4 nights in Beijing

We spent Christmas in Beijing with my family. It was planned as an incentive trip for the company Dad and Hubby works in. The original plan was to go to Chiang Mai, but because of the chaotic situation and uncertainties, the destination was changed last minute to Beijing - which happens to be one of those on my 'Cities I Want to Visit' list... along-side with Bhutan, Johannesburg, Hokkaido and Cairns.

The night before we left, I suggested the family have Italian since we are going to be having Chinese for the next 5 days. (Above: The kids enjoyed their cream pasta with chips and fried calamari.)

Unfortunately, the weather was freezing cold. It hovered around 5 to -5 deg Celsius, which I feel was quite extreme given that we are going from warm, humid Singapore. (Above: we are all decked up in our winter's best... INSIDE the airport. Aidan also felt he looks better with his beanie pulled all the way down).

(Below: our 1st meal in Beijing was a steamboat dinner, with lots of lamb served in order to warm us up) Sad to say, the food wasn't great. Sis and I were quite traumatised it was plain water boiling and tasteless balls which we were arguing whether it was glutinous rice-balls or fish balls. No one could tell. The only thing that got us to finish the food was the bowl of peanut sauce they served with the steamboat.

(Above: the outer wall of The Forbidden City). The river shown was frozen.

(Below: Us 4, with our 2-seater pram and rain cover)
The smiles shortly turned to frowns and cries, because despite the sunny weather, it still felt like walking around in a freezer. Am started ripping her gloves and beanie off because she was irritated and cold. We barely got to the entrance of the City before Hubby decided we'd better turn back because the kids won't be able to stand 2 hours touring the palace.

Hence, it ended up that I didn't have to worry we were going to have Chinese food all the way. We decided to drop the group tour and do free & easy which suits the kids better. With 2.5 fast food fans (namely Hubby & Aidan. Am only likes fries so I counted her as half) in the family, we had a total of 2 McDonald's meals and 1 KFC meal while we were there. Like Hubby says, it's the only food that is consistent and presents no surprises.

After shopping for better boots for Am and piling the kids with 2 pair of gloves and woollen socks, we did a morning tour on our own to the Hutong area to see the old houses that remain there.

It was a nice pleasant trip, though it was still freezing cold. The kids enjoyed the trishaw rides too!

(Below: the lake behind us was frozen and there were ice-skaters on it.)

(Below: love the little bird nest lamps which were lined around the Olympic Park!)

Interestingly, on our last day before we headed to the airport, we took a walk outside the hotel. Despite the sun, it was again bloody freezing and my eyes bulged when I saw this couple taking their wedding shoots. I just had to walk closer and check out what the bride was wearing... which was just a short sleeve gown!



So that more or less wrapped up my 1st trip to Beijing. Well, I did manage to customise a cheongsam which is my grand souvenir for this trip. Wondering where are the pics of The Great Wall? Didn't take any cos we didn't venture that far out. So yes, Beijing is back on my 'Cities I Want to Visit' list.