Before I begin my post regarding on my trip...
Found this super old picture of me when I was 2 months pregnant and I din't even know about it. Still happily wearing a crop top.
Now ?
I can never leave my house without my trusty sweater or hoodie. A simple tee itself can expose my spare tire. How depressing ?
Anyway...
I went to Beijing, China September 2015. My mom asked me to accompany her because my aunt wanted to drag her along but she's going with her husband (my uncle) and my mom don't want to be alone.
There's nothing much to talk about on my first day there because my flight depart at 4pm and by the time I arrived at Beijing airport, it's almost 11pm.
Let's talk about how I spent my morning in China !
Wake up call was at 6am. I don't know about you guys but in Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia, 6am is kinda dark. After taking a shower and dressed myself, I took a glimpse at the window and I'm like- WOW ! 8am already ? That was fast !
I checked my phone and it was only 6.30 am
Same old breakfast for the next 4 days in China. It's like an average breakfast buffet that every hotel provides but I'm not really a fan of the choice of food there.
EVEN THOUGH I'M CHINESE
Shame on myself !
A cup of warm orange juice. Yes, it's...
WARM
A cello/double bass that seems very loss being displayed in the middle of the waiting lounge.
11-16 degrees at 10.25am. Kinda chilly. Almost the same temperature as Genting Highlands at night.
How pretty :)
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OOTD of the day :D Kinda regret and don't regret at the same time. I'll talk about it in a bit.
Survival money that my mom gave me.
Same old lunch for the next 4 days. Egg with tomato, seaweed egg soup, sweet and sour fish/pork/chicken. Did I not just had breakfast ? We got stuck in a very terrible jam, eventhough it's only about 15-20 kilometres away, it took us about 2 hours to arrive.
Dear Malaysians, please appreciate Kuala Lumpur's jam
Appreciate the fact that you can cut lanes here, even though you're stuck in a 9am jam to work.
1st stop - The Forbidden City
The main entrance to the Forbidden City. If you're wondering who is that dude in the picture. That's the president !
After going through the entrance, you'll come across entrance no. 2. There's one simple rule when you're entering the Forbidden City.
Never exit using the entrance
Because... people who exit using the entrance are usually DEAD. It's like a superstitious thing. See the 'star' there ? That is the spot where they dump the bodies.
After entrance no.2. See the pillar there ? There's supposed to be a dragon-lion hybrid looking thing at the top which obviously I din't take a full picture of it.
FAIL PHOTOGRAPHY !
Anyway, the dragon-lion is facing outwards ( I apologize again for not snapping a better picture !). It is said that, the purpose of it is to guard and make sure the emperor have a safe trip and return to the palace safely.
Here it is ! The main hall ! Look at how serene it is ! No filter, no edit. This was taken using my lousy Samsung Note 2 camera. If my lousy camera can take such surreal picture, just picture how beautiful it is if you were to be there ?
Not gonna lie, I picture myself as a concubine. It's like, you're in a whole new world ! Aside from getting laid by the emperor and killing everyone to get to the top of the emperor's priority list, there's just something very interesting about concubines.
From another angle
By the way, remember earlier on it was about 11-16 degrees ? It was scorching hot in the afternoon. It felt like it was about 100 degrees ! I could feel like legs burning eventhough I was wearing jeans !
One of the halls. Basically every hall has a throne. But this hall was somewhat abit more interesting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is base on my understanding from my poor knowledge of Mandarin.
It is said that this hall is used to keep all sorts of valuable stuff. My tour guide use the term 'bao bao', not sure if it means the Emperor's valuables or the Empress'. Then someone stole everything and fled, leaving the poor Emperor broke af. You can read more about Emperor Pu Yi's reign. The last Emperor of China.
Spot the square-looking hall ? That's the hall where the Emperor kept all his Gucci and Chanel.
This is the 'Concubine Lane'. Beyond the wall is where the concubine lives and it's not open for public. Here's the thing about this lane. Only the Emperor is allowed to walk and do whatsoever he wants HERE, unless the dude is age 13 and below or the eunuch (well, you know... they got their dignity chopped off).
Here's a scenario.
What if the concubine has a son and her son wants to see and spend time with his dearest mommy ?
NO !
He ain't care if yawl homie is visiting yo mama. Yawl ain't gonna lay yo foot in this path or yawl die !
Here is where the concubine spent most of their time at. The Emperor spent lots of money in landscaping. What do the concubines do here ? Well, they could play chess ? Play with their pets ? Gossips ?
If you noticed, there's a red balcony by the top left corner. That's the balcony of one of the concubine's room. Whoever she is, she definitely had some view going on there.
That's all for my Day 1 trip :)
Definitely will visit China one day!
Please do :) Tips for you, do not go by tour. You'll have limited time in each and every sites and they'll bring you to random places where sales people would corner you to buy their merchandise.
16 degrees warmest and 11 coldest? omg that is freezing!!!!
Love your throwback on your trip, i want to read more if you have them!
Yeap ! Chilly yet sunny :) For the first time I enjoy being outdoor. No worries ! There's 2 more days.
Yes, China traffic jam is terrible AF and drivers love to honk as well.
I even saw a mid 30s guy and a late 40s auntie having a physical fight. At least got some nice entertainment while being stuck in a jam.