Day 1 April 10th 2025 Guangzhou
It was great to meet my cousin Ming Lian 明涟 and her family for the first time ever in our lives . The food in Guangzhou is
superb. We went to Diandude in Tianhe to eat yummy dim sum. Dinner at Datong was
courtesy of Ming Lian and family. We walked off our excessive eating by going to
the park Yue Shiu and walking alongside Pearl River.
Day 2 April 11th Shunde.
Shunde is touted as the
Gastronomical Capital of the world. And yes, it lives up to its reputation! I
love the yummy dim sum, the desserts - double skinned milk buffalo milk, ginger
bumped milk etc etc. We ate till we could not eat anything more. Food places are
Shunde house morning tea 顺德人家早茶 Huagai Street 华盖路步行街, Madam Pork
Private dishes 猪肉婆私房菜 . We also went to Qinghui park 清晖园 Shun Feng Park
顺峰山公园 Fishermen Wharf 渔人码头夜景 etc to walk off the food.The walnut crisps 核桃酥 we bought at Fishermen Wharf are so wonderfully memorable. No where in China nor inMalaysia have I tasted such good walnut crisps. Upon returning
to Guangzhou, we went to White Swan Hotel and old Beijing Road for shopping and
desserts.
Day 3 April 12th Beijing
We celebrate God's goodness and timeliness for
us. On 11th April, 400 flights to Beijing were cancelled due to strong winds.
But our flight on 12th April departed on time despite much turbulence
mid-air. Our hotel is walking distance from Beijing Water Cube and Bird Nest
Olympic Stadium. We enjoyed the pretty peonies and blooming plum trees there. It
was very cold because of the strong winds. We enjoyed our first meal in Beijing
with yummy Peking duck.
Day 4 April 13th
Many parks were closed due to the strong winds earlier. At the Botanic Garden, we met a patient garden warden who directed us to visit a small flowering area nearby. Here we enjoyed the flowering red plum trees and spring flowers. We then changed our itinerary to visit the hutongs in Shichahai instead.
Our 1st stop was Yan Dai Jie 烟袋街 Tobacco Pouch Street. Next we visited Shichahai 什刹海 in her glory. Shichahai, is a historical and cultural tourist scenic spot in the North West and is located in the Xicheng ( West District ) adjacent to the central axis of Beijing city. It has a water area of 336,000 square meters and is the only open scenic area with open water in the inner city of Beijing, and is also the largest and most complete historical district in Beijing
We looked for and found our hot spots - the bridges, the narrow streets, the shops with high point views etc. The lovely wind but sunny weather made for great times. We entered ZhonglouWan hutong to look for the Bell ( Clock) tower and the Drum Tower. These 2 towers faced a common square and these 2 towers kept/ announced time since 1270 - the times of Kublai Khan.
We queued at the Michelin Star Fang Zhuan Chang courtesy Jason's googling skills and had a yummy lunch Zhajiangmian soya beans paste noodles and a very appetising tripe with glass noodles dish there.
2nd n 3rd hutong: Wang Fujing 王府井 the shopping street reminds us of Nangjing Road in Shanghai. We walked over to Heping Guoju 和平购物中心 at Basement 2 and experienced Beijing in her nostalgic past.
4th hutong: We took the Didi to XiangYukou 香鱼口 街 past the Qianmen area 和前门街. We had the good fortune to catch a train crossing ahead of us while crossing the hutongs.Here the hutongs streets are much broader with plenty of street food. We rested to drink and escaped from the cold while someone had his ears cleaned.We ended the night with a yummy hotpot dinner for 388 RMB for 4.
Tip: Do use the Didi to avoid being fleeced by taxi drivers. Taxi driver ask for RMB100/-. Didi cost us RMB 41/-. But the temptation to take the waiting taxi is always there due to the cold winds. Mandarin words helped me pronounce, find and understand the locations we went to.
Day 5 April 14th
Taking the S2 Sea of Flowers spring train from Huangtudian 黄土店火车站 toBadaling Great Wall 八达岭长城 via Juyongguan Pass is a hope fulfilled. The train tickets cost RMB 7/-per pax. But sadly the heavy winds earlier had blown off most of the flowers.
This is the first time a Tabernacle of David TOD team of 6 people climbed the Great Wall together. We dressed in TOD new signature steel blue T- shirts. Despite seeing only a small portion of the apricot blooms, we were still very happy. Mid March would have been a better time to see the sea of apricot blossoms on the hills.
There are hordes of people climbing. We climbed the south gate Badaling Great Wall. It was exciting to climb a good portion of the Great Wall together as a team. Some sections were very steep from 45-60° in gradient. Jason,Siang Hwa,Bryan and Joanne went the furthest in distance.
We had a well deserved good meal before boarding the S2 train back. From Huangtudian, we detoured to the Olympic Forest Park and had a great time photographing the lovely flowering trees and the Olympic Torch Building.
We had another yummy Peking duck dinner at a high class restaurant Quan Jude 全聚德
Day 6 April 16th
TOD team in orange T- shirts climbed Mutianyu Great Wall 慕田峪长城 today. Jason, Siang Hwa,Bryan n Joanne reached the last tower Tower 20 while Mui Leng and me were very happy to reach Tower 18. There are very steep sections at some places.
Mutianyu is more popular with foreigners but less crowded as it is 75 km northeast from Beijing . Somehow Badaling GW is very crowded with Asians despite being 79 km to the northwest of Beijing - maybe prehaps due to its accesibility.
We rushed to our next stop Simatai Great Wall 司马台长城 about 140 km north east of Beijing. Simatai has the only Great Wall section that is lit and accessible by night. Our driver Wang was very helpful to ensure we checked in and to reach in time to catch the sunset and night views. I am thankful Jack Fang - our tour operator from mainland China Dragon tours has helped us coordinate logistic details of transport and tickets with helpful recommendations.
Simatai is more rugged. There are no safety side walls and the steps are unevenly spaced. We climbed very slowly up and down to ensure safety. Bryan and Joanne took the route to Tower 6 and 7 while we took the route to Tower 8. Both routes are challenging but perhaps the route to Tower 6 and 7 is safer. We viewed a drone show over Gubei watertown while being up there.
From our 6 star hotel rooms in Gubei watertown, we could see the lighted Great Wall ridge. We went for a long onsen soak to relax our muscles - fatigued by 2 long climbs in a single day.
My mainland blood cousins Ming Gui and Ming Lian says
中国有句古话叫：
不到长城非好汉.
你们现在都是好汉了哈.
If you haven't climbed the Great Wall, you haven't become a hero.
Today the TOD team are heroes 3x. What an awesome day!
7th Day 16th April 2025.
We asked for a late check out from the Gubei Water Town hotel. After breakfast, we went to jetty A and took a slow boat ride on the scenic canal to jetty C. There are many places for photo shoots of traditional buildings, lovely bridges etc. The canal runs through to the site of the church on a hill and offers great views of the Simatai Great Wall, a well-preserved section of the Great Wall with many military outposts. The hiking route is challenging. We came across several groups of cute ducks and geese during our canal town.
Gubei Water Town in Gubeikou Town, 古北口古北水镇 Miyun District, Beijing is 140 km from Beijing exudes historical charm. 90% of our photo and videos credits are to Siang Hwa.
We thoroughly enjoyed the tulips 郁金香 festival. We searched and found the peony 牡丹 garden. I totally loved the lilacs 丁香花 garden. We sang and worshipped in the lilacs garden, overwhelmed by their soothing fragrance. The wisteria 紫藤 section brought us much joy. The peach 桃花 garden was simply beautiful and the yellow forsythia 连翘 is so cheerful.
Joanne and me, the FFT were always the first to reach flower sites and the last to leave.
What a lovely relaxing afternoon! Simply thankful to God for beautiful weather, the sense of sight and smell and fellowship of friends and spouse.
8th day 17th April 2025
A long but doable queue to enter TianAn Men Square 天安门 and the Forbidden City 紫禁城. We ar very thankful for Fred, our English speaking tour guide who met us at our hotel, arranged our transport and navigated us through the long queues and passports check points. He pointed to us various buildings from TianAn Men Square and posed us several questions.
We went through an underpass beneath ChangAn Avenue 长安街 a long road separating Forbidden City from TianAn Men Square. We entered through the South Gate and passed through several layers of courts and buildings.
I found the hall where the students took the Imperial examinations interesting. The best candidates from each province sat for the examination. Only the wisest were promoted. This Imperial examination is likely to be the cultural root of the Chinese parental pressure to make their kids shine in school.
The Forbidden City exemplifies the opulence of the residences of the Chinese emperor and traditional Chinese palatial architecture. It influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia. UNESCO list it as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
The Forbidden City central north–south axis remains the central axis of Beijing. This axis extends to the south through Tiananmen Gate to Tiananmen Square, the ceremonial centre of the People's Republic of China, and on to Yongdingmen Gate. To the north, it extends through Jingshan Park to the Drum Tower and Bell Tower. This axis is not exactly aligned north–south, but is tilted by slightly more than two degrees.
Only 4 real men ( non castrated ) are allowed beyond the official meeting places of the Emperor and the court officials. Eunuchs are not deemed real men.
The view from the vantage point 45 m of Jingshan Park 景山公园 over the Forbidden City is lovely. I loved the peony garden and other flowers at the base of Jingshan Park at the West Gate. There is a lovely almost white Chinese fringe tree whom 2 veteran photographers excitedly spoke to us about. There was also a huge lilac tree and a glorious red plum tree.
We went for a quick lunch of steamed buns and Zhajiang mee at Xian Yi Kou 鲜鱼 口before quickly returning to queue for the Temple of Heaven 北京天. TOH is where the emperor prays 3x a year to ShangDi 上帝 the God up in Heaven for Good Harvests. He fast for 3 days from good food, women, wine to cleanse and prepare himself for these prayers.
9th Day 18th April
We went to the Summer Palace. It was beautiful but the day was a wet day so we didn't take many photos. That night, we flew home. It is a happy and fruitful trip.
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