Beijing!

So we left Shanghai for Beijing via train. While waiting for the train, we saw a lady quarreling with a cleaner who had unknowingly throw away her umbrella when that lady went to the toilet.

OMG. She was tiny, but boy, was the lady loud... Not to be outdone, the cleaner was screaming her head off too at the lady. And so was the manager when the lady demanded to talk to him. WDH rite?

That is the Shanghainese for you... They are forever quarrelling and loud.

But back to the train ride, it was firstly, very expensive! More expensive than a domestic flight from Shanghai to Beijing! But so worth it! Very the high class with comfortable beds and personal cable TVs (I watched Mr & Mrs Smith in Chinese, lol!).

The 5 of us were spilt cause it was a 4-person cabin - 3 and 2. Pam, Ashley and I had to share with this uncle who was snoring the roof off... ARGH. But I was too preoccupied clogging the toilet bowl with my ehem...

So we reached Beijing the next day at 7am and we took a subway to our lodge.
The lodge was actually a hutong siheyuan converted into a really cozy inn. A hutong is a type of narrow street commonly found and associated to Beijing. Siheyuan is a traditional courtyard house.:

The covered 'courtyard':

Our lodge, The Red Lantern, a siheyuan:

Hutongs:

The shopping district around our place at Jishuitan:

MacDonald's finally!!! Ahh... Filet-O-Fish!

Yummy Nestea drink!

We decided to look for a bank to exchange money. But we ended up getting really lost.

'Accidentally' found a mosque!:

Bank after bank rejected us ("sorry, we don't accept Singapore dollars"), we decided to give up and instead took the subway to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Park:

Near the subway station:

Beijing 2008 Olympic tower:

Baby-for-sale?:

Indoor stadium... boring...:

This is what we came all the way to see! The 'Bird Nest':

Designed by world famous Swiss architects, Herzog and de Meuron, the Bird Nest is really awesome!:

Even the lamps leading into the stadium looks like the bird nest!:

We paid S$5 to enter (half price for students):

Really cool!:

Looks smaller than I imagine:

Go team Singapore!:

WDF Team Singapore?:

The mesh of beams:

Dead snowmen:

Saw people skating around the park:

The mess under the roof:

Water Cube!:

The tensile cloth for the roof:

At the highest flight of stairs:

Huh?:

Again? Ook...:

Not many people might realise this but the stadium's walls are mostly red:

The Water Cube upclose... Boarded up... too bad...:

The whole Bird Nest:

We later had dinner somewhere near the campus of the 3 Beijing exchange students:

The Beijing exchange students - Keyang, Hancheng and Sam: