Bikes for Rent

Only upon returning home and looking closely at the picture, I realized that these bikes, all in uniform color of red, were for rent. They were blue ones too, parked further back. I did wonder why those bikes were there, lining up so tidily. It makes sense now! Should have been more observant......



There were all in this famous Beijing street of Wangfujing. A street that is so popular, therefore, again, very crowded.

Resting

This picture was snapped on the way to Tiananmen Square. A lady was resting very comfortably despite the fact that many people were walking back and forth around her. Nothing seemed to wake her up.

Through The Window

This picture was taken using my tiny Minox camera. We were inside a souvenir shop within the compound of Tiananmen Square.

To Tiananmen Square

Our hotel is strategically located within minutes from Tiananmen Square which reportedly has an area of 440,000 sq m. Huge! With everything in Beijing being so gigantic, streets are wide, buildings are large, so a couple of blocks took us around 20 minutes. We made numerous stops to take pictures too and enjoyed our surroundings. I particularly enjoyed the brick walls on the side of the street and seeing some people sitting down and resting or laying down and sleeping soundly.



It was a nice and lovely day. The sun shone. Most people in China seemed to keep themselves warm and gave the impression that it's a cold day out there. The truth was the opposite, it was a great day for shorts and tees. We always took a peek from our hotel window and saw these people walking around in long pants, shawls and jackets. We touched the glass window and felt the coldness of the weather. So we thought it's a cold day. And we were wrong every single day. It was never cold. Nevertheless, we always had our extra layers in hand, just in case.





Tiananmen Square is a popular tourist spot in Beijing. Also located in there are Tiananmen Tower, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. There were thousands of people when we were there, it was very crowded.

At "Made In China"

Made In China is one of the two Chinese restaurants at Grand Hyatt. One of their specialties is Beijing Duck. I made reservation via internet for five people, days before we arrived. Just to make sure we got a table because we're talking about Saturday evening here.



Finally, came 6PM, our reservation time. Did I say that we were really hungry? We could eat a horse. We were so fiercely ready for the restaurant. We sorted out the table after a communication cum –lost-in-translation- plus -starving people versus waitress with little English and confusion in Chinese language -problem as we strongly refused to be put in smoking section. We got a nice table in the end. We had Beijing Duck that was ordered in advance when we checked in, of course, among other things.



A chef came to the set up nearby table and carved the crispy duck skin off which was then served on our table. We could start to enjoy them immediately with the pancakes. Before long, they were gone and we asked for more pancakes. I told you, we were hungry! Then, they were gone too quickly, I still wanted more..............



We also had pan fried dumplings aka gyoza aka pot stickers. We ordered a couple of vegetable dishes too.





Finally, we were served with duck soup, but too stuffed to enjoy them. I supposed, they used the duck that we ordered earlier. We thought it was a great dinner, bearing in mind that we might be a little biased.



And one dessert for one last person, my dear number 2, that still managed to squeeze it in. It was some tiramisu with caramelized banana, I think. It was good too, I heard.

Seeing Food At The Mall

We stayed at this hotel (Grand Hyatt Beijing) before, but I did not remember that it is so nicely located above “The Mall” that has everything that anyone could need. So, it was a nice surprise to discover the mall and all the shops on the streets surrounding it.



After we put away our bags, we went straight down to the mall. We walked around the basement and discovered so many great places to eat, many bakeries to get all the goodies from and many stores with familiar names that in some way, give us a little comfort, feeling like we could get things we need. Watson is there, Bread Talk, the bakery too. We saw KFC and McD and food court that made us wanted to eat there on the spot. They have noodles, dim sum, and all sort of mouth watering delicacies. You can tell that we were really-really hungry.

A Note From 18 Oct

Some 4700 km later, we arrived in Beijing. Hungry, we left home at 6:30 in the morning, had our breakfast at the airport and brunch in the plane around 11AM. By the time we arrived at the hotel and settled in to our rooms, it was nearly five o’clock. Our reservation at “Made In China” was moved forward to 6PM from 6:30 PM.



Grand Hyatt was hectic, almost like a zoo. There were lots of people in the lobby and everyone working for the hotel seemed to be in a major rush, maybe because it was Saturday and a lot of guests were around on weekend. I felt a bit lost, not having any cars confirmed yet for our transportation around and not having quite anything firmly planned out. I knew, though, it would be alright.

We got a great suite, a two-room suite with quite a spacious living room and tiny kitchen. The kitchen is almost meaningless, no pots and pans were provided, but I was fine with it. I had all the intention to eat out all the time.No cooking intended over the next many days anyway!

We Went And We're Back

Five days are way too short when you have a great time, mostly. It was definitely a good break, a nice getaway. Not only Beijing weather was different, the people and the surrounding and the whole atmosphere was not similar to our day to day basis. It was a chance to learn and appreciate a different culture, no matter how little it was, of another country. A big, gigantic, huge country that is bound to dominate the world's economy, if not now, maybe in the near future. It's was a refreshing change that we did not need to whip up something in the kitchen for our meal although a small kitchen was there by our room. It was a change that the five of us were in close proximity at nearly all time. Whatever happened, it's great spending time together as a family. Just the five of us.

Time For Big M

It's not the most wonderful time of the year. It's the time of the year to do those things..... things that I do not necessarily like but I still do them anyway because they are supposed to be good for me, no matter how irritating the process is, no matter how reluctant I am in doing it... I push myself out of the door. I pull myself together and took some courageous steps .... One of them is to go for mammogram. I spent a total of three hours today from the second I stepped out of the house, went to the clinic, waited, had the mammogram, waited again for the ultrasound diagnosis, had the ultrasound diagnosis, waited again to make sure they were acceptable..... waited again to pay.... then.... done! Thanks to the games that I have downloaded to my iPod Touch, I was never really bored.

Now, I am waiting for the result. Meanwhile, let me take a break. To Beijing we go. And I will go to the dentist after I come back.......

Arancini From Leftover

I had very little time to do things today. No, I should say, I had too many things that I had to do today and that left me very little time to prepare food. In any case, I still had so much risotto from yesterday supper that I decided to convert them into Arancini. They are supposed to be little round balls but intentionally flatten them a bit to but down the frying time. Coat the balls with the flour, dip them into the beaten egg and roll them in breadcrumbs to coat. Deep fry! I omitted cheese filling this time, knowing that my customers prefer them without cheese inside. Big surprise indeed!



Feeding hungry kids were never easier, although I believe, only two out of three that really gobbled them up. Only a few were left, maybe they will finish them up for breakfast before going to airport???