A Hike to the Great Wall of China - Day 2 (9th Aug '13)

It was very much an anticipated day on day 2 in Beijing. We were going to conquer the Great Wall of China, one of the most awe-inspiring man-made structure which was built over 2500 years ago. The Great Wall attracts many tourist from around the globe each year, and managed to earn itself a title as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World in 7th July 2007.

We booked a cab from the hotel lobby on the previous day for CNY900, approximately SGD187, which would drive us around for almost a day. Our itinerary of the day would start off with an adventurous hike to Mutianyu, a section of the Great Wall of China, located in Huairou County 70 km northeast of Central Beijing.

First thing we did in the morning was to fuel ourselves with a hearty international buffet breakfast at Essence, the hotel's restaurant, located at the first floor.

The smell of delicious hot fluffy pancakes and crispy waffle wafted in the air....freshly prepared on the spot...yum yum....it's a must have if you happen to stay in Crown Plaza Wangfujing. Drizzled with plenty of maple syrup, slightly salted butter and fruit jam....was the way to go!

My breakfast would never be complete without egg..be it omelette, scrambled, sunny-side-up or boiled. I love egg so so much. Had breakfast on a comfortable couch, but we couldn't sit for long...our driver picked us up from hotel lobby at 8 a.m.

Mutianyu

After merely 1.5 hours drive from our hotel, we reached our destination. Just a short intro about Mutianyu. Mutianyu is older than Badaling section of the Great Wall which many will visit for convenience as it is nearer to Beijing city. According to the locals, it's said that Badaling is the most highly visited section, which also explained that it's always packed with tourists and tour groups.

Mutianyu has the largest construction scale and best preserved wall among all sections of Great Wall. 

Bought the entrance tickets...CNY45 per adult and CNY25 per kid who are 12 years old or below. Cableway-Toboggan tickets cost CNY80 per adult and half the price CNY40 per kid 12 years old or below.

We went up on 15 minutes cable car ride, and stopped at Mutianyu Tower 14. When we were high up, we could see the vast greenery below. Almost 90% of the surrounding is covered with woodland and greens.

Mutianyu which stretches for 2250 metres long, with 22 watchtowers densely placed along the section. We started our hike from Tower 14 which also means we would start at somewhere at the mid-section of Mutianyu. Nevertheless, the return journey took us 2.5 hours long in a slow pace manner! Of course under raging heat, nearly 40 degree celsius.

Took a family portrait before starting off with our hike.

The first watchtower which we passed through...

A short break in a watchtower which was normally pleasant with balmy breeze from the wood.

Enchanting vast blue sky....totally bowled over the beauty of nature...even though the weather was a real torture! Look how tiny the son was, seen here teetering on the narrow stairs of Mutianyu. Slowly, I lost sight of my daughter and hubby, who were far behind. Son and me braved the weather to reach the top.

The view from the top was enticing enough for us to keep moving....:)

Soaking in our own sweat, panting for breath, finally, we had reached the last watchtower. Yay....a great sense of ACHIEVEMENT indeed!

Both of us returned to reunite with hubby and daughter. When we almost got to the starting point, we saw them waiting and relaxing in a watchtower, which seemed the only suitable place to hide from the scorching sun. A victory jump at the Mutianyu Great Wall!

Next, we went downhill using toboggan. It looked like a sled but only with 4 small wheels attached to the bottom. You can easily control the speed by pulling or pushing a handle just in front of the seat...though I prefer to go at a higher speed......yoohoooo.......

13 Ming Tombs

The Ming Dynasty Tombs is located 50 km Northwest from Beijing City, and is best coupled with a visit to the Great Wall. It lies the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644).

At present, only Sacred Way, Changling Tomb, Zhaoling Tomb, and Dingling Tomb are open to public. But we only visited Dingling Tomb.

Dingling Tomb

Entrance ticket to the Dingling Tomb cost CNY65 per adult and CNY35 for a child. Children below 120 cm in height are not required to buy tickets.

The map of the 13 Ming Tombs, where the site is located on the slope of Tianshou Mountain, with good feng shui principles.

To get to the Underground Dingling Tomb, we had to walk for about 20 to 30 minutes...

Dingling Tomb was built from 1584 to 1590, which housed the mausoleums of Wanli Emperor, the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty and his 2 empresses. It's the only one of the Ming Dynasty Tombs to have been excavated. The highlight of this tomb are the stone, the precious relics unearthed and the coffins found.

Inside the underground Dingling Tomb.

Money notes which were found scattered around the coffins.

Woven dragon using gold threads on emperor's robe.

A long and heavy looking belt made of jade, worn by emperors.

Made a pit stop at the Beijing National Stadium, widely known as the Bird's Nest.

We were totally ran out of energy and famished. But our driver advised us to have lunch back in Beijing city to avoid unnecessary lunch at a cut-throat price, especially at places of interest. Had a simple late lunch in a random Sze Chuan eatery. Hubby disliked the dishes as he thought they were too oily and salty for his liking. For me, I personally think they tasted quite nice other than a bit oily.

We had oyster sauce with greens...

Stir fried green pepper with shredded pork and dried chilli. And one thing about Sze Chuan dishes, they love to add in lots of dried chillies.

Kou shui ji....aka Saliva Chicken. We were hoping for a chicken dish close to our Singapore steamed chicken, but to our horror...it was actually a cold dish, soaking in a pool of chilli oil, served with chopped peanut, spring onion and dried chilli.

...And I had this whole dish all by myself. The kidney with pepper in hotplate. Hubby is not into internal organ especially kidney, as he said they usually taste weird if cleaning is not done properly...:(

A toufu dish...with sliced Japanese cucumber and woodear.

Son ordered a plate of egg fried rice.

The food in small eateries normally cost far more cheaper than bigger restaurants, which came in a shocking HUGE portion....no kidding. You might want to order only a few first, before asking the waiter to list down more, the next time you travel to Beijing. We couldn't help it, because we were greedy and everything looked too good to skip..LOL

Rickshaw Tour of Old Hutong

A visit to the Beijing 'Yesterday'....on rickshaws along Hutongs' old alleyways. The one hour tour cost CNY60 per person...with a local tour guide explaining in Chinese to us the life of the ancient locals and interesting stories behind.

The alleyways.....

A peep into a typical congested local house....a bedroom and a hall without any washroom. They shared common toilets or washrooms outside the alleys!

The owner's delicate art piece...Chinese Old Beijing Glass Handwork Painting on Snuff Bottles. I had my hands-on experience in painting one....It looked easier than done. I had to carefully insert the tips of a specially made brush into the glass bottle through a small bottle opening and draw fine lines with freehand! This needs years of practising and of course a stable hand!

A family picture taken with a local uncle.

At the doorstep...of a local household at Hutong.

Back to our hotel at around 5 p.m....reserved dinner at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, Wangfujing. The moment we were all ready to go out for the much anticipated roast duck dinner, son started vomiting, and complaining of stomach ache. We had to make a U-turn and returned back to hotel. Dinner was settled with room-service. Hubby ordered wanton noodle soup for feverish son....Poor baby....guess he had fever due to too much of sun exposure in the day.

Singapore chicken rice for daughter....btw, it looked unpresentable here coz I took this picture after daughter had dug in for sometime. It actually served with fragrant steamed rice strongly infused with lemongrass; chicken rice chilli, ginger paste and dark soy sauce; a plate of sliced cucumber and tomato; and a bowl of piping hot chicken soup.....quite a decent one, consider that we had this in China and not in Singapore. While hubby and I had fried rice..

Big juicy peaches which I bought from a pushcart outside the hotel.

Blistering Beijing - Day 1...8 Aug '13

It was an impromptu decision to fly to Beijing for 4 days summer vacation. We had a loo...ng weekend break....to spare, in conjunction of Singapore National Day celebration and Hari Raya. Initially, we were thinking of Hong Kong, or maybe Taipei for few days escapade.

We searched many travel agencies but to no avail. Most of the flights were either fully booked, or the flight schedule was not favourable to our plan. We were at the verge of giving up, when hubby called home, one afternoon, saying that he managed to confirm flight to Beijing by Singapore Airline. It was just days before the departure.

With this, I did the rest of last minute preparation. Hotel booking and of course research on 'Must Go' and 'Must Eat' places around Beijing.

We departed on 7th August, flight scheduled at midnight 12.55 a.m. The flight took 6 hours to reach Beijing, landed at Beijing Capital Airport at 7.05 a.m. There is no time difference between Singapore and Beijing. 

My brekkie just before landing.....fried noodle with seafood...

We arrived at Beijing Airport Terminal 3. To get to the immigration, we had to board a sky train, alighted at the last stop, T3C, for "Exit, Baggage Claim, and Transfer". After claiming our baggage, we walked to Basement 1, B1F, for airport taxi. Spent CNY99 for the taxi fare to get to Crowne Plaza, located at Wangfujing, where we were put up for 3 nights.

Check-in time was 2 p.m. Since we reached our hotel quite early, around 8-ish morning, we decided to have breakfast at a nearby eatery. Kids had not been eating much as they slept during the meal was served on flight. The place was called Merry Home, just a few steps from our hotel, and they served decent local dishes especially their delectable noodles. We had meat dumpling soup, minced pork noodle soup, braised beef noodle and a side of seasoned seaweed. I am always a fan of eating seaweed. The braised beef noodle was good.

And this pork dumpling soup allowed me to reminisce my hometown dish called 'bian nit' soup. The skin was so thin and delicate...with hot piping savoury soup bone base.

Forbidden City

After filling up our rumbling tummies, we set off to our first destination, a popular tourist spot in Beijing, which was none other than the Forbidden City...of course in a cab. The weather in Beijing during summer was crazily scorching and humid. The heat intensity was almost unbearable....imagine the temperature was as high as 37 degree celsius or so. The local told us that it was the hottest climate of the season, in the history of 10 years. I swear that I would never travel to China in summer again!

The Forbidden City used to be Chinese imperial palace from Ming Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynasty, which is located in the centre of Beijing. It was declared as World Heritage Site in 1987, and listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Now, it houses the Palace Museum, where extensive collection of artwork and artefacts were being displayed.

A picturesque lake.....at the South Gate (Wumen) of Forbidden City.

Sadly, cars were not allowed to drive in, so we had to get off from the cab and walked for 15 minutes or so to the entrance. If you are lazy to walk, hop onto a mini van as shown below, for just RMB2 per person.

But we prefer the hard way, sweat it OUT! We walked slowly and admired the lake view around.

Gosh, when we were there, it was a sea of people....with colourful 'mushrooms', trying to hide under the shade, away from the burning heat. Ignore the locals, or fake tour agents who try to sell you entrance tickets at higher price, usually at the entrance...they will tell you that the queue to buy the tickets will easily take up 2 hours. It's all rubbish! Hubby almost fell into the trap because he didn't want to wait for 2 hours under the insane weather. Luckily, he heeded my advice and diligently queued for tickets which took up only 20 minutes.

 While waiting for hubby to get rented automatic guide, we posed next to this gigantic red wooden door. It was said that by touching the golden spherical look alike thing would bring you luck, and wealth.

Our official automatic guide (in English)....around Forbidden City.

Hall of Supreme Harmony

Imperial roof decoration which depicts the highest status during the time...decorated with a line of statuettes led by a man riding in a phoenix, followed by an imperial dragon and nine beasts.

Porcelain wares in the Palace Museum....and locals who dressed up in ancient costume for pictures. We were tempted to rent the costume, but thanks to the weather that we gave up the idea. We hate to get drenched and pose under the glaring sun with squinting eyes!

The throne in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

 Tiananmen Square

To the south of Forbidden City, stands the Tiananmen Gate, decorated with a portrait of Mao ZeDong.

Then, we hailed a cab, and back to our hotel. Hubby requested for a room upgrade to a club room...which cost around SGD300 per night.

Our room for 3 nights....very roomy and comfy...with a working desk facing the room.

 Two queen-sized beds...

A huge bathroom furnished with a wardrobe and everything needed. We had our luggage in the bathroom, so there's no need for me to run naked to the room to get my stuff again! :)

Wangfujing Street

One good thing about staying in Crowne Plaza Wangfujing is that you have convenient access to many Beijing's famous attractions like Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, National Museum of China and most importantly for shopaholic like myself, the Wangfujing Street, is only 15 minutes walking distance from the hotel. 

Wangfujing Street is the largest pedestrian streets in Beijing, where the traffic is closed only for pedestrians. Restaurants, souvenir shops, shopping malls, offices and luxury hotels can be seen lined along the street. If you love books, there's a big Wangfujing Book Store, just at the end of the stretch.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, just next to the Crowne Plaza...and a scene along Wangfujing Street.

Wangfujing Snack Street....where you can find many local eats, such as live scorpion which is then grilled on stick, grilled starfish, 'bing tang hulu' or candied sugar-coated plums in sticks, and many others. It's a pity that we didn't eat any of those as we had reserved a table in DaDong Roast Duck Restaurant at 7.30 p.m.

DaDong Roast Duck Restaurant

We were told by the hotel staff to look out for an orange coloured building, along Wangfujing Street, on the right hand side. It was easy, we quickly spotted the building from far. Though reservation was at 7.30 p.m., but we reached earlier at 6.45 pm.

We took a lift to the 6th floor. Once the lift door opened, we immediately saw this open space kitchen where a few chefs were moving in and out the roasted ducks from hung ovens. The fat and juicy ducks were traditionally roasted using the coals.

See the crowd, we still had to wait even though reservation was made. Waiting time was more than an hour long! My question: Was the roasted duck so great that many have to wait for sooooo DAMN long? My back and legs were aching...oh no...signs of ageing...and I could hear my tummy growling.

The waiting seats were not enough for all the waiting patrons...kids decided to squeeze themselves into these congested space while waiting. These were actually cemented alphabets of DADONG....which literally was the name of the restaurant...LOL...So, you can see, they occupied the letter D and O, which made more sense for them to squeeze in!

Finally, after the long wait...we were seated at our table. Menu were handed out to us...which read "DaDong, Artistic Conceptio of Chinese Cuisine". If you are wondering why it has to do with artistic...it's because dining in DaDong is truly an unforgettable experience....It was a true FEAST for both eyes and palate! They believe eating is an ART...which I fully agreed and I was totally impressed.

The super huge and thick menu (EXTENSIVE dishes to select from...no kidding), btw 160 pages to be exact! We had to ask the waiter for recommendation....because we were lost mid-way while flipping through the menu! It boasts Beijing's best roast duck and consistently won the title 'Best Chinese Restaurant of the Year' in the Beijing locals' annual Reader Restaurant Awards.

DaDong "Super lean" Roasted Duck (cost CNY268 for a whole...around SGD56)....they claimed to serve the best roast duck which is the leanest of all. The skin was roasted to crispiness with no fat in sight and I could hardly taste any oiliness, only crunchiness of the skin which left me craving for more.

Some condiments to go along with DaDong signature roast duck....which cost CNY32. Strips of cucumber, rock melon, spring onion, minced garlic, oyster sauce, some preserved radish and sugar. If you do not know, the sugar goes well with the duck meat and the pastry served. 

In Beijing, you are expected to roll your own 'poh piah' skin aka thin flour wrapper. Other than the poh piah skin, they served an empty kind of baked man tou, which we can't have back in Singapore. But in Beijing, most restaurants which served this dish will have this kind of man tou.

The hollow baked mantou...

..where you supposed to stuff in the crispy duck skin and all sorts of condiments based on personal's liking.

Kids had fun wrapping their poh piah...which they hardly have chance to do so, coz in Singapore, waiters will wrap the roasted duck skin before serving. And a picture of me holding a plate of cherries??

Oh...NO....of course not. Look closely. They were Cherry Foie Gras, served in a creative way. But, seriously...I still prefer the normal pan-fried foie gras with crispy outer layer which melts in my mouth with every bite!

Chef Dong's Braised Spiky Sea Cucumber which was also their signature, recommended by the waiter. Very flavourful and robust, served alongside with some chinese leek. This was the most expensive dish which we had in DaDong...cost CNY418, around SGD87.

Chef Dong's Fried Prawn with Spicy Sze Chuan Pepper

Lake shrimp and lotus root soup served in mandarin oranges....with hint of citrus peel. The crunchy chopped lotus root was refreshing and the prawn was generous. Boston Lobster Noodle with 2 kinds Sauce...the handmade noodle was springy and each of every strain was so flavourful of lobster meat....I  strongly recommend this dish. It comes in a small serving, which I managed to devour up in maybe 6 mouthfuls.

The waiter helped us to toss the noodle in 2 different dressings, that big chunk was the lobster meat...yum yum!

Next, my favourite...Lobster Soup "Cross Bridge" Leopard Garoupa, a popular dish in Yunnan cuisine. I wrote in the feedback form which I filled up after the meal, that this was my best dishes served in DaDong.

First, the chef would heat up the lobster soup with some fish maw.

When the soup started to boil, he would blanch the sliced garoupa meat until they're just nicely done...retaining its juiciness and the right texture.

The chef then served the blanched fish in individual bowls and poured in generous amount of lobster soup....GOSH....if you love seafood, this dish was HEAVEN! Seriously....though I was stuffed to the brim after all the dishes, but I somehow enjoyed this big bowl of soupy precious....so lovely. You can have the soup served with 4 kinds of condiments to your liking, naming the 'sa cha' sauce, chilli oil, chopped scallion and minced garlic. But I love my soup without any of those...less is always more...:)

Wrapped up our sumptuous feast in DaDong with chocolate lava cake...though it's not up to my expectation. The restaurant manager gave us the dessert as a complimentary, as she kept apologising that she had let us waiting for long for a table just now.

The lady manager also insisted that we tried their "dry-ice" dessert....which would be a lot of fun for the kids. True enough, we all laughed like MAD....son was blowing fumes out from his nostrils...hahahaaaa. It's actually whipped cream sprayed out from an aerosol can, onto a metal spoon, and soaked into a bowl of bubbling smoky dry-ice water. They assured us this was safe for consumption though...The whole dinner course in DaDong cost around CNY3042, which sum up to SGD630...expensive? I beg to differ, not if your food was served in an artistic way and yet delectable, where each time you gotta guess what's the next surprise you will get for the next dish. With yummy Lobster Soup "Cross Bridge" Garoupa, 'Superlean' Roast Duck and Lobster Noodle, which I personally think were awesome....and DaDong deserves a huge shout-out. I will definitely return somedays to try their other dishes, if I happen to visit Beijing again.

Son is a hardcore fan of Kentucky fried chicken...although we were still stuffed right after the dinner, he had 2 pieces of fried chicken. ...take away...

St Joseph Church looked kind of quaint and eerie....and that's our hotel, the Crowne Plaza.

......Son had 1 piece of KFC chicken, the other piece...well, went into the bin!