My parents left to join in my grandfathers 80th birthday celebrations in KL already. In the short time they were in 北京 Beijing, we had the chance to go to 北海 Beihai, 西单 Xidan, 秀水街Xiushuijie, walk through 景山公园 Jingshan Park, drive around 故宫 Gugong,天安门 Tiananmen, 后海 Houhai, some 胡同 Hutongs, eat some yummy 北京烤鸭 Beijing Duck and saw my cutie nephew!!!!!

It’s hard when one person wants to do the cultural site seeing thing and the other wants to just go shopping….

Either way, that hotel bed was lovely to sleep on and the showerhead was to die for! I wasn’t too fond with the slow drainage and windowless curtains though. I stupidly walked from the new train station to their hotel on the first day thinking it wouldn’t be that far. Yes well, it wasn’t that far on the map…

The new subway Line 5 was pretty spiffy, their trains were upgraded (lights to show the progress, extra bars for people to hold on to, AC etc) and they also put in glass doors on the platforms which I thought was stupid because the train doesn’t actually line it’s doors with the platform doors when it stops. Anyways, they still have a long way to go before it can even be compared to HK.

So I gave my family a quick call on Saturday to say “Hi!” and “Happy Birthday” to my Grandfather. But it was so noisy I doubt they even heard me… I wish I had been there to see everyone and eat the wonderful banquet I’m sure they had =( Now I’ll just have to make do with the photos and videos…

Yesterday was apparently the Vietnamese Women’s Day! It’s the day where the guys will treat the girls like a queen by buying them flowers or a gift and doing the chores for them. We ended up having a yummy steamboat on the kitchen floor with a bunch of Vietnamese people. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve met more Vietnamese people than local Chinese!

PS. I bought myself a couple of fishies (黑黑 and 金金)! I decided it was just too cruel to kill a turtle.