HK cum Beijing Tour

Yoo yoo.... I have finally finished my exam for my part time course and have some time to upload pics from last month.

Me and my 娘 had the chance to go HK cum Beijing...for of course the exciting Olypmics, courtesy of my very generous company! I hope they are as generous when it comes to my pay...

HK part is only for a company function so stayed only a night before flying to Beijing. And the super lucky me arrived at HK while there is a typhoon -_- That explains the super bumpy flight. Somehow my experience with SIN-HK plane always not so stable... I can still remember Tilda praying in the plan when we went HK together many years ago.

Typhoon that day has a nice name called Kammuri, and it was reported as Signal No. 8 when we arrive. I super mountain tortise and thought it is just heavy rain with strong wind...just like Singapore's stormy day. We didn't expect the weather is so bad that the car, which is driving us to hotel, has difficulty driving straight.


Almost the whole sky covered with dark clouds, but actually they dun look too scary.....just dark. Me and my mum even went out to the habour after putting down our luggage, while there is nobody on the street. Only 1 day in HK mah, must make full use.


Nice HK hotel room


with nice bathroom.....and


golden tap like the ones in NKF!


View from the room still not so good


Me and my mum at the company dinner


wah biang...that next morning still quite bad though typhoon signal is only 3. We thought we are unable to fly to Beijing, but heng still managed to.


At HK airport... Only 32 hours away from the opening ceremony!


the 福娃...


Arrived in Beijing. This is the hotel we stayed in Beijing. Average hotel but very good location.


Only 10 hours away from opening ceremony!! Still have to go visit Forbidden City


Often see 公安 marching around. But actually i wanted to take the hole (right of pic) on the wall of 天安门


Hmm....天安门 is afterall very old le. This is how the back of the 天安门 look.

And this is the front...


Ok lah, 门面很美...



My 娘 and her "son" during the trip. She kept saying he looks like my brother so kept talking to him and took pics with him. The guy is also very nice to my mum. His eyes always bright up when he sees her. But he is very young loh, more of my 小弟 than my 哥 loh. Dear bro, i think 娘 miss you too much liao lah!


My 娘 said we cannot take picture at this gate 'cos many executions took place near here...


The ceiling of Fobbiden City corridor. Even corridor is nice.


Finally, the 太和殿. Imagine the emperor sitting inside and all the people outside are the eunuchs! muaahhaaa... *cold*

It was built in 1420 but was burnt and rebuilt a few times. What we saw is the last built 太和殿 in 1695. This is where all the important functions took place, such as emperorr's marriage, announcement of exam results etc.


龙椅 leh! only 1 chair in such a big place, must be damn lonely.



The vats are actually golden colour, but the gold was scraped off from the vat by the ang mohs during 八国联军. Very bad...


Roof of Emperor's dressing room. The 8 thingy on the roof is called 走兽. The more important the building is, the more 走兽 there are. 太和殿 has the max - 10 of them.


Sun in Beijing. Should have upload it on my friendster, but now dun use friendster anymore...


Forgot where this place is. Think is the emperor's study room. See the roof....I think it's a dragon.


Looks like dragon? Plus a dragon ball below it.


乾隆's handwriting. Very 端正 wor...


A weird tree in imperial garden. It is the dragonclaw date plant (they called a tree a plant?!). See below.



Another weird tree...


Dunno what tree this is. There are many in the imperial garden and they are all labelled as 古树.



After the very brief tour at Forbidden City, we went straight to the opening ceremony. Need to pass through security check before going in.


Super hot queuing outside for security check. My 娘 very well-prepared...she has a fan with her!! Super cheena....but I benefit from it.


The very precious opening ceremony ticket.


Yea! Completed the security check. I'm no terrorist, just a demure girl who wants to support the little red dot.


Hee, another sun in Beijing. That weird looking building is 盘古, a 7-star hotel k! Don't play play...


And it follows the design of a dragon. I think the VIPs like Bush, our PM...all stay here during their visit to Olympic.


National Aquatics Center a.k.a Water Cube. Very pretty at night too, but no chance to take pic of it at night.


Finally! The National Stadium a.k.a. Bird's Nest.


Saw a documentary show about Bird's Nest on Discovery Channel. The design looks chaotic but actually there is order in the design and the degree of all the beam matters! If you can see the similar "pattern" of the outside frame from the prev pic, those are the main supporting beams of the outside frame. And the steel is developed by China, specially for this stadium design to within stress from all angles. Also the net at the top, it can act as safety feature against fire 'cos fire just burn through it and extinguish without spreading. Amazing right!


Can see how crazy they are about the Bird's Nest...even the little light posts are of the same design.


Inside Bird's Nest.


From my seat. Pretty good view hor, though screen is small and cannot see our flag from where I sit. Still, it is close enough for my 娘 to catch our Singapore Team's attention.


Performance before the Opening Ceremony by China's 50+ 少数民族.


Performance from Macau


Teaching us what to do during the ceremony....such as waving the Olympic scarf when the teams march pass, using their touch during the last lap of torch relay.


Performance from the 1st sceen positioning themselves before the opening ceremony starts. So many of them wor....we only knew there are 2008 of them when we watched the re-telecast that night.


Everyone is seated and getting ready! The stadium can take around 90,000 people wor...


Only 14:51 min away from the opening ceremony!!


Ceremony started. All lights were dimmed down. We super coorperative, most of us on the colourful torchlight.


Can see some lighted up people flying around? They are in 仙女 costume k! All brave women to be lifted up so high. What if one of them flew and puked.....


My fav pic! The scroll is very nice right!


And this costume...got the 战国时代 feel!


张艺谋 is very good with the lightings...


Another of my fav pic. My Sony cam is superb....muaahhaaa...




Bird's Nest in a Bird's Nest!


I like the globe. It has people running around it....it is so against gravity, dunno how they did it.


Yea!!! Our Singapore Team! Can see Feng Tian Wei and Wang Yue Gu at the front right of the group. Li Jia Wei hidden behind the flag. Never expect them to win a Silver in Olympics for Singapore. Power!

Meanwhile, my 娘 was all ready to attract the team's attention.


And they spotted my very active 娘! They were pointing at us and jumping before I took this pic. 追星的感觉真好. So exciting!


Yao Ming and the little boy from the Si Chuang Earthquake. Who is cuter?


Big home team, yellow + red all belong to the China team! Not as many as US team though... But can still win US by so much...muahhaa~


Most teams are here. Super crowded. At least 10,000 of them...so in total more than 100,000 people in the stadium!


Stood up for the raising of Olympic flag.


And the flying Li Ning. He really is 红了. We went to his shop and his apparels are selling as expensive as our Giordano in Singapore. And I just realise his company is mentioned in my Marketing Textbook...wah seh...

The opening ceremony ended late. It was 1+am by the time we reached hotel. Next day still have to climb great wall....


No 灵异 photo k. Just trying to highlight the almost vertical portion of the Great Wall. I wonder how they climb or even build so vertically. One of my colleague told me he managed to climb up before....amazing....


Zoom in to the vertical part


Took cable car down the mountains, which happened that the US president sat in the same car 10 years ago! Should have called my Singapore friends to help me buy Toto that day.

Then went to watched some games for the next few days...




Gymnastics at National Indoor Stadium


Russia team


China team. Dunno who this is....but the whole team is very power leh. No wonder China won so many golds for Gymnas.


Japan team


Canada and...dunno which country


Strolling Wang Fu Jing, equivalent to our Orchard Road. It is less than 5 min from our hotel wor...


Went to visit the 小吃街


What is this? Tilda find out then lemme know k


An uncle 叫卖-ing...cute right


To watch badminton.


Even more exciting than Gymnastics. The Chinese cheer super loud for China team.


Singapore team against US team....and we won!


This game is free to watch. Happened to walk past and saw....so lame right.


Inside the Water Cube


For diving.


All wear the same. Can't differentiate who is who.

Had a free half day to jalan jalan....


China metro station is nicer than ours...how can...


National Theatre. Saw the picture of it on the plane so purposely went to look for it . 美 hor!


Many Olympics related designs in Beijing







Other designs in metro stations...








hee....call me 侠女

I thought China did a good job, didn't they? the Olympic bring the Chinese together, all of them are so 激动 at the opening ceremony and the games. And so many volunteers, including the aunties and uncles who sit by the road with a red band round their arms. Why our F1 so quiet... I hope to see the same thing when Singapore holds the Youth Olympics in 2010, like what China did during Olympic and Korea did during World Cup. Something which Singapore can finally cheer for as a country. Yea!