Day 3 in Beijing, we split into two groups. One group went to the Summer Palace and the other group went to the Old Summer Palace also known as Yuan Ming Yuan (圆明园 "Gardens of Perfect Brightness"). Summer Palace is the most famous because it is the best preserved imperial garden. It is modelled to resemble Southern China scenery. Old Summer Palace was a bigger garden. However, most of it was burn to the ground in the 1860 during the Second Opium War by the British and French. The Palace is now a massive park with many man made ponds, bridges and of course, ruins and less tourists. Most of the ruins were in one area. It was very surprising to see a lot of European influenced structure once stood the ground here. Since it was an imperial garden built exclusively for the emperor, not very many people have seen the original glory of the garden. Now stone columns and archways laid broken and scattered. It is a true pity.
We had our second Peking Duck of the trip for lunch along with 10 or 15 other dishes. To walk off the lunch we had to do some
much needed shopping at HongQiao and XiuShui Market! Shopping in China is an art form. It required one to be charming, tactful, strong and knowing regardless what happens you will get ripped off. If a vendor gave you a price, you were to offer back at 20% of the vender's price. Then work your way back up a bit at most to 30%. After awhile, it became a fun game for everyone. When everyone met up after a few hours, we not only compared the goods we got, we compared tactics used and the final price we negotiated. Check out the panda hat we got for 20 RMB (=2.50 CAD)
On the way back from the XiuShui Market, we stopped by The Place, home to the 250 meter x 30 meter LED screen. It is just 3 meters shorter than the largest
LED screen in the World which is located in Vegas. The thing cost $32 million, is 80 feet above the ground, and actually 5 separate screens combined.
We were tired of walking around. Hence, next day which was also our last day in Beijing, we decided to take a Hutong tour via rick
shaw! Hutong is narrow alley ways that form SiHeyYuan (四合院) or courtyard which family or families live in. Hutong is disappearing fast as Beijing becomes more modernised everyday. Many think they are unique to Beijing. They are pretty common around China and just called different names. The tour gave us a glimpse into how ordinary Beijinger lived. But we couldn't help feeling we were intruding.
We still had a lot of time to kill before our train ride to Shanghai. My cousin decided to take us to another park called BeiHai Park. This one is an imperial garden too. How many gardens does one emperor need? The literal translation of the park name is Northern Sea park. From the back of the park , you can see the corresponding Central Southern Seas park which is the complex of buildings that houses China's paramount leaders. There is a dramastic contrast between the two parks. One full of tourists and the other one is empty with many guards surrounding the grounds.
In case of bad traf
fic, we arrived at the Beijing Train Station really early. What was there to do, but do more exploring of the neighbourhood. Beijing was great since no matter where you go in the city, there was something around to see! No wonder my cousin is so proud of his city. We walked around the old city wall. We walked by a dog park and spotted a line of colourful stars in the sky. We didn't know what to make of them until we walked a little further down the road. It was a LED light kite! We stopped and spoke to the middle aged man who made and was flying the kite. He used old cell phone batteries to power the LED lights that changed flashing patterns with a click of a tiny controller. The lights ensemble were glued onto a piece of small cardboard. It was the coolest thing ever!
Not wanting to leave Beijing, we made it onto the train to Shanghai 10 minutes before departure time.
We had our second Peking Duck of the trip for lunch along with 10 or 15 other dishes. To walk off the lunch we had to do some
much needed shopping at HongQiao and XiuShui Market! Shopping in China is an art form. It required one to be charming, tactful, strong and knowing regardless what happens you will get ripped off. If a vendor gave you a price, you were to offer back at 20% of the vender's price. Then work your way back up a bit at most to 30%. After awhile, it became a fun game for everyone. When everyone met up after a few hours, we not only compared the goods we got, we compared tactics used and the final price we negotiated. Check out the panda hat we got for 20 RMB (=2.50 CAD)On the way back from the XiuShui Market, we stopped by The Place, home to the 250 meter x 30 meter LED screen. It is just 3 meters shorter than the largest
LED screen in the World which is located in Vegas. The thing cost $32 million, is 80 feet above the ground, and actually 5 separate screens combined.We were tired of walking around. Hence, next day which was also our last day in Beijing, we decided to take a Hutong tour via rick
shaw! Hutong is narrow alley ways that form SiHeyYuan (四合院) or courtyard which family or families live in. Hutong is disappearing fast as Beijing becomes more modernised everyday. Many think they are unique to Beijing. They are pretty common around China and just called different names. The tour gave us a glimpse into how ordinary Beijinger lived. But we couldn't help feeling we were intruding.
We still had a lot of time to kill before our train ride to Shanghai. My cousin decided to take us to another park called BeiHai Park. This one is an imperial garden too. How many gardens does one emperor need? The literal translation of the park name is Northern Sea park. From the back of the park , you can see the corresponding Central Southern Seas park which is the complex of buildings that houses China's paramount leaders. There is a dramastic contrast between the two parks. One full of tourists and the other one is empty with many guards surrounding the grounds.
In case of bad traf
fic, we arrived at the Beijing Train Station really early. What was there to do, but do more exploring of the neighbourhood. Beijing was great since no matter where you go in the city, there was something around to see! No wonder my cousin is so proud of his city. We walked around the old city wall. We walked by a dog park and spotted a line of colourful stars in the sky. We didn't know what to make of them until we walked a little further down the road. It was a LED light kite! We stopped and spoke to the middle aged man who made and was flying the kite. He used old cell phone batteries to power the LED lights that changed flashing patterns with a click of a tiny controller. The lights ensemble were glued onto a piece of small cardboard. It was the coolest thing ever!Not wanting to leave Beijing, we made it onto the train to Shanghai 10 minutes before departure time.
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