Chan Legacy

memories to cherish and to pass on for generations

Chan Legacy random header image

China Trip – Day 7

December 21st, 2009 · Trips

Today, the tour of Beijing begins.

Our hotel is located in the middle of a hutong 胡同，so they have a rickshaw to ferry customers to the main road to get a cab.  But it was a nice relaxing walk, so we walked, and the kids sat on the rickshaw.

 

We went to the Forbidden Palace for our 1st stop.  I actually went to engage a guide to bring us through the exhibits and to explain to us in detail.  It wasn’t easy to do that with kids in tow, but we made it anyway. :)   And it was a great experience and deeper understanding of the place.

That’s why it is never a good idea to let Daddy plan the itinerary.  He wanted to rush through things and not thoroughly enjoy the places we visited.  Like for Forbidden Palace, at the end of the guided tour,  he refused to let me go see the 东宫 and 西宫 on our own free and easy time！:(

From the forbidden palace, we took a ride to Tiananmen Square.  We were dropped off much further, so we walked.  Along the way, there was this beautiful stretch of red wall.  Nice scenery for photos.

 

At Tiananmen Square, the kids were wondering what the big hoo-ha was about.  Daddy showed them the picture and told them that he is Uncle Mao.. and Donald went “ooorrhh..”.

We walked quite a distance before we could catch a cab.  Daddy brought us to a place that he often went for steamboat lunch.  Nice!  Similar to what we had in 东北 Hunchun, but I think Hunchun one was still nicer.

After lunch, we took a cab to 天坛, the Temple of Heaven.  It is at this place, you see in period drama, little emperor boy will stand in the middle and pray to heaven.  There is this stone in the middle, where when you stand on it and you speak, the voice becomes very much louder.

This place is made up of 3 sights.  But once again, Daddy wanted to rush through them.  So after going through the 1st 2 sights, he said to skip the last one and let’s go. hiaz… thank goodness he is not in charge of the planning for the entire trip. :(

Donald insisted to buy some souvenirs at the entrance, so I did.  One for each of them.  They were so cute.  It was tough to get them to walk along fast with us.  But when I “used” the souvenir as a “bait”, the 2 of them came happily running after me.  So much better than scolding and nagging at them to hurry up.  So funny!  You can see some pictures of us having fun!

 

So we went Xiushui again.  Went to buy more stuff.   One of the shops on the 1st floor was Daddy’s merchant.  So we could leave all our shopping with them while we buy and buy.  Much better than lugging all the shopping with us. :)

→ No CommentsTags: ······

China Trip – Day 6

December 20th, 2009 · Trips

Today, we were going to take it easy.  Daddy suggested to go 秀水 for shopping first, so that we have time to try the clothes in the hotel room, and have time to go back for exchange if the size doesn’t fit.

So we woke up a bit later.  The hotel provided buffet breakfast.  I loved their 水饺，it was really yummy!

Before going out, we couldn’t resist, and walked around the entire compound to take pictures.  There have small room sizes, for singles, for doubles, they also have family rooms which are much bigger.  There are 2 floors.  And the rooms all overlook a courtyard, with tables and chairs for chilling out, and a swing for relaxing.  The view around the compound is just splendid.  A vast difference from those international chains of hotels.

We spent an entire day shopping. Had Macdonald’s for dinner and headed back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, we couldn’t resist and took more of the interior of the room.  Donald held Daddy’s super heavy SLR camera and took some pix for us too!

→ No CommentsTags: ··

China Trip – Day 5

December 19th, 2009 · Trips

I read about this Siberian Tiger Park, so I “insisted” on going, since we didn’t have a chance to see the ice festival.

Turns out, the trip to the tiger park was SPECTACULAR!  The tigers are free roaming, barricaded by metal fences.  We were in a bus, but the tigers can come up right next to the bus.  You can purchase items to “throw” to the tigers to see them fight, jump, run and hunt for it.

Initially we bought some flying birds, but it was of no kick.  Our friend actually offered to buy a goat for RMB600!  For the entertainment of the entire bus!  So we were all looking forward to it.  But the silly driver who was to let go of the animal in the midst of the tigers didn’t manage to lure all the tigers.  There was only 1 tiger who followed his car, and he let go of the goat at the far end of our bus, so we didn’t get to see much.  Since there was only 1 tiger, he caught it the moment the goat was released, so seriously, it was more a let down than anything…:( Stupid driver!

When we were let off the bus, we walk through this pathway, then we realised that we could pay RMB10 for a 5 strips of meat, to feed the tigers through the fence.  That was much more worthwhile!  We could see the tigers really close up.

After that, our friend brought us to the tower, the 龙塔.  We were not keen, but they insisted that if you go to Harbin, you must go there.  We had buffet lunch at their revolving restaurant.  And they also bought tix to see some stuff, turns out, all was boring.  :(

In the evening, they sent us to the Harbin Airport. We took the 840pm plane to Beijing.  Reached there about 1030pm.  Daddy engaged the driver who normally picks him up for his business trips. And he drove us to our hotel.

Daddy wanted to stay in Shangri-La again, but I wanted us to experience something different.  I had booked a Courtyard style hotel.  And the review for this particular one was very good.  It was the 9th most popular hotel in Beijing.  It is called Double Happiness Hotel.

When we reached there, the deco blew us off!  Even though the kids were super tired, and it was late, but we had to take some pictures of the interior of our room.

There was a “living area” with desk and internet access, then the inner room which consists of a big 4 poster bed, with red curtains all around, like a wedding bed.  It was big enough to squeeze all 4 of us in!  There was also another seperate day bed.  All the bed details were like those you would see in old chinese serials.  So nice and intricate!  Even the bathroom was of the same theme… the basin etc.  I personally liked it alot!

→ 1 CommentTags: ·····

China Trip – Day 4

December 18th, 2009 · Trips

We arrived at about 730am.  Our business partner wanted to come fetch us.  He knew we were coming for a hols, so he specially made a trip back to his hometown or Harbin.  Normally he is based in Dalian.  So sweet right?

When we arrived, it was so cold, that the moisture on our eyelashes became ice!  We all looked like our eyelashes caught some snowflakes on it!  It was so cold that Toria started crying! (Daddy would too, if he could, I’ll tell you why later!)  While waiting for our friend, Donald wanted to pee, and Daddy wanted him to pee on the road side.  My gosh, how to do that?  He would have to pull his pants down, at -30deg c?  Wouldn’t his ass freeze?? LOL!  Anyway, he didn’t.

Our friend drove us to Shangri-La Harbin!  We actually didn’t intend to stay in such a nice hotel, cos we wanted to be on a budget, but he wanted to pay for us.  So pai seh!  Daddy was a golden circle member, so we stayed on a member floor, with yummy breakfast!

After we freshen up, our friend brought us for a sumptous lunch.  In retrospect, we would had very much prefer to tour on our own.  Have simple meals and move along quickly.  Since they wanted to bring us around, we had to endure loooonnng meals, and went to places we didn’t want to go.

After lunch, they brought us to 太阳岛.  But the moment we reached there, Matthew wanted to turn back, he said he couldn’t bear the cold, much less if we were going to walk around the whole park for hours!  So we took pix at the door and left.  ( I was thinking…what the heck!)

We were too early for the International Ice and Snow Festival, so all we could see were Work-In-Progress.  Not too bad…

In the evening, we asked them to bring us to the Russian market, where they peddled all the Russian wares on the streets.  Apparently those were a thing of the past.  Now they are all holed up in malls and shops!

We then joined them for dinner.  Another long long drawn affair with lots of drinking and smoking…  We had to excuse ourselves early as we didn’t have much sleep the day before.

Gave the children a good warm bath before we called it a night. Ah…. nice comfortable Shangri-la’s bed….

→ No CommentsTags: ·

China Trip – Day 3

December 17th, 2009 · Trips

After lunch, brought the kids to their wet market. Then took a ride home in their trishaw, for only RMB2!

Before we left for the train station, Wang Ping’s family insisted to have dinner with us again, cos they had not met Matthew, as he was having drinks with our business partners the day before. 

It was SOOOO rush, we had korean 拌饭。Gobbled the food down, rushed back, the taxi was already there.  They rushed to bring down the luggage, and off we went to the Tumen Train station.

Our timing was impeccable!  The moment we reached the train station, they started boarding!  If we were a little later, we might had totally missed the train!

I had actually intended to buy 2 soft sleepers, which is the most expensive class on the train, 4 comfortable sleeper in 1 cabin, with lockable door.  But those were all sold out!  I had no choice but to buy the next class, which is the hard sleeper.  The hard sleeper is 6 sleeper in 1 open cabin.  i.e. 3 sleeper on 1 side.  Except for the bottom sleeper, where you can actually manage to sit up properly, the middle and the top sleeper are so cramped that you simply had to lie down!  Even then, the bottom sleepers were ALL sold out, had to take 2 middle sleepers.

You can imagine my surprise (or horror, actually), when I actually saw how the hard sleeper was like!  Moreover, since the kids were free, I didn’t bother to buy 2 more for them, thinking that they could actually hug us to sleep.  What a big mistake!  The sleeper is basically only about our shoulder width wide.  Just an adult alone is quite a struggle, can you imagine Matt had to squeeze with Toria, and I with Donald?  We had to sleep sideways and couldn’t freaking move!!!

It was a terrible 12 hours.  Hardly slept…. Next time, I am so going to book the soft sleeper online from ctrip before I go to China!!

→ No CommentsTags: ··

Protected: 20091217 Making of a Legacy

December 17th, 2009 · Legacy

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


Enter your password to view commentsTags:

Protected: 20091216 Making of a Legacy

December 16th, 2009 · Legacy

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:


Enter your password to view commentsTags:

China Trip – Day 2

December 16th, 2009 · Trips

Before going to do some “work”, we brought the kids to the mall to buy some more winter wear, cos it was really really cold.  We saw this auntie selling 冰糖葫芦 and we bought some.  We bought the strawberries ones, the grapes ones and sweet potato ones.  Quite yummy but quite sweet too.

We then had lunch with our business partners in this seafood restaurant.

After lunch, we went to see the warehouse, and the kids had a great time playing in the snow!  Donald was quite strong!  He could go without gloves, and we were all freezing!  Toria was so cold, her cheeks were all red, just like the chinese kids… so cute!

That evening, we had dinner with Wang Ping and her family. Steamboat! Yummy!  I love their dipping sauce.

Wang Ping bought her daughter, who is about the same age as Toria.  They had a great time together.

→ No CommentsTags: ····

China Trip – Day 1

December 15th, 2009 · Trips

So, we kissed Lizzie goodbye, and left with the kids to the airport. 

This was the itinerary that I had planned.

15/12/09 – fly to Beijing, connect 2100hrs flight to Yanji, take a 2hour cab ride to Hunchun, reach there about midnight.

16/12/09 & 17/12/09 – business trip in Hunchun.

17/12/09 – take a overnight train ride of 10hours, from Tumen to Harbin, I had planned this to let Daddy, Donald and Toria experience an overnight train journey.

18/12/09 & 19/12/09 – Harbin

19/12/09 – flight from Harbin to Beijing, check into a Courtyard style hotel

20/12/09 – 22/12/09 – 3 days in Beijing

22/12/09 – take a red-eye flight back to SG, arriving on 23/12/09.

So let’s see how this trip works out…

Daddy is a PPS club member, so we all went to the krisflyer lounge to have breakfast.

We took a morning flight, so the kids were wide awake, and enjoy watching the inflight entertainment.

We reached the Beijing Airport in the afternoon, but our flight to Yanji was late at night, about 9ish, so we had a long wait.  Meantime, I tried to buy tickets from Harbin to Beijing, thinking that buying over the counter was cheaper, but it wasn’t!  It was cheaper on www.ctrip.com.cn, so I called them, and ordered the tickets over the phone, and waited till 6pm for the tickets to be delivered to us at the airport.

Meantime, we waited at Burger King.  Daddy was busy with his conference calls, so I used my laptop to touch up some pictures.  Before we embarked on this trip, we had foreseen that there will be alot of waiting time, so we bought 2 sets of Nintendo DS Lite, 1 for each kid, to keep them entertained.  Then Daddy realised that it was much cheaper in Holiday Plaza, so he got me a set too.  He himself had a PSP.

Well, I must say that the Nintendo was a life saver.  Imagine 2 whiny kids driving you nuts for 7hours??? With the nintendo, they were well entertained. :D   Even Daddy agreed it was a good buy.  But I had to figure out how to “control” the usage of it, cos I had seen the “bad” side of it… kids playing games while waiting for food at a restaurant, parents looking bored cos the kids were pre-occupied.  I personally don’t like that, and don’t wish my kids to turn out this way… so parental control is a must…

Beijing Airport had the kiddy push trolleys!  Wow! The kids were so excited!  So we were pushing them here and there, really fast, doing “drifting”!  Toria’s hair was getting all static, standing up and sticking to the roof of the car-trolley!  Hilarious!

So by the time we got on the flight to Yanji, they knocked out.  Didn’t even budge for landing and take off.  Normally, Toria would experience quite severe ear disturbance, being unable to equalize… I wonder why…

When we reached Yanji, it was SUPER COLD!  It was -17deg c!  We were trying to locate the cab that we had booked, so walking around at night in the cold was no joke.  The kids were struggling, I could see.  Anyway, we were glad to finally reach my Dad’s house at nearly midnight, we all just plopped into bed and called it a night.

→ No CommentsTags: ······

Birthday Morning Selection

December 15th, 2009 · Just Family

It’s a tradition…Donald had his selection and Toria had hers.

We were quite mean… We (Daddy, Mummy, Donald & Toria) were going to fly to China for a holiday/business trip today, leaving in the cab at about 530am, so we woke Lizzie up at about 5am, to let her do her birthday morning selection… gave her lots of birthday kisses and hugs.. and then waved goodbye, and left her with Oma for 9days!  Poor thing… (sorry darling… but China was too cold for you!!)

She crawled to the xylophone almost straight away! (signifying inclination towards music)  Then she touched the sweet ( signifying a sweet life), and the ring (signifiying happy marriage), and lastly the seal.  Hee Hee!  Usually only the 1st one counts.  So she likes music?  Oh yeah, she loves to groove to music! :D

→ No CommentsTags: ·