Day 45 in Beijing

The 29th of December, the final countdown to 2010.


Tonight, according to aunty, is the welcome meal for my mum. Tonight we're going out for dinner to welcome my mum in China for the first time in 13 years. Chengxiang is probably aunty and mum's favourite place. I started referring them as The Mums, it's just so much easier to talk about them between Anson and me when I say 'the mums'.

We arrived at the Jinyuan Shopping Centre near Renmin University after hauling through the typical peak hour Beijing traffic, finding our way through the swamp of people and cars, our ears bombared by the amount of car honks and noises. Sigh. Beijing traffic.

Jinyuan Shopping Centre is seriously WAY TOO BIG! Mum, Jordan and I arrived at the top level of the shopping centre (where all the restaurants are) before aunty and Anson. As soon as we arrived at the top level, mum suddenly turned to us and said, "wait here, I'll go buy something". LOL! Mum is so excited to come to this shopping centre. Apparently, aunty have already taken mum here for a massive shopping day and mum knows this place really well. Just a few minutes later, mum came back with a dissappointment on her face and said, 'ah, it's all sold out'. I asked what she was looking for and she told me it was type of handmade pancake that aunty and her really likes and they promised each other that they will come back here and try it again. The pankcakes are too good that it was sold out by evening. Just as we speak, aunty and Anson arrived next to us and hoho, aunty was definitely dissappointed too that the pancakes were sold out. So, instead of pancakes, aunty said she'll buy some Tianjin steam buns for us.

Jordan and I were speechless when we heard 'Tianjin buns'. Oh god, the memories from Tianjin, the cold air, the lack of people, the lack of food, and the disgusting buns we had in Tianjin, oh my god! But, OH MY GOD!!!! This Tianjin buns that aunty and mum bought for us was SOOOOOO AMAZING~ It was the meat buns that we liked, and it was juicy, tender, just the right flavour, and just the right size! One bun for one mouthful, and once you bite into it, you feel the tender meat and juice fills up your mouth, mmmmm, the taste lingers between the teeth even after you swallowed the bun. It's SOOOO GOOD!!!!

We were so satisfied while the mums take us around and find a restaurant that they wanna go for. Eventually, the mums decided on a restaurant of Dalian seafood style. Aunty is from Dalian and she said that the best seafood will be in Dalian, not Beijing, but this restaurant will do for now. The restaurant sells very traditional northern China food, seafood selections are quite ok given that it is deep winter now around the country. What we like the most is also the handmade dumplings on the menu, mmmmm, some REAL Chinese food!

Our table was full of dishes within half an hour and we were so high and satisfied. To my greatest dissappointment, I realised all the photos I took of the food and of the night were all gone because there were something wrong with my SD card in my camera. This is so sad!!! I lost so many photos and it's unbelievable!

What I can do to retrieve the photos? Anyone?? >_<