Had breakfast at the Mcdonald near our hotel instead of the hotel buffet breakfast cos we were really sick of the food there. Ordered our breakfast sets as a group order, but the service there was really slow. In fact it would have been faster had we ordered individually. Anyway I really dunno what's wrong with the staff there, but we ordered 7 hot drinks yet they only gave us 1 creamer and 2 packets of sugar -_-". After requesting for more creamer and sugar, she placed another creamer and 2 more packets of sugar on the tray.
Either that or the Mcdonalds there are very stingy. One of my aunts went to buy some cakes and cupcakes at the McCafe for us cos today we'll be travelling at least 3.5hrs on the road to Chengde, so better to have something to eat on the way. So anyway it was just a simple order yet they couldn't even get it right. Really can't imagine how a non-Mandarin speaker would survive there if they cannot even get simple orders correct.
After breakfast, we boarded the coach but this time it's a bigger one cos we requested for it. The previous one was way too cramped and would be extremely uncomfortable for long journeys. As a result, the driver was also a different one. En route to Chengde, we stopped by at the Aifeibao Winery. Very lovely place that resembles more like Europe (not that I've been there before lah :s).
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| The winery which looks more like a European castle *_* |
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| Inside the winery. A giant bottle of wine :o |
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| I P Man? :s |
After that went back to another section of the winery compound cos my aunts wanted to buy some souvenirs as well as to use the washroom.
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| Wine bottles disguised as tin men |
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| Yet another Chinglish poster. "Keep a safety protection consciousness during your visiting and have a safe journey in Beijing." By the way the picture in that poster is the Temple of Heaven that we had visited :P |
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| Towels made to look like dogs. So cute :D |
After filling our stomachs, we went to see the Putuozongsheng Temple and the Temple of Sumeru Happiness and Longevity. Actually that place wasn't really interesting, just keep walking and climbing stairs upwards etc. :s
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| One lone deer spotted :s |
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| We were too tired to climb all the way to the top :s |
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| Map of the whole area, that's how vast it is. |
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| Some weird water plants? :P |
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| 烟雨楼, the place where the first Huan Zhu Ge Ge series was filmed. And the Chengde guide liked to keep talking about Huan Zhu Ge Ge, lol. |
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| Mongolian Tents |
Along the way we rented this vehicle to drive us cos if we were to walk by foot, it'll take a much longer time plus we've had enough of walking. It was also getting quite dark already by then, so after that we went back to hotel. We had the chance to choose what to eat for dinner that day, but decided to eat in the hotel instead so that we could rest earlier.
Among the 3 hotels we stayed at throughout the trip, I'd rank this as the worst. The room looks shabby, is small and only has the bare minimum furniture like beds, cupboard, tv and dressing table. Usually hotels have other additions like bedside tables, fridge, safe, sofa chairs etc but not this, and the Chengde guide still dare to say this is the best hotel in Chengde :s Even though the bathroom is quite big, the layout is very bad; the shower area is tiny when they could have made use of the amount of space to at least make it bigger or even install a bathtub. Tap makes a noisy sound when the water is running, and the worst thing is, after bathing, the bathroom floor is all wet (due to poor drainage again), so we had to call the staff to dry up the floor twice -_-" Had to tread around carefully and I almost slipped several times. Thankfully we were only staying there for one night.
Day 5, Fri (28 Oct)
Had buffet breakfast at the Chengde hotel and while the food were not very nice also, at least it was something different from the one in the Beijing hotel. After that it was another long journey to Tianjin.
When we finally reached Tianjin, it was time for lunch first. The toilet at that restaurant was rather special, cos it consist of two squatting toilets side by side in the only cubicle :o I guess the people in China are really open about such things. Which is also why cleanliness and privacy freaks should not go to China cos they'll most probably freak out from all the (toilet) culture shocks :s
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| One of the shops near the restaurant. The brown curled thingy is some kind of specialty there I think, but I forgot the name. The nice tour guide again forked out some money of his own to buy a few for us to try *touched* |
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| How the horse-carriage looks like |
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| Starting point of the ride and also area for purchasing the tickets. |
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| The Music Square, but there was no music :( |
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| The start of a stretch of road along the Italian Concessions Area. |
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| Map of the area |
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| lol, just took this for fun. Angry birds and One piece O_O |
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| Some people playing music. |
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| er, no need to explain why this pic was taken right? :P |
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| Towards the end of the Italian Concessions Area... |
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| Quite a number of people fishing there, and one or two even swimming (in such cold weather!) |
Since we were ahead of schedule and it was too early for dinner, the tour guide brought us to an area for shopping but then the things sold there were not of our interest. It's the kind of things you see people selling in SG's Chinatown, the kind my father would be interested in, lol. Then there was this man selling small little thingys (like those toys for pets) and the gimmick was that when you say "jump" or other action words, those thingys actually start moving and jumping, and when you say "stop", they really stop. It was really cute and seems fun, but of course it sounds too good to be true right. I thought it was battery operated or something that responds to sound, but the man says no batteries required. Anyway, thinking it would make a good toy for my kitten, we bought 3 of it for 10 yuan. Then after some more walking, we decided to try out those thingys and of cos they refused to start jumping >:( Turns out it's actually operated by a fish string which you have to manually maneuver to make it look convincing. Argh.. feel so gullible to be "cheated" :s
Finally it's dinner time and then to the Tianjin hotel.
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| Ceiling of the hotel. |
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| Hotel lobby |
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| A "warmly notice" by the hotel bathroom |
Of course the hotel room is not without it's flaws; there is not separation between the toilet bowl and the shower area, so it's inevitable that the whole area will be wet after bathing >:( Also, there is no Hunan Weishi channel! That was the only night I was unable to watch 千山暮雪 :( hmm.. but at least can finally have 8 hours of sleep that night :P
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