I was channel surfing the other night..I chance upon Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations) talking about Chinese heritage and culture. Chinese? Travel?…I worked my way back to that channel I love (Travel and Living).

The first image that popped up was Liqun. I suddenly missed Beijing…the oily food, the unclean tea glasses and chopsticks I’ve encountered, Peking duck…*drools* Unpretentious, straight to the point…that’s what I love about this type of restaurants. Anthony was not his usual self in Beijing (he looked bored and sick but still had to enjoy his vices). If I were the local, I would have drag him to the places I miss..!

I like to check out that Noodle Loft they went to…

A photography contest! Something about Beijing! Wow..this must be very interesting because Foreigners get to show how they view Beijing…

I would join if I were still in China…this will be quite interesting!

The mechanics goes like this (from the website):

Events Introduction

Foreigners ?? watch Beijing Beijing Chao photography competition activity NOTICE

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of People’s Republic of China, so that foreign friends know, feel the changes and the charm of Beijing, the Beijing Municipal People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal People’s Government, Beijing Municipal People’s Government Information Office, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, Beijing Foreign invested enterprises Association in March 2009 to July co-sponsored aliens look ?? Beijing Beijing Chao photography competition.

The theme for the competition the new face of Beijing, mainly reflecting the new face of Beijing, Beijing’s new life; including the author in Beijing sightseeing, leisure, life and work experience; and Beijing Friendship Get along with members of the public scene and to reflect contrasting Beijing’s Past and Present works. Foreign person may participate.

To encourage more outstanding entries, the organizing committee composed of relevant experts will be invited to the panels of judges, selected 400 finalists primaries excellent after check selected 50 winning entries. Award the first prize is set to 2, 15,000 yuan bonus; 5 second prize, bonus 5,000; 10 third prizes, bonuses 3,000; Excellence Awards 33, 500 prize money and receive outstanding works photographic album . Bonuses for pre-tax income, the organizers of Inland Revenue in accordance with the provisions of the Beijing Municipal pay personal income tax withholding.

Entries as follows:
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One of my favorite restaurants are Korean BBQ places. I can’t resist the rice, sauce, BBQ altogether. That’s why I didn’t wonder why I got fat all the while. The hot coal grill is also a warm retreat versus the nasty cold during winter.

Typically, you need to choose different variety of raw meat (from lamb, karubi beef, harami beef, pork, chicken, squid, ribs). They serve appetizers first (actually a lot, I usually get a bit full with appetizers). If you love kimchi, you will love to eat in Korean restaurants. I get flushed out whenever I eat here, because of SPICY food and the hot coal grill.

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My friend Sophie who own a fresh new blog MySummerSolstice tagged me to share 7 random facts about Beijing. Well, couldn’t help but think them over…good or bad…they all happened to me!

1. Prepaid electricity, gas– this is not really a very unusual thing but for me, it is. I need to check our electricity counter everyday to see if we need to buy energy credits. At least we’re all conscious about our usage..we get to calculate our daily expenses. 8 hours of using the aircon will costs us 10 credits. Unfortunately, one time didn’t get to check our gas credit..while I was cooking..dang..gas stopped fuming so microwave became my best friend.

2. Unbashful Comfort room experiences - In Beijing, mostly the urinal is on the floor so the girls and guys who need to poop would need to squat. It was really hard to do it since there’s a possibility of losing your balance. Well, that quite didn’t matter. What ticked me..I get to open cubicle’s door unknowingly with someone peeing because some don’t lock their doors! I end up being the one going out of the CR. Weird thing is, they weren’t embarassed at all! I even remember one comfort room in the province of Chengdu, we had to endure cubicles with no doors at all, plus no urinal! Just a drainage…plus so many unsightful things you can see..argh.

3. Couple-ly sights - I noticed a lot of couples wearing almost same style of clothes when they hang out together which was sort of funny way to show they’re together. Imagine seeing both wearing same cartoon T-shirts while doing some PDA (public display of affection) on the streets. Cute..sort of.

4. Milktea and Yogurt haven - My favorite milktea drink…available almost everywhere! I can’t resist buying milk tea..hot or cold, I love it to bits. Also in supermarkets, there’s a lot of different kinds of yogurt. It seems to be a favorite for Chinese buyers. I noticed about 8-10 brands competing for shelf space.

5. Hard Haggling - Haggling is different in China, you need to haggle for a much lower price especially if you look foreign and don’t speak much of Mandarin. The sellers are smart but you should be smarter. Sometimes, what you thought was a good deal is not. I’ll try to blog some haggling techniques one can practice in China.

6. Spitting - Good thing now there’s a fine for anyone caught spitting in streets. This one is the most disgusting habit some still can’t resist to do. Way back in 2005 when I visited Beijing, every 20 secs while walking on the street, there’s someone spitting! Well, fortunately, there’s a sound they make seconds before spitting..at least I have some leeway to run away fast! Now, people don’t spit as muh..whew. One memorable spit I saw in winter..frozen spit!

7. Ancient modern architectural melting pot - I love how ancient architecture are still well-preserved in Beijing. The big city has wondrous imperial gardens, Forbidden city, Summer palace, old ruins to see and behold. These are perks for wanderlusts like me!

Okay, so now I’m done, I’d like to tag 3 people to post about 7 random facts about themselves. I’m tagging Kats, Berns, Garot.

For the rules :

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, letting them know they have been tagged and to read the blog.

Beijing’s battle to standardize and correct English-language signs ahead of the 2008 Olympics has claimed another head — “W.C..”

By the end of the year, all public conveniences in the city will be called “toilets” instead of the venerable, Victorian-era sounding abbreviation for “water closet,” state media reported on Wednesday.

“In many Western countries they don’t use the term W.C. at all,” the Beijing Morning Post said.

“Because in English, it’s equivalent to what we would call in China an outhouse, and is a rather crude slang term,” it added, without explaining how it had got this impression.

Also on the list are road signs. Use of the romanized form of Chinese, known as “pinyin,” will be replaced by the actual English word, except for proper names, the newspaper added. Out will go Dong Changan Jie and in will come East Changan Avenue.
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Go to the Jade Screen Pavilion to view the South Sea,
the Refreshing Terrace for the North Sea,
the Paiyun Tower for the West Sea,
the White Goose Ridge for the East Sea
and the Legendary Turtle Peak for the Sky Sea.

There are a lot of poems which describes the ever immortal beauty of Huangshan (黄山). “Clouds in a myriad of forms”, “Peaks piercing the sky”, “A cool world”, “Fantastic and beautiful”, “Scenery of exceptional charm” are some phrase that describes the mountain. It is also an inspiration to some ancient famous painters of China. You can check out the description of Huangshan here. It is said that the four wonders of Huangshan are the strange pines, absurd stones, sea of clouds and hot springs. I’ve researched and found out that the best time to travel Huangshan is in winter because the place will look like winter wonderland. Unfortunately, the winter season this year is warmest ever (the locals said). So there wasn’t a lot of snow to see.

Our tour package includes a bus transfer from Shanghai to Huangshan city. We stayed for a night on the town proper and toured their city which is called Lao Jie (老街）means old street like Hutong.

The street has multitude of stores that sells different kinds of delicacies in their city and also souveneir items as well as maps of Huangshan. I also saw the cutest thing, a cat with two different eye color!

The next day, we left our luggage at the bottom hotel we stayed in and went up the mountain area. There’s a different bus to preserve and control the external variables, preserve nature. We took a cable car up to a certain location but alas, we need to walk up around 4-5 hours to reach our hotel! (more…)

Fragrant Hills , a public park in Haidian District, is said to have a beautiful view when autumn comes. The pine trees turning fiery red or orange is a sight to behold. We always heard rumors that it was already turning that color but alas, we got the wrong timing. I went here twice already but I never behold the famous sights. Locals love to visit this place not just for the scene, but also a good exercise for them. There was a choice to walk or take the cable car, I always take the later since I’m not fond of mountain climbing/walking. The entrance for student for the park is around 5 rmb but 10 rmb if you’re an ordinary tourist. The cable car costs around 25 rmb one way if I remembered right. Unfortunately, the cable car is only up to 530pm.

Major places we should have gone:
Studio of Tranquil Heart

It was first built in mid-16th century under the Ming and was reconstructed in the Qing period. In the enclosure there is a large semi-circular pool in the shape of a heart. The studio was burned down in 1860 and was renovated after 1949.

Bright Temple

Lying to the south of the Studio of Tranquil Heart, the Bright Temple was built in 1780 as a residence for the Sixth Bainqen Erdeni when he visited Beijing. The compound has a 10-metre-high red terrace in Tibetan style. It was destroyed by the Anglo-French troops in 1860. (from Beijing 2008 site)

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