After a long long day yesterday, I finally (for the first time since I got to Beijing) overslept and ignored my alarm. The 6th of December, Sunday, my 22nd day in Beijing. Am I staying home and rest today? No way!!! I'm gonna go out and do more travelling around! Even just by thinking about all the different places I'll go to, different things I'll see, different food I'll eat, different photos I'll take and many many more, just by thinking about these makes me happy! I mean it, it makes me so happy!
Finally got to Qianmen station at 12pm and met up with Money and Bi. Jordan is not coming with us today because he'll save the trip to the Forbidden Palace with his cousin and just rest home for the day. The first thing in the morning must be some nice hot coffee, mmmm, it's so good! I didn't actually thought about having coffee, but Bi and Moeny told me they just had Starbucks and I was so excited that OMG I found some Starbucks pals!!! Yeah, my favourite Venti Toffee Nut Latte~ Here I come~ The Starbucks we went to is inside the Qianmen walking street, a street full of interesting shops (big brands, local brands etc) but with very ancient Chinese design and architecture. I must come back here on another day and really have a good walk around. It's so pretty. The inside of Starbucks is very Chinese styled, grey bricks with wooden framed windows, in conjunction with Christmas tree and decorations, haha, the fusion is just so fascinating, I really like it. 
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace are just across the road from Qianmen (Qianmen means 'front door', i.e. front door for the forbidden palace). As we are walking across the Tiananmen Square towards the Forbidden Palace, I was so amazed at the size of this square. I remember seeing this on the news that it is the biggest square in the world and it can hold upto 1 million people. It took us such a long time trying to walk across from one end of the square to the other.
Hua Biao (华表) is the massive stone pole in front of the Tiananmen. It is one of the most traditional architecture in Chinese culture. Huabiao is usually made of stone (or with white jade) with dragons, phoenix and other meaningful patterns carved on the surface.
Here we are, the Forbidden Palace, the palace for the 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. My research showed that there are 980 houses/building blocks inside the palace and that gives the emperors 8704 rooms! (WHAT A BIG HOUSE!! LOL). The palace is surrounded by gates and walls that's 10 metres tall and also a 52metres wide river all around this square palace. There are four gates at each side of the palace, North, East, South and West; but only the Wu Gate 午门 at the southside and Shenwu Gate 神武门at the North side are open to tourists. The south side of the palace is called 'Qian Chao前朝', which is the place for the emperor to do this duty (i.e. office); the north side of the palace is called 'Hou Qin后寝' which is the the emperor's bedrooms (and for his empress and mistresses). There are actually two forbidden palaces built in the Ming Dynasty, one in Beijing and one in Nanjing; so sometimes the palace in Beijing is called 'Gu Gong 故宫', meaning the 'old palace'.
I walked in from the Wu Gate (soutside of the palace) and therefore I'm heading straight to the 'office' area for the emperor. Tai He Hall 太和殿 is the tallest and biggest building in the Forbidden Palace; and it is also the largest wood structured/built architecture that still remains standing in China. This is where the emperors will receive their throne, where the most important festivals and celebrations will be held, and all the awards and important ceremonies will be presented.
We continued to walk through the Forbidden Palace. The more important and bigger temples and halls are all located on a straightline from south to the north. Other buildings for bedrooms and less significant purposes are all located on the west and east side of the man route in the middle of the palace. As we walk pass Tai He Hall, we walked towards the Qian Qing Palace 乾清宫. This is located in the north side of the palace, i.e. the 'bedroom' side for the emperor. Qian Qing Palace is the most important hall for the emperor because it is the bedroom for the emperor and his empress. Sometimes the emperor will stay here for some 'casual work', rather than using the Tai He Hall.
(massive potteries we found outside the every hall or temple, it's actually made of copper, and it's used to contain water for any emergencies, like fire).
We continued to walk through all the halls and temples until we reached the biggest back garden in China. This is the back garden for the emperor in the Qing dynasty. This is called the Summer Palace 颐和园. There are natural and manmade scenenaries and architectures inside this palace. There are over hundreds of architectures; three quarters of the palace are water (mostly lakes); the list goes on. Empress Cixi 慈禧太后 treat this as one of the most important places in the Forbidden palace and spends most of time here resting and seeing governers (and controlling the country indirectly, lol). We only saw a tiny little part of the Summer Palace because we just couldn't figure out where rest of the palace was.
We spend a good few hours inside the palace and the day is getting darker. The three of us are already getting really tired from all the walk, and we decided to leave the palace and go to the mountain at the back of the palace. It is called Jing Shan (景山). We took the north exit out of the palace. This is called the Shen Wu Gate 神武门, which is the 'back door' of the palace. But because in China the phrase 'back door' is usually being associated with a bad meaning, therefore it's been changed to call 'Shen Wu Gate'. This gate was also named as the Gu Gong Museum (to signify that this palace will be preserved at the highest standard for its ancient history).
As I mentioned earlier, the Forbidden Palace is surrounded by 10 metres high walls and a 52 metres wide river. This is really the top security you can get (back in history). We walked out from the Shen Wu Gate and spend some good time walking on the 60 metre long bridge over the river. The surface of the river was completely frozen and it looks really cool! I wonder if it's strong enough yet for ice skating? LOL.
Jing Shan also belongs to the emperors back in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It used to be a little hill but when the river protecting the palace was being made, the workers dumped all the soil and rocks at the little hill behind, and now, it has become a mountain, called Jing Shan. 
The ticket to Jing Shan is only 2RMB, a very suitable place for families who want to have a relaxing afternoon or weekend, some exercise, or leisure activities, or just to meet some friends. The amazing thing about Jing Shan is that when you climb to the top of the mountain to the little temple, you'll see the whole of Forbidden Palace under your eyes. As soon as I reached the top and looked down, I was so amazed by the view that I nearly forgot to breath. Only if the fog / mist is lighter, or only if the sun is a little bit more brighter, this would be the most amazing view I've ever seen. I told myself that I will come back again! I will come back again. I want to come back here when there's snow, mmmmm it will be sooooo beautiful!
Nanluogu Xiang is one of the oldest streets in Beijing and it's listed in the list of top 25 most protected historical places in the city. Recent years, it has captured many focus around the country and the world and it has been used often in movies, dramas, magazines. This area has always been a richmen zone because since Ming and Qing dyansties, many governers and rich people had lived on this street.
Nanluogu Xiang stretches between the north end (Gulou East Street) to south end (Di'anmen East Street), over the length of 786 metres, width 8 metres. If you look at Nanluogu Xiang from an bird's eye view, it's like a fishbone skeleton shape, where Nanluogu Xiang is the backbone stretched across two ends, with 8 Hutongs (little alleyways) extended out parallel to the east and west side. 
There are all sorts of shops on Nanluogu Xiang. As soon as we walked in from the south end, we fell in love with the atmosphere portrayed here and the shops around us. The ancient grey bricks is the major colour of Nanluogu Xiang. Empty tree branches swinging losely in the mid-air, picturisque. The sky is stil bright but without sunshine. This made Nanluogu Xiang a little bit more older and colder. People walking by are always smiling though. This is very different to what I normally see elsewhere. I think these shops around and the overall environment makes people happy. I'm happy too =) 
Not too far from the entrance we found this shop called Yi Duo Yi Guo, 一朵一果. It's a handmade book store selling little empty notebooks with really funny front page designs. It's such a popular shop! Endless people walking in all the time. We went in there and also spent a lot of time looking around. There are so many of these books I wanna buy, but whenever I come to think about my luggage on my way home, I just couldn't be bothered. Eventually I bought 2 books that I just couldn't let go. The design of the books are very interesting and attractive, don't relaly know how to explain it. Bust just look at the front page of this particular book I saw. "If life could be Ctrl+z". These books are empty in the inside (mostly brown paper); and some books have cover page like the ancient books in Chinese history (like the one that pre-PRC uses). The price range is quite ok too, like 10RMB for the book below. Once you purchased the book you can also get a red stamp stamped at the back of your book, it says 'Nan Luo Gu Xiang'. 
The shops are around are really worth seeing and checking out. A little handmade shops, creative shops, clothing shops, restaurants, food stores etc. There's a yoghurt shop here, and apparently it's the BEST in Beijing (according to vote and recommendations online). mmmm I wanna come back here again =P 
About few hundred metres after exiting from the north end of Nanluogu Xiang is the most famous Hou Hai Bar Street (后海酒吧一条街). This is such a beautiful place! Hou Hai is one of the three inner 'sea' in Beijing (more of a lake) there are just so many restaurants and bars around here. Live music coming out from every different bars, cheerful, colourful, so beautiful. We didn't stay here for long (coz we are all so tired) but I will come back one day, hehe.
Finally got to Qianmen station at 12pm and met up with Money and Bi. Jordan is not coming with us today because he'll save the trip to the Forbidden Palace with his cousin and just rest home for the day. The first thing in the morning must be some nice hot coffee, mmmm, it's so good! I didn't actually thought about having coffee, but Bi and Moeny told me they just had Starbucks and I was so excited that OMG I found some Starbucks pals!!! Yeah, my favourite Venti Toffee Nut Latte~ Here I come~ The Starbucks we went to is inside the Qianmen walking street, a street full of interesting shops (big brands, local brands etc) but with very ancient Chinese design and architecture. I must come back here on another day and really have a good walk around. It's so pretty. The inside of Starbucks is very Chinese styled, grey bricks with wooden framed windows, in conjunction with Christmas tree and decorations, haha, the fusion is just so fascinating, I really like it. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace are just across the road from Qianmen (Qianmen means 'front door', i.e. front door for the forbidden palace). As we are walking across the Tiananmen Square towards the Forbidden Palace, I was so amazed at the size of this square. I remember seeing this on the news that it is the biggest square in the world and it can hold upto 1 million people. It took us such a long time trying to walk across from one end of the square to the other.Tiananmen is the entrance to the emperor's palace in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1949 October the 1st, the ceremony for the fomation of PRC was held here and since then it's been the place for Chinese national day. Tiananmen was built in 1420 and it's the most significant architecture in Chinese history and in China now. I came here few weeks ago at the night, the feelings I get are very different though. As I walk closer and closer to the Tiananmen, I was slowly getting the pressure of squeezing through the hundreds of tourists around the Tiananmen. Although it's more quieter at the night, but I do like to look at Tiananmen during the day too, it's more subtle.
Hua Biao (华表) is the massive stone pole in front of the Tiananmen. It is one of the most traditional architecture in Chinese culture. Huabiao is usually made of stone (or with white jade) with dragons, phoenix and other meaningful patterns carved on the surface.Forbidden Palace 紫禁城
Here we are, the Forbidden Palace, the palace for the 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. My research showed that there are 980 houses/building blocks inside the palace and that gives the emperors 8704 rooms! (WHAT A BIG HOUSE!! LOL). The palace is surrounded by gates and walls that's 10 metres tall and also a 52metres wide river all around this square palace. There are four gates at each side of the palace, North, East, South and West; but only the Wu Gate 午门 at the southside and Shenwu Gate 神武门at the North side are open to tourists. The south side of the palace is called 'Qian Chao前朝', which is the place for the emperor to do this duty (i.e. office); the north side of the palace is called 'Hou Qin后寝' which is the the emperor's bedrooms (and for his empress and mistresses). There are actually two forbidden palaces built in the Ming Dynasty, one in Beijing and one in Nanjing; so sometimes the palace in Beijing is called 'Gu Gong 故宫', meaning the 'old palace'. I walked in from the Wu Gate (soutside of the palace) and therefore I'm heading straight to the 'office' area for the emperor. Tai He Hall 太和殿 is the tallest and biggest building in the Forbidden Palace; and it is also the largest wood structured/built architecture that still remains standing in China. This is where the emperors will receive their throne, where the most important festivals and celebrations will be held, and all the awards and important ceremonies will be presented. We continued to walk through the Forbidden Palace. The more important and bigger temples and halls are all located on a straightline from south to the north. Other buildings for bedrooms and less significant purposes are all located on the west and east side of the man route in the middle of the palace. As we walk pass Tai He Hall, we walked towards the Qian Qing Palace 乾清宫. This is located in the north side of the palace, i.e. the 'bedroom' side for the emperor. Qian Qing Palace is the most important hall for the emperor because it is the bedroom for the emperor and his empress. Sometimes the emperor will stay here for some 'casual work', rather than using the Tai He Hall. (massive potteries we found outside the every hall or temple, it's actually made of copper, and it's used to contain water for any emergencies, like fire). (One of my proudest photo! Why? Because I waited for 10 minutes until I can actually capture this photo without any human in my frame. LOL! It's SO hard!! But it's all worth it. Looks so ancient and mysterious now! Hoho)
We continued to walk through all the halls and temples until we reached the biggest back garden in China. This is the back garden for the emperor in the Qing dynasty. This is called the Summer Palace 颐和园. There are natural and manmade scenenaries and architectures inside this palace. There are over hundreds of architectures; three quarters of the palace are water (mostly lakes); the list goes on. Empress Cixi 慈禧太后 treat this as one of the most important places in the Forbidden palace and spends most of time here resting and seeing governers (and controlling the country indirectly, lol). We only saw a tiny little part of the Summer Palace because we just couldn't figure out where rest of the palace was. We spend a good few hours inside the palace and the day is getting darker. The three of us are already getting really tired from all the walk, and we decided to leave the palace and go to the mountain at the back of the palace. It is called Jing Shan (景山). We took the north exit out of the palace. This is called the Shen Wu Gate 神武门, which is the 'back door' of the palace. But because in China the phrase 'back door' is usually being associated with a bad meaning, therefore it's been changed to call 'Shen Wu Gate'. This gate was also named as the Gu Gong Museum (to signify that this palace will be preserved at the highest standard for its ancient history). As I mentioned earlier, the Forbidden Palace is surrounded by 10 metres high walls and a 52 metres wide river. This is really the top security you can get (back in history). We walked out from the Shen Wu Gate and spend some good time walking on the 60 metre long bridge over the river. The surface of the river was completely frozen and it looks really cool! I wonder if it's strong enough yet for ice skating? LOL. Jing Shan 景山
Jing Shan also belongs to the emperors back in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. It used to be a little hill but when the river protecting the palace was being made, the workers dumped all the soil and rocks at the little hill behind, and now, it has become a mountain, called Jing Shan. The ticket to Jing Shan is only 2RMB, a very suitable place for families who want to have a relaxing afternoon or weekend, some exercise, or leisure activities, or just to meet some friends. The amazing thing about Jing Shan is that when you climb to the top of the mountain to the little temple, you'll see the whole of Forbidden Palace under your eyes. As soon as I reached the top and looked down, I was so amazed by the view that I nearly forgot to breath. Only if the fog / mist is lighter, or only if the sun is a little bit more brighter, this would be the most amazing view I've ever seen. I told myself that I will come back again! I will come back again. I want to come back here when there's snow, mmmmm it will be sooooo beautiful!Worst taxi ride!
After we left Jing Shan, Bi said that she really want to go and see Gong Wang Fu 恭王府 (Prince Gong's Mansion). This is a very important part of the Chinese culture and history and it bridges between the emperor palace culture and normal local citizen culture. This mansion belongs to He Shen (和珅) and he's the richest person in Chinese history (other than emperors). He's rich and famous for his corruptions and dirty actions. When he was being captured and sentenced to death by the new emperor, the amount of silver (back in the days it's been used as money) is more than to the sum of over 10 years income the emperor should receive from the whole country. .
Bi really wants to visit this mansion so we just hopped into a cab. This is where the worst taxi ride experience began. At first the taxi driver was really nice, a typical Beijing-er, very talkative, very drastic and dramatic with his words, just ask hime one question (or even just one word) and he can go one for ages. We only told him we wanna go to Gong Wang Fu and he just started telling us about it. Basically he said that the last entry is at 4.30pm (it was just after 3pm when we hopped onto the taxi) and each person is charged 70RMB, the whole tour will take more than 2 hours. Why so expensive? Way more than the Forbidden Palace!! He told us it was because the 70RMB includes watching a little Chinese opera show, then drink tea at a very ancient styled tea house inside the mansion, and personal tour guide, so on and so forth. We asked him if it's worth it, he immediately said: for young people, NO. Unless we want to listen to these boring old stories and watch the chinese opera, otherwise it's just plain boring.
So we thought we'll ask him where's a good place to go, he said Nanluogu Xiang because it's a walking street for little shops, souvenirs, special shops, nice restaurants etc. It sounds pretty good to us! We asked him to drop us off at Nanluogu Xiang instead, and suddenly!!! Out of a sudden! He got angry!!! He was yelling at us for not making our minds up, and how we now want him to go to the opposite direction but he can't because of the road restrictions etc. He asked us if we're going to Nanluogu Xiang for sure, we answered yes, then he suddenly pulled over and told us to get off and walk ourselves. What da hell!!!!
Anyway, without wanting to stir up any trouble, we got off the taxi and crossed the road (according to the taxi driver we have to go the opposite direction) for another taxi. We hopped onto the taxi and told the driver, 'Nanluogu Xiang'. Immediately this driver got angry too and said 'wrong way wrong way! You're playing with me! It's the other way! Get off get off'. The three of us got so confused?! What just happened?
So we crossed the road again (back to where we got off the first taxi) and waved at taxi nearby. As soon as we hopped on and said the same thing, this taxi driver reacted in no difference to the earlier one! He was saying that we're giving him trouble and how he can't turn around like this. We got forced to get off the taxi, looked at each other while the taxi slowly drove away. What is going on?! Why are we still on the wrong way when both sides of the street are wrong?! What da hell?! Anyway, we crossed the road again as the third taxi driver instructed as to, and called for another taxi. This time we're smarter, I asked the driver before we got into the taxi whether he will take us to Nanluoguxiang. He said, sure. WHAT?! Now we're actually on the right side of the road, which was what the first angry taxi driver originally told us!!
So, we finally got a taxi driver that is willing to take us to Nanluoguxiang, great! But, just two minutes after we settled down in the taxi, he suddenly stopped, turned to us and said, 'it's here'. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is crazy!!!! Nanluoguxiang is actually only a few hundred metres away from where we got dropped off!!!!!!!! This taxi driver just bascially drove for few hundred metres and charged us 10RMB!! (The minimum start up price)!!!! We felt being cheated!!!!!!
Nanluogu Xiang 南锣鼓巷
Nanluogu Xiang is one of the oldest streets in Beijing and it's listed in the list of top 25 most protected historical places in the city. Recent years, it has captured many focus around the country and the world and it has been used often in movies, dramas, magazines. This area has always been a richmen zone because since Ming and Qing dyansties, many governers and rich people had lived on this street. Nanluogu Xiang stretches between the north end (Gulou East Street) to south end (Di'anmen East Street), over the length of 786 metres, width 8 metres. If you look at Nanluogu Xiang from an bird's eye view, it's like a fishbone skeleton shape, where Nanluogu Xiang is the backbone stretched across two ends, with 8 Hutongs (little alleyways) extended out parallel to the east and west side. There are all sorts of shops on Nanluogu Xiang. As soon as we walked in from the south end, we fell in love with the atmosphere portrayed here and the shops around us. The ancient grey bricks is the major colour of Nanluogu Xiang. Empty tree branches swinging losely in the mid-air, picturisque. The sky is stil bright but without sunshine. This made Nanluogu Xiang a little bit more older and colder. People walking by are always smiling though. This is very different to what I normally see elsewhere. I think these shops around and the overall environment makes people happy. I'm happy too =) Not too far from the entrance we found this shop called Yi Duo Yi Guo, 一朵一果. It's a handmade book store selling little empty notebooks with really funny front page designs. It's such a popular shop! Endless people walking in all the time. We went in there and also spent a lot of time looking around. There are so many of these books I wanna buy, but whenever I come to think about my luggage on my way home, I just couldn't be bothered. Eventually I bought 2 books that I just couldn't let go. The design of the books are very interesting and attractive, don't relaly know how to explain it. Bust just look at the front page of this particular book I saw. "If life could be Ctrl+z". These books are empty in the inside (mostly brown paper); and some books have cover page like the ancient books in Chinese history (like the one that pre-PRC uses). The price range is quite ok too, like 10RMB for the book below. Once you purchased the book you can also get a red stamp stamped at the back of your book, it says 'Nan Luo Gu Xiang'. The shops are around are really worth seeing and checking out. A little handmade shops, creative shops, clothing shops, restaurants, food stores etc. There's a yoghurt shop here, and apparently it's the BEST in Beijing (according to vote and recommendations online). mmmm I wanna come back here again =P About few hundred metres after exiting from the north end of Nanluogu Xiang is the most famous Hou Hai Bar Street (后海酒吧一条街). This is such a beautiful place! Hou Hai is one of the three inner 'sea' in Beijing (more of a lake) there are just so many restaurants and bars around here. Live music coming out from every different bars, cheerful, colourful, so beautiful. We didn't stay here for long (coz we are all so tired) but I will come back one day, hehe. 
There are 16 people in this tour group, our tour guide is a young woman at the age about 26 or 27. She is, just, OMG, so talkative and funny! I love her accent (very Beijing-er) and the way she tells her stories. She first gave us an introduction of the tour plan for the day, and some security and safety notices. The things she said must be very standard across the industry but she really portrayed her story well and quite direct I would say. For example, she was telling us about safety issues and some of the tourists weren't listening but chatting instead, immediately she will turn to them and start asking them why are not listening and why do they not see the importance to listen to her. It was such a crack up for me. She is definitely not of those tour guides who will just talk on her own and don't care if tourists are listening or not. I think my trip for the day was extra funny because of our tour guide. 
Our first destination is to visit the Great Wall and Ba Da Ling 八达岭. The Great Wall of China is one of the most famous and previous ancient architectures in the world. It is around 6,700km long. The particular section of the Great Wall that we're going to is Ba Da Ling, it starts from Yangqing (the southwest of Beijing) and it is famous of the steep and dangerous geographical locations around. Badaling is used most often for war and defence in the Ming Dynasty but lost its importance in the Qing Dynasty. Since then this part of the Great Wall was barely used and maintained and it was only until the establishment of PRC in 1949, then this area was again listed as the country's top priority and tourist attractions. We will be going up a partciular section of Badaling today, named Hao Han Po 好汉坡 (basically means the Great Man's Hill). Haohanpo is famous for its steepness and scenearies around, and due to the difficulty in climbing up this part of the Great Wall, this has been promoted as 'if anyone can climb to the tip the Haohanpo, you will become a great man!' I told myself, I will make it to the top, no matter how difficult, I will do it! The tour guid told us that when Michael Jordan visited Badaling it took him 17 minutes to get to the top and 25 minutes to get down to the bottom (38 minutes in total); the average amount of time taken by tourists is around 45minutes; we will be given 60 minutes today and it's our choice in how far we want to go. 
We actually had to stop quite a few times during our 'crawl' of the Great Wall. We were taking so many photos and helping each other to get up there. Eventually Bi gave up and decided to stay at the mid-point and wait for us. Jordan and I had extra fun when we were looking out for funny Chinglish on the notice boards and signs. For example, we saw a sign saying 'Way Pown' (it should be 'Way Down'), or a notice saying 'Infl ammble Steickly Prohibited' (it should be 'Inflammable Strictly Prohibited'), it was just so funny to see them and at the same time, really want to do something about it. The secenes on way our way to the top of the Haohanpo was amazing. I really want to come back here when there's snow. It would be so beautiful. 
Zhao Tomb was the first tomb out of the 13 tombs to undergoe a large reconstruction and maintenance, and therefore it was the first one to be opened up to the public from the Ming Tombs. The total area of Zhao Tomb is around 35,000square metres and it is the tomb for the twelveth emperor and his 3 queens of Ming Dynasty. His emperor name is 'Mu Zong' and he was wearing the throne between 1537-1572. He was considered the most useless emperor out of the 16 Ming Dynasty emperors because he stop caring about the country and filling his obligations just 6 months after receiving the throne. 
The Chinese Medicine Insitution (皇家艺苑) was the next destination after lunch. This is, supposedly, the best and most secretive Chinese medicine institution. According to the tour guide, this institution was only opening up to some tourist visits in the past few years. It has always been used for the research and development of Chinese medicine, and to provide health care for the emperors and their family (back in the pre-PRC period) and now health care for high senior executives in the PRC government. What we are seeing in this institution is to look at the histories and pictures of the past (and its glory); meet some Chinese medicine practitioners (and get scandled into buying expensive herbs, lol); and to see a Beijing style courtyard house (四合院 - not sure what it's called in English). 
I really want to see a courtyard house in Beijing. This is one of the most traditional lifestyle for a normal Beijing citizen pre-PRC. It recent years, many of the courtyard houses had been demolished and replaced by skyscrappers. Especially the years approaching Beijing Olympics 2008, many remaining historical courtyard houses were forced to be scrapped. This is a pity for me, to be honest, because these houses are full of ancient Chinese history, it represents the lifestyle in Beijing. However, we cannot move into the future while staying in the past right? So I'm glad that the reduction in courtyard houses were exchanged for higher standard living and business buildings, and in return an increase in the restrictions and protections placed on the still-remaining courtyard houses. 
Courtyard house (si-he-yuan) is a four-section, quadrangle coumpound with traditional Chinese houses of grey bricks and tiles built around a courtyard (hence the name). These are mostly used and represented in Shanxi, Shanxi, Beijing and Hebei provinces. Usually each courtyard house is for one family. This means that each family will have their little own courtyard, as well as spreadout bedrooms but inside an enclosed garden (privacy + security, haha). I have only seen si-he-yuan on TV, so to be able to see one and actually stand in the courtyard was really exciting for me. Although there were no explanation given about this particular si-he-yuan we're going to, and most parts of the si-he-yuan were closed from visitors; but I still very much enjoyed my few minutes of si-he-yuan experience. This is quite ideal for a family I think, privacy and security are all satisfied. 
The Olympic Village is really massive! To get into the gate we must let the security check our bags first. Cars are not allowed to drive in unless at special times (during games etc). We stood in the middle of no where after we passed the gate, looked down the road, and we see endless road lamps and cannot see the end to the street. This is amazing! I can't stop wondering, how on earth did Beijing SUDDENLY have all these free land for this massive construction project? Then I remembered about all the deconstruction and removals of old Beijing houses and buildings, and all the drama related to the residents being send somewhere else etc. 
We were so excited to see the bird's nest and the water cube! They're giants! I was really impressed at the design and scale of these constructions, and definitely feel proud at how China can make these massive production/construction so rapidly and efficiently! Woohoo!!
(Bi and I pretend to be strangers behind Jordan that 'happened' to be captured in the photo)
