Beijing here I come

Counting down 4 days from today................I'll be leaving on a 6hr 30min flight to the land of pandas. For business?? No sireeee.....it's a holiday!!!

The idea of me flying to Beijing sparked right after I tendered my resignation from my current employer. Seems like a trend for me to holiday overseas before joining my new employer though. I shall try not to break the record.

*Grin*

"While my bags are packed, I'm ready to go"...........nope, the day is not here yet. I'm still preparing myself for this exciting trip. For a whole month, I've been busy securing a cheap flight (luckily via MAS), scheduling my itinerary, researching on the places to go and how to get there and also budgeting. I'll be staying with my ex-colleague there, so accomdation is settled. But since she is staying in the suburbs of the Shunyi District (psst......its in an expat area), I'll have to spend on transportation. I was told that the cab fare from her house to city is RM50; return fare will be RM100!!!! So my plan is to tag along with her driver....haha.

My itinerary goes like this:
1. Shichahai area - so it covers the Drum and Bell Tower, Hutongs, Yonghegong Lamasery, Temple of Earth (Ditan), and Prince Gong Mansion.

2. Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City of course

3. Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) .....wondering if I should pay a visit to the Temple of Sun (Ritan) and Temple of Moon (Yuetan) as well.

4. Summer Palace (Yiheyuan)

5. Not forgetting the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu Section) - wondering if I should take the slide down during this winter time and turn myself into a popsicle.

6. Finally, shopping at the Silk Market, Wangfujing area and also a Nike warehouse!

My research on these places got me brushing up my Mandarin Language. My Chinese dictionary (lucky I still keep it) starts to get useful after accumulating dust for god-knows how many years.

I have be communicating with my ex-colleague (via MSN during working hours....*guilty*) and she told me it's going to be cold there. Checked the weather on CNN.com and guess what, high is 10 degrees, low is -1 degrees. I panicked and spent $$$ on some winter wear. I couldn't resist MNG and ZARA.....haha. Bought three thin sweaters; two woollen and one Angora; and one thick woollen sweater. Heeding my ex-colleagues' advice, I went to ZARA at 1Utama, to the kids section, and found my size. Not only that, it's cheaper! *shy, shy* I even saw a nice overcoat (ZARA kids, 12-14 yrs) but it costs RM300. I'm still refraining to swipe my card on that one and see what cheaper deals I can get in Beijing. *naugthy*

(Off the topic: If you do not know what is Angora fur, the picture below will tell you...

......Hahaha, it's a wabbit!)

Ok, back to my trip. I'm about 90% finished with the packing now, and it's very bloated. Thanks to all the thick clothes I have there. Well, ok, my luggage also includes some 1k Milo powder, two packs of Tiger biscuits and a pack of coffee. Why am I bring those along? My poor friend there had not been able to have those in Beijing due to the Melamine scare. Hopefully, my bag will be lighter when I'm on my way back.

Hmmm.....fat chance. I think it'll be full of my shopping goodies.

Yawn....signing off now. Cheers........