great wall

During my absence from blogging, I had exams and other stuff that kept me occupied. However, it was primarily laziness of having to type out a whole entry and upload pictures- time consuming!

Ok so last Friday school organised a trip to 长城 aka great wall - 幕田峪 aka Mu Tian Yu. It was nothing like Ba Da Ling since it was on a hill/mountain and had to climb a super long flight of steps or could ride a cable car up, my group went by foot.

Without further a do, here are the pictures...



So the journey from school took a grueling 2hours on the bus. But it was so darn hard to sleep since it kept rocking due to the uneven grounds.

Anyway this is the olympic stadium called 鸟巢 "bird's nest". Still cannot enter until the olympics is done.






























So this is like the entrance area to 幕田峪. While we waited for our tour guide to get us the admission tickets, we were taking some very random pictures. Oh yeah so above you can spot a donkey randomly grazing a grass patch opposite a drain ; feasting on wild grass.


































































































































































Anyway, these are some of the pictures. My crazy japanese friend, yumi, was literally on the edge of the great wall. if she lost her footing, she would have rolled down the mountain. She is the one clad in the red top and all of us were taking photos of her as though she was some exhibit in the zoo.

My review on this trip, quite a sight but simply not worth the walk up. If anyone wants to come to MuTianYu my suggestion would be to take the cable car up. It took us almost 40mins of climbing steps upwards and to just see foilage and fog. It was really breath-taking (pun intended).

random

So my parents came last friday to monday to visit me and pass me some stuff which i wanted from singapore (such as my badminton racket).
旧货市场, pan jia yuan jiu huo shi chang。As the name suggests, the goods were mainly antiques or contemporary goods with old age charm. I was suppose to help syafiq make a name chop for his friend but the uncle (whom I patronised the last time) said the words look really ugly and he would STRONGLY advise not to do it. Instead of using computer fonts, he told me to get someone to do a design and he will carve it out by hand. Since Syafiq who happens to be a siao-on artist cum purchaser, I told him to do a proper design. Anyway, before I went off, I saw emilia online and asked her if she wanted a name chop too. So i got wilson and herself each and its damn hot man don't you agree. It costs S$15 each. so emilia, i guess we are quits now, reference to the assistance you provided to my blog aesthetic alterations. If anyone wants one too, let me know.

On Sunday night, Chloe, Yumi, Sheng Yu, Woo Chol and myself had dinner with my parents at this place called 空乙记, kong yi ji, which I went with my sister and her friend sook yee on the first night of my arrival in beijing. I thought the food was good and still is. However, my dad obviously felt it was a tragedy since he constantly reminded me his displeasure by saying how the food tasted norm sporadically during the meal. Surprisingly, after the meal, Woo Chol and Shen Yu said that the food was great especially the fish. Well "to each his own".













while walking back a while ago, I took a few photos on the way since I had my camera. The above are the 桃花, tao hua, which we constantly hear in chinese novels like 神雕侠稆, shen diao xia lu (I cant find the "LU" which I had known it to be but hope this is the correct one). In one of the pictures above you can see alot of cars parked outside the hostel block. These are known as 黑车， hei che (black cars), where the operate like taxis but arent legalised. During dinner, Sheng Yu said that he heard a Korean student (who was drunk) got killed by the black car driver. In addition, these black car drivers have weapons in their booth. It's a horrifying thought that a foreigner like us gets killed.


2 days ago, the Singapore Students Association (SSA) in beijing sent me an email about the updated upcoming events. Frankly, my enthusiasm about meeting Singaporeans during my sojourn here would equate to my opinion on eating fish. Not that I hate them but I would choose not to, it defeats the purpose of going overseas. But they said that Ng Ser Miang is coming to beijing in a few time and would like to meet the students here. I feel like going to since he is a notable figure in Singapore and a member of the International Olympic Council (IOC) but the strange thing is that he stays a few houses away from me in Singapore and I cant meet him in Singapore but in Beijing.

Ok tomorrow is wednesday, weekend coming.