Winter trip to Beijing and Shanghai Day 5

Day 5 :  Beijing - Shanghai

Today is our last day in Beijing and at this afternoon we will be transfer to Shanghai via the bullet train  . Last night we repacking our things and its seem that our luggage is  "growing" and because of that , we have to buy one additional bag . I told my wife that  while we are in Shanghai , no "big " shopping will be allowed or else we have to pay excess baggage which is much more  expensive ...

In the morning , after having our breakfast ,we start to check out from our hotel  . For me , Holiday Inn Express Beijing  is one of the comfortable 4 star hotel which is very spacious and clean  , salute to POTO travel for arranging this hotel for us . What I heard from their representative  , previously  they are using another hotel chain while their clients stayed in Beijing , China .

Today activities :

1.  Shopping at the jewelry shop .

2.  Visit World trade Plaza and the China Largest LCD Screen . The location also near to the Bird Nest Stadium and the Cube  . Over here we spent some time taking photo and playing with the artificial snow . Well , even though it is artificial but it is enough for us to have an experienced with snow in Beijing .

3. Performed our solat at the Niujie Mosque . It is one of the oldest mosque in Beijing . You can find most of the chinese muslim pray at this mosque and  many of them stayed serrounded this area . We feel really happy and proud of getting to know them and exchange our words as muslim brothers and sisters ! One of them , a teenager known as Musa and an iman . For record , most of muslim in China stayed  at the north part , Xin Xiang and Harbin . After solat we went to the nearby Muslim Super Market which is the biggest halal supermarket in Beijing . We bought something for eating inside the bullet train during our journey  to Shanghai .

4 . At 3 pm , we went to the Beijing Train station to catch our bullet train . The staion is very huge and I saw so many people or passengers waiting for the train to their different destination in China . After waiting for 1 hour , it is the time for us to leave Beijing . We say good bye to Amin and really misses this Chinese young men who can speak Bahasa Indonesia . .... Our journey took us for 5 hours and with the speed of  300 KMph . Actually Shanghai is situated south part of Beijing and the temperature is not as extreme cooler compared to Beijing . But along the journey , we can see the snow at some part of the area , maybe the train track go up to north first which is  much more cooler then moving forward to the south . We arrived at Shanghai railway station around 10 pm . The temperature is around 2 to 3 Degree C .Over there we was greet by a lady tourist guide by the name of Mary. She is a beautiful chinese lady with  english fluent speaking . We proceed to our bus for our hotel at Sanlin . Our hotel in Shanghai is another chain of Holiday Inn Express and will take another 30 min drive . Along the way to the hotel , Mary share a little bit on Shanghai which is much more modern city and the cost of living very high over here . She also brief on the agenda for tomorrow . ....

GOOD BYE BEIJING ,,,,,  at the hotel lobby

check out from our hotel 

infront of the jewelry shop ...

Group photo 

family photo with Amin , our tourist guide

infront of the the China largest LED screen tower

the snow .... awesome !!

happy moments  .... surrounded with  snow

the last Lunch at this chinese muslim restaurant in Beijing

with Musa ... at Nuijie Mosque

in the mosque compound

with the Iman

infront of  the Plan/Map of Nuijie Mosque

with Kin Ampang and her brother

infront of muslim supermarket

Beijing with LOVE

at the Beijing railway station

infront of the bullet train to Shanghai ... with Tn Hj Damanhuri and Farhan

 1st ckass @ 1st cabin  , very comfortable ... Dubbed  as " handsome boy " and  "naughty boy" by Untie  Kin Ampang

arrived at Shanghai railway station after 5 hours journey

here we are ................WELCOME TO  SHANGHAI !!

our room ..... HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS SANLIN , SHANGHAI .

>>>>>>>   till meet you again , have a good night sleep , BYE  !!

Winter trip to Beijing and Shanghai Day 4

Day 4 : Beijing

This is our 4th day in Beijing  . Today we feel very fresh . Last night we really have very nice sleep after very hectic and tiring  schedule yesterday . The feeling of excited and awesome plus looking forward for exploring a new places are always there which make us more active ! The most exciting agenda today is visiting the GREAT WALL of CHINA .

Today our activities :
1.  Visit  the Silk Show Room . Something to share , if you like silk things , I think it is worth it to buy especially the silk comforter and the silk clothes for " baju kurung ". The price is reasonable and you can   bargin .

2. Visit Great Wall of China . This is one of the seven wonders in the world . And most of us feel very  excited and can't believe that we are at the Great Wall and climbing on it . You can see the great view from the top . We really have a great  wonderful time at this place ! For your info ,  the temperature  is the most cooler -10 Degree C and it is really feezing especially when the winds is blowing .

3. Visit to Summer Palace ( afternoon ). This is a  special palace for the emperor to stay during summer      season since during this seasons the  temperature in Beijing  is  extremely hot ie  40 Degree C , so special man made  lake was made inorder  that the temperature around this area is  always cooler and can be maintained around 20 Degree C . During winter , this area  become more cooler compared to another palaces in Beijing and during our visit  , the lake water  become frozen  and even we can walk on it . The palace is located at the Longevity Hill  and the  lake known  as Kunming Lake.  Amin ,our tourist guide , told us to be more careful with the hawker at this area because they are more  " naughty" and there are a lot of fake money in the air , and if we not interested to buy , they will ask to change  some  small  money  ...And it is  true ,  on one occasion , one of the hawker asked us to changed " yuan " but we didn't bother as we remember the advice by Amin .   Thanks Amin !

4.  We went for our lunch at the big muslim restaurant and performed our solat at the prayer room ( surau )

  available . We can find a lot of Malaysian tourist over here where we have a chance to say hai @ hello         and greets each other . This shows that nowadays , Malaysian like to travel abroad !

5. Visit Jade Centre . I think those who already read from the posting of other blogger on their experienced can predict what will happen over here . Yes ! , exactly ! they are really a great actor @ strategy how to make a good sale  ! The script is the same ...he  claimed as a son of the owner and start telling stories on his father jade business ...at the end , he gave a free gift  of pearl ring  to each one of us as a token for the friendship and showing the hospitality ... Ultimately  he try to sell the pearl necklace  which he  give special discount from 4800 yuan to 300 yuan ONLY !.. and the salesgirl look  surprise and  unbelievable that her boss give a BIG discount...  !! .. but none of us  believed it and then we just quickly move OUT !  From my observation after that , our Amin look a little bit upset , maybe he will get less commission from that store.....

6. Shopping at the Yashow Market . Actually this is a 5th floor of shopping complex . This is the place where you can shops until you drops and most of things , made in China  ! There are a lot of things you can purchased over here  and the price really cheap but of course after your " fierceful"  and 'powerful" bargin . For example like me , 3 pairs of POLO collar grade A T shirt , the price I bought  300  yuan from original price mentioned 1,500 yuan   The trick , if they didn't agreed with your bargain ,  then try to go out and left their shop , believe me , they will call you back for a close deal !  Nearby there are a big shopping complex which sells branded things like Adidas and UNIQLO outlet . We bought some shirts from this UNIQLO outlet . The price tags , after conversion , almost the same with the brands in Malaysian outlets..

Tips :

1. At Yashow market . Please bargain min 80 % discount from mentioned price and firm with your figure , they will call you back ! but  remember , start bargain if you really want to buy it , IF NOT they will become very aggressive , angry and start shouting at you .

2. The ideas of holding national flag and China flag are very good especially while having a group photo . The ideas come from  Hj Damanhuri . He did mentioned that people are watching us . Yes ! we did see some people start staring at us and asking where we come from ? Infact some of them took our picture for their own safe keeping .... or maybe appeared in their tourism magazine ........

as usual , we have breakfast at the hotel restaurant

infront of the Jade Center ... bought some fruits over here

Groups photo ... infront of the Great Wall

start climbing up the Great Wall

a family photo ... wonderful experienced

brother and sister

daughter with one member of the group ... LOVE from China ... with Hanis Muslimah Iskandar

kids with another members of tour .... son & daughter with Farhan , Azmir , Qisya and her sister

great moments

sweet and lovely couple

Infront of the big Muslim Restaurant  ... Its' consist of shopping arcade and surau  for praying .

they have Beijing ( Peking ) roast duck menu , son with En Miskandar family 

our menu .... mostly vegetables 

At the summer palace .. the lake already frozen

we are on the frozen lake !... with Tn Hj Damanhuri , Aiman K  and Athirah Roy Fadil

we have a good opportunity by  walking on the surface of the frozen water

family phote .. on the bridge with the background of  the palace situated at the Longevity Hill

another sweet moments

Addidas store and UNIQLO outlet

Yashow Market ... Beijing famous Shopping complex for tourist

Dinner : waiting for our foods ... at food court level 5 ... then went back to our hotel

   >>>>>>>  Tomorrow will be our last day in Beijing before we  proceed to Shanghai

Winter trip to Beijing and Shanghai Day 3...

Day 3 : Beijing

As usual we wake up early  in the morning ( around 5 am ) and then performed solat suboh . For info the time in Beijing  is same  with Malaysia , so we don't need to adjust our watches . But solat time much more earlier compared to Malaysia . We feel really excited to have our tour activity  today in Beijing . Last night our tourist guide informed us to be ready at 08:00 hrs in order to kick off our day . At 06:00 hrs , we already have our breakfast and then waiting for the bus to arrive . The temp today is  -10 Degree C but  there is still no snowing in Beijing . From what I read from other bloggers that from their previous experienced  it's already snowing during this period of time and the worst was in year 2010 .

Everybody in the group very punctual ! Most of them ready before 8 am , and this shows that Malaysian can be punctual and I feel glad and proud of that . For info , our hotel located at Minzuyuan  area which is a new developed area and very near to the Bird nest museum , the most expensive Dragon hotel ( USD 1 million per night ) , the Cube  and many others interesting previous Olympic venues . There are also a  24 hours convenient store sharing with the same hotel building .

Our toady activities :

1. Visit Tian An Men Square . During our visit there was an official function took place ,  so we cannot entered the square . As a result , we just took photo from some distant . This square is the biggest square in the world .
2. Visit Forbidden city . This area also very huge and divided to several section . There are a lot of tourist too and you can easy get lost if you didn't follow your group properly . We really have our nice time walking inside this forbidden city even though the temperature was very chilling and freezing  !
3. Have our lunch at Muslim restaurant . They are easier to be identify by the green signboard . The way they cooking the foods ..  nice taste !
4. Solat at the Mosque . Here I meet with other fellow from Malaysia who was tourist too .
5. Vist Chinese Medicine Centre where you can try for free feet reflextology . They will try to pursuade you to buy the medicine after they diagnosis your health , but the decision is yours !! Be firm on your decision , !
6. Watching the Acrobatics show ! The best show  is  the 10 motorcycles riding  together in one cage  .
7. Visit the Bird Nest Stadium and The Cube . The location is near to our hotel .
8. Evening , shopping at the small store near the Bird Nest stadium . Recommended to buy your sorvenier over here  since the price is reasonable but as usual please bargain for some discount .
9. Please take note that , some fee need to be pay for the entrance to the Forbidden City and The acrobatic show, but for us , it is already included inside our tour package so I don't know the real cost  for the fee  !


Our activity in the bus , our tourist guide , Amin telling the interesting stories on the places that we visit , the history behind  and  with some tips ,  do and don't . Our tour leader , Hj Damansuri have his own interesting ways in order for us to be more comfortable and get to know each other more closer . There is a time where there is a "breaking ice" session . At the end we become more friendly and closer to each other . Tuan Haji , you have done a very good job ! So POTO Travel & tours , please assigned him for our next  visit in future .....

Something to be highlighted ... most of public toilet is dirty and have a bad smell , so as friendly reminder  : if you want to do something "big " , please do it in your hotel !! . Last but not least , don't forget to  bring an empty bottle especially for ladies .

our 4 star hotel .... Holiday Inn Express , Beijing MInzuyuan ,,, very comfortable !

hotel restaurant for breakfast ... we only choose vegetarian !

the building near our hotel

1st visit .... The Tian An Men Square ... the biggest square in the world

Infront of the Forbidden City

have some rest after exploring the huge area  ... everybody shivering due to the low temp

inside the Forbidden City

we have our lunch and dinner at this Chinese Muslim Restaurant ... Green Color code indicate " Muslim "

pray at this mosque ... forgot his name

watch the acrobatics show

Group photo at the Bird Nest Stadium ... with the wind blow and low-ve  temp  , we feel more chilly and cold !!

... really macho action in freezing weather  , unbutton  the shirt !

wife , daughter and youbgest son .. view of the beautiful bird nest  stadium

back to our hotel room 

>>>>>>>     end of day 3 , see you on the next post !