Listening to: Avril Lavigne's
Nobody's Home
kk. I know this blog aint done...but i shall blog anyway. (i'll work on it after this post yea?)
It's been a more than a week since i came back from China, so this entry is kinda late, but nonetheless, i'd like to share some stuff. hehe
I spent a total of 8 days there...and let's see..i've visted all the palaces...climbed the great wall (and met my primary 6 classmate along the way up)...
visited tian jin...visited cheng de...froze...ate...and..ate...and...ate...and...ATE!ahem yes. think i've put on 2kg. i was on a private tour...sorta. my family of 7 members to one tour guide and a minibus. my tour guide was reaaally KIND to order like 9 dishes + rice + soup for lunch and dinner everyday. oh man. everyone was like stuffing themselves. *stuffstuffstuff*. not say the food was really good, but there were some really nice dishes. ever ate
potato covered in malt? it came in a heap of sticky potato. and u r supposed to pluck a piece out and dip it into a bowl of water in order to harden the malt candy coat..and woa lA~ u've got ur crispy sweetened potato~ utterly delicious. let's see..what else i ate. hmmm...some clam thingy that was really squashy and disgusting...(my father said it was
sea snail. god i felt like i was on fear factor),
beijing peking duck(my god..u take one bite and all the oil squishes out.but it was really good),
gou bu li bao zi (direct translation: dog dont leave bun) which was reaaalllyyy good,
mutton...loads of it (they said it'll help keep warm. and it's REALLY good. haha),and the famous
bing tang hu lu! Bing tang hu lu is the red red balls stuck onto a long satay stick...u often see it in chinese drama serials. yup. it's really good! it's some sort of sour fruit that's really refreshing, coated in malt candy once again. sweet and sour. mmmmmm....i'm drooling. wanted to dabao back but i didnt buy the packaged ones. argh. shoot me. anw, if u find any of those imitations in singapore, dont buy it. i bought one stick at j8 for $1, with only four balls. it wasnt chilled, it was coated, the fruit was PUNY, and it had like 6-7 seeds in them. The china ones were like HUGE, with like 10 fruits on one stick, chilled(maybe bcos of the weather. haha), coated, SEEDLESS, and DELICIOUS. they had many variations also, but i didnt have the opportunity to try. sob. oh, the the china ones are ONE YUAN for a stick, that's like SGD0.20. HEH.
kk...enough talk about food, i'm like drooling all over my keyboard. yup. oh and i watched
acrobatics. yup. *theatre student pov* i thought they were really efficient and professional during scene changes. the curtain never comes down, though u can see the black pple setting up the stage, they were very sure of what to do and they do it in a split of a second. really good. you cant see anyone scurriying around. oh and the acrobatics were really good. how many people do u think a normal bicycle can carry?2?4?6? nono..let me tell you: eleven. yes. shi yi. jyuichi. 11. haha. they were like piling and piling and piling..and i was like O_O . haha. oh, and there was this little little boy, prolly around 8 years old? and he was performing loads of stunts and martial arts on stage. he won the hearts of many many. damn cute. but i didnt manage to catch him on camera. sob. lousy camera. haha. overall, hmmm...i think that there are many many much better acrobatic shows out there actually. heh.
money cant buy everything? well, in china you CAN. yes you can. well, sorta. haha. In china, they have these crystals (real ones. extracted from the ground), and they come in different colours--pink, purple and yellow. and they bring you happiness, health and wealth respectively. all you have to do is buy the ring/bracelet/necklace and put 'em on and TADA~~ you get what you want. haha. oh, another one is JADE. i went to this place (dont ask me the name..) and they sell a jade figurine of this..this..erm...animal? well whatever. it's some weird animal. and apparently, many people who come and visit china, will rub this figurine(the big one) from head to it's huge backside, then clench their fists(as though grabbing it's wealth) and put it in their pockets. (there's a specific way to rub it) haha. and it'll bring you wealth. yes. they sell the miniature jade ones...that comes in different sizes and colours. once again, the colours represents somethings..green for good business, pink for family, orange for studies (me and my bro each got one puny one. heh)...etc etc. yes. i think my father was possesed. he bought a rather big one for about SGD200?or more i think. and they gave us a medium one and small one for free. HAH. same tactic everywhere you go. buy one get one. heh.
talking about salesmanship, singapore should really really, honestly, feel superly and utterly INFERIOR. in china, at the restaurants, the dishes come like almost immediately. and a waiter/waitress will ALWAYS be around. so you dont have to wait and wait and wait before one catches your eye and comes to your assistance. the sales people will greet you SINCERELY, then be at your service. they will try all ways to get you hooked up and thus you end up buying the stuff. they will talk and talk and talk, describe and describe and describe...and they'll use the lethal weapon-- DISCOUNTS. yes. but of course, as kiasu singaporeans, we'll fight back right? and my grandmother and grandaunts are EXPERTS. my god. they can bargain bargain bargain until they get their way. a piece of jade pendant was going at 480yuan, and my grandmama cut it down to 150yuan. yes. believe it. that's NOT the only one. throughout the journey, she was bargaining and bargainin, as though she enjoys it. oh god. it's quite ugly actually. they're out to make a living, and we're not exactly poor you know. or rather, we're rather well off. why drive them MAD. heh. ah well. doubt i'll ever understand the
Art Of Bargaining. Everytime they start bargaining, i'll just walk away. heh. (oh but i must say, i learnt a couple of moves. haha)
Let's see...the toilets at rather run down places have no doors. or no locks. so someone might just catch you in THE ACT. but i think the pple there dont really mind. I remember while traveling by bus to cheng de, we made a stop for a toilet break. and according to my parents, the toilet was just one DRAIN. with "walls" separating each "cubicle". and it's communal in the sense that, it's shared by both males and females. god. lucky nature didnt call me. i guess i'm not ready to let people see me pee. dont think i ever will. =S the furthest i went was to a toilet with no lock. that's it. haha.
We also had a trip to a tea house. Yup. We were introduced to 5 types of tea which were to be drunk in different ways. One you must make a slurping sound and suck the tea in order for the sweetness to come out, another you must drink one cup in 3 mouths...etcetc. haha. really interesting. will put up the pictures soon. Oh and then my parents and grandparents bought a WHOLE load of tea. god. the saleslady was REALLY REALLY REALLY EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD. she's like introducing all sorts of offers. buy this get tea set free...buy that get another one free...buy that and this get those free....lalalallaala... HEH. we went home with cartons of tea. but she was really nice. she was filling each container to the brim. actually, OVER the brim. the cap was propped up, and she used tape to tape it down. really nice lady. haha.
Oh..one more thing. let me declare this: CHINA BABIES ARE DARN CUTE!!!!!!!!! my god. after you've seen china babies, u'd think singaporean babies are damn ugly. oh man. and i'm gonna give birth to one. heh. maybe i shall adopt. haha. hey hey. i'm serious k. singaporean babies are damn ugly. WHyyyy!!!! we're all chinese!!! heh. booo.
My shopping trips: i bought a pair of pearl earrings (real ones mind you), a pair of jade earrings (real ones too honey), a ring that'll bring ping an (safety), a woven hat (or head sock?) that has santa claus on it (haha), alicia keys and norah jones original CDs for SGD4 each (aint lying dear), an artistic chinese calligraphy of my chinese name, food, food, and loads of food.
My parents and grandparents' shopping trips: jade, food, silk blankets (yupyup, i went to a silk factory...which was really impressive, and the salesmen were really cute. xP), silk pictures (hand woven), shan shui hua (pictures of mountains and water. haha), tea (yes, loads of them. think they spent hundreds of dollars on tea as we visited a tea house)...blah blah. cant remember liao. think that's it. haha. bad enough. we were squeeeeeeezzzzziiing everything into our luggage.
One night in beijing, i'm frozen (the temperature was like 0-11 degrees. in the night it was much much worse, esp in Cheng de, where a bottle of water in the bus actually froze.), i'm dried up (the weather's really dry), i'm fattened, and i'm ahlian-fied (i went to streak my hair. wanted to dye it whole, but father refused. *see no logic* haha. it was SGD50 i think. around there. and the hairdressers were REALLY GOOD LOOKING!!!!!!!!! lucky the saloon was near my hotel, so i always try to peek in for them. ahhaha..xP.)
One night in beijing, wo liu xia xu duo qing.
vane.
