COVID upended all our travel plans. We went to Taiwan before Kai entered P1. We had wanted to go to Japan before Yang entered P1 but nope.
When travel resumed, we had originally planned to take long and/or faraway trips only in PSLE years, and go to our all-time fave Legoland in between. So it was Japan last year after Kai's PSLE, and we were supposed to go to China after Yang's PSLE next year. But things changed. So I shan't even bother talking about post-Yu's PSLE trip now...
Earlier this year, we were doing some rough planning for the 2026 trip to China. It would include Beijing as we think it's a must to go to the Great Wall, and Guangzhou to visit Sito's ancestral home. But such a trip involved quite a lot of travelling as those two cities aren't exactly near! We also had to coordinate with the grands for the Guangzhou part. In the end, we decided to go to Beijing this year and Guangzhou next year.
So some time in June or so, we started planning for Beijing. And just as well coz no more overnight trips to Legoland now. Now we've gone and come back! Read on for our adventures and tips for a holiday in China...
Sunday, 23 November
Travel day
I don't like morning flights but we always go for the cheapest combination, factoring in hotel stay. But we got Macs breakfast to compensate for the early start - so I finally got to try their bagel! I missed it last time due to an ulcer...
Just to show his sweater - AhMa bought for Kai some years back but it was never worn until now!
And Yu was wearing Yang's from last year; Kai could still wear his
I sat between these two while Sito and Kai were in front of us. Yang and Yu asked for their own drinks since they were both in aisle seats. I just minded my own business :) Managed to watch MI: Final Reckoning with multiple pauses coz Yu kept saying he didn't know what to watch...
The flight was delayed for over an hour so the kids watched a lot of movies. We arrived a bit later than expected but immigration and the meet and greet were smooth. We did the immigration thingy online but the QR codes weren't used; just used passport.
When we came out of the airport, gosh, it smelled like London! Must be the traffic... The journey to town also reminded me of the UK... Must be the wintry weather...
The driver dropped us at the roadside as our hotel was on 前门大街 which is pedestrians only. But it was a short walk and it was a warm evening.
Our two rooms were next to each other so it was convenient for us to visit and do admin like packing... They were nice and roomy enough, with ample wardrobe space unlike Japan! Later, we were to discover big fluffy bath towels :) and smokey corridors :( coz our rooms were near the hotel lobby toilets and a courtyard and it seemed like people were smoking there, disgusting...
Walked to dinner at 阿文汤包 where we had XLB (and a big one) and dry noodles. Dessert was 冰糖葫芦 but strawberry version; kids didn't know about hawthorns! Walked to the other end of 前门大街 and found ourselves facing 正阳门；天安门广场 is right on the other side. Our location is fantastic :)
Need a straw to drink from the 蟹黄汤包 before eating it!
Pose with the statue of a 冰糖葫芦 seller after sharing one stick
After this, the kids had their own stick each. Think we had these three more times during the trip... Too much sugar *.*
正阳桥 behind us, and 正阳门 in the background
This was as near as we could go due to barriers
Happy to take a photo in front of our hotel - so 古色古香 :)
The adults can use Alipay to pay for transport but the kids need 一卡通 aka Ezlink cards. We couldn't get the cards at 前门 station near 正阳桥 and Yu had to poop so Sito went to 珠市口 station at the other end of the avenue by himself to get the cards. And it was lucky we had cash as he couldn't use Alipay for this transaction! But he came back with 烤鸭煎饼 for supper :)
Standard every night
Kai was kind of upset that he wasn't in the same room as his brothers. But I don't think we should let these three sleep together. They may not sleep *.* They may kick each other in the middle of the night *.* They may fight for space and end up really fighting *.*
Not paranoid ok... I slept between Yang and Yu on the first night. I could hardly wiggle my way out of the blanket to get tissue for my nose in the middle of the night. Almost cramped. So I took the side spot for the other nights, and the two boys took turns to take the middle spot. I still didn't sleep well - Yang swung his arms about (my face) while Yu was a random hugger *.*
Sito didn't get it easy with just Kai with him in the king bed too. I totally get it coz I have seen Kai sleeping, haha! So I guess we need more beds for future trips...
Monday, 24 November
Great Wall of China
We booked our tickets for 八达岭 and for the cable car on Trip.com, and the high-speed train on the 12306 app. Both were amazing, as you would see...
Woke early to take the subway to 清河站 to get to the railway station of the same name to take the 高铁 to 八达岭长城，which is different from 八达岭 station. But the crowds made sure no one got it wrong! And it was supposed to be off peak season...
This is inside our hotel - they hold free activities for guests but we didn't go for any
We made sure we arrived early for the train. There were a lot of gates to go through - from subway to railway station area, getting into the actual station, and the final ticketing. We weren't sure if we could find food as the area beyond the subway looked quite empty... But the guard at the second gate told us there was food so we went in an hour early.
Breakfast at KFC - but we just missed their breakfast hours which ended at 9.30 am!
Everything was very smooth. Ticketing was done by scanning our passports as we booked the tickets with our passport details. The train reminded me of TGV... It was punctual and super steady considering we were going at up to 195kmh!
The ride took less than 30 min, but the journey to ground level was looong. No wonder ticketing ends 12min before train departure time from 八达岭！
When we arrived, we found that the cable car to the north was not operating due to strong winds. We didn't want to take the ground cable car to the south and so we decided we would walk like Sito did when he first went there as a child!
So what did we do with our tickets? Refund them of course! There's an option for "attraction is closed" under reason for cancellation in Trip.com, so convenient. The full refund in SGD - i.e. didn't suffer exchange rate differences - came back within a couple of days.
Along the food street towards the entrance
Getting in was easy too, just scan the QR code given by Trip.com at the ticketing gates. Could have just used the app but I printed out everything coz I kiasi in case signal was bad..
Here we are!
But the climbing was tough work... For me. The kids were complaining a bit - so far, so long, where are we heading etc. But they climbed and climbed. Sito went ahead to watch over them. They stopped to wait for me here and there. I just took my time. So unfit...
He was slanting backwards a lot but didn't fall due to the steep slope
Eventually, we go to the base of the north 4th tower, and turn sideways towards the 好汉石 where a queue formed to take photos at the stone. We took some ourselves and also paid ¥100 for two photos of the whole family, one of which was a certificate to say we were there!
Placeholder for the photo - need to do a proper scan as my phone didn't capture a good one...
That's the north 4th tower behind us - we stayed below, too lazy, haha!
And then we turned back down. We decided that it was too windy and tiring to continue to the 英雄碑 - the kids can decide whether they want to be heroes when they're grown!
It was a challenge going down as well as some parts were quite steep. The wind was so strong that - ok this is quite gross - whatever drip coming out of my nose got blown off before I could dab with tissue!
不到长城非好汉
Yang took this for us :)
The queue for these pictures was messier. Maybe coz there was no professional photographer there or it was a more open space. Some people just went to stand right in front of the stone as if the long line wasn't there *.*
Curry rice at 永和大王；Kai wondering when his will arrive...
Yes, they all had the same thing, and only Kai managed to finish his. Quite big! And Yang found it a bit too spicy. Sito and I had beef brisket noodles.
We finished earlier than expected so Sito tried to change our train tickets. It took only a few clicks and we were set to return an hour earlier than planned! We were lucky this was off peak so there were adjacent seats available. Can use this app for all train tickets throughout China 👍
Maybe we can return to the Great Wall another time, in another season, and explore perhaps another section. It's quite am amazing sight to behold but it was too cold to appreciate it.
In other news, the other Great Wall wasn’t difficult to deal with. Search for anything in WeChat and pay for everything with Alipay (below ¥200) or Changi Pay (above ¥200). Our eSIM worked very well so we also had access to WhatsApp etc.
Rested a bit in the hotel before heading out for dinner. Got a queue ticket for 四季民福 for the wait was too long. The staff told us another outlet nearby probably had no queue so we headed there. It was just a short walk away in 大栅栏 and really, no queue!
We finished everything!
They served complimentary oranges and appetisers. Yang and Yu enjoyed the oranges a little too much, haha! Had to stop them in case they couldn't eat proper food.
We ordered a whole duck with condiments like pancakes and vege/sauces, one squirrel fish, fried meatballs and two lion head meatballs. A chef carved the duck right outside our room so we missed seeing it; thought they would come in but I guess the trolley was a bit big... The waitress then came in to demonstrate two ways of wrapping the duck in pancakes, and gave us an extra plate of vege/sauces.
Can hear the crackling as he cut - the fish was kept warm throughout
It looked like a lot of food but we finished it all, surprisingly! Yang and Yu even had more oranges at the end...
By the end of dinner, my nose was getting quite bad. Sito grabbed a cold grape drink from Hey Tea while I grabbed a hot 冰糖烤梨 - both were so good... Thankfully, my nose was quite ok after one night...
I had a mask on half the time this day, mostly for the cold. But from Tuesday, I found that I could take the cold quite well, unlike in Osaka, and so stopped wearing the mask. The air quality was also fine after the initial London smell. Even Kai who was all paranoid about dirty air as we left the airport stopped mentioning it once we were in town. Indeed, the black booger from my London trips never reared its ugly head throughout the trip...
Tuesday, 25 November
天安门 etc
So I wrote a note in our planning to get tickets for 天安门 and 故宫 seven days before our visit, at 8pm when sales opened. No issue with 故宫 - just use the official website. But we hit a bump with 天安门 tickets - I realised that we couldn't use SG phone number to book tickets!
In the end, we paid an agent to book those free tickets using GetYourGuide, and thankfully the chap did it very quickly, phew! Actually, if I had tested out the official website earlier, I would have paid an agent way earlier for peace of mind...
There wasn't anything for Chairman Mao Memorial Hall on GYG or anywhere else though - kids had wanted to go after watching one too many episodes of Mind Your Language *.* But on this day, Sito found that he could book tickets using his SG number in WeChat, and there were still tickets available for the next two days! Perhaps the restriction was for overseas users? Anyway, we decided not to add another visit...
Our tickets were for morning entry so we set off by 8am. First stop - breakfast! We had 门钉肉饼，豆汁焦圈，锅贴 and 馄饨汤。We all liked the food though Yang found the 馄饨 a bit spicy.
Statues along the way - I was ill...
This one chao keng for MC only, haha!
Serve me!
Big shoe to fill!
Discussing the 馄饨；the 焦圈 were like youtiao
Happy with his 锅贴
Our tickets were for entry at Tiananmen West Red Wall Security Checkpoint. Took a short train ride and a short walk to get there. While the guards were checking our passports and asking if we had reservations, a woman walked past us into the compound. Another guard asked his colleague whether she had been checked. No, and so they ran after her! While queueing for ticketing and security clearance further down, we saw the woman being led out of the compound; she didn't come back in. Mini adventure?!
And now the kids know how Chairman Mao looks like!
At one of the gates leading to the Forbidden City - these are the door nails that give 门钉肉饼 its name!
From 太和门，we took a longish walk to 太和殿 Hall of Supreme Harmony to see the throne, passed by the smallish 中和殿 Hall of Central Harmony aka the emperor's transit lounge, passed by 保和殿 Hall of Preserving Harmony for banquets and later exams, and eventually entered 斋宫 Hall of Abstinence which was a jade gallery.
Our boys with a male lion - notice the ball at his right foot
Mama with a female lion - notice the baby at her left foot!
The whole place is very, very big...
What a lovely smile! With Chinese chess and backgammon pieces
Now pondering over a go board
Sito still remembers this 九龙壁 from his last trip!
We spent quite a bit of time getting lost in 寿宁宫 Palace of Tranquil Longevity which is a treasure gallery. We visited the gold and silver room - so crowded! The kids found a few fave pieces so must take photos :p Missed out on the jewellery room coz we couldn't find it after exiting the gold room... But stumbled into a room with big rocks with poems carved onto them.
Wandered into a stone forest on our way to 坤宁宫 Palace of Earthly Tranquility to find the restaurant but it was so crowded - it was lunch time - that it reminded me of our lunch wait at USJ. Nope. Just bought a pack of honey cakes from a hole in the wall nearby to eat in the 御花园 Imperial Garden. But this is no season for blooms.. Just botak trees and plenty of people!
Yang's fave - can drink (100 cups of) Milo with it!
Yu's coz it's so shiny
The kind of high-walled alley for ambushes in period dramas, haha!
Exited via 神武门
I had wanted to go to 景山公园 but when I saw the potential climb opposite 神武门 as we exited the palace, I gave up :p There was no straightforward public transport to the 王府井 area so we decided to walk. It was quite a walk but we saw a lot of 格格s waiting to cross a junction, haha!
Actually we saw many princesses in the palace, posing and/or live-streaming but to see a horde of them outside the backdrop of the palace was really quite amusing!
I also want to dress up as a princess but in another season. I want to return as we didn't see a lot of the palace. Too cold. Kids. Time/hunger. And I'll be a princess with my prince escort by my side haha! Not empress ok, coz emperor too many concubines!
Just a stone's throw away from the exit - so peaceful looking
Us :)
We spent some time in Beijing APM, a shopping mall. I had my one and only Luckin coffee on the trip - latte with red bean foam! Yummy :) But I scanned to order with my phone scanner and wasn't successful so didn't get a good discount. Sito said I should have scanned using Alipay (or whatever app named near the QR code) - next time!
Kai and Yang had ice cream from this place called Coco, next to Luckin. And Sito had a grape drink again. Yu declined... Maybe he had one too many honey cake :p
My boys :) Yu held on to my specs which I dropped
We spent a bit of time at the bookshop next to the photo above. Kids were browsing Demon Slayer comics - never mind that they were in Chinese coz they just looked at the pictures *.* Ushered them off to Xiaomi store where the kids played on the displayed phones happily while the parents looked at other Xiaomi gadgets. I so wanted to get a smoothie blender but it had a lithium battery (cannot check in) and blades (cannot hand carry) *.*
Also checked out two local brands of shoes. The only pair of 100% white shoes did not have Kai's size - US10. So we missed out the chance to try out China brand. Maybe later when we're more sure about shoe requirements for school...
Dinner was Big Pizza, a buffet at 王府井大街喜悦中心 which was a short walk away. The kids - and Sito - loved it! I liked it too but it was certainly not my top fave of the trip haha!
Also checked out two local brands of shoes. The only pair of 100% white shoes did not have Kai's size - US10. So we missed out the chance to try out China brand. Maybe later when we're more sure about shoe requirements for school...
Dinner was Big Pizza, a buffet at 王府井大街喜悦中心 which was a short walk away. The kids - and Sito - loved it! I liked it too but it was certainly not my top fave of the trip haha!
Then we headed to a huge bookstore. The kids didn't want to get any books but I got two :) With that, we headed back to the hotel, getting some 奶酪 near our place. My legs were jelly already. Sito went out to get a drink for me - some apple orange tea which was hot and I accidentally scalded my tongue, sighs...
Spot my durian pizza!
They were apparently famous for their lychee pizza but I didn't like it. But the 杨枝甘露 over mango ice cream was fantastic... They also had various Chinese food so it's not all pizza.
Anyway, it was a very tiring day. I think Yang gave me a little shoulder massage :)
Wednesday, 26 November
Universal Studios Beijing
The morning didn't start too well. We ordered XLB for breakfast at 馄饨侯 only to find that the XLB were not the XLB we know - they were more like meat buns, bigger than our usual XLB but smaller than a regular meat bun.
Needless to say, the kids didn't like it. Yu had one and swopped his plate for Papa's 馄饨 while Yang couldn't finish his one XLB. Kai didn't like it but seeing 15 such buns, he had his share - good for him! I had a meat bun and a few XLB to share the load, burp!
Yes, those were XLB!
But this was a happy day otherwise - we had great fun at USB! The crowds were a lot more manageable than in USJ. Sito also had our route all planned out, and indeed, we managed to take all the rides we wanted without paying extra for express passes or having to wait too long for rides :)
Oh, another hiccup. No selfie stick allowed! We were at the security checkpoint for the City Walk area and I had to go back out to the lockers outside the train station to keep our selfie stick. For a moment I wondered if it was worth ¥20 but in the end, I kept it.
Ticketing further in was easy - just use passport even though the Klook voucher mentioned exchanging for tickets using the voucher and our passports.
Anyway, first, we went to Jurassic World Adventure where we took a ride through Isla Nublar and encountered Owen and friends - human and dino - which was very fun and exciting! Helped that we watched the movies on TV some time this year so we knew the scenes from the movies.
Then we went to Three Broomsticks for an early lunch. So happy that we got seats so easily as we didn't manage to get in last year in USJ. But I must say that after the novelty of USJ, the Harry Potter world didn't feel as magical this time... It was still enjoyable nonetheless! There were new things like the wand show where Ollivander chose a guest to select a wand. I should have pointed to Yang as he's 11 this year!
Next was the Forbidden Journey ride. I wanted to puke again *.* "But you said you wouldn't puke!" said Yu. Oh well... We brought our wand from USJ and went around casting spells. There was the ascendio charm which wasn't in USJ. Generally, Yang was the best wizard of the lot :)
Waiting for our food at Three Broomsticks
Look at the decor behind us!
Food was quite good! The corn looked unreal but it was, haha! Chinese BBQ seasoning 👍
Backyard of Three Broomsticks
Then we headed back to take the Jurassic Flyers - easy ride, thank goodness. Next was the Battle for the AllSpark at Transformers Metrobase - fun ride! But want to puke haha! Time to sit for a while so we watched Untrainable - it was an all-out musical! Since we were in Hollywood, we went for Lights Camera Action! too. Very cool to see the sound stage.
From there, we split into two groups - Sito brought the older two to take Decepticoaster while I took Yu to Minion Land. The Despicable Me Minion Mayhem queue was too long and there were no churros in USB! So I got him a 小黄人冰淇淋 which he slurped up in the cold.
There was a parade starting but he wasn't interested so we went into the Super Silly Fun Land to take baby rides. We took the Super Swirly (like aeroplane in Legoland) before the Loop-Dee Doo-Dee rollercoaster. That was when the rest joined us.
Not cold meh?!
They very brave...
We went back to Harry Potter World to catch the Triwizard Spirit Rally show. Could hardly understood the narrator's Mandarin... We realised that the angmohs in USB didn't speak good Mandarin whereas the angmohs in USJ spoke good Japanese, hmmm...
Since we were there, we bought the wizard chess set that we saw earlier after our ride. Kai is the main kid saying he wanted it though he was hesitant as it was expensive. But it was a worthwhile buy since the kids could play with big pieces together - fun and somemore, our bigger chess set has missing pieces!
Hungry again so we went to Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness, yeah! Had wanton noodles, zhajiangmian and beef noodles at Mr Ping's Noodle House. When we came out, the kids wanted to try hanging off a bar. You get different prizes depending on whether you reach 40 sec, 70 sec or 90 sec. The catch? ¥40 per try.
In the end, all three went for it. Kai managed to hang on for 43 sec. Yang for 13 sec and Yu 10 sec. Kai got a wrist band. Oh well!
After the Journey of the Dragon Warrior which was a boat ride with a little splash, we split again. Sito took the Decepticoaster with Kai and Yang while Yu and I stayed on for the Carousel of Kung Fu Heroes and Lanterns of Legendary Legends (with a different story each ride!). Then we meet up at the Fun Land in Minion Land.
Hot food!
Like in the cartoon
Fiddling with Po before their turn to hang on the bar
Carousel is always nice :)
Well, he has been described as porkish...
He decided on this cute pose!
The boys decided to queue 30min for Minion Mayhem. It was a little different from the USJ version - all cars are open in a theatre with a big screen. Kids said they preferred the USJ version. But hey, we could understand this! Haha!
Actually, the kids kept saying they didn't understand anything *.* Hello, Mandarin! But in the Minion queue, they mentioned something which showed that they understood at least some la...
Sad face coz somehow the bag broke :(
Theatre style seating
So that was it. We took a photo against the big Xmas trees, played with some artificial snow and left. As we had a late lunch, we made the hour-long journey back to our hotel area for dinner.
Early Xmas for us!
Happy with snow from the roof
Dinner comprised 门钉肉饼 and 肌肉馄饨 which were easy for all of us tired bodies. But Sito went out later to pack some 驴打滚 and two types of pear juice - one with 枇杷 from a big container and the one I had on day 2. I didn't realise 驴打滚 was a mochi dessert! Some flavours nicer than others. Both the pear drinks were good.
We had a lot of mochi that night!
Thursday, 27 November
City walk
The day started with a massage from Yang and Yu :) They woke too early, sighs.. So they offered to massage me to make me feel better. Sure, haha!
It got even better when we went for breakfast - KFC breakfast finally! The kids had panini sandwiches, Sito had porridge and I had thick toast. We chose a mix of youtiao and hashbrown for sides. Sito ordered a corn juice/soup thingy and four soy milk. In the end, he had most of the soy milk coz Yang and Yu were not keen.
Breakfast ended with a real-life Charmmy Kitty entering the restaurant and refusing to leave! Very lovely stray cat. Yu was all "fluffy and cute" over it without touching it.
Happy all round!
Our first stop was 雍和宫 Lama Temple. Adults get a complimentary bunch of incense sticks. But the sign said to light up three. I had to google to find out that there were 12 halls to pray at! But we didn't go to every hall. Only prayed at the three main halls in the middle and left the remaining incense on the lighting table.
There were three 法物流通处 aka shops selling all sorts of accessories and decor related to praying. I had wanted to get a bracelet and bring to a hall inside to 开光 aka to be blessed. But I didn't see anything I liked. 没有眼缘就不买了 :(
Kids prayed too!
孔庙 Confucius Temple and 国子监 Imperial College were a short walk away. One ticket got us entry to both. We spent an unexpectedly long time in the temple as the gallery showcasing Confucius's life had a lot of info. Asked the kids to read too.
Along the way, I found that Yu was near me all the time - reading! English of course but he was reading everything. While the other two were bouncing about, they also read when I asked them about a couple of things. They also shared with the grands later.
I learnt about his 大同 ideology and 为政以德 coz 苛政猛于虎！Leave these here to remind me to go read more about them. There was only a brief mention of the 六艺 but I had read a lot about them at the Confucius Temple in Taipei last year.
May these boys 克服万难 in their learning journeys!
The reading boy - like 一粒，so cute :)
Entering 国子监
Nice surroundings to study in
I guess it was just a school so nothing much to see. The main gallery was closed for maintenance so nothing to read too. So we didi-ed to lunch! And 馅老满 did not disappoint - we ordered 30 dumplings, four meat pancakes, 乾隆菜，a meatball vege stew dish and zhajiangmian. All were so good! It was not in a touristy place so the prices were good too. But we couldn't finish two meat pancakes so we packed them back.
It was a huge bowl of noodles with toppings given separately
Yang showed me the big prawn in his dumpling
Rejuvenated after lunch, we walked to 钟楼 and 鼓楼 but we were too tired from the past few days to climb anything! We just went to look see and continued walking to 南锣鼓巷。Along the way, we bought more candied fruits for the kids, and osmanthus cake for me. Think the fruits were yummier haha! Also bought cakes and drinks etc.
We also didn't really check out the 胡同s much coz we were soooo tired! And Yang said he wanted to go back to the "entertaining district" aka our hotel area for shopping. So we took a walk through 南锣鼓巷 to take the subway back.
But in the end, we also didn't shop much haha! Just walked the food street and went back to the hotel to rest. Think two kids needed to poop :p
Sweets!
Very pretty cakes here!
The boys found some naked ducks :p
After resting our feet a bit, we ditched the kids to their own devices and left to do our own shopping :) Got some 奏折 type of booklets and stamped pictures of various Beijing sights in one of them. Sito recommended 人民咖啡馆 with nice cocoa print on the foam; it was good and I didn't lose sleep over my cappuccino.
大栅栏 had more food and shopping than the food street. Spent some time in there but didn't get any souvenirs. But packed sausages and 煎饼果子 (果子 means youtiao in Tianjin) from there, and went to the main street to get siew mai, 京酱肉丝 and three Mixue sundaes.
My lovely coffee
It was an amazingly big 煎饼 with lots of fillings!
Date night :)
Happy with their sausages
A different type of siew mei
In the end, we couldn't finish our food! Really sad... But even sadder was that Sito developed a fever :( Luckily, we had medicine and a thermometer. He went to bed early after some medicine. The kids were also sad to hear that Papa had taken ill.
Friday, 28 November
Science centre
I did not sleep well. Yang bullied me! I was squeezed all the way to the edge. He said Yu was squeezing him so he had to shift. But Yang also whacked my face *.*
Anyway, we had a local breakfast again, this time at 护国寺小吃 near the subway. More 门钉肉饼 and some 松肉 beef sticks for the kids. Sito had salty beancurd finally and 糖油饼 a sweet pancake which I liked too but I was struggling with my huge potato 卷饼！
The main attraction today was 中国科学技术馆 China Science and Technology Museum. We took a taxi from the nearest subway instead of walking 10min :p It's not faster by taxi if we had taken it directly from our place anyway.
There were a lot of school groups so we had to jostle a bit here and there. But we had great fun across the four levels - ancient inventions, maths and science, AI and space/sea. I was rather taken with the astronomy tools on the first floor. Finally seeing them in real life outside of period dramas, haha! And it's quite amazing how we got from those unwieldy tools to exploring space! Kids were more taken with the hands-on stuff, especially the space rides.
As expected, we spent a lot of time there. Took breaks along the way to buy drinks until we found a water dispenser. Left when the kids were hungry but food was not to be for another hour coz of the travel back to town. Think we eventually ate at 5 pm?! Some dumplings and tomato stew with rice at 王府井 coz we went there to refund the kids' travel cards - just bought single trip tickets for our last trip back to hotel. So much complaints over dinner *.* Not that it was not nice; it just wasn't KFC or Macs!
Their fascination - a student said 被摸到发光了！
Testing their massage skills - 高级 for Kai and Yang, 初级 for Yu
Very cool vending machines - makes me that Japan's hordes of vending machines are obsolete
Voice-controlled tetris - not easy!
Sito has the most beautiful smile!
Space walk mission
Moon mission
Full rotation experience - Yu wasn't tall enough for any rides! :(
I forgot the name of this thing...
Time to go back to the hotel... But first, Mixue again! It was cold but they enjoyed their ice cream all the way to the souvenir shop. Let the boys roam the shop to choose something for themselves. I saw some cream suitable for both face and body and bought a small bag of it - love all the scents!
Sito saw some beads and picked out our names :) In the end, we all gathered to find all the characters to form our names. Then the staff strung them up for us. Now we have a family bracelet! Kai chose three 状元笔 while the brothers got some random motorbike toys *.*
Anyway, we had Macs. Or rather, they all had Macs. I tried Sito's burger with a sausage in the middle but I really wanted some bubble tea... Unfortunately there were only Starbucks inside... Oh well!
Saturday, 29 November and later...
Home
Our red-eye flight was delayed... But by the time the crew served supper, we were still full. Yang had his eye on the movies but ate some of his food. Yu didn't want his food so I started eating his noodles. Then his eyes got greedy and took over the noodles haha! In the end, I couldn't stomach more anyway so I didn't get my own tray. I looked forward to breakfast instead :p
But Yakun at Jewel had a queue of 50?! We gave up and cabbed home. Sito packed some beehoon for brunch. We let the kids play Nintendo whole day as we also had to unpack and rest. They didn't sleep much on the plane so we were waiting to see if they got tired... Yu had a difficult time sleeping on the place - was whining in his sleep and later the air pressure during descending got to him.
Our loot
So happy with the chess set; first game with Yu
Anyway, by the afternoon, Kai had fallen asleep in his sofa and later moved to his bed. We were all not too hungry so I prepared some eggs and prata (I think?!) for Yang and Yu but found Yang asleep on the floor when I was done! Kai woke a bit later and had the hotdog bun that Sito bought back. Ushered them all to bed at 7 pm and we slept early too.
This trip was shorter than our Japan trip but felt so much more tiring! Maybe it was colder and much drier. Sito even came down with Influenza A - tested positive at the clinic on Monday and he's still taking meds today. Poor guy. We were too tired to even watch drama at night for the first three days after coming home! Just glad the kids were all ok.
So that marks the end of our Beijing trip! Our next long trip will be China too. Gotta start planning already :)