Day02- Beijing 2007

Here we are again, showing here are some pictures from Beijing. I am about to take you through a journey to the Famous Forbidden City of China(紫禁城). The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Above here is a the entrance to the Great Forbidden City, whereby long long time ago, only the Emporer and his delegates used to walk in and out from these doors/ gates. Well as you can see here now, it's the face of Chairman Mao. After the step down of the Last Emperor, the forbidden city is turned into Palace Museum and later open to the public. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987,[2] and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Everyday, there are hundreds and thousands of people entering through these gates to take a glimpse of what is it like to be inside the Forbidden city!
This is a site map for references......... well I got this from wikipedia.... :P See how far is the palace from the entrace! Well, the front Door is entered only by the Emperor, and Emperess on her wedding day. After that she will never walk out of the palace anymore. If you study the map closely, the back door / gate is actually where all the young beautiful maidens are selected and enter through it. Also, she will not allow to leave the palace too after she enters. Only the maids are allowed to go out through the side doors, (C) to do some chores and running errants. So life in the palace is almost like a prison for the Imperial court ladies! This is one of its court yards. It is definately a long walk from the entrance to this place. Inside there are more of these huge red walls. The yellow roof or Gloden roof is actually meant for the royals only. No peasants or anyone are allowed these yellow roofs! Wow....

As you can see here that the weather is quite pleasant and bright blue sky with no clouds at all. This is considered rare in Beijing these days due to pollution and weather conditions. Well we are lucky to get these wonderful pictures; as the great weather is helping us too. This time is during October, and it is autumn. The tourist guide says October has the best weather in Beijing.

Well I took one of huge doors/ gates picture as I think we can only see these gates in Beijing, China. So much so that we can see these huge doors everywhere. Kind of like a symbol too. The story is that there are 9 rows and 9 columns of these studs so altogether is 81 studs. Interesting! The number 9 is considered as auspicious for the Emperors. Number is quite an important issue here in China, as everything is calculated, even the numbers of pillars, doors, tiles, dragons, trees.... etc.

The picture here shows the Emperor's Court Costume. This is a portrait of one of theEmperor. Here shows the Headgear, Accessories and the Dragon costume.

Here is the Emperess costume. It shows her Head pieces, Necklace, Earings, Jeweleries, etc. These are the formal wear. They will wear these clothes for formal function and celebration.

You can view additional information from here too!

Palace Museum official site
Forbidden City, A Photographic Tour

Cameron Here I come!

First of all, I would like to think that most people would not go for holiday in Cameron Highlands, but I thought, give it a try, support our Malaysian tourism product! Well, it turn out to be so wonderful that I'll definitely never forget the experience and will do it again! By chance I read about it in the net and magazines and we end up driving up there and stayed there for few days. I will strongly recommend all of ya to give it a go... I mean a MUST TRY!
Alright, this is like spring time everywhere, you get to see all these different types of blooms in this Honey Bee Farm called (Er Feng Gu). Take out your camera and start shooting folks!
Well, we went to this Rose Garden whereby you get to see all sorts of potted plants and interesting Roses..... ahh I forgot to mention they have all kinds of Cactus as well. Mind you, don't buy any potted plants from Cameron as the weather down town and up in highlands are very mush different!
I do have to suggests that you guys should visit this Simpang Pulai Boh Tea Plantation as it has the best viewing platform of all. The view is fantastic and also you get to drink some of the favourite teas here. Just some info, when drinking tea, you have to first sip some tea and roll it in your tongue and mouth to taste it before you drink the tea. It is sort of like wine tasting. They call it tea tasting and how they enjoy their cup of tea here! Oh.... do not forget to stop by at the Smokehouse or Lake house to grab some scones with cream & strawberry jam together with a cuppa tea here. YUMMY......... they all serve home-made jams! They serve these around tea time at 3pm. So do not miss this! Trust me it's real good stuff.
Let me show you where we stayed! This is the view from my petite window. Nice place huh! Well, this is the Lake house that we stayed in. Real cool and authentic. I find it really cozy and warm. Will definitely come back here.
So this is the Tudor style room that we had! We got this 4-pole bed, quite huge. Two arm chair, some flowers when we arrive, we actually bought those strawberries! Well, I guess by now you would love to go where I've been right? hehhee.....

Finally, This is the best destination that I've been...... the Mossy Forest! We join this forest trip as an adventure........... they told us there's this jungle trail that we should try, so I say why not? Oh, trust me on this, we were the only 2 locals in this short trip. All of them were tourists from all over the world!

OK, some briefing for you guys out there.... if you are thinking of those normal jungle trails that has some tiny paths for you to follow... too bad, this is not one of them! We practically go on all fours to get up the jungle trail and go through this mossy forest! So, if you are not fit enough, I guess you should call it a miss...

Inspired by Beijing....

Hah... this is another recipe that I adapted and modified from the original "Beijing Peking duck wrap" version..... :P. Well, I improvised with my Roast Pork (cut into slices) and the wrap made my own with flour..... some ingrdients such as radish, spring onion, seaweed, cucumber, (sambal he bi) dried shrimps, and mushrooms. We had this for dinner and hubby kinda like it. Of course I did add some sauce too!