 'victory' pose, the smiling Asian eyes, and haha, it's just so funny to see boys making cute poses.
Our dinner finished with some lovely desserts: fried rolls with taro, and fried sticky rice ball with sesame. They're Gab's favourite. Jian started telling me about this chocolate fish thing that a little stall sells outside their campus. He said that every night there'll be heaps of people waiting at the stall to buy this chocolate fish, mmmmm it sounds so good and I really want to try, hoho. 
Gerard called us not too long after dinner and said he's on his way to meet us. After Gerard got here we went to this very interesting cafe called, 'Bridge cafe'. This is a cafe inside a little building and occupies the second and the third floor of the building. The cafe is actually quite big and VERY crowded! The cutsomers inside the cafe are mostly unversitiy students and language school students from around the ara. There are quite a lot of students who ordered some coffee and snakcs and studying Chinese at the same time. We saw quite a few tables of westerners as well. This is exactly how I wanted my cafe experience to be like. Warm and cosy inside; small tables with some customers readinga book, some talking to friends, some laughing, some dating. 
Hot coffees make the windows steamy and misty, the street lamps outside the window blends in with the darkness and blurred by the steams on the window glass, it's so romantic. Gab ordered a cup of lavender tea (25RMB) and Gerard ordered ice cream with brownie (they asked me for pronounciation and made the order themselves, perfect pronounciation too!!) for 27RMB. At this table there are many nationalities, we're like having a 'world conference' or some sort, haha. Together we have 6 nationalities (Chinese, Canadian, Dutch, Samoan, New Zealand, Malaysian) and 6 languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Dutch, French, Malaysian).
After the cafe we started walking towards the chocolate fish stall, Jian said it's located outside their campus grounds. But to our greatest dissappointment, he's not there today. Jian, Gab and Xiaoping all said that the man is there everyday, but not today. It's just so weird. But oh well, I was equally happy when Jordan, Gerard and I went to buy some chestnuts, hoho, my favourite.
I definitely want to come back to Wudaokou. It's listed as the place for young people to go to and the place for cheap shopping. Apparently there's a mall here that operates like Dressmart in Onehunga, for example, an authentic (yes it's authentic, haha) Adida's sneaker for around 70NZD.
Day 10 in Beijing
Woohoooo!!! Finally reaching a full ten day in Beijing! The tenth day in Beijing is the 24th November, Tuesday!
Josi and I decided to go to Xidan 西单shopping centre after work today. She heard from friends and colleagues that Xidan is a cheaper place to go shopping for. At 6pm I finished work as usual but was told by Josi that she got help up at work, so I said I'll just go to Xidan and wait for her. As I walked out of my building, I suddenly remembered a news I saw online today. It was about the 56 red poles which represents the 56 cultures in China that were placed at the Tian'anmen Square since the 60th Anniversary of PR China, these poles might be removed from the Tian'anmen Square and possibly will be placed in the Olympic Park. Then I was thinking, if I don't take a look at the poles at Tian'anmen Square as soon as I can, I might actually miss it!! So there's my impulsive decision: I'll walk to Tian'anmen and eventually walk to Xidan.
To be honest, I have no idea how far Tian'anmen Square is from work, nor do I know how far is Xidan. All I know is that my workplace is 2 subway station away from Dongdan东单, which is the complete opposite side of Xidan西单. Anyway, I have made my decision that I will walk and enjoy everything that I can see! At the end of the night, I know I made the right choice! This is one of the best nights I've had in Beijing! Exercise wise: Xidan is about 4.5kms away from Dongdan (which is about 500m away from my work). Therefore at the end of the night, I estimate I've walked about 7.5kms (work to Xidan, then from Xidan to Tian'anmen to catch a bus home); haha, that's some REALLY good exercise. Touring wise: Tian'anmen at night is just too beautiful.
It was quite a misty night tonight, the sky was covered up by mist. Walking through the cold winter air doesn't really kill my excitement as I walk pass multiple skyscrapers. I'm so much like a tourist, getting excited about everything I see, and taking photos when I can. The only difficulty I faced is trying to capture a photo of myself with the Tian'anmen. Along Chang'an Street there must be at least ten or more five star hotels! They all look so grand and modern, some with traditional Chinese decorations, and they shall all look EXPENSIVE!!!!! I wonder how many customers do they actually get per day outside of peak periods like Chinese New Year or Olympics?
Along the way to Xidan, I saw many fasincating architectures: traditional Chinese buildings and gates, modern buildings with western design, hotels, museums, muscial theatres and many many more. When I suddenly realised a long red wall come into sight, I know I am very close the heart of Chinese culture. The red walls were the protection of the Tian'anmen and all sacred places that used to belong to the Chinese emperors, now they are the represent the Chinese history with symbolic meanings. This really excites me, because it reminds me that I am one step closer to finding my own roots.
The lights used on the street began to increase; there are more patrols walking and standing on the street; and not too long after, I see the tip of Tian'anmen. The Tian'anmen is outlined with lights that shines through the darkness. This is the only tall building on the north side of Chang'an Street and the lights just made Tian'anmen more outstanding. When I finally can see the whole picture of Tian'anmen, my heartbeat paused for a few seconds. I hold in my breath, blinked a several times, even shake my head for a bit to make sure I am seeing the symbolic building in the five thousand years of Chinese culture. This is the place. It brings together the thousands of years of history and the new development of People's Republic of China under Chairman Mao. 
This is unbelievable. My mind began to come clear and my heart began to beat faster, I am actually here: standing outside the heart of China
I couldn't really believe what I was seeing. Tian'anmen, The Memorial Stadium opposite Tian'anmen, the National Museum, the parliament house, everythings here. I see the 56 poles representing the 56 ethnicities of China standing tall and proud in the Tian'anmen square. They look simply fascinating. This is again another piece of breath-grasping artwork. Can you believe this? This is the world's largest square, in the world's most populated country, in the world's fastest growing country.
I am really having a moment of my life at Tian'anmen Square. Everything seems so peaceful and calm now, and all I can see is the success that China has achieve so far.
I stayed at the Tian'anmen Square for at least a good 45 minutes plus, but thinking that Josi might be finishing work soon and will be waiting for me at Xidan shopping mall, I shall move on. Along my walk to Xidan (still have no idea how far I'll have to walk) I suddenly had a glimpse of this round-shaped-building kind of sticking out from mid air above some trees. To be honest, at that time it really felt like the movie 'District 9', only that the round-shape globe was curving downwards, rather than like a UFO (upwards). I stared at it for a while, then I suddenly clicked: it's the National Opera House!!! The new National Opera House that shaped like a dome that is surrounded by a man-made lake and trees. The man-made natural surroundings around the National Opera House is called the 'lungs of Beijing' for its green and nature characteristics. All audiences must enter the stadium through this underground tunnel that is directly under the man-made lake. Imagine if you look up to the lake and you see all these reflections from the water shimmering into the interior of the stadium, mmmm imagination.
Finally after 80 minutes of walking I arrived at Xidan. This is definitely a very commercialised area! This part of the area is light up by all the neon lights on buildings and shops. I saw the Xin Hua Book Store (a whole building block!!), Xidan Cultural Square, this and that department stores, markets, and everything! I randomly took an entry close by and entered into the Xidan Cultural Square.
Today I found out that my colleague and my manager will be going to Shanghai tomorrow (wednesday) night for training on Thursday and Friday. That means they will leave all the work to me (there are other colleagues but we do different things). So today my main role is to keep practising using Fonterra's SAP platform so that I can work by myself for the next two days and when the peak work load comes next week.
Josi and I decided to go to Xidan 西单shopping centre after work today. She heard from friends and colleagues that Xidan is a cheaper place to go shopping for. At 6pm I finished work as usual but was told by Josi that she got help up at work, so I said I'll just go to Xidan and wait for her. As I walked out of my building, I suddenly remembered a news I saw online today. It was about the 56 red poles which represents the 56 cultures in China that were placed at the Tian'anmen Square since the 60th Anniversary of PR China, these poles might be removed from the Tian'anmen Square and possibly will be placed in the Olympic Park. Then I was thinking, if I don't take a look at the poles at Tian'anmen Square as soon as I can, I might actually miss it!! So there's my impulsive decision: I'll walk to Tian'anmen and eventually walk to Xidan. 
To be honest, I have no idea how far Tian'anmen Square is from work, nor do I know how far is Xidan. All I know is that my workplace is 2 subway station away from Dongdan东单, which is the complete opposite side of Xidan西单. Anyway, I have made my decision that I will walk and enjoy everything that I can see! At the end of the night, I know I made the right choice! This is one of the best nights I've had in Beijing! Exercise wise: Xidan is about 4.5kms away from Dongdan (which is about 500m away from my work). Therefore at the end of the night, I estimate I've walked about 7.5kms (work to Xidan, then from Xidan to Tian'anmen to catch a bus home); haha, that's some REALLY good exercise. Touring wise: Tian'anmen at night is just too beautiful. 
It was quite a misty night tonight, the sky was covered up by mist. Walking through the cold winter air doesn't really kill my excitement as I walk pass multiple skyscrapers. I'm so much like a tourist, getting excited about everything I see, and taking photos when I can. The only difficulty I faced is trying to capture a photo of myself with the Tian'anmen. Along Chang'an Street there must be at least ten or more five star hotels! They all look so grand and modern, some with traditional Chinese decorations, and they shall all look EXPENSIVE!!!!! I wonder how many customers do they actually get per day outside of peak periods like Chinese New Year or Olympics? 
Along the way to Xidan, I saw many fasincating architectures: traditional Chinese buildings and gates, modern buildings with western design, hotels, museums, muscial theatres and many many more. When I suddenly realised a long red wall come into sight, I know I am very close the heart of Chinese culture. The red walls were the protection of the Tian'anmen and all sacred places that used to belong to the Chinese emperors, now they are the represent the Chinese history with symbolic meanings. This really excites me, because it reminds me that I am one step closer to finding my own roots. 
The lights used on the street began to increase; there are more patrols walking and standing on the street; and not too long after, I see the tip of Tian'anmen. The Tian'anmen is outlined with lights that shines through the darkness. This is the only tall building on the north side of Chang'an Street and the lights just made Tian'anmen more outstanding. When I finally can see the whole picture of Tian'anmen, my heartbeat paused for a few seconds. I hold in my breath, blinked a several times, even shake my head for a bit to make sure I am seeing the symbolic building in the five thousand years of Chinese culture. This is the place. It brings together the thousands of years of history and the new development of People's Republic of China under Chairman Mao. 
This is unbelievable. My mind began to come clear and my heart began to beat faster, I am actually here: standing outside the heart of China
I couldn't really believe what I was seeing. Tian'anmen, The Memorial Stadium opposite Tian'anmen, the National Museum, the parliament house, everythings here. I see the 56 poles representing the 56 ethnicities of China standing tall and proud in the Tian'anmen square. They look simply fascinating. This is again another piece of breath-grasping artwork. Can you believe this? This is the world's largest square, in the world's most populated country, in the world's fastest growing country. 
I am really having a moment of my life at Tian'anmen Square. Everything seems so peaceful and calm now, and all I can see is the success that China has achieve so far.
I stayed at the Tian'anmen Square for at least a good 45 minutes plus, but thinking that Josi might be finishing work soon and will be waiting for me at Xidan shopping mall, I shall move on. Along my walk to Xidan (still have no idea how far I'll have to walk) I suddenly had a glimpse of this round-shaped-building kind of sticking out from mid air above some trees. To be honest, at that time it really felt like the movie 'District 9', only that the round-shape globe was curving downwards, rather than like a UFO (upwards). I stared at it for a while, then I suddenly clicked: it's the National Opera House!!! The new National Opera House that shaped like a dome that is surrounded by a man-made lake and trees. The man-made natural surroundings around the National Opera House is called the 'lungs of Beijing' for its green and nature characteristics. All audiences must enter the stadium through this underground tunnel that is directly under the man-made lake. Imagine if you look up to the lake and you see all these reflections from the water shimmering into the interior of the stadium, mmmm imagination. 
Finally after 80 minutes of walking I arrived at Xidan. This is definitely a very commercialised area! This part of the area is light up by all the neon lights on buildings and shops. I saw the Xin Hua Book Store (a whole building block!!), Xidan Cultural Square, this and that department stores, markets, and everything! I randomly took an entry close by and entered into the Xidan Cultural Square.The first thing I bought was, haha, not to my surprise, candied fruits. I've been wanting one of this skewers ever since I saw Tian'anmen. It's like, this is the most traditional and popular sweet since ancient Chinese history, and after seeing ancient Chinese architectures, how can you not want one?? BUT!!!!!! This is probably the worst candied shaw I've ever had!!!! The skewer I bought was shaw with grape in the middle, but as soon as I bite into the first shaw: YUK!!! It was so disguisting! It was very dry, kinda bitter, the inner of the shaw was showing brown and ugly colour, and the grapes were a little funky as well. It was so bad!!!! YUK!!! (and i chucked it away, just too disguisting)
This particular mall I went in (Xidan Cultural Square) is kinda underground, have 3 floors underground, then ground level, then level 1. Going through the levels I saw clothing stores, cellphone stores, stores for little gifts, winter equipment stores (like beanies/gloves/socks), a magician shop, some branded shops like Giordano, Nike etc, some restaurants etc. I even found a ice skating arean (with quite a few 10-12 year girls in there sktaing and twisting on ice) and a 4D cinema (yep a 4D cinema, I tried it when I was in Ukraine, it's pretty cool). I bought a jacket in this shopping mall, found this winter jacket that was asking for 450RMB in multiple stores, but then I eventually haggled down at this particular store for 140RMB. There's floor in this shopping centre that was called the 'Korean Style' area, the clothing stores in here sells all 'copy version' of Korean Style (of course they say it's real, lol). This jacket I bought was Korean style too. Navy blue, buckles, hoodie (that can be taken off), and this funny looking bear sewed on the back of the jacket. Initially I really didn't like the bear, but I really love the colour and I made it to such a good price, and .....haha I let myself slip..... haha.
I was waiting until 8.30pm and Josi was still at work (OT). I seriously have no motivation to do more shopping or walk around so I entered into this nail penicure shop. Comparing NZ manicure shops, this one in China is not as classy or 'clean', but there are quite a few girls in there doing their nails. The basic package is just for 'caring for your nails' and it's 10RMB. I was told by the lady that it includes clip, file, polish, nail spa, protection maintenance etc. Since I'm waiting for Josi, and I have never experienced having my nails done, why not?! This is such a good choice!!! LOL!!! 10RMB for like 30 minutes, I was sittting there and really enjoying being treated really nicely, good service! hehe. My nails are so much prettier and neat, polished, and massaged too!! Hohohohoho. During the 30 minutes of my 'nail-maintenance' time, I was in this conversation with other customers and the staffs of the nail shop. The owner of the nail shop was saying that the clothing stores in this shopping centre started to close down since the recession. These stores used to have over 1500RMB per day during the weekend, and at least 500-600RMB per day during the weekdays. But now, if they can get over 500RMB per day in the weekend and between 100-200 per day during the weekday, then it's considered a good week. Hmmmmmmm didn't think it'll vary this much. (then my jacket today must obviously helped the shop owner!!)
The shops started to close at around 9.30pm, and the mall completely closed down at 10pm. Josi is still at work (poor girl) so I had to find my way home. Here goes my most exciting night!! I walked back to Tian'anmen to catch a bus (purposely did so, so that I can see the Chinese pride again). Tonight is a good night :)
Day 9 in Beijing
Monday 23rd of November is the nineth day of my Beijing journey. Today is the beginning of my second week at work. Today is also my dad's birthday, happy birthday dad!!! (I know you won't read my blog, but nonetheless, happy birthday!)
To my surprise, Beijing weather has been so good recently. Since I arrived last sunday on the 15th, it's always been blue sky and sunny days(although still cold). The temperature has actually gone up recently, averaging around 6-8 degrees during the day, it's quite a pleasing weather. With the Olympics in 2008 and the 60th Anniversary of PR China in 2009, Beijing environment has improved significantly. Although every now and then I breath in some bad quality air (especially during peak traffic hours) but most of the day I'm really enjoying breathing in fresh cold air.
Today I'm starting to plan for my weekend trip to Shanghai. I received invites from my friends in AIESEC Shanghai, there's a weekend Shanghai trip organised for all interns, and most interns attending are from Shanghai and Beijing. I am looking into ways to travel to Shanghai. Comparing to the prices of flights (roughly 2000RMB return, or the cheapest I found online is around 1200RMB return) + accommodation for Friday night, to prices of train (roughly around 1000RMB return including sleeping overnight on the train on Friday), I think I'll probably go with the train. I 'baidu-ed' (more popular to use Baidu than Google in China) about travelling by train, found out that train tickets are on sale around 3 days before departure day, and travelling by train (especially those overnight ones) are actually quite easy and comfortable. I really look forward to a train experience, I remember my experience with travelling on train in Ukraine and I liked it. I think it's a great way to really get into the local life.
Tomorrow (the 24th) is Jordan's birthday, he's turning 22! Happy Birthday Jordan! Congratulations for being the second oldest among us! haha! Jordan have families in Beijing and therefore he will be going to dinner with them on his actual birthday. So us (Josi, Gerard, and Jian-the other friend from NZ who arrived in BJ in Sept to study English, and myself) decided to give him a surprise early celebration. We first 'coincidentally' say that we'll just come home for dinner, probably order take away delivery food to our apartment, and asked if Jordan will stay home. Haha, didn't think he realised anything different. Gerard have day off on Mondays so he stayed home with Jordan.
After work I took the bus home straightaway. Josi met up with Jian after work and came home together. When I arrived home, Jordan, Gerard and I decided to clean our home! It's been a week and we should really make it tidy and clean, especially that we have guest (Jian) coming over. Our home is really nice and comfortable, this is something that we all love about our home, it's new and modern, and it's spacious for a city like Beijing!
At about 8pm Jian arrived, Josi opened the door and Jian stepped in after her. Jordan went up to welcome them and suddenly Jian presented a cake that he bought for Jordan. We all went, 'Happy Birthday Jordan!'. Haha, I think Jordan just then realised that this was planned that 'everyone will all come home for dinner'. He suddenly realised and started to say 'oh I see, I see what you guys are doind!'. It's not a big surprise party or anything, but I believe we all enjoyed our night at home and just to be with friends. 
We ordered six dishes, rice and dumplings for dinner. It was a delivery service inside our residential area, and it came to a total of 93RMB (so CHEAP!!). It was such a big dinner, we were soooo full after this and keeping in mind, we still have a cake to share!!!! During dinner, we just talked about NZ, China, Beijing, and the most funny thing is that Jian kept on popping out Chinese vocabs every now and then. For example, we were talking about how unhealthy it is to eat out everyday in China, it's really bad for our body etc, and Jian suddenly say it's the worst when we 'la tu zi', at first we were like 'huh?', then he repeated again and I finally got it!! He was saying La Du Zi 拉肚子!! haha, it was so funny how he just pop out with different Chinese vocabs. 
After dinner we brought out the cake, it was such a beautiful cake. The cake was square and it's inside this plastic bowl kinda thing. The cake was decorated with strawberry red powder, cream and fresh fruits. Jian said that he didn't actually know what the flavour was and he picked it simply because it looked really good. After we sang happy birthday to Jordan, he blew the candle and started sharing the cake. I must say, OMG the cake is amazing. Apart from the roll of cream on top of the cake as decoration, the white filling between the sponges of the cake is actually yoghurt!! It's a strawberry and yoghurt cake! It was simply the most amazing cake I've had (apart from my favourite cake, Black Forest). It was too sweet that it'll make you sick, and the yoghurt and strawberry flavour just blends together really well! I really really liked this cake, mmmmmmmmmmm Jordan downloaded a movie, Surrogates, for us to share after the cake. I was feeling quite tired and sick (from hay fever and dry BJ weather) so I decided I'll skip the movie and head to bed. It was a loving and home-feeling night for everyone, and I believe we all enjoyed the night together.
Happy Birthday Jordan!!!!!
Day 8 in Beijing
Sunday 22nd November is my eighth day in Beijing, China.
While we were on the subway to meet Jordan's relative, we saw this young guy inside the moving subway with a guitar and was singing for the passengers. Some passengers generouslly gave some token as appreciation to this young man, I also gave a token as my appreciation (I gave 6RMB, my favourite number; but most people just gave 1RMB). He's a very nice singer. The sound of guitar and his voice just enlightened all passengers in the subway, everyone was looking at him, some even smiled (including me). It was very refreshing for a dull and grey winter; and it is especially exciting inside this crowded cabin.
We left home at around 12.30pm and started to wonder where we should go before meeting Jordan's relative at 3pm. We were told that he will take us to 798 Factory, 七九八工厂. This is located at the north of Beijing, and it was used to be an old and abandoned factory site from the 80's. Now it has a world known arts community. The old buildings from the 798 Factory was kept and maintained in the old traditional look. Tourists can go into any of the galleries inside the strong heavy metal frames and structures of the old factory. 798 Factory is wide spread with little galleries and showrooms in many places, the overall environment is very calm and peaceful. T
he metal frames 
and some of the sculptures placed on the streets are still quite rusty and to be honest, quite scary for me. I didn't enjoy the moment when I turn around the corner and suddenly see a massive sculpture of a head on the ground.....it's not a pleasant feeling. But this is art, isnt' it? haha. There are little cafes around the factory, the lazy environment is really suitable for a warm cup of cappuccino in a blizzard winter day.
As soon as we entered into the 798 Factory from the West gate, my eyes were captured by this poster of a gallery. The theme and title of this gallery is called "only sell to Obama". I was like "huh???!!!!!" What is this???!?!?! I pointed at the gallery and we all decided to go in and have a look. The gallery is underground, and all the 'printings' on display are pictures of the popular CD covers that the artists collected in the past, and all these covers all have a common thing: they were all clipped in one corner, so there's a little broken piece on the CD. Clipped CDs in China means that these CDs will not be on sale anymore, they are pretty much useless. Although some businessmen will still sell them at a lower price but technically these CDs are being destroyed. Although the idea was interesting, but I don't understand how is this gallery related to 'only sell to Obama'??????
The most exciting piece of art of me is the Optimus Prime sculpture made with broken and rusty car pieces. (see photos). I remember seeing this news online that in the He Nan province of China, some farmers put together the world's largest optimus prime sculpture by using waste car pieces. I think this one in 798 Factory is not as big but it looks so amazing!! It's completely built by using waste, haha, such a 'recylable' piece of art. '
We finished touring 798 Factory in around one and a half hour. After that we decided to 'transfer' ourselves to the central of Beijing, haha, again by hours of taxi + bus + subway, and eventually we arrived at Wang Fu Jing王府井. This is one of the most famous shopping centres in Beijing. Wangfujing Shopping Street starts from the Chan An Street East as the south end, and finishes at China Art Muesem at the north end, it is around 1.5km long. In Wangfujing shopping street, there are shops for daily products, markets, supermarkets, electricals, clothings and shoewears, jewelleries and restaurants etc.
There are many international brand stores in Wangfujing, e.g. Omega, Sasa, Haagen Dazs, Nike and etc. You know how Chinese businessmen are very smart and capable in 'mocking' a foreign brand? Haha, I saw this brand called "Chicedo" (see photo), haha, do you think this is a mock version of "shiseido"???? I think it is, lol personal opinion. All the ads and fonts used for the poster are the same as shiseido, only with a different (but yet similar) name. One thing I don't quite understand is how did this brand got top Chinese artists like Fan Bingbing and Chen Hao to endorse their products? Or did they just downloaded a photo for the poster?
The most interesting place at Wangfujing is the street food. Well, they're not so much of a street food because the little stores were organised very neat and everyone have the same uniforms. We first went to the stores alongside of a street, and the first store that caught our eyesight was the candied fruits! But to our huge shock, they're selling one skewer of candied fruit (e.g. kiwifruit, pineapple, strawberries, shaw, grapes etc) for 15RMB!!! （see photo) This is insane!! I remember the first skewer of candied shaw we bought on the street was 1RMB, and even the one outside Peiking University that I purchased was 2RMB, this place is selling for 15RMB!!!!!!!!! This is insane. Also, I especially didn't like how these employees pick up their food and trying to force it into your hands and make you buy it. It gets quite annoying and rude after sometime.
We found some many 'Chinglish' at these stores, like 'Ice-Cren', haha, it supposed to say 'Ice Cream'. LOL!!! Also things like "Fried Mihoutao" means "Fried kiwifruit", "Fried Juices" supposed to be "Fried fruit skewers", haha, how can we fried juice??? "hami-melon" is the Chinese way of saying "honeydew melon", and how can the same advertisement use "fried" in one column, and then jused the Pinyin of Fried in Chinese for another column?? These ads just cracked me up!!!! haha, Chinglish!!
As we continued to walk down the street, we saw stores selling fried insects (e.g. bugs, silk worms, worms, scorpios etc), and to my huge surprise, there were starfish for sell at 15RMB as well...This is so out of my expectation. Then at a particular store where I was taking photos of the food, one of the guys saw me and immediately use a piece of paper to cover up the name of tha particular plate of skewers. I wasn't quite sure what he was trying to cover up until I put away my camera, and I see a sign printing: Sheep Penis. This is just too much out of my comfort zone.
Along the stores there are many interesting street food available (but all at an extremely, ridiculous, unbelievable, high price): pineapple rice, skewers, candied fruits. There's this one interesting thing, haha, it looked really weird, it's like a fried egg with many weird long stick looking things coming out from the bottom of the egg (see inserted photo). When I asked the store person what that thing was, he answered it's one of the most traditional Beijing style snack, and it's fried eggs with fries!!! haha, those long sticks coming out from the bottom of the egg are fries!!! and this is traditional Beijing snack??!?! haha, laugh out loud! How can fries be a traditional Chinese food??? hahahaha
I bought a candied shaw and orange skewers for 5RMB, although it's cheaper than what we saw earlier in the other snack street, but I bought it for 2RMB outside Peiking Uni. HOWEVER, I still like this very much, haha, I really like the candied fruit skewers. As we continued to walk down the snack street, we saw things that just make us feel sick. Apart from those insects that I mentioned earlier, I saw at this particular store that is also selling fried insect skewers there was a very scary thing. It was a skewer of scorpios, which is quite 'normal' for the Chinese market, however, some of the scorpios on the skewers are still alive!!! Can you believe that?? I can't! I looked at it for so long, rubbed my eyes, looked away and look back to the skewers, OMG, they are still alive!!!! This is crazy!!!
During this tour I bought a few gifts, mostly Chinese arts and culture related souvenirs, I personally really like them, hehe, and I hope my friends will like them too. There's one thing that I really recommend everyone to try, it's the traditional Beijing honey yoghurt. It's sealed by paper inside this clay pot jar (see photo), and once you buy it (1RMB) you put a straw through the paper and enjoy the honey flavoured yoghurt. To be honest, I have no idea how clean this thing is, but I can sure tell you it's soooo tasty!!! I also saw some arts on display, like for example, there's this guy that make clay sculptures (see photo) and paint it so it look EXACTLY like you (in a cartoon way). It's so amazing!! But pretty pricy too. I am just so amazed at how talented these artists are, it's just like seeing a mini-you, so cool! Another thing that really sparked my excitement is an art that can be eaten, called "Blown Candy 吹糖". I still remember when I was little I saw stalls where people use melted sugar to draw something on paper (e.g. dragon, rabbit or whatever) and when it's dried you can pick up this sugar painting and it'll your candy. This one I saw at Wangfujin is the advanced version, lol, basically the guy at the stall will make the shape of the animals that you want and blow into it to make it bigger and 3D like. Haha, this is called development!!
Initially we planned a Beijing tour day for the four of us, but unfortunately Gerard has work during weekends and Josi have OT this weekend, so eventually there were only Jordan and I and Jordan's relative to take us around.
While we were on the subway to meet Jordan's relative, we saw this young guy inside the moving subway with a guitar and was singing for the passengers. Some passengers generouslly gave some token as appreciation to this young man, I also gave a token as my appreciation (I gave 6RMB, my favourite number; but most people just gave 1RMB). He's a very nice singer. The sound of guitar and his voice just enlightened all passengers in the subway, everyone was looking at him, some even smiled (including me). It was very refreshing for a dull and grey winter; and it is especially exciting inside this crowded cabin.
We left home at around 12.30pm and started to wonder where we should go before meeting Jordan's relative at 3pm. We were told that he will take us to 798 Factory, 七九八工厂. This is located at the north of Beijing, and it was used to be an old and abandoned factory site from the 80's. Now it has a world known arts community. The old buildings from the 798 Factory was kept and maintained in the old traditional look. Tourists can go into any of the galleries inside the strong heavy metal frames and structures of the old factory. 798 Factory is wide spread with little galleries and showrooms in many places, the overall environment is very calm and peaceful. T
he metal frames 
and some of the sculptures placed on the streets are still quite rusty and to be honest, quite scary for me. I didn't enjoy the moment when I turn around the corner and suddenly see a massive sculpture of a head on the ground.....it's not a pleasant feeling. But this is art, isnt' it? haha. There are little cafes around the factory, the lazy environment is really suitable for a warm cup of cappuccino in a blizzard winter day. 
As soon as we entered into the 798 Factory from the West gate, my eyes were captured by this poster of a gallery. The theme and title of this gallery is called "only sell to Obama". I was like "huh???!!!!!" What is this???!?!?! I pointed at the gallery and we all decided to go in and have a look. The gallery is underground, and all the 'printings' on display are pictures of the popular CD covers that the artists collected in the past, and all these covers all have a common thing: they were all clipped in one corner, so there's a little broken piece on the CD. Clipped CDs in China means that these CDs will not be on sale anymore, they are pretty much useless. Although some businessmen will still sell them at a lower price but technically these CDs are being destroyed. Although the idea was interesting, but I don't understand how is this gallery related to 'only sell to Obama'?????? 
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The most exciting piece of art of me is the Optimus Prime sculpture made with broken and rusty car pieces. (see photos). I remember seeing this news online that in the He Nan province of China, some farmers put together the world's largest optimus prime sculpture by using waste car pieces. I think this one in 798 Factory is not as big but it looks so amazing!! It's completely built by using waste, haha, such a 'recylable' piece of art. '
We finished touring 798 Factory in around one and a half hour. After that we decided to 'transfer' ourselves to the central of Beijing, haha, again by hours of taxi + bus + subway, and eventually we arrived at Wang Fu Jing王府井. This is one of the most famous shopping centres in Beijing. Wangfujing Shopping Street starts from the Chan An Street East as the south end, and finishes at China Art Muesem at the north end, it is around 1.5km long. In Wangfujing shopping street, there are shops for daily products, markets, supermarkets, electricals, clothings and shoewears, jewelleries and restaurants etc. 
There are many international brand stores in Wangfujing, e.g. Omega, Sasa, Haagen Dazs, Nike and etc. You know how Chinese businessmen are very smart and capable in 'mocking' a foreign brand? Haha, I saw this brand called "Chicedo" (see photo), haha, do you think this is a mock version of "shiseido"???? I think it is, lol personal opinion. All the ads and fonts used for the poster are the same as shiseido, only with a different (but yet similar) name. One thing I don't quite understand is how did this brand got top Chinese artists like Fan Bingbing and Chen Hao to endorse their products? Or did they just downloaded a photo for the poster? As we walk along different shops and enjoy observing consumer behaviours around the area, our eyes (well, my eyes) weere caught at this particular shop called Snoopy Jackets. It's a store selling jackets and winter wear (e.g. gloves and scarfs). The promotion in store at the moment is jackets betwen 99RMB to 199RMB! This is really cheap, even in comparison to Chinese market price, and the jackets are mostly down feather jackets for the winter. I picked a long piece white jacket and I got it for 99RMB. Haha, I'm so happy!!!!!!!!! Then we we offered to go upstairs of the store for a lucky dip draw or to receive a free gift. We went upstairs and it was a floor selling winter wool boots and jewelleries like gold and jade. We got offered to either pick a little pearl as a gift (a really crap pearl) or a lucky dip in a pile of scratchies. and guess what?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the first prize!!! Even the sales person was really surprised and kept on saying only 3 customers out of a 100 will have a chance of picking out this draw (and she may be lying), and my prize is to be able to buy jewelleries for with a discount of 92% off, which is paying 8% of the price only. Most of the necklaces and bracelets there are around 2000-3000RMB, so that means I'll still have to pay 160-249RMB. I really can't tell whether those jewelleries are fake or authentic, and the sales lady kept on saying they have certificates and I can take those jewelleries I buy to get it verified, and if there's anything wrong I can bring them back. Haha, I doubt it.... but i shouldn't really buy things just because there's a discount, but rather when I actually need it. I'm just happy nonetheless that I actually win something!!! (well, not something, but the fact that I was lucky). I never win anything from lucky draws or dips, and I'm just so happy that I did this time, haha, such a happy feeling.
We walked into a store called Foreign Languages Book Store and part of the store was selling small electrical appliances, e.g. camera and batteries etc. We asked a price for my camera's battery and the woman offered us a local branded battery for 240RMB, then when we asked for the original packet she gave us a price for 480RMB!!! What da hell!! Anyway, so she kept on trying to sell us the local branded battery (which even have a different code of batter comparing to what I wanted) and said that it's enough for the camera; and when we showed signs of unwillingness to buy the battery, she said she can offer us 180RMB for the local brand battery, and if we really want the original brand (Sony) but don't wanna pay 480RMB she can just open up a camera and sell us that battery for a cheaper price. This is just such a weird shop and shop assistant, we decided to leave and immediately this shop assistant said "so what do you mean now! Are you only coming in to ask for a price! You never wanted to buy stuff isn't it!!" She's so rude and so unreasonable!!!!
We quickly left the shop, the shop assistant is still yelling things behind us and complaining about us. We walked from the shop, walked around the corner and entered another electrical shop. This shop offered us 280RMB for the Sony battery and 200RMB for the local brand. After haggling and haggling, eventually we pinned it down to 180RMB for the Sony battery, which is cheaper than buying it in New Zealand!! HA! That rude women is full of lies when she told us she can't go lower than 480RMB!!! HA!!!!!
The most interesting place at Wangfujing is the street food. Well, they're not so much of a street food because the little stores were organised very neat and everyone have the same uniforms. We first went to the stores alongside of a street, and the first store that caught our eyesight was the candied fruits! But to our huge shock, they're selling one skewer of candied fruit (e.g. kiwifruit, pineapple, strawberries, shaw, grapes etc) for 15RMB!!! （see photo) This is insane!! I remember the first skewer of candied shaw we bought on the street was 1RMB, and even the one outside Peiking University that I purchased was 2RMB, this place is selling for 15RMB!!!!!!!!! This is insane. Also, I especially didn't like how these employees pick up their food and trying to force it into your hands and make you buy it. It gets quite annoying and rude after sometime.
We found some many 'Chinglish' at these stores, like 'Ice-Cren', haha, it supposed to say 'Ice Cream'. LOL!!! Also things like "Fried Mihoutao" means "Fried kiwifruit", "Fried Juices" supposed to be "Fried fruit skewers", haha, how can we fried juice??? "hami-melon" is the Chinese way of saying "honeydew melon", and how can the same advertisement use "fried" in one column, and then jused the Pinyin of Fried in Chinese for another column?? These ads just cracked me up!!!! haha, Chinglish!!
As we continued to walk down the street, we saw stores selling fried insects (e.g. bugs, silk worms, worms, scorpios etc), and to my huge surprise, there were starfish for sell at 15RMB as well...This is so out of my expectation. Then at a particular store where I was taking photos of the food, one of the guys saw me and immediately use a piece of paper to cover up the name of tha particular plate of skewers. I wasn't quite sure what he was trying to cover up until I put away my camera, and I see a sign printing: Sheep Penis. This is just too much out of my comfort zone. 
Along the stores there are many interesting street food available (but all at an extremely, ridiculous, unbelievable, high price): pineapple rice, skewers, candied fruits. There's this one interesting thing, haha, it looked really weird, it's like a fried egg with many weird long stick looking things coming out from the bottom of the egg (see inserted photo). When I asked the store person what that thing was, he answered it's one of the most traditional Beijing style snack, and it's fried eggs with fries!!! haha, those long sticks coming out from the bottom of the egg are fries!!! and this is traditional Beijing snack??!?! haha, laugh out loud! How can fries be a traditional Chinese food??? hahahaha 
Eventually we decided to stop visiting this street and move into that little area where they called it 王府井小吃街, Wangfujin Snack Street, just like it's name suggests, it's for snacks. I guess the street we visited earlier is newly opened, to attract more tourists and be more convenient to customers who are on the other side of this massive shopping street. Wangfujing Snack Street has been here for many decades and they also sell gifts and items that represents China. Although my parents and their friends told me not to get food from this place because they're really expensive and unhygiene, I still tried a few things, hehe.
I bought a candied shaw and orange skewers for 5RMB, although it's cheaper than what we saw earlier in the other snack street, but I bought it for 2RMB outside Peiking Uni. HOWEVER, I still like this very much, haha, I really like the candied fruit skewers. As we continued to walk down the snack street, we saw things that just make us feel sick. Apart from those insects that I mentioned earlier, I saw at this particular store that is also selling fried insect skewers there was a very scary thing. It was a skewer of scorpios, which is quite 'normal' for the Chinese market, however, some of the scorpios on the skewers are still alive!!! Can you believe that?? I can't! I looked at it for so long, rubbed my eyes, looked away and look back to the skewers, OMG, they are still alive!!!! This is crazy!!!
During this tour I bought a few gifts, mostly Chinese arts and culture related souvenirs, I personally really like them, hehe, and I hope my friends will like them too. There's one thing that I really recommend everyone to try, it's the traditional Beijing honey yoghurt. It's sealed by paper inside this clay pot jar (see photo), and once you buy it (1RMB) you put a straw through the paper and enjoy the honey flavoured yoghurt. To be honest, I have no idea how clean this thing is, but I can sure tell you it's soooo tasty!!! I also saw some arts on display, like for example, there's this guy that make clay sculptures (see photo) and paint it so it look EXACTLY like you (in a cartoon way). It's so amazing!! But pretty pricy too. I am just so amazed at how talented these artists are, it's just like seeing a mini-you, so cool! Another thing that really sparked my excitement is an art that can be eaten, called "Blown Candy 吹糖". I still remember when I was little I saw stalls where people use melted sugar to draw something on paper (e.g. dragon, rabbit or whatever) and when it's dried you can pick up this sugar painting and it'll your candy. This one I saw at Wangfujin is the advanced version, lol, basically the guy at the stall will make the shape of the animals that you want and blow into it to make it bigger and 3D like. Haha, this is called development!!My crazy night at Wangfujin ended with the alive scorpios image in my mind. To be honest, I don't feel hungry at all after seeing that alive creature >_<
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