Well, I came home yesterday at 3 am in the morning. I should have arrived in Singapore on Sunday at about 10 pm but our flight was delayed for 4 hours due to a technical error. Ah well...

Anyway, how was Beijing? The weather was rather nice, cool but not humid. The horrible thing was that Beijing is VERY polluted. There was dust, cigarette smoke and exhaust fumes flying all around. My nose couldn't take it. Within the short span of 5 days, I actually had to use my nasal spray twice! It got so bad once that I started coughing although I drank loads of water and the water didn't soothe the itchy feeling. What is disgusting is that when I cleared my nose, the stuff that came out was black. No kidding. I could see the soot. YUCKS.

Besides the bad air quality, the other thing that was bad was the quality of service. The waiters and waitresses have NO idea of service and can be incredibly rude at times. I guess it's not just the service staff...even the common folk are like that. They don't say thanks AND they push people around to get where they want to. No "excuse me" or "sorry".

Within 4 days, I've become a semi-expert in Beijing's subway systems...thanks to Yeelin for showing me the whole thing once and explaining me how the ticketing worked. So, my mum and I travelled to and fro via their subway! And we believe that it is because of the subway that we see fewer bicycles on the streets. Beijing has cleaned up a lot in terms of rubbish on the streets and there are now fewer bikes but more cars and buses around. There are loads of cleaners around with a broom in hand to sweep up any litter. However, I must inform everyone that the China Chinese there still have the EXTREMEMLY horrible habit of spitting everywhere...including the streets. They don't really care where their spit lands. If there is a dustbin nearby, they may feel compelled to spit into the dustbin. Nonetheless...it's not a pleasant nor a very hygienic habit. YUCKS.

The food in Beijing is quite good though...but I wonder how they can afford some of the stuff there...it's rather expensive with we consider the amount that they earn. By the way, I managed to eat the very famous Beijing duck at Wang Fu Jing. They've got a 100 years of history and have the title of being the number 1 restaurant too. Ironically, the service there is bad as well. Although I can't say they are very very rude, there is an arrogance to them. Ah well...it's all for the duck...

Hmm...I guess there are many things that I can tell everyone about the trip but then I don't want to bore y'all with an even longer entry. There is a hotel issue too...ask me about it when you meet me.