Beijing

I flew out of Singapore on the Saturady morning, flying Singapore Airlines into Beijing. The flight time was around 5 hours however it was the temperature difference that was quite incredible! I left Singapore in around 30 degrees C. In Beijing, it was -5 degrees C! I got picked up and then we headed to the Beijing International Hotel. I spent the rest of the day just hanging around really as I had a free day on Sunday.


Sunday I was picked up and we headed for Tiannamen Square...quite an amazing place, absolutely freezing and packed full of Chinese. It was interesting to see the amount of pictures of Mao still around everywhere. We next went into the Forbidden City...what an amazing place! Effectively this is where the Emperor and his Concubines resided. Its absolutely huge with an estimated 10,000 rooms. You would seriously require a lot of time to get around this place in full.

We had some lunch at a Chinese Fast Food restaurant (I don't know what we ate but it was nice) and then headed into Beijing Zoo to see the Panda's. They were amazing and reminded me of Chief quite a lot...



After the Zoo we went to The Summer Palace, effectively a park for the sole use of the Emperor. Again, an amazing place but it was so cold! Following th Summer Palace we went back to the hotel and then went out for something to eat at the original Peking Duck restaurant! I have to say it was OK but nothing special. I think western taste's expect something a little more spicy perhaps...

The following day we checked out of Beijing and headed for the airport for Shanghai...