China - Beijing

Beijing sometimes called as Peking is the capital of the People's Republic of China and is also one of the most populous cities in the world, exceeded 22 million people now. I wouldn't be surprise as 4 years ago my friend TH went there for a media company great offer and he asked me to come along with him after he had settled down there, earning about RM20k per month. Haha...I know it's such a tempting offer for me and they get to deal huge projects amounting to hundreds of million dollars business per project with celebrities from around the world but I told him "No,TQ!".

From time to time, he saw me on FB chat or MSN, he'll called and asked if I would like to say Hi to 'Vicky Zhao Wei' at her cafe or Jessica Hsuen during one of his meeting, I told him better not. I told him to fully-focused his attention for the meeting. Not only he earned a lot from the projects bonus after the completion and success of it, he also found his love life there, married and have a happy family there. I'm very happy for him as he have 3 times of failed relationships in Malaysia and although his life is comfortable here but I fully supported his dream to expand his career horizon to work in Beijing, China. 

China is the land of opportunities, provided you have a stable connection here or close network from people you can trust. I always stretched that to all my friends who look for a chance to make it big here as the people here are the real survivors of all time. If they really planned to con/force you, you still need to accept it with letting it go after it happened. I have many real stories behind all this facts but past is past, they learnt from it and very grateful that those lessons really taught them some experiences where they lost their money just to get away from it. Now, they are more cautious about it and take every precaution of it before they jumped into it . 

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 720,000 m²(7,800,000 sq ft). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by  UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Haha...Been there twice but never get bored of this place but be prepared to walk like an Olympic Gold Medallist here!

My friend TH is still inviting me for their private gatherings with his Chinese+local Malaysian entrepreneurs meeting for networking at 5 star hotel during CNY when he's back to KL. I knew it's gonna be an interesting and inspiring meeting with all the professionals and business owners who can form a good network among us and expand our business together but during CNY is kinda difficult for me. Normal days I can meet him privately for a good chat I told him. 

Even when he asked me to join his media company with his NZ Boss at that time, the main reason I gave him was I can't leave my dear Charmers(3 cutie girls). They meant a lot to me, I wana see them growing up normally and taught them good values in life so they can have great living years to come by over the years. Money cannot buy happiness because we're happy living together. Haha...Lynette was only 2+ years old during this Beijing trip, now she's 6 this year. Time really flies like an arrow...Haha! 

Money is not everything to me. I know it's 'Yau chien emm hai mang neng, mou chien jau mang neng pat neng' but to me, I always believe that I would be able to earn that kinda money in time to come. It's a matter of time only, it would come rolling to me eventually once everything is going smoothly with stability. My Fengshui master and fortune teller also mentioned to me many times that my 'Wong Kam Dei' (golden earth) actually lies here in Malaysia, although I have many offers from overseas. I'm still grateful to my friends who offered me all this great offers as I know they're generous enough to share good things with me. I'm able to earn that now and I don't mind to earn more so every chance of business opportunities that's coming my way offered to me, I would grab it for sure as long I'm not hurting or harming the others.  

Beijing National Stadium, officially the National Stadium is also known as the Bird's Nest that was designed for use throughout the 2008 Olympics. Located at the Olympic Green, the stadium cost US$423 million. The design, which originated from the study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof, giving the stadium the appearance of a bird’s nest. The 1^st time when I travelled to Beijing, they’re building the foundation of this stadium and this time I came with my family, it’s a prideful creation of China that all the Chinese in China are very proud of. It’s windy here so we decided to fly some Beijing Olympic kites while enjoying the nice view around this place.

The Great Wall of China is the famous wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of China. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained and enhanced where the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty. It is still remained as one of the 7 wonders of the world. No doubt about it as it's really one of the most wonderful creation I had ever seen in my life. Although I've been here when I was 25 years old, it still look the same no change. It' is one of the greatest history of China that was built by several dynasties over two thousand years. 

Back then, I still have the stamina to scale to one of top fort up there where we can get our own certificates with our own names listed on the plate as souvenirs. But in the last few years when I went again with my family, I stopped at the 2nd fort and needed so much rest for fresh air intake. Haha...must admit that I'm old liao compared to the last 13 years ago, I can still do it with forced agility. My friend gave up also at the half way up there, but I kept encouraging her to keep up with me at that time and we took one step at a time. Thanks to my ex-company who sponsored our great China trip and gave us RM1000 to spend as a bonus trip with great memories to reminisce. 

To reach up to the top of The Great Wall of China takes a great deal of a strong mental strength. All along the way we see some people are vomiting or fainting. The stairs are not even, huge stones somemore and we need to take a big step to climb even one step up so you can imagine how hard it can be. That's why when we reached up to that certain height, all of us in KIB employees felt that we have conquered the war of The Great Wall of China so they encouraged us to get the cert. My friend of course rush to get it and I finally agreed to it as I can feel the utmost grace and glory with them to be part of the successful climb-up there too. Our Group 4 of a few hundred employees, only the 10 of us reached up here flashing our certs and took lots of pictures including myself. 

My German friend used to travel around the world and Beijing is one of his favourite place too. He told me he wanted to climb the Great Wall of China again after the 1st time he did that. Obviously I encouraged him to do so as I totally understand his feelings of reaching up to the top. Not only the spectacular views can stunned you for hours up there but, the pride of joys and cheers when you reached up there is really indescriable. Totally feeling on top of the world!  

In China, after such a tiring day of walking, climbing and running around many places in just one area of Beijing city only, we can finished the 10 big plates of local dishes with 2 bowls of rice. Not bad the food here at this luxury restaurant. LeAnne was only 7 years old at that time but she can take 2 bowls of rice that night, she told me she was too hungry. I, myself also beh tahan, hungry like mad after a long day walking around China.  

Peking Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era and is now considered a national dish of China. The dish is prized for the thin, crisp skin with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin, little meat sliced in front of the diners by the cook. The meat is usually eaten with pancakes and ‘hoisin'(seafood) sauce or sweet bean sauce. Yummy, please forgive me duck and I took one piece only.

Come to Beijing obviously we cannot miss the Chinese cultural performance. For my young sisters who have watched this fantastic dancing performance for the 1^st time, they got really awe-inspired by their singing, dancing performances and the beautiful, colourful costumes. The brightful colours, the alluring designs and the fashion passion by Chinese culture is the new talk of the town in fashion industry of today's history. Many fell in love with their fashion nowadays, even the Europeans tend to follow their latest trends in fashion today and accepting their designs for their brands today. They have the sense of fashion that speaks of luxury, elegance and sophisticated designs with daring colours that's compatible and loveable for many fashion lovers.

This picture was taken when I was passing through the wax palace, a few of my girlfriends shouted out with glee excitement to me. They have changed to empress or princess costumes and asked me to join them here. I didn't have the chance to think about it, the Chinese took out my jacket and put me on this princess look already in just 5 minutes time. Then my friends rushed me for pictures with them and we spent so much time here taking pictures until the tour leader gotta rush us back to next destination. Too bad it was not the digital world yet at that time.

Cruising in China is a common activity they usually encourage us to ride on. For me, cruise is too boring for me as I can't sit still for more than an hour on a boat. But here in Summer Palace of Beijing, it's totally worth my time spending with my family together on this boat trip around the lake as to see the whole place of this royal garden. I don't think all of us can walk to the whole place so by taking a cruise, we can see the whole place and enjoy the spectacular views of this area.

Aiyo, pity my dear LeAnne as she gotta walked so far and keep up with our long journey. At times seeing her so tired, I told her to rest till have enough energy then we continue our journey again. No need to rush but to enjoy every pit stop of the beautiful scenery around this lake.And almost everywhere I bought some ice-cream to cool us down and snacks to indulge during the hot summer season or we're gonna be grilled to thirst and hunger to death here. 

The Summer Palace is 15 kilometers from the central of Beijing, being the largest and most well-preserved royal park in China. It greatly influences Chinese horticulture, landscape with its famous natural views and cultural interests recognized as 'The Museum of Royal Gardens'. Such a stunning place here eventhough the sun was burning us like BBQ Grill during the hot, summer season of the year in China.

Haha...all of us took a ride on this traditional trishaw in a gang of 14 people in my family. We had a blast of fun here as they tend to race with each other like the amazing race on AXN. It's kinda exhilarating and not a relaxing kinda ride anymore. I guess that's the fun of going for a holiday in a group like this. It's not easy to plan to go together but if everyone makes the effort to go for it, we finally made it for sure. And for this trip, I made the last minute choice to agree to go along with them then they quickly booked it. Family comes 1st above every plans that I may have in mind, I gotta put my business+pleasure plans aside 1st sometimes as to please my dear Charmers(3 girls).

One of the China tour itinery is to visit this health centre where they offered us a good reflexology massage by the trainees here. During the massage, they would have a good chat with us, pushing us to buy their health care products. Actually the products here are healthily good those who are concern about health, beauty and wellness with Chinese thousand years of treatment expertise. It's just that they set too high prices for some of their products, tourists may shy away from it. But for those reasonable price like Bao Fu Ling, many of them usually bought it as it's a famous brand of health product where many Malaysians are actually using it for years liao. They're benefiting from it and 'tumpang' to get it for them when we travel to China. It's a repeat purchase for the users who really believed in Chinese treatments. 

One of the greatest Chinese advise they managed to get through us with this meaningful thought. So deep meaning that it means so so deep to many people who understand Chinese that simply means 'Health is the ultimate wealth'. No matter how capable and knowlegeable you can be but if you're not able to stand up, move and only lying on the bed, your life is meaningless from a hero to zero. Simple Chinese phrase yet it's powerful enough to wake us up all at once, health comes first above everything else. 

To me, I always believe in 'Zhung Sai Hap Pik', the Chinese+Western combined treatments to maintain a good health. But more into believing the Chinese tthousand years of therapies where they didn't encouraged surgery/operation to cut off our flesh and damaged any organs unless it's too critical already. Chinese treatment is more into holistic kinda treatment just like the Indian thousand years of treatment where they can detect your illness/weakness through checking the pulse, they knew what's missing in your body system already. 

Once, I even shared one of the story on the reasons why I said that to one of the local magazine related to health. She read about it too and totally agreed with that statement of mine. Western, I believe in Cellfood with proven results and scientific reviews of it and that's why I'm still taking it till today. Back to school again and this time, we're on pharmaceutical class on beauty, health and wellness. 

It's good to be trained on the basic level of understanding and slowly, they trained us to the higher level of knowledge that related to the links of their health products. Even my sister May, a pharmacist was paying full attention to it and I actually enjoyed this kinda class with both of my dear Charmers sitting beside me, we got to learn about health from the Chinese. Money can't buy that.



'WangFuJing' located in the heart of Beijing is one of the Chinese capital's most famous shopping streets. The majority of the main shopping area is pedestrianised and is very popular for both tourists and residents shopping of the capital. The last time I was there in the afternoon was full of people, I couldn't shop easily but this time in the evening, it's better although still full of tourists everywhere. In China, it's always 'Yan Shan, Yan Hoi' everywhere I go, what to say Beijing is the capital of China. 

The Temple of Heaven, literally called the Altar of Heaven is a complex of religious buildings situated in the south eastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. Very exclusive temple with a garden full of old timers spending their time here playing music, selling souvenirs and playing cards.

'The Place' is totally a new place for me as this shopping centre is well known for its massive LED sky screen. The Place also houses excellent eating and shopping place that’s brightly shine with one of  the largest LED screen in the world. Fantastic and fascinating to simply describe this place. Just missed out the chance to shop here as this tour operator only brought us here so late in the evening, no more following this tour agency anymore. My friend TH have been asking me to visit him in Beijing so many times, stayed over at his apartment anytime I want to but I have yet to plan for it as I don't like to 'kacau'(disturb) anyone, intruding his privacy. And I prefer to stay in the 5 hotel as you know me, haha. I don't mind to visit Beijing again, although been here twice and have visited many places around Beijing, there are still many tourist attractions I wish to explore again.   

Will plan one real nice Beijing holiday where I can travel slowly visiting one place to another destination with whole day shopping at the mall. I wana shop till I drop dead gorgeous for Beijing lovely goods, haha. Beijing placed a special list under my love heart of travel and it's hard to forget Beijing anyway. Even when I talked about Beijing with anyone, I just can't stop talking about it like there's no tomorrow. Haha...to travel is to live, that's the famous quote I learnt from the Amazing Race show in which I totally agreed with this meaningful statement. Travel keeps you humble as the more you see, the more you feel and in the end, you'll know that your home is always the best place to be no matter how good a place claimed to be. Haha...C'est la vie, that's life to me! ;)