i thought i would be bored slacking 6 days in Beijing... but i was wrong... the past 2 days have been esp memorable =) i dunno why the typhoon doesn't spare any place i visit... when i was in Hong Kong weather was horrible apparently due to typhoon in Taiwan and yest there was supposed to be a thunderstorm in Beijing cos typhoon has apparently moved up here... but luckily it wasn't that bad... but we had to scale the great wall under less than optimal conditions... but still awed by it nonetheless. wind and rain made navigating treacherously steep slopes esp difficult, but also more memorable... u really really wonder how many ppl sacrificed their lives building this amazing wall...
today was one of the more interesting days. it really struck me how perhaps 99% of the tourists i've seen these past 6 days at major tourist attractions are Chinese. i guess from other provinces... the snaking line to enter Mao's mausoleum made me wonder if the Chinese really really still respect and admire him even decades after his death? also, to some extent, i still observed traces of communism all over. eg. people still call one another 'tong2 zhi4'... i could not believe that there was some loudspeaker voice in the square near the mausoleum advising ppl lining up to be quiet, to be respectful when filing past Mao's (apparently formaldehyde-filled) corpse...blah blah. and ppl holding loudspeakers to keep the crowds orderly... sigh there's so much i want to blog about but can't =P shall reserve till when i return from my trip. then in the evening, i took an interesting hutong tour on trishaw with Ting... our guide (i felt bad like we're ripping him off like that cos we paid quite little for like a 1.5 hr ride and he was this puny guy who had to zai4 us round sights and kept sweating profusely) I think these hutongs (dwelling units most Beijing folks used to live in) are SO interesting. many of them have been converted into shops/bars/touristy places already, but many remain real dwelling units for many ppl. they seem really cramped from the outside (can peek in a bit but like quite rude to go in to take pics cos after all they're ppl's homes) dunno. even though i can never imagine myself living in one, nor do i want to live in one, i really liked them...
what else? hmm food again i guess =P so far none of the eating places in Beijing has disappointed me... from Chinese fast-food, streetfare to more ex restaurants... everything tastes pretty good =) and i never fail to eat ice-cream everyday (cos it's so hot!!)... and they have yummy Walls and Nestle ice-cream flavors we dun find in Sg/US.... i esp like this orange-vanilla ice-cream that looks like our lime Split but tastes like sunrise....
mmmm ok talk too much already. setting off for Shanghai tmr... wonder what surprises await me? =)

PS: btw i can't access my blog in China, so i'm sorry i can't really reply to comments. but i receive them cos they get sent to my gmail...