Arriving in a clueless terminal (apparently the new T3), it was cold and empty. Arriving in Beijing City, foggy and misty from the rain...and too much construction. Although i was thoroughly fascinated with the new CCTV building. Defying architectural possiblities.
In my 3 days there, maybe too short to make a sweeping comment..i accomplished the art of haggling at Silk Market, finely honed from JJ market days with the LZBs, visited Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Great Wall, Tian'anmen Square. I can only say that China is one big copy country at least for now. One can see the many distortion of the famed BMW logos...oval shaped, sqaure shaped all utilising the blue white black colour schemes...Li Ning's (probably China's most famous athlete) brand of sportswear goes by the slogan of "Anything is possible" plus a vaguely familiar swoosh...and the list goes on...
Summer Palace did not impress...everything original was burnt down during the war and the restorations were poor replicas..replicas that lack the love for history..paint was spilling carelessly out of the carved shapes..I
think the Temple of Heaven is a better bet if you have to choose one.
A very tired impersonator..
Great Wall was one highlight of the trip..it indeed proves itself worthy of being a world wonder.
Well, that is as much of Beijing as I can comment...moving on...I was taken to a totally different world in province of Fujian. We travelled 1.5 hours by car from Fuzhou to Putian > Hanjiang > Shi Tian Village...so you can tell how inside a world I was in...when I reached the airport, I was greeted by the Lim relatives..4 generations from Ah Gong to his daughter, to her son and to the son's bao bao..we had lunch as our first stop. The "restaurant" also known as Fan4 Dian4 is a family owned cookhouse. It means you choose your food from the fridge and tanks on the first floor and proceed upstairs into the bedrooms converted to VIP rooms with big round tables and not forgetting the important piece of entertainment - TV! Each room has a TV so those not interested in drinking, talking will watch TV....which happens to be me...now I know why LTM is glued to TV...its the Putian roots
Duckies 3 days old and behind Ah Gong's House
A Typical Breakfast (Xi-fan: porridge plus dishes) and his Ah Gong
The courtyard in the house and the 3 storey bungalow! hahahaha...
I spent touring the city of Putian most of the time in a light drizzle and in the cold. Totally unprepared for the weather...it was like stepping back into Beijing on the first day. I had to recycle my clothes so that I can be kept warm.
Qian-Men (City Gate)
In all, Putian was quite enjoyable...food was yummilicious! I eat Lu-Mian (like white lor mee) everyday...no kidding..everyday..sometimes twice a day..it is filled with lots of baby oysters, bamboo mussels, some strands of pork belly, cabbage, spring onion, broad beans....unfortunately i did not take pictures of the food as almost every meal was a 10 course banquet and therefore very paiseh to take my camera out and snap snap snap...but i did try to sneak in some shots. Purple vege soup, a croco-looking type of sea cucumber, abalone soup (for b'fast!) and yes...we had snake meat..but I dun dare to eat..
In general I think China is still worth visiting although we have heard so many horror stories of fake food, dangerous clothes, dangerous toys...I would go back again to the village to see how much it will change over the next 2 years.
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