Beijing and HK Nov 2019 - Day1

[NeeNeeWong]

We both had a bad nights sleep, waking up at 1am. Nothing in particular woke us up other than we both felt like we had been asleep for ages (we had gone to bed at 8ish the night before). We managed to get back to sleep just after 3 until 8am.

Neither of us were feeling hungry so we decided to unpack, by the time we had done this and got ready it was around 9:30.
First stop 7Eleven, which was a 5 min walk from our hotel. We picked up some pastries for breakfast, ham and cheese flavour and two cold coffees. We ate these on the way back to the tube.

Today we were ok our way to the Olympic park to see the aquatics centre and birds nest, we had decided to visit in the morning and then return again in the evening for two sets of photos.

We arrived just after 11, the subway was pretty simple from our hotel only one change to Olympic green. Overall the journey cost us 3yuan (30p). The park was fairly quite. It seemed like more people were taking photos of the golden leaves than the bird nest! We decided not to walk up to the towers this morning and do them later , instead making our way down to the Olympic sport centre stop to get the subway to the yonghegong lama temple.

We grabbed lunch at a little cafe down a Hutong. No photos as I popped to the loo and when I got back Chris had already tucked in, so it didn’t look appetising to take a photo of. It was a Thai place, nice but nothing special.

The temple cost 25yuan to get in, pretty straight forward, handed over a 50 and signalled for two tickets. You make your way through each temple, each one containing a (or many) buddhas. Lots of people praying and one of them must have been a special/ important one as there was a large queue outside. No photos are allowed in the temples, so you will have to visit to see the most impressive one, the largest at the end. This one is made of sandalwood and was over 200 years old. It’s carved out of a single tree trunk, one very big tree!

We made our way then back to the hotel to grab a coffee and coats as it was getting a bit cold. We then went back to the Olympic park. This time we headed towards the towers, just as we reached them they all lit up for the evening. At the end there was a concert, I think it was for the Beijing marathon, no idea who the artist was! So we quickly turned away from the screeching noises back towards the birds nest, which was also now lit. It looks so much better at night! Unfortunately all the street lights ruin the photos as they are so bright.

We were now getting hungry so made our way back toward the hotel but then walking toward Wangfujing street. Yesterday we saw a Quanjude duck restaurant, we both loooovvvveeee duck so headed here for dinner tonight. It was 298 for a full duck service and the 4yuan for cucumber and sauce and another 12yuan for pancakes. OMG it was delicious.

The chef comes out with his trolley to serve the duck. First he slices off some skin and your server gives it to you and a sugar bowl. He then pointed to tell us to dip the duck in the sugar. We thought it was going to be too sweet but boy we were wrong. It was lovely! Who knew duck and sugar.

Then we were plated with the rest of our duck, which we wrapped up in our pancakes. We had read online do not roll, instead form it into a little square parcel. So we did and we didn’t get anyone correcting us.
The only thing I couldn’t do was eat it then with my chopsticks. I tried and it fell apart so after I made it I very lady like, shoved it in my mouth with my hands.

Afterward there was a soup, which we think was duck soup made from the bones, Chris tried some and said it tasted oily, so I didn’t bother as I could tell from his face it was nice. They automatically add a 10% tip on. It was overall with drinks and time 375yuan.It was probably the most expensive meal around, but it was worth it.

We then took a leisurely stroll back to our hotel stopping back again at 7Eleven, this time grabbing what we think is chocolate pastries and a galaxy vanilla bar. The galaxy bar was 10.80, more expensive than our pastry, but I wanted to try it. Chris got some chicken wings crisps. They had all sorts of weird flavours (cucumber, spicy crayfish, grilled eel, fried crab and wasabi). I think we played it safe with our choice! These were 13.60, but we would snack on them tomorrow in between meals.

And that’s it! Back at the hotel, this time it’s 10:30 and we’re just getting ready for bed. Hopefully we sleep through the night tonight.

[Melbatb]

It all sounds fascinating! The Olympic Stadium at night looks amazing!

The one thing that puts me off China is the food as I don’t eat meat. You are doing well finding places to eat!

[NeeNeeWong]

So far we have been lucky in either finding places with a rough English translation or pictures. The translate app doesn’t really work too well, you can kind of work out what it’s saying but not so you feel confident in exactly what you would get.

There seems to be on many menus fish options, the veg options so far seem to be side dishes so far. However the amount of dishes that they seem to get out here between two people amazes me. It’s like they haven’t eaten all day! So I don’t see why you couldn’t just have a variety of smaller dishes and try more options