Babies in China Named "Olympic Games"

I cannot stop feeling sorry for the China babies born in the years near to Olympic Games. The parents were so proud of Beijing Olympics that they named their babies "Aoyun" which means Olympics, when Beijing won to host Olympics 2008.

Imagine a situation where two Aoyuns meet...

Aoyun #1: Hi, my name is Aoyun.

Aoyun #2: Hi, my name is Aoyun.

Aoyun #1: Yeah, I said Aoyun is my name.

Aoyun #2: Yeah, I said Aoyun is my name.

And everyone knows how rude the Chinese can be so...

Aoyun #1: You TM messing around with me?

...there goes a fight.

Source: 10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About China by ODDEE

Thirteen Tops?

In one of my previous posts, I was saying that I brought thirteen tops for China vacation, no?

View Full Album

Day One to Day Five

View Full Album

Day Six to Day Ten xD

Post-China Vacation

So did I buy anything back from China? The answer is a definite ‘yes’!

Panda hat for myself. Three sets of pajama for my brothers and myself. Medicine plasters and beautiful postcards for everyone. Anyone wants post cards? Leave your address in this post’s comment and I will send to you lol xD

My favourite is this panda hat (RMB25). Though the quality is not as good as the genuine product (RMB80), it is all good as long as it has a panda look lol

I bought the above set for my mom as a Mother’s Day gift. These knives are good and could reduce her workload in the kitchen. However, instead of using them, she kept them –_-

I bought this necklace for MYR200. Very nice, no? I love the design. Very unique, no? There is another design that caught my attention as well – heart shaped. But since heart-shaped necklace is quite common, I decided to purchase this design in the end.

When China Vacation is Coming to an End

28th April was the worst of the worst day compared to any other day during our tour in China. No, not because it was the last day. And not because we have to go back to Malaysia. Continue reading this post if you want to know the exact reason..

We had 1550 flight to catch at Tianjin International Airport. We were at Beijing and it would take us approximately 2 hours to reach there. Before we left to Tianjin, guess what? That greedy tour guide die also wanted to bring us to money-sucker place.

And because of that, we had to rush to the airport after lunch. This was just the beginning.

Next thing was both our bus driver and tour guide did not know the location of the airport. Previously, that tour guide claimed that he has 18 years of experience in this field.

18 years, huh? Looks more like an 18-day experience to me. Location of the airport is the foremost place to know for a tour guide, no?

When we were already inside the cabin, the flight got delayed and therefore, we reached KLIA-LCCT around 10ish.

This was not the end of the catastrophe.

There was a last minute changes regarding our stay that night. From Allson Klana Hotel, it was changed to TuneHotels which is 15-minute walk from LCCT. What’s worse when we had to push our trolleys of numerous luggage all the way to the hotel? Yeah, I think the tour guide did not make the effort to get a shuttle bus for all of us.

The oldies already had a bad day and they had to walk to the hotel? Negative reactions from them is a definite.

The best moment that happened that night was when we were told that our next day’s flight was changed from 0630 to 1100 :D

Imagine that was not happening :(

p/s: Those pictures above are taken at TuneHotels. From the look of it, you can see how tiny and simple the room is. Just a piece of an advice for those who thought of staying TuneHotels in the future: Buy credits for air-conditioner. Don’t save your money on that. Though there is a ceiling fan in the room, trust me, the room is SUPER hot and stuffy since it is small.

China Vacation - Day Ten

The whole 27th April morning was terrible. In order to earn commission, this tour guide of ours brought us to two places that sucked our money –__-

Not only that, this smart fella brought us to Balading Great Wall of China (another World Heritage Site) at noon when the sun is at its powerful mode that could instantly kill anyone who goes against it. Alright, I am exaggerating here. Since Great Wall of China is in my MUST-GO list, I would just go with the plan. In fact, I could not do anything about it.

Since all of the oldies had already walked up this Great Wall and did not have the intention to go for another round, I was the only one who went while the rest stayed in the van, chatting.

Location: The starting point
Time: 1310
Difficulty: N/A
Goal: To reach the first tower
Status: I was very excited to be able to set foot on this World Wonder. Plus, I was going alone. Adventurous, huh?

 Views from the first tower

Location: The first tower
Difficulty: Easy
Goal: To reach the second tower
Status: I was getting more excited. From the picture above, you can tell that walking up this Great Wall is exhausting. But how exhausting is exhausting? We shall see..

 Views from the second tower

Location: The second tower
Difficulty: Extremely hard
Goal: To reach the third tower
Status: It was not easy to reach the second tower. No wonder those who have diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease are not allowed to continue after the first tower. The journey to the second tower is challenging and energy consuming. Most of the tourists falter when they reached here and do not go any further. As in my case, the thought of the sacrifices made by the ancestors in building this Great Wall successfully kept me moving forward.

 Views from the third tower

Location: Halfway to the fourth tower
Time: 1340
Difficulty: Moderate
Goal: To reach the fourth tower
Status: I wanted to go further. However, due to time constrain, I had to turn back. I regretted to not continue to the fourth and fifth tower (make the rest wait for me in the van wtf), which I personally believe that this tower should be the peak of this section of the Great Wall.

Water Cube

Bird’s Nest

There was a conflict between us and the tour guide when he told us that entering National Stadium was not included in our tour package and therefore, we were only allowed to talk pictures at the worst location, as explained by the pictures above.

I was fortunate enough that the plan to the Great Wall was today as we had a foot massage before dinner. Lucky me, could give my poor overworked legs a nice and enjoying massage :)

I believe you are able to guess what’s for our dinner that night. Yeah, another blardy TEN plates of dumplings with additional FIVE side dishes. At the same restaurant where we had our dinner on the first day we landed Beijing. That dinner was the most painful one –_- Previously, I tried ten each. However, I had to make a pass for this one. I only ate five.

China Vacation – Day Nine

26th April was my second day in Beijing and I personally believe that everyone is definitely aware of the fact that Beijing has numerous places worth visiting. 

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen Guang Chang).

It was the site of several political events and student protests in the Chinese history. I was told by our tour guide that there was a massacre here. The Chinese protesters who were not satisfied over some political issues gathered together, marched towards Tiananmen Square. The protesters mostly consist of the city’s colleges’ and universities’ students with the supports of their instructors and other intellectuals.

Guess what was the reaction of the government? They sent the tankers and literally obliterated the protesters. Details of the catastrophe can be found here. Yes, I did a research on that event because it was so horrible that I wanted to know more about it.

There is a notable site before the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate (Wu Men). It is the formal entrance to the Forbidden City. It is the largest of the four gates of the Forbidden City. In the shape of an inverted-U, it has three passageways.

The middle passageway, known as the Imperial Passageway, was reserved for the emperor; the western passageway was for royal princes while the eastern passageway was for civil and military officials.

Now, finally, one of the few places that I had been looking forward to, the Forbidden City! It was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty and is located at the heart of Beijing. This palace was declared a World Heritage Site and is listed as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

It was really awesome to be in this amazing place!

The place may be an amazing place but I have the suckiest camera lol Above are the best shots that I had.

We explored the Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxin Dian).

I was not sure whether it is me or its name; that name is misleading, huh? I thought it was the place where they kept those psycho wives of the emperors.

This building is situated in the inner courtyard of the Forbidden City. Three Emperors died in the Hall.

This is the front hall where the Emperor discussed court business with his officials.

And this room served as the Emperor’s bedroom.

Next was the Imperial Garden (Yuhua Yuan).

Originally an imperial garden, it is now a public park; Jingshan Park (Jingshan Gong Yuan) was our next stop. It is situated north of the Forbidden City.

Aren’t these flowers lovely? There are more. It is very common for tourists to get so tempted to take pictures with them. But guess what? The authority of this garden does not allow us to step into the garden. There will be guards holding a loud portable speakers (recorded), warning the tourists to not step into the garden. Ignoring them is definitely a NO-NO. They would stand there (as if the warning was meant to be made for you) until you leave lol

Finally I got to see tulips right in front of my eyes. They are really beautiful.

Isn’t he adorable? His mother was trying to capture a picture of him with tulips as well but instead of looking at his mama’s camera, he looked at mine lol

After lunch, we headed to the Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan) without any delay. This palace is also declared as one of the World Heritage Sites.

We had a one-hour acrobatics show at Beijing Theatre. The performances were very thrilling and entertaining :D We were not allowed to take pictures and video when the show was going on. Why? Because they are selling the CDs at the end of the show. 50 RMB for one.

Before we called it a day, we toured the city to enjoy Beijing Night View. My personal favourite is The Place. It is located at Beijing Central Business District, where most of the rich people stay. There, we could a wide screen on the ceiling along the shopping complex’s walkway.

Enjoyed watching the underwater world

The galaxy

The music video of ‘My heart will go on’ by Celine Dion

And some random advertisement :D

I fall in love with this place instantly that I did not want to leave :S