BEIJING

We joined 8 days tour to Beijing via Apple Vacation Tour, 2006. I must said I'm really dissapointed with this tour. The food and places that they took us was horrible. Not worth the money. To tell you the truth I would never visit Beijing again unless I got a local friend who can take me around.

Visited Great Wall of China located at Ba Da Ling. My friends did not want to walk all the way up to the Great Wall therefore i ended up walking alone. At the end, join the tourmates for group pictures and slowly get to know the tour mates. It was fun afterall eventhou i'm exhausted and damn thirsty. At least i walk on the Great Wall.ha!ha!

Summer Palace was ok but when we went that time alot of renovation going on to rush for the Beijing Olympics. The place is so huge and you will be wondering why the Empress Dowager want a huge summer palace for herself. You will be wondering how those worker transport the teak wood and furniture up to this hill. I salute and respect the worker.

Forbidden City is another place that you MUST GO. Imagine we spent few hours just visiting a small portion of the imperial palace. The work crafting is so fine and beautiful. The largest ancient palatial structure in the world. No words can describe it. You must see with your own eyes.

As for food, it was sucks...the food was so oily. The fish got too many bones that you would not want to eat. The beef or pork is either fried with onion and you can see the entire beef/pork is soak in the oil. The vegetable is even good, fried corn with cucumber. Fried cucumber with tomatoes. What kind of dish is this? Gosh!! Wait till they serve us soup. Or so called the soup is so clear that you may think is for you to wash your hand...ha!ha! Inside the soup you can see few peices of seaweeds and two slices of tomatoe. Oh another so called famous dish is deep fried egg with flour top with icing sugar. So oily...gosh!!! Well, the only best thing is that they serve you few bottles of coke in every meal. Guess after this trip we either get high cholesterol or diabetis.
The only food that we enjoy is Peking Duck.

We visited Tian Jin and they brought us to eat the so called famous Gou Bu Li steamed stuffed bun@pao which is a traditional and delicious Chinese food in Tian Jin. Gosh, I think a first timer making pao is alot better than this store. The pao is tough and is horrible, none of us able to finish the pao and the food at the stall. What an experience?

Well, everyone start buying the so called famous snacks - Guifaxiang fried dough top with sesame. We tried to eat but I don't really like it. The dough is so hard. Anyway me and my friends decided not to buy any food. One of the auntie bought 6 boxes of the guifaxiang and saw the cashier put all the 6 boxes in the bag before she leaves. When she went up to the bus, she only found 4 boxes. They actually swap your bags at the counter.

The guide took us to Wang Fu Jing, the famous food and shopping street in Beijing. We did not dare to try the local food as we scared we will be cheated therefore majority of us ended up in MCDONALD. This is the safest choice.

As for shopping, we visited the SILK STREET MALL. You need to learn the art of haggling when you shop. Well, we bought thumb drive 8 GB for only RM60 and we thot we are smart cos we ask the promoter to test every of the thumb drive by copying files from the notebook and also check the file size in the properties. Guess what, we are wrong. We are not as smart as the CHINA men. The thumb drives that we bought can only last for 1 week and after that the entire drive become 0KB file size. We bought 9 thumb drive and none can be use. I swear no more shopping in CHINA no matter how cheap is it.

Oh, the toilet experience. Either the toilet got door or no water and damn smelly. We are talking in the mall toilet and outskirt. Even in Tianamen Square, when you queuing up, is your turn to enter to the cubicle, guess what happen, an old lady barge in and u just stunned. What a culture? Even there is door, ladies don't even bother closing their door. Can you imagine it. Gosh!!! One of our tourmate rather don't drink water and she will only use the washroom at the hotel. I respect her for that....how could she stand 8 hours without going to washroom.....We were joking with other tourmates that we need to wear pampers when we come to CHINA...ha!ha!

Well, this is my worst experience in Beijing and I don't think I will want to join tour to visit China unless someone brings you to local places.

My friend said maybe is the tour agency problem. Well whatever is it, I dont plan to go to Beijing anymore.