Tag: Beijing

“THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – Singapore Day 3 and 4“

We awoke early this morning as we had decided to visit Sentosa Island with plans to ride the cable cars. Of course we had to work out the underground to travel to the island. Once we reach the Terminus for the train we were hopeful of catching the cable car across to the island. But the cable car was being serviced that week, so we travelled on the monorail.

Interestingly the underground train and the monorail both reminded me of Beijing and Hong Kong – struggling against the tide of people trying to get into the rail car. Despite the throng when we arrived the place looked deserted. There were 5 to 6 stops on the monorail and maybe they all got off at earlier stations than the terminus. On arriving the directional signs took us to the beach where the only other people there was a family under a red umbrella. No waves to be found but the bay was cluttered with ships at anchor. Not much excitement there so we followed the signs to the ski lifts – yes we are on the equator and they are using ski lifts. The reason is that under the ski lift there is a raceway so you can hire the car to ride down the hill and you dragged your car up the hill by dragging it from your lift. I could not work out if the nets were to catch falling passengers or falling cars.

We weren’t ready for the race so we left the ski lift at the top station and walked around to the cable car which we thought was not operating. Yes it was operating but not the connections to the mainland. Still we thought we ought to catch the cable car to see more of the island. The cable car terminated at the treetop walk. Now the temperature was bloody warm, my disposition was cranky due to my various ailments and there was no lift to take us to the treetop climb. We stayed aboard and went back to the ski lift as we had spotted an air conditioned ice cream shop with tables and chairs.

We made our way back to the hotel to get ready to transfer across to Raffles the following day.

Day 4 and we start preparing to check out Park Royal Collection Hotel and make the move across to Raffles Singapore. We caught a cab even though the hotel was nearby. We did not feel like dragging our luggage in the heat of the day. Arriving at Raffles we were met by the traditional Sikh Doorman at the front door of the hotel and shown inside to the reception office. Our room was not ready so we decided to check out our home for the next 2 nights.

The entrance was grand with a huge chandelier and flower bouquet. Beyond the back staircase is the reception room – guests only no visitors allowed. Leading off the entrance foyer was a dining area and the “High Tea” service area. Kerry had this itch and desire for a high tea and as high teas go it was expensive but exquisite. After our high tea we moved to the relaxing lounges on the floor above .

Finally our room was available and we were guided to the room (formerly part of the stables of the original hotel) where we met our butler who guided us through the use of the tablet to operate the room. I will mention an incident that happened on the 2nd day of our stay. Kerry was certain we had to catch our flight so rather than check we packed and got ready to go by limo to the airport. We said good bye to the hotel and I have included her picture with the Doorman. We drove to the airport only to be told our flight was the following day so we cabbed it back to the hotel and asked for our keys back for 1 more night. They assured us we were not the first to make that mistake.

So my next blog will deal with some of the facilities at the hotel and a visit we made to the Orchid Gardens which is part of the Botanic Gardens of Singapore. Get ready for “THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – Singapore Day 5“

The Retirees Invade China – Day One – Temple of Heaven

The following morning, we meet all our fellow travellers – 23 of us altogether. Our first tour was to the Temple of Heaven. However, the trip on the way gave us some surprises. Firstly, we saw the Olympic rings above the city, the Birds Nest and the Pool cube some mysterious totems and as always new innovations on the traditional motorbike. Beijing is now full of man – made canals and most were partly frozen.

The temple is surrounded by walls and until the revolution was only accessed by the Emperor. Inside the walls are gardens with various bits and pieces one being the Seven Star Stones. During the Ming Emperor Jiajing’s Reign, seven gigantic pacifying stones were placed to the southeast of the Great Hall of Sacrifice. These are stones with motifs of mountains engraved on them, not the meteors as the hearsay goes, symbolizing the seven peaks of the Taishan Mountains. After the Manchus came to the throne in central China, in order to show that the Manchu is one of the nationalities in China, Emperor Qianlong issued an edict for another stone to be placed in the direction of the northeast, meaning the Chinese nation is a big family and the country is unified. Interestingly this is also the site of China’s biggest dating agency – all the grandparents meet to exchange photos of their grandchildren and try to match them up with future partners because they are too busy to look for themselves. At least that is the explanation given for the crowd of grandparents congregating at the Seven-Star Stones by our guide Eddie.

The Temple of Heaven was built in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1420) by the emperor Zhu Di in the royal garden. Once a year, at winter solstice, the emperors came here to worship Heaven and to solemnly pray for a good harvest.

The design of the Temple of Heaven is complex, and reflects the mystical cosmological laws believed to be central to the workings of the universe. Both the overall arrangement and the buildings themselves reflect the relationship between sky and earth, the core of understanding of the Universe at that time.

The Temple is made up of various buildings including the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the interior twenty-eight columns are divided into four central pillars to represent the seasons, twelve inner columns to represent the months, and twelve outer columns to represent the two – hour sections that make up a day. There are many such examples of this intense numerology at play. Another interesting fact is that the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is built completely without nails.

I took plenty of photos including one of the locals playing dress up.

After a hard morning’s work we were scheduled to have lunch at Beijing’s best Peking Duck restaurant (Eddies’ words not mine). We boarded the bus and travelled deep into the heart of the city with the bus pulling up on a roundabout and discharging us to fight our way to the restaurant which was cleverly camouflaged as a building site. Another motorbike innovation sat out the front – the Peking Duck takeaways delivery van. You want to know the name of this restaurant – see below. We had the joy of watching the chefs cut up two ducks and fortunately there was other food to supplement this meagre amount of Peking Duck. I don’t know whether it was good or not – I hate duck.

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The Retirees Invade China – Beijing or Bust

It all started one Saturday afternoon with Kerry going through the specials for overseas travel. What about China she says. No been there and done that says me. Yeah but I haven’t – listen to this….
So here we are at Brisbane International Airport flying China Southern Airways to Guangzhou and then Beijing. The flight was a little under 9 hours to Guangzhou and was quite pleasant with comfortable seats and almost everything going like clockwork – the flight was delayed.
Arriving in Guangzhou we taxied for about 1 hour to get to the terminal where we caught a bus to the entrance and then traipsed through to the Domestic terminal which took almost as long. However happy ending we arrived just before the boarding call for Beijing came over the public address. After boarding the plane there was clearly a problem as take-off time came and went and we were still there. Then the Hosties started serving dinner and we were then told our take off would be delayed an hour. Hmmmm!
Well we finally took off fearing our connection in Beijing would be home in bed – ETA 11.45pm Beijing time. Arriving in the Arrival hall we were gripped with fearful thoughts of finding our way to our hotel unassisted but as we left the Arrival hall here was Eddie with his Yellow Nexus Tours sign – relief. We joined Taylor a young Australian social worker and retirees Leonie and Peter alongside Eddie but we were missing one more couple – the Jones es who ultimately turned up missing Geoff’s luggage.
We boarded the minivan just in time – it was below freezing and we were not exactly dressed for it. The trip to the Loong Palace Hotel was long and lumpy but we finally got there and into bed by 2.00 am Beijing time. Bed was very welcome and sleep irresistible.
We woke to the alarm on the phone showered and changed ready to start the day. I took the opportunity to take some photos of the Loong Palace Hotel, our breakfast buffet, and the view from our room.

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