Let’s talk about Beijing now ! Hahaha… I was thinking of separating the posts by days when I realised there were some days when it gotten so cold that I practically refuse to let my hands out of the gloves at anytime. So taking pictures become a painful chore that I completely give them a miss at some points during the trip. Segregating the posts by parts seemingly a better idea and not many, maybe just a little less than 200 pictures ??? Hehehe. Be patient lar.
In less than a week I came back, Beijing was overwhelmed with the pollution problem. I was like OMG, are’t we lucky… if we were stuck in BJ during the pollution crisis, I think we will be super demoralised. Now I count my blessings that we were only caught in the freezing chill rather than the polluted air.
The weather was super cold at the time when we visited… Some of the days were like -6 degrees in the day to -16 degrees in the night. First of all, I must mention, although this is a free and easy tour, we booked it through an agency. Chan Brothers, to be exact. During the enquiry, we were told that the airport transfer and the complimentary one-day tour requires us to wait to be combined with some other local tours / other tourists. And so upon our arrival, we realised that a private car was hired to fetch the both of us only and we need not wait for anybody for the coaching. I mean, this happens to almost all kinds of airport transfers, isn’t it… So I was generally very surprised when we were the only passengers they are carrying. Very personalised service indeed and yes, I adore such tours.
Arriving at the Beijing International Airport… and it’s real big. From the arrival to the baggage handling, the transit distance was like almost 3 MRT stops in Singapore.
View from the hotel room. It’s Novotel Xinqiao Beijing, by the way.
Can you imagine I was wearing a winter wear meant for skiing and ability to withstand temperatures below zero and yet I could still feel the chill down my spine ? Freezing like mad !
This is the infamous place for Peking Duck recommended by the guide who picked us up at the airport and also, who will be bringing us around for the complimentary tour as well.
The whole place just looks so palace-alike. And it’s so purportedly popular that we even have to get a queue number for a table.
The history of this place dated back to 1416. I jokingly told the man that we are the emperor and empress now, feasting on food meant for them in that dynasty !!
The festive mood in this place starts early !!
Because we ordered one whole duck, the chef or perhaps the server, sliced the duck right in front of us.
The Peking duck was fantastic ! The juice was well retained in the duck meat, and it’s good even eating the meat on its own. As we know, usually we eat the skin of the Peking duck, leaving the meat to be fried with noodles cause they are too dry to be consumed on its own. But here, the duck is consumed with a chicken based soup instead.
Beef stirred fried in some kind of vegetables that tasted like basil leaves ?? Not too much to our liking though. The taste of the vegetables is empowering and totally overwhelms the beef.
Deep Fried Pumpkin balls. Too starchy for me and where’s the pumpkin taste huh ??
I cannot recall the full name of this dish. Only remembered it as some kind of vegetable mantou. I guess we were not used to their food yet, seriously I don’t have much of an opinion about this dish. We only eaten like 1-2 pcs and stop at there, so you can jolly well imagine how’s it liked.
BJ’s journey Part I shall conclude here. Stay tuned for Part II to continue the journey.
And a piece of news to share… For the first time, I am taking orders for the amos-alike chocolate chips cookies and pineapple tarts for the festive season !! Left with 2 weeks to complete all orders, I am praying hard that that demands will continue to pour in even after the CNY (especially for the cookies) and I shall work doubly hard to fulfill all orders !! :)
really enjoying your beijing write up :)
Thanks Janine !!