My One Week Flashback

First foot into China - Oct 11 2008. Landed in Beijing airport, and took a domestic flight to ChongQing. KJ met us at the ChongQing airport, and basically performed all the bargaining and negotiating with her native locals in her ChongQing language!

Okay, so here's just a small recap of my action packed one-week vacation. First half was spent in ChongQing - a city having the largest municipal area and population in China; whereas second half in Beijing - one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

We spent Sunday exploring the Chongqing village. This is the pathway to KJ's Grandparents' home. This was by far my favourite experience in this China vacation. KJ and her mum accompanied us throughout the scenic walk which took about 30 mins.

Aha, this is the village home. We spent half a day both in the house and exploring the farm. Can you imagine the inside of the village home in your head? I couldn't. I bascially went Whoo Whoa when I saw the Grandparents' bedrooms, and kitchen, arggh and of course the toilet (if we can call it the toilet)....


The next picture is part of our walk during the weekly Monday market. Basically you see the entire economy of the village taking place on one street. We were lucky to catch the market scene during our stay. The villagers were rather amused with my SLR camera, some were kind enough to smile into it!

Smile~ even if you are working!

Furong Cave

Up the mountain village. This is KJ uncle's family. Large family - don't know who belongs to which family tree.

China's natural beauty, Wulong Karst - another amazing highlight!


Back to City life - This is the Forbidden City - The Chinese Imperial Place of the Ming and Qing Dynasty. The crowd was a little nasty for better appreciation though.

Aha, our non-stop walking and climbing trip was well-balanced in the end. We had dinner at Shang-ri Hotel in Beijing. Had tea at the serene garden before dinner. The buffet selection was also superb with fresh oysters, Beijing duck, and sashimi. After many meals of Chinese food, it was indeed good to have an international selection.

We were so tired out we had to cancel our Great Wall plan. We decided to head back to Great Wall probably in winter - where there would be less people and tourists.

Well, it was a great experience truely. China is huuuggee, and really it has a lot of natural beauty to offer. We have covered three World Heritage sites this round. The village experience was wonderful and enchanting.

More details to follow!