Jan 11 - 14 Beijing Trip

From Jan 11 to Jan 14, we went sight-seeing in Beijing with our moms. It was special as I've never experienced snow in Beijing before. On the other hand, it made it difficult for us to climb the Great Wall - you can ask Paulina and she will tell you all about the clearing of her mooladhara! I think she still has a phobia for snow.

It was also a pleasure to meet the Beijing Sahaj collective at their weekly program, and thanks to Haiyan and Jianhua for taking us shopping. We had some really good bargains. Hope I'll be able to join them for the next Sahaj seminar.

Upon arriving the beijing city, we immediately went to Wang Fu Jing Road to try out the local eateries.
一抵步我們一行五人便急不及待去了王府井大街一嘗當地美食。在寒冷的天氣下吃著即煮即吃的地道小食的確風味十足，但坦白說味道真的麻麻。

The Forbidden City covered in snow was absolutely breathtaking!
在白雪紛飛下欣賞紫禁城，又另有一翻味道!

It was fun to climb the Great Wall, except that the snow from the previous day made it extremely slippery. Paulina was one of the casualties. That's why Chris and I decided to take the sliding car instead of walking back down. However it took us to a different exit and we had to take a cab back to the main entrance costing us RMB30 (what a rip off!)
踏著鋪雪的長城， 不少人因此滑倒，Paulina也是其中受害者之一。因此Chris 和我決定坐滑車下山，卻被載往另一個出口，要花30元乘計程車回正門，相信這情況經常發生，那計程車司機專門接載迷路的遊客，生意源源不絕。

After the Great Wall experience, Paulina was extremely cautious with the icy paths when we went to the Ming's Tombs. Afterwards we went to try this really nice "farm-style cuisine" nearby, and I strongly recommend the sweet & sour fish.
經過長城一役後，Paulina對於在十三陵那白雪雪的路面格外小心，可謂一步一驚心。之後我們到了附近的餐館嘗了美味的農家菜，我們特別推介那味"糖醋魚"。

The Temple of Heaven was such a huge place (about 2.7 million squared meter) that we nearly got lost. It was fun trying to speak to each other on the opposite side of the Echo Wall and hearing the echo of our voices as we said "Allah Hu Akbar" in the centre of the Circular Altar. Standing on the "Heavenly Centre Stone" gave us a certain feeling of solemnity as the connection to the Divine became prominent.
天壇的面積大得驚人(大概二百七十萬平方米)，走畢全程後不禁有點腳軟。不過在回音壁的兩邊交談真的很好玩，而在天心石中央說"Allah Hu Akbar"聽著自己聲音的回響有一種攝人的氣勢，感覺好像和上天連接起來，難怪古時皇帝選擇這地方向上天祈禱。

The staff at the silk shop gave us a demonstration of the process of making a silk quilt.
我們到絲綢店購物，並參觀絲綿被的製作過程。

It wasn't until our last day in Beijing that we got a chance to visit Hu Tong (when our moms were busy shopping). There was a lot of fun stuff, like chair-skating, and very antique-looking little alleys and shops. We were so excited that we didn't want to leave and nearly missed out flight back to HK.
到臨走的一天我們才有機會到什剎海胡同觀光，Chris和我二人簡直樂而忘返，那兒除了有"椅子滑冰"外，還有很多古色古香的小巷和店舖，我們逛著逛著，還差點錯過了回港的航班!

Click here to view the chair-skating video or here for more videos
請按此看椅子滑冰的錄像或這裡看更多錄像