北京

Beijing, the Capital City of People's Republic of China

Estimated Population: 21,150,000 people (+ 3 Singaporean tourists)

I've never been to Beijing before, so I was literally vibrating restlessly in my seat as the plane touched down Beijing Nanyuan Airport. There's always this sense of anticipation when I visit a land that is completely foreign to me - a place that I have never been, only heard of - because there's so much to uncover and you can be sure that there will be surprises at every corner.

The first thing that welcomed me in Beijing is a gust of cold wind that made ice grow in my veins. And right from the beginning, I just knew, visiting Beijing during winter is a bad, bad idea.

Here is a quick and honest run down of how I survived >1 night in Beijing:

Clothes
Temperature is an average of about 4 to -6 degree Celsius in December.
In other words, it's really cold in the day and it drops to wtf-insane cold at night.
For those with the great desire to travel in such mind-numbing (haha) weather, it's best to possess a high degree of paranoia and pack as much warm clothes as possible.
I wore a double layer heat-tech leggings, extra warm heat-tech l/s top, jeans, down jacket, duffel coat, leather gloves, a knit beanie, a face/neck mask, stick-on heat packs, woolly socks and boots and I barely got through the night frost.

Sometimes I'll take out the mask/beanie/gloves so that I can take photos (vanity > comfort) and my bare skin hurts as if I clutched a block of ice far too long. There's this searing kind of freeze that just go all the way into your bones.

Food

Snack Streets

I love street snacks!!!!!! Somehow the more dubious it is, the better it tastes! Of course, a healthy dose of ignorance is required (read: gutter oil)
Beijing has rows of street food here and there but the one that I particularly liked the best was at Wangfujing Snack Street: they have savoury - beef balls, smelly and non-smelly tofu, roasted chestnuts, meat skewers; sweet - candied fruits like strawberries and haw with a sugar crust; and also just plain down yuck like starfish and creepy insects.

Roasted Duck

 ...is an absolutely divine dish, especially in Beijing's winter. There's this chain called Quan Ju De that is famous for selling roasted duck. I'm pretty sure I saw a faded photo of Richard Nixon and other politicians dining there. The chef would bring out a whole duck and slice it in front of you. After the meat is served, the bones are taken away to be brewed in a warm broth. It's about 130 RMB/pax but the three of us loved it so much we went back twice.

Great Leap Brewery #6
I love visiting Microbreweries because they always have the fun kind of craft beers. Great Leap has garnered quite a good traction in the microbrewery scene in Beijing and I sampled about 4 of their beers. My absolute favourite is Honey Ma, which is infused with Sichuan peppercorns and Shandong date honey. It tasted amazing with Ma La peanuts.
They only serve beer so you gotta eat up before that.

Places
Tiananmen Square
Located at the heart of Tiananmen Square is the Central Government of China, a huge photo of every PRC's favourite Communist of the hour, Chairman Mao, and right across that is Mao's mausoleum.
The security is pretty tight there - you have to pass through a security check just to enter the square. Also, you can't bring a bag inside the mausoleum. Many Chinese tourists just dump it in a pile outside the gate but that is extremely ill-advised considering the hordes that enter by the bus load. I didn't go because I had a bag with me and- no offence- there was no way I was gonna leave it aside just to see a dead Communist, sorry.

P.S. Did you know there is an Underground City in Beijing??? They closed it long ago because it's too near the political square of Tiananmen but it's astounding because it can fit 40% of the population during Mao's era. #funfacts

Forbidden City

The lure of the forbidden is always enticing. Jorji and JW were buzzing with excitement because they've watched period dramas which almost always takes place in the Forbidden City. Being the banana that I am (read: yellow on outside/white on inside), I don't know anything about this place but it certainly loomed with a sense of grandeur that hints at its past splendour. Plus points that I get to dress up as a Princess!!! I used to watch Huan Zhu Ge Ge and I always wanted to wear that headgear. Who doesn't want a gigantic flower on top of their head?

The more pertinent parts of the place such as the main hall was restored carefully but a large part of the city's architecture is worn out. It used to be alive with stories (and scandals) that hark from the Ming and Qing dynasty and now all that remains are the ghosts that fill the vacant halls.
I really did quite enjoy exploring the place. They weren't kidding when it's called a city. It's really big and there's all sorts of funny passageways. And I have taken a strange interest in the story of the Last Emperor. It's about the boy Emperor called Puyi and he became Emperor when he was 3. He had a shitty boring childhood and he's all "hell no, I ain't gonna wear a braid" and cut it off. He was abdicated from the throne later on.

Hutongs
Hutongs are old neighbourhoods that have been refurbished to become a sort-of hip district. I say sort-of, because it wasn't as interesting as I thought it was, because the shops kept repeating itself. But nevertheless, it was just fun to walk around and delight in finding unique items like this amazing fox shoehorn and eat fake llao llaos.

Ming Tombs
Ming Tombs are hella far but since it's just as hella far as The Great Wall, it's best to just sign up for one of those day tours and a coach bus will take you to the two places.
Ming Tombs are a go-to for Chinese history buffs who want to know more about Emperor Yong Le of the Ming Dynasty and his Eunuch Admiral, Zheng He. It was great for me because one of the greatest Singaporean play to have ever been written is about Zheng He (Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral by Kuo Pao Kun) Plus, the play I'm involved in for next year's NUS Arts Festival features these two historical figures quite heavily, so the trip to the tombs really helped me in my research.

The Great Wall of China

Hands down, this has got to be the best part of my Beijing trip.

W-O-W, this is seriously one of the hallmarks of Mankind's greatest achievements and one of the new 7 wonders of the world and here I am!!!!!!
This is the section at Badaling and there are two routes - the easy but crowded route or the hard but quiet route. Three of us were like "durrrrrrr hard obviously" It was okay for the boys because they wore Dr Marts and Palladium boots while I wore a pair that I bought from Taobao. At least, my feet looked stylish on the way up the steep slopes. The pavement was smooth from years of wear and tear and I fell down a lot. It was all good though, the view was amazing at the top. I was quite winded but being there at one of the towers, overlooking the valleys, looking at the Walls wind off into the distance...WORTH IT.

Yep, these were the most memorable places I've been to in Beijing.
But now that I'm back in Shanghai with our temperamental heater, one of the things I miss most is definitely lounging around in the warm hotel room after a hot shower.

knee socks

It's been a while since I've updated so here are some quick snippets from the past few weeks:

Happy 2nd monthsary in Shanghai!!!

Celebrated the mid-exchange mark with a huge cake last night; it even had candles and the works. Although I'm pretty sure we just wanted a reason to eat cake, the past month has truly been quite eventful.

Unexpectedly got whisked away to STORM Music Festival and managed to catch Ke$ha, Afrojack, etc. from the VIP area with free flow Budweiser. Who can deny the pleasures of good company, good music and good drinks? 

I was lucky to have been able to attend the Shanghai Rolex Masters ATP1000 and watched Djoko, Simon, Federer up close in the Skybox. To think that I started tennis as a lowly tennis manager for both hall and faculty games, and have become quite the fan of the sport. It has its elegance and points of brilliance that I have missed sorely. 

Other than that, I have been actively wandering about town discovering little hidden gems tucked away in corners of the streets. On lazy days, I stay in and watch movies or play Skyrim. It's a nice, lazy comfortable routine and I like this change of pace. It's a breather compared to the insane lifestyle back home. Now that we've reached the mid-way mark, going back to Singapore seems so fast. 

The only bane I have towards Shanghai is the weather - it's so fickle! It gets extremely cold to really crusty warm just like that. Winter is coming, I swear I can feel the cold in my bones. Days have been getting real cold and absolutely the perfect time to realise that our heater is not working. It kind of reminded me of the time when I visited Xue in the Melbourne winter and all I brought was summer clothes. All I want to do is to be swaddled in my swath of blankets, a hot cup of tea and a stack of movies to watch. 

xx

lost in translation

There are days where Shanghai makes me feel like a complete retard.

For example, last week I was under the false impression that I had an afternoon class which turned out to be 6pm-8.20pm instead. Which also meant that I had to stumble my way through the darkness to get to the main gate because SJTU does not believe in investing in lamp posts. I couldn't find the bus that directly goes to the train station so I boarded a public bus which ended up NOT taking me to the train station even though the bus driver said otherwise. At this point of time, I was starving from the lack of dinner, tired from the back-to-back classes, and completely lost in the unlit streets of Shanghai. I would also like to add that my SIM card was completely drained of money (it keeps doing that, still figuring out why) and my phone couldn't connect to the SJTU wifi the entire evening. Thankfully, some survival instincts kicked in and I managed to find myself back home after a couple of hours. When I finally got home, Jorji went ballistic and demanded where I had been. Apparently, Jorji and JW had been trying to contact me since 12pm and was minutes away from calling the police and my family. 

Two days later, I lost my wallet. I almost lost my mind because it has a lot of very important cards inside. Luckily, I did get a call from the bus interchange and they notified me that they had it. After I collected it, the supervisor strongly hinted that I should make them a commendation banner. I don't like owing people debts or favours so I had it made. They were very appalled when I asked if they could just do it themselves if I handed them the money. It ended up wasting my time and 30SGD. I have officially left my legacy on a wall at the Dongchuan Bus Terminal. 

Recently, I caught an eye infection in my left eye and it was so terrible. After a few days of this ordeal, it got better but I ended up having really bad nausea. I had to skip school to go for treatment at a Chinese medical facility but it got worse instead. I spent the entire evening willing myself not to throw up because I promised Jorji to deliver his suit to him. I swear I had taken so much medication at this point because I simply just wanted it to stop. For some strange reason, when we went to IKEA, my stomach got a lot better after eating my steak. I guess my stomach is a true blue Westerner. 

This is probably the reason why my friends have running bets about when I would just come home. But no!!! I must prove them wrong. I mean not everything was bad the past month thus far. 

i. 蔡国强：九级浪

This was the exhibition that I wanted to see since I was in Singapore and by luck, I chanced upon a random Instagram and found out that it was currently showing at Power Station of Art in Shanghai!

It's pretty sick, Cai Guo Qiang certainly has the gift of creating spectacle via art installations. At the risk of sounding like a complete art aficionado (read: geek), I fell in love with Head On, which had 99 wolves hurling themselves at a glass wall and trying again. Apparently, it was both inspired by the city's turbulent history as well as the Berlin Wall; it hints at the consequences of misdirected collective energy. I thought it was strange that there were 99 wolves until I found one lone wolf positioned away from the pack and facing towards the exit. I may also be biased for this exhibition because I love wolves. 

ii. Singapore Fiesta

Okay, so I've only been away from Singapore for about a month but I miss eating Singaporean food. Jorji, Jw and I decided to spend our Saturday at Singapore Fiesta and for that one day, it felt like we were back home. There were so many Singaporeans attending the event and I bumped into many of my Singaporean friends. For example, I finally caught up with Eva Cheung!!!!!! This is my childhood friend whom I have not seen in YEARS. To think that we managed to meet up in Shanghai have been such a blessing. She's still politically correct as ever but I still love her anyway.
We look slightly dishevelled because Singapore Fiesta also meant Singapore weather and it was insanely hot and humid oddly enough,

It's currently Golden Week in China!!! Which means a week-long holiday! Gosh, I love being a tourist; exploring places and discovering new things is a lot more fun than being stuck in a classroom bored out of my mind. Definitely looking forward to more fun and happening places and events to go to! Ta-ta, for now!

journey to the east

上海，终于和你见面。

Shanghai, the bustling metropolis, is an eccentric amalgamation of East-West influences and it is a city that won't fail to surprise when you take a close look into its nooks and crannies. Whether that surprise is pleasant or not, is not for you to decide.

This is also where I find myself for the next 5 months.

I still get slightly taken aback when I tell people that I'm currently living in Shanghai, China. Of all the places in the world, I am at the one country that I would have completely brushed aside as a ridiculous notion if you told me this is where I would be a year later.

But I didn't write this post to bemoan my own circumstance. This may come as a shock to many but Shanghai has been quite a refreshing and invigorating experience thus far!!!

I've visited Nanjing Xi Lu 南京西路 - a commercial street, The Bund 上海滩 Tian Zi Fang 田子坊 - a square lined with meandering alleys that lead to quaint shops, Yu Yuan 豫园 - a slice of Old Shanghai etc. and I realised that while it is not be the most developed, it may well be a city chock full of endless possibilities. It is quite exciting how the traditional and orthodox can coincide with the strange and unorthodox. Although this mishmash is not as culturally diverse as cities such as New York, it does cast an interesting identity upon the metropolis.
Simply put, Shanghai is that 21st Century hip Grandma who swears by superstitions but dresses up like she was born in SoHo.

Extra points to Shanghai for this dope tasting Sea Salt Lemonade. It's only 4RMB and it tastes like nothing I have ever drank before. AMAZEBALLS.

Of course, it hasn't been the smoothest transition. There were a lot of hiccups along the way and yeah, the three of us took turns to be frustrated . However, we were insanely lucky to have received so much help from JW's Uncle who has been living in Shanghai for twenty years. He took us out for amazing dinners and even loaned us his PA/Driver who was indispensable to us in settling accommodation and whatnot. We call him Shi Fu and he looks, walks and talks the part of a China movie star with swag (think aviators, slicked back hair and loud shirts) He's really cool and was really patient when I stumbled speaking Chinese throughout all our conversations.

Right now, the three of us have been settled in our apartment in Minhang and we haven't killed each other yet. So that's always good to know. Just kidding, Jorji and JW have been great apart from the times where they gang up to bully me.

Will update when I can! The Great Firewall of China is truly great.

If any of you are in Shanghai, hit me up and drop me an email - stwt93@gmail.com or anything! xx