From Beijing with Love

EN I'm glad I was able to visit China two years ago. It was my first time here as well. Getting the travel visa in The Hague NL was quite a puzzle first but eventually, I got it and was able to enter China with no hassle. Woo! Was it a culture shock for me even though I'm Chinese who's also never been in China before? Quite yes. While I've been to Hong Kong for many countless times, China was a whole another area. I felt at first a bit unsure and a bit scared too. My Mandarin was also terrible. My aunt has warned me about the stern authorities of China. In other words don't say anything bad about China basically in public. Aye aye sir, I will behave. I must behave because that travel visa was not cheap as well. Anyways, I have survived and even enjoyed my time in China 2018. Would I come back? Kind of! If it's safe to go at least. I would like to see Shanghai still. And to revisit the Beijing Olympic Stadium.

NL Ik ben blij dat ik 2 jaar geleden China hebt bezocht. Het was ook mijn eerste keer. De reisvisum bemachtigen was wel beetje omslachtig vond ik, maar uiteindelijk had ik er een. Ik kon dus naar China gaan, woe! Was het trouwens een cultuurshock voor mij? Zelfs voor iemand van Chinees afkomst maar nog nooit in China is geweest? Best wel. Ik ben tig keer in Hong Kong geweest maar China is een totaal andere koek. Ik was ook best een beetje bang in 't begin. Mijn Mandarijn was bar slecht ook nog. Mijn tante waarschuwde me om geen slechte dingen over China te zeggen in het openbaar. Want anders kon de lokale autoriteiten korte metten met me maken.  Geen zorgen ik zal me gedragen. Ik moet me wel gedragen want die reisvisum was zeker niet goedkoop. Maar goed, ik heb China overleefd en zelfs erg van genoten. Zal ik ooit terugkeren naar China? Waarschijnlijk wel. Als het veilig genoeg is natuurlijk. Ik wil nog heel graag naar Shanghai namelijk. En de Beijing Olympisch stadium herbezoeken.

❝tap voor Nederlandse vertaling!

My apartment for a week and this is my bed and view from my bedroom. Quite kitchy yet comfy bed though!

Reflection from this shiny fridge. Here we keep our waterbottles and fruit cool. We didn`t bought cooking ingredients as we eat outside at the yummy foodplaces around Beijing.

故宫

Blogpost about my at The Forbidden City is right here.

A too cute random backpack, sigh.

Beijing APM Mall

A pretty big clean shoppingmall with ac. Looks a lot like the ones from Hong Kong.

One of the shops I liked was The Green Party. Here I encountered double eyelid tape for the very first time, interesting. They also sell cute stationery like washi tape, stuffed toys and girlie stuff. Also a great store for bf to buy gifts for their gf in my opinion.

Freshyly juiced watermelon juice.

The Beijing police are hella strict and stern if you ask me, yikes!

功德林

One of the memorable restaurants that I`ve been in Beijing was this entirely vegetarian restaurant called 功德林. They don`t have an English name but if Google-translate it, it says: work morality forest. Alrighty then!

🠝 We have pineapple fried curry rice here (my favourite) and something veggie rolled in bean curd sheet pretending to be roasted duck. Both very delicious! My auntie F. thought it was a bit mèh though 🠟.

Kung pao pretend chicken and congee.

Een van de dingen die ik niet leuk vond om te eten, waren deze knoedels. Ze waren zo droog als fotogeniek.

🠝 Another favourite is this spicy mapo tofu dish. We ended our meal with nian gao dessert. My cousin ordered this green juice. I forgot what was in it but I bet cucumber 🠟.

We lost track of time and we weren`t able to visit The Temple of Heaven but I managed somewhat to snap a picture from a far.

Waterpark

Me and my cousin went swimming at Beijing National Aquatics Center also known as Water Cube. The swimming in the pool and gliding off the waterglides felt really refreshing after being in the hot humid Beijing all day. I didn`t got pictures of inside because my phone was not waterproof nor was my camera but the place is really clean and has big jellyfish decorations at the ceiling.

It was very crowdy though and sometimes I had to wait like 20-30 min before sliding of a waterglide.

At Night

We swam until evening and the night view is not disappointing either.

I saw a lot of these bottles around Beijing which contains yogurt. Apart the well known roasted duck -a Beijing specialty this bottled yogurt is also a Beijing speciality called suan nai. Literally translated sour milk. Basically it`s fermented milk and it`s quite good!

Coconut milk or orange juice?

Near our apartment we`ve found some delicious dumpling/wonton place. I`ve finished one whole plate by myself #proud

♥⼼