2009-05-30 Lufthansa outlet and nice dinner!

We went to the above mentioned outlet. It's a 3 building outlet with branded shop e.g. Cerutti 1881, Polo, Timberland, Nike, Adidas, Puma and etc.

Building A is mainly for woman goodies e.g. shoe, watch and handbag. The watch here is much more expensive than those in Malaysia. For example, a common casio digital watch will cost around RM 100, here it cost RMB445. The same for other watches brand e.g. Guess. The sunglasses is much more expensive too.

Building C consists of mainly formal wear e.g. Cerutti 1881, Hugo Boss, Polo Ralph Lauren and etc. Well, those are usually expensive and we are not really in favor of those brand, we do not need those yet :)

Building B attracted our eyes, the sport center. It gave me some feeling of US factory outlet store, because the shoe layout are similar to those of US factory outlet store. The shoe price are cheap! A woman nike max shoe is RMB 450 - 500. I am not really sure what is the actual price selling in Malaysia, but I feel it is cheaper here. Luckily the shoe I like doesn't has my size, or else I will have to kill some brain cell to decide if to buy the shoe which can support my World Vision child 5 months expenses haha :) The point is, my current shoe is still working fine and I don't really need it yet. I got my New Balance shoe at Malaysia about RM 230, here the selling price is RMB 325, much cheaper :)

Finally I bought myself a scarf, my favorites :) This is probably the only thing I will buy here besides books :D

As for lunch, we took hot pot, with normal soup base. We are not really into the Ma Lak spicy soup base :p


Each individual will has its own hot pot. The sauce is sesame sauce, which taste a bit like peanut butter.

We stay for around 4 hours plus only, then depart home. It's hot today, and strong wind. I almost get blew away :p

As for dinner, we dine at local store called 小洞天



From top left, clockwise:
1) 疙瘩汤 A soup, I don't know its english name. Hmm, ok lar :)
2) Five spice powder chicken wing - quite tasty :D
3) Fried kang kong, it's called 空心菜 here. Taste normal, like those in Malaysia.
4) Fried corn with pea. They added sugar, if not it will taste very nice with the fresh sweet corn.
5) Grill mushroom. I don't really enjoy the spicy sauce :p IV said almost all sauce they used for BBQ here taste like that.

And the most interesting dishes are:


Grill oyster and grill scallop! It's only RMB 6 per piece. It is nice and we definitely will go back again :D

2009-05-28 San Li Tun 三里屯

Today is Dumpling Festival, we decided to dine out at this 一坐一忘丽江主题餐厅

Oh yes, it's Yun Nan's dishes again :) Seems like recently we just have fate with Yun Nan's dishes.

The restaurant is nicely decorated. Look at the calendar at top right corner, interesting isn't it.






Let's use co-ordinate system, assuming bottom left as (0,0)
(0, 2) Grilled Talipia fish - Surprisingly very less bone. Very fresh and nice, no wonder so many people recommend it at dianping.com
(0, 1) Milky cheese wrap red bean paste - Special.
(1, 1) Free dumpling from the restaurant (-L- free dumpling again :p ) - Not much taste, sweet rice with peanut.
(1, 2) Sautee egg with jasmine bud - Special :) we can make it ourselves if can find jasmine bud :)
(2, 2) 冲腾大救驾 similar to Kuey Tiao but in square pieces, a bit sour and spicy.
(2, 1) Small beancurd with ham - Didn't really taste the ham :p

Since we are at San Li Tun area, we walked to San Li Tun 簋街 after the dinner.

It's a famous hang out area, similar to KL Bukit Bintang. Frankly, here is more impressive than Bukit Bintang :p

Building here is more 'artistic', not as squarish as Malaysia's building. And most of the store are decorated innovatively. While window shop, you will enjoy the interior design as well :)

Arghh, what's inside the water?

Look at the picture below:



What is your first thought? Hmm, the water is dirty, who put in chalk dust?
Or you might probably know that Beijing water is hardwater, which sometimes give you some 'mineral' inside the water， which is the whitish thing in the water as shown above.

When I first see it, I was suspecting the water boiler is not good. But after checking the boiler in and out, it seems to be in good condition. Then found out from IV this is because Beijing water is hardwater, while we used to have softwater in Malaysia.

After spent few minutes google for hardwater information, most of the articles saying hardwater is safe to drink. But still, I usually do not finish all water in the cup but leave the whitish thing :)

Happy Dumpling Festival

Tomorrow is dumpling festival端午节. It will be public holiday starting from Thu till Sat, and Sunday will be working day :)

Dumpling can be seen everywhere these few days. In company cafeteria lunch today, each dine-in employee was given a dumpling. As for the apartment we stayed, it distribute free dumpling for residents too :) The flavor I seen common thus far is red bean paste filling dumpling. 3 other flavors 八宝，jujube and meat are also available for apartment's.



I am attaching a normal napkin tissue pack for your reference, the dumpling here is small and long compared to those we have in Malaysia :)

The lower right corner dumpling is given by cafeteria.

Happy dumpling festival :) 端午节快乐，每天都要快快乐乐。

2009-05-23 Lama Temple 雍和宫

The sky is blue today, so it's time to walk around before it get too hot on Jun and Jul.

I'd decided to visit Lama Temple 雍和宫, which I did not have the chance to visit during my Beijing trip 2 years ago. We took MRT, and it costs only RMB 2, although the travel time is closed to 1 hour, including line transit. It is 150m from the MRT station. Well, please google for 'lecture information' about this temple :D

The temple is not very big. I got what I want in 1.5 hours. Before we spend RMB25 to enter the temple, we see a few incense stall on our way. There are a lot of people pray inside the temple. There are few varieties of incense here, and the way they light the incense is kind of interesting too, refer to picture below:



In one of the building, reside a 26 meters height statute which is carved out of a single white sandalwood tree.



Photo and recording are not allowed inside all building, hence I am not able to show you the whole statute but only the bottom part. I can't imagine how big is the tree :)

Outside some of the building there were bell as below. Make it spin in clockwise direction :)



More pic in http://picasaweb.google.com/changmeikuan/LamaTempleBeijing

We took a local shanghai food chain store 一品一笼 for lunch.




Top left: Dessert, not so nice.
Top bottom: Fungus and bamboo shoot soup, it will be nice if it doesn't has ajinomoto :)
Center: Shang Hai dumpling. I personally felt this is nice, at least nicer than Dragon-i's.
Top right: Onion noodle 葱油拌面, normal.
Top bottom: 雪菜肉丝面, normal.

After walk around Xi Dan 西单, we departed home. We visited 华威, pacific store, joy city. Just window shopping, to survey on the price only. If it is not departmental store which the price are fixed, most prices are very high, and requires very good bargain skills. This make me lazy to add few more clothes into my closet :)

After rest at home for a while after a tiring morning/afternoon, we took bus to nearby places for dinner at 云之南。 It's Yun Nan dish.



Top center: Fried wild vegetable 洋瓜尖, it's tasty and special :D
Top right: Homemade rice wine, RMB 5/cup. I like the taste, not alcoholic :)
Middle left: A cold dish, wrapped vegetables using 青笋, tasty too.
Middle right: Few type of mushroom soup, the taste is okay.
Bottom left: Fried chicken with chessnut, taste okay, but very few meat, mostly bone :p
Bottm right: Pineapple rice. Guess what, it's sticky rice inside the pineapple. If you ever tasted sticky rice with mango, you can imagine this taste :)

See you.

2009-05-20 Jam

Read from a newspaper article that Beijing traffic logistic facility can't take more car as per today situation. I agree with that, it is pretty jam during office hour.



We walked to dinner at 一碗香拉面, which is probably faster than those who get caught jam.



We dine in a local beef noodle shop. From left to right:
1) Quite tasty pea. If you notice the brown color small round pepper, that is called 花椒, which is widely used in 麻辣 dishes especially in Si Chuan dishes. This is the ingredient that make the tongue numb. I will buy some back to Malaysia, if I can ;)
2) Beef noodle soup. It smell good, but just too salty. Beijing food is just strong in taste especially too salty.
3) Grill lamb and chicken wing. This is different from Malaysia Satay. It was grill with some herbs, which taste pretty nice as well :)

2009-05-20 Lychee can caused heaty!

We bought some lychee. Guess what, I almost fall sick after ate those. I ate some on Sat evening. On the next day, I got sore throat and very tired. I did not know it is because of lychee and ate some on Sunday evening. Oh my god, I woke up by cough almost every hour on Sun night, and hence very poor sleep quality. Until today (Wed) only I felt revitalized, although still have some cough and sore throat.

According to local phamarcist and colleauge, and I did check online as well, lychee is a 'heaty' fruit. To take lychee, should have drink some salt water, or any other solution that can 'cool down' the body. The phamarcist shared a recipe, boil lychee skin with water, and drink the water. Unfortunately I threw away all skin, thus he recommended Pei Pa Gou, which apparently is helpful too.

Okay, I can write more today, since I felt better. Before I switch to work :)

After staying here for around a week, I agree with IV's opinion that local Chinese people talk very loudly. Well, it is so noticable. In the restaurant, I can hear nearby converstation very clearly although I didn't quite understand because of their slang. In the office, I can hear someone's phone conversation very clearly even though his cubicle is at least six cubicle seperated away. In the bus, I can hear someone speaking on the phone sharing her holiday plan with her friend. Well I am just wondering the meeting room here better be good in sound isolation, especially if the meeting discussion topic is confidential ;)

I always walk with tissue paper covering my nose, to 'filter' the dust, and also smoke. The smokers smoke everywhere, in the public, in the air-cond restaurant, luckily not in the office. If you ever see someone covered her nose even though she is in a bus, that could be me ;)

Beijing food are mostly stronger in taste. Today we have something light in taste.


From bottom right, counter clockwise:
1) Very tasty lamb. It doesn't has the 'special' smell/taste that we found in Malaysia.
2) Quite nice thin crust pizza.
3) Cherry tomato and cheese appetizer.
4) Olio spaghetti. I am a bit disappointed about this. The oil doesn't taste like olive oil, the spaghetti is too soft.

2009-05-17 Sexy voice

I guess I still need a while to get used to the dry weather, coughed a bit yesterday night, then this morning the voice is sexy. Well, just have to drink more water, eat more fruits/vege, rest more, regular exercise :) I don't want to be infected by flu, especially swine flu!

Actually planned to go Tuan Jie lake park to take flower macro shot, as out of camera battery yesterday. No choice but to postpone the plan and have a good rest/nap at home.

2009-05-17 Localizing

Because of IV (as he had live here for about a year), we are localizing to Beijing grass root life, get to know more about their culture.

Nearby the apartment there is a park called Tuan Jie lake park . The sky was hazy, but a bit warm especially after you walked for a while. It surprised me that there are actually a lot of activities going on in this lake park.

From bottom to top, right to left :)

1) A group of senior practicing sword and tai chi.

2) Creative sign board, simple translation will be "Watch your step, and the return would be green field".

3) The entrance. Entry is FOC.

4) Very greenish, well maintaned park.

There were a few different group of senior practicing sword, tai chi, 踢毽子, write caligraphy, dancing, chit-chatting in the park. Also you will see a lot of family gathering here, e.g. parents teach kid how to play some of the local game, how to write caligraphy, how to skate, how to dance. Oh, there is a open-air ballroom, I guess the group is practicing ballroom dance, which is very enjoyable even just look at them practicing it happily :) I will consider to jog here if possible :D Probably SH can consider to bring a radio here and started his cardio fit class too :D

Look at the caligraphy writing below :)

This is my first time seeing such caligrapy pen. It's using plain water (no wonder there are few Dulux pails filled with water on the floor), write it on the floor and it will get dry after a while, so environment friendly 'ink' :D Looked at the writing, from my perspective, those writing are very good!

KH the fan of tree skin pattern, I am not sure if you saw this kind of tree before, pictures below are captured for you :)

After lunch, we walked to a complex, which took about 30 min. On our way, we passed by a street which they have 'pasar pagi' (morning market) here at the roadside (Most of the stalls are closed after lunch, we got to know from IV). No wonder in the morning, I saw so many housewives brought along vegetables and fruits passed by the Tuan Jie lake park.

This time let's do a counterclock wise from top left corner:

1) A book retailer center near to the complex. I can spend more my day here in the future :D

2) Street view outside of Park No 5.

3) City view.

4) Jing Ke Long grocery store.

The vegetables in Jing Ke Long are still fresh, and much more choices, compared to night time. i will definitely grab this opportunity to buy fruit/vege juice ingredient, and try local vegetables.

On our way back to apartment, we discovered a market. It is exactly like the 'pasar' (market) in Malaysia. I believe the price here is much cheaper than that of departmental store e.g. Jing Ke Long and Carrefour. This is because the brocolli below only cost us RMB 1.50! The breadstick cost RMB2 for around 9 sticks. But unfortunately no official receipt will be given in such market place :(

2009-05-14 No blue sky...

The temperature dropped to that when I was first arrived. Well, I enjoy such temperature, just a thin sweater will keep you warm (or slightly walk will has the same result also :) ) But the sky is no longer blue. It is very hazy, visibility is very low and very windy, strong wind.

After work, we went to Carrefour nearby office area. Before that, we went to 永和大王 for dinner. It is a local chain store, specialize in beef dishes. I don't have my camera around, so no picture to show. But it's okay not to look at the pictures, as the food is just so so :p

I was surprised the pail is very expensive, it cost RMB 20 for one normal pail :O And there are not much fresh vegetable available. I was really disappointed, I can't get ingredient for fruit/vege juice. An acceptable quality of tomato cost about RMB 2 each :O .

On the next day, got to know from local colleague that the departmental store usually won't refill vegetable/fruit to the counter after certain office hour. If would like to get fresh food, it's advisable to go morning market or go to departmental store in the morning, shopped for a week stock :) This is different from Malaysia, where office lady usually buy fruit/vegetable after office hour, and departmental store will always refill those at night also.

On Friday, we went out for lunch with the local team. The restaurant provides a cozy private room, and equipped with a couch, karaoke equipment with LCD TV, and attached restroom :) The dishes are quite delicious. The unforgettable are 酒酿丸子, black fungus dip with wasabi/soy sauce, lotus filled with sweet rice and pork rib. The soup base of 酒酿丸子 is made from fermented white rice. The alcohol taste is so light till you won't notice it at all, only some unique sweetness, and the fermented rice texture is very different :D

For friday dinner, we took Japanese cuisine at Chu Yun 出云, as it is so near to our apartment, and we were tired to walk far :p



1) Beef udon - normal shoyu soup base, but the udon noodle is very 'chewy', better than most of the soft udon noodle in Malaysia :) We don't know which one is more original compared to Japanese's, but we preferred the chewy type :)
2) Fish-roe handroll - The seaweed is good, haha :D the fish roe is too salty. Not forgot to mention, the wasabi here is much better than those of I'd ever tasted in Penang. Just a little you will feel like crying :D
3) Assorted sushi - It is pretty huge, this is the first time we experienced actual dish is larger than that in the display menu :D. It taste good with different kind of filling, we think it's hard to find in Malaysia.
4) Grilled squid - My favorite dish, and meet my expectation, with very little or almost no oil :)

Working here is more tiring than that of Penang, because of the long travel time I guess.

2009-05-13 Drying in Beijing

Probably the green effort that government put in is effective, the sky is blue today too :) But still, you can hardly see clouds.

On my forth day here in Beijing, my lip will start to 'crack', my eyes started to feel very tired because of dryness even in morning. To proof how dry it is, please see picture below:

I pick this leaf around 9am on the street, then I just leave it on my office desk. Around 4pm, I was surprised it became so dry, from a flat normal leaf! Imagine if I am not drinking water, how would I be? A dry mei kuan (chuckle), which is more dry than salted fish :p

Luckily I found out a way to protect my eyes, put some water near my eye with my eyes closed, every time I go restroom. It seems to be working, my eyes felt much better since then.

We usually take lunch in cafeteria with colleague here, it cost RMB 12 for buffet style lunch, RMB 10 for noodle or a plate of rice with meat. From these few days observation, some Chinese like to take a lot of food, although they can't finish it. It is so wasteful :( Oh by the way, my meal portion increased, but not weight. This is most probably because I need to walk a lot here. A lot of destination are within walking distance, which means 10 - 20 min walk :)

We took bus from office to go back to apartment. The public transport system is pretty well organize. The bus fare using touch card (like Touch n go card) cost only RMB 40 cents sometimes :O But the bus suspension probably is not too good, when we sit at the back seat, we sometimes 'bounced' although the road surface is not too bumpy. At the back of each bus seat, there will be some riddles, IQ question, information or etc, which is quite interesting to spend the time on the bus :)

On our way back, saw some senior citizens are doing line dance outside of a complex. There were easily more than 100 of senior citizen enjoying the dance.

Before finishing up this post, almost forgot to mention the 柳絮. I am not sure what is it called in English. It is white in color, similar to dandelion, very light and you can find it in the air almost everywhere on the street.

You might wondering, where are the dinner photo? :) I did not have my camera during dinner time. I will update the picture after I get those from SH :)

[Updated on May 16 with photo] 饺子城 Dumpling City


From left to right:
1) Fried vegetable - Pang Pang will like the egg but I like the vege :D
2) Meat ball winter melon soup - The soup was surprisingly very tasty, especially to me as a Cantonese.
3) Dumpling - The dumpling is okay, but the ingredient that surprised my taste bud was the vinegar, with light alcoholic taste, which is unique :)

2009-05-12 3rd day in Beijing

Am I consider lucky? I can get blue sky in Beijing, although it is only 'light-blue', but my last trip to Beijing in 2007 with all 10-days grey and hazy sky really make me felt happy with today's blue sky :) And it's rare to have clouds in Beijing sky, but we saw one on our way back after work. Yes, only one cloud but it make me felt so excited haha :) Appreciate what you have before it's too late :) I can still recall Penang and US nice blue sky.

It is getting hotter today. Could it because of the blue sky? Less haze in the air, thus more direct and brighter sunlight :p

I started to figure out why I felt tired starting from 3pm. The humidity level is really low here. I can overcome the skin problem by apply more lotion. But unfortunately my eye cannot stand, it will become very dry eventually, then make me feel tired. I wish I can slowly adapt to it, without using any eye drop solution. Well, if it doesn't get better, I better get some eye moisturizer eye drop next week to protect my eyes ;( Because of the low humidity, I need to drink a lot of water, easily more than 3l, I hope that is considered normal, or else I can feel skin and lip will be very dry. Sigh... If you see me become 人干 when I return to Malaysia, you know why :)

Another reason could be the lighting. The office lighting are mostly sunlight tube, which is yellowish. I don't feel comfortable to work under such sunlight. It was the same situation during my stay in US about 7 years ago. I can stand with white sunlight but not too yellowish-sunlight lighting. Hmm, I don't think I can request the workplace services to change the light tube solely for me, hope my eyes can adapt to it soon :)

Today had 龙抄手 for lunch in company cafeteria. 抄手 is actually wan tan 云吞 :) It's a Sichuan dish, with the soup is a little bit spicy. Since I grew up in Malaysia, I can still stand with the spice. Most of the local will think that is too hot/spicy for them.

For dinner, we dine at 客家园 near apartment. The hakka dishes are quite nice, and not too costly. In fact, surprised to know Yeong Tau Foo is one of hakka dish also haha.



Starting from top left corner, clock-wise:
1) Abalone sauce fried rice in lotus leaf. Quite nice. The rice texture here taste like thailand fragrant rice.
2) Yeong Tau Fu. Well, it is similar to Malaysia Yeong Tau Fu. But the sauce is different, not really what is the sauce name and ingredient :p
3) 3-cup duck 三杯鸭。 The duck is a bit 'fat', the taste is different from the 3-cup chicken we used to take in Malaysia.
4) Stir fried lotus with vegetables. Quite nice in 南乳 sauce.

The other dishes look tempting also, we will definitely come back again since the food is quite nice and the restaurant is nearby to the apartment we stay :)

2009-05-11 First day to work

It is very bright outside when I woke up on 5am. Yeah, it's end of spring and summer is coming.

Morning office hour traffic is pretty jam, especially at traffic light and freeway intersection. We met the colleague in office, most of them are friendly. I believe this is because IV is with us, or else the environment could be a bit awkward. We need to pick up their product knowledge and they will lose their job after this. I did ask myself many times before I came, if I am one of them, how would I feel? The answer is I will just complete the task assigned and find another job. After gone through the 2002 cycle, I realize this is not personal employee issue but economy trend. I can't change the economy trend, so better spend the time to find way to survive instead of complaining ;)

When you heard someone who stay in Beijing tell you "It's within walking distance", please be prepared that it could be around 15 minutes walk. People here get used to walk, instead of taking bus/taxi. And probably you can reach your destination faster especially during traffic jam! We walked to 三里屯 area 中八楼restaurant for dinner. Here we go:



This restaurant specialty is Yun Nan dishes. Again, from left-to-right, top-to-bottom.
1) The juice we ordered, red color Yun Nan 5-flower juice, green color orange juice with some I-don't-know-the-name herbs, white color rice wine. The rice wine is very nice, no alcoholic taste but nature sweetness and rice fragrant.
2) Minced meat with spice and green pea. 黑三剁 It taste a bit spicy, best to serve with rice.
3) Bamboo rice. Hmm, the rice is nice but can't really smell/taste bamboo :)
4) Stir-fried dry truffles. I like almost any kind of mushroom, so this is good experience for me.
5) The restaurant logo and chopstick. We need to pay the chopstick, it's RMB 1/pair.
6) Scallop and escargot in cheese. This is my second time taking escargot, I still think it has a very 'unique' taste :) While we flipping through the menu, we were surprised quite a number of dishes are cooked with cheese. Sometimes we thought we are in Italian restaurant instead of Yun Nan restaurant :p

The portion is not too big (compared to Beijing food portion), we ordered another white rice, at least to finish the minced meat.

As according to IV, Yun Nan is famous with wild vegetable dishes, including different kind of mushroom. We also see a dish is just fried leaf (I can't remember the leave name) . It reminded me of my last Kinabalu trip, which I can get fried leaf at the local store, which cost around RM 4 per pack only, compared to that which cost around RMB 20+ :p

After the dinner, we passed by 三里屯 on our way to 京客隆 department store ( 京客隆 department store is a local departmental store which sell groceries at reasonable price. ) 三里屯 is also called 簋街, famous of bar/restaurant. There are also few big shopping complex. We will definately visit this street again maybe on the weekend :)

We get some food e.g. biscuit. Of course I won't miss my favorite Chips Ahoy biscuit :) I was surprised that olive oil is very expensive here. RMB 90+ for 750ml only. In Penang, I can get similar at RM 30+ only. One thing to mention is the government is really urge for green environment, thus encouraging citizen to use shopping bag. I brought a shopping bag but it doesn't fit 3 persons' goods, thus we need a plastic bag. Guess what, that plastic bag cost RMB 0.30 each :O Well, probably this is the way to go, to 'educate' citizen to be more environmental friendly :)

It was 9.30pm when we reached apartment, we quickly go to gym center for steam-sauna, hopefully not too tired and has even better sleep after that (I know definitely I can sleep very well because I still felt tired haha) :)

2009-05-10 Welcome to Beijing

Which airline would you prefer? I would still prefer SQ for long distance flight as it provides personal entertainment screen at each individual seat. This time I was on MAS from Penang to Beijing. Well, it just has a centralize TV screen but I am very satisfied with the food provided. Their Lacto ovo meal and sandwiches taste good at my opinion :)

Finally, we'd reach Capital Beijing International Airport. Due to the H1n1, we are required to fill up health declaration form, and going through body temperature screening station. I am pretty surprised of this promptly checking setup. Besides that, there were officer to really check the health form we filled up, to verify all contact information including phone number are provided correctly.

On our way to rented apartment, I can see the environment is more green, compared to my last trip to Beijing in 2007. I am happy to see Beijing city flower, which is called 月季. It looks like a mixture of rose and 牡丹 in my eye, with different color of red, pink, mixture of champaign and yellow, and a lot more :) It made me the 花痴 tempted to go visit botanical garden or nearby park on coming weekend, as May is still blooming season. It will be getting hot in Jun/Jul and thus less flower. Don't quote me as vase-flower lover, I am not :) I appreciate flower still alive in soil better :)

As according to IV's friend, local government put in huge effort to make the city green. After checked-in to apartment, we took at least an hour to go through the apartment inventory item with the officer there, this was really tiring, as it is very tedious to count every single plate provided, and there are few-tenth of utensils provided. Since Oakwood is US-based company, the service is good with nice friendly staff :)

Walking in Beijing is very common, we walked for around 10min to 九龙源豆花庄. Here are what we ate:




From left-to-right, top-to-down.
1) The shop. 2) Salted egg-york fried pumpkin. 3) Stewed chicken. 4) Stone soy beancurd, more details will follow. 5) Fried vege. 6) Soy bean juice. 7) Sichuan sticky rice dumpling.

Look at the beancurd, it was made in front of us before served. The waitress brought the empty bowl and a jug of soy green color juice (until now we can't figure out why it is green in color, it doesn't has additional taste/smell). Then she put a small amount of clear liquid into the bowl, put a stone inside a perforated spoon, slowly pour the soy bean juice into the bowl through the spoon with stone. After that, close the bowl lid, stay for around 30min, and the beancurd is ready :) They (whenever I said 'they', it simply means the local resident) like to eat beancurd with different kind of sauce, which are served in surrouding small plate, e.g. sesame sauce, honey, 南乳, chilli sauce and green color leek sauce. I tried and the taste is... eei no comment haha.

I've to mentioned the Sichuan sticky rice dumpling, it is exactly what we called 炸煎堆 in Malaysia cantonese. But the skin is much thinner, crunchy and easy to bite.

Pay attention to the soy bean juice in jar, it's only 0.4l and it cost RMB 18/jar. It's not special but it is so costly! We found out almost all soy bean juice here has a ‘over-burnt' taste (焦味), weird.

After dinner, with IV's friend help, we got one mobile sim pack for each of us, cost RMB 65 each. RMB 15 for the number and RMB 50 talk time, which is valid for 3 months. Calling/receiving local china call is RMB 20 cents per minute, while sending a sms cost RMB 10 cent.

Of course, we walked back to apartment. After shower and unpacked luggage, it was 11.30pm. It was a tiring trip, as I woke up on 4am to catch the flight and only got the chance to sleep on 11.30pm.

Welcome to Beijing.

A gift of friendship

Today I surprised to receive a farewell gift from two closed friends. No wonder they looked for me so urgently after office hour :)

Probably I have not visited gift shop for long time. The toy has a solar panel and the purpose is to keep the toy's head swinging left and right.



I think I have enough toys but I wish I can squeeze it into my luggage besides Jack Jack :)

停电时，你会做什么？

如果电流中断，你会做些什么呢？

我想了想，这似乎关键于停电时我身在何处，及当时的时间吧。
如果是晚上在家的话，我想可能就会站在露台上，看看是否幸运看到天上的星光（突然间想起Vincent这首歌，starry starry night...），又或者躺在床上，好好的想一想最近的生活，让自己停下来，贴心的和自己的心灵做一个交流。想啊想的，或许就会去赴周公的约会了。

可惜，待会儿还需要看一些程序，希望可以尽快完成，可以准时做灰姑娘赴周公的约 :)