Beijing (III) - Going to touristy places

Beijing is a touristy place kau kau. Even though I've already stayed there for 7 days I have only visited half of all the available tourist attractions! I did so wanted to see the catacombs (ok, technically its not in Beijing itself but its super nearby).

The famous CCTV tower. CCTV is China's national television, and this tower was famous for its unique structure.

My mum is an absolute sucker (sorry) for old churches, she likes the whole olden times feel and complex architecture. So we went to visit 2 of the oldest churches in Beijing.

I cannot remember any of the churches' names but I'm sure their bound to have a "St...." something

Damn I'm glad my bloody front hair grew out

This church dosen't feel like church grounds at all because of the massive amount of people picnicking there and doing skateboarding/rollerblading. pretty cool stuff ^^

I like the way the chinese words are tattoed vertically down his side. UBER NICE!!!He would have looked so much better if he took of his nerd glasses.

I WAAAAAAAANNTT a sausage dog. They are so funnee looking

A couple taking a wedding photoshoot at the old church

We stopped by to visit Wanfujing market as well as buy souveneirs. Damn sad loh, actually I bought a Mao Ze Dong lighter from here which would have made a great souveneir but they confiscated it at customs =_=

The way this kid eats pau very cute

The next day we went to visit yet another church founded by St. Francis. I think.

I also went to visit one of Beijing's most historical places that day, the Temple of Heaven.
All these historical places usually have huge parks surrounding them and the public just love to go there to do all sorts of outdoorsy stuff.

Old man writting using the "mau pi" with water

Old aunty playing with ribbons

Old fat man playing with shovels

Paralympians!! They are eeevveerrrywhere.

The Temple of Heaven

History says that the Temple of Heaven was created for the King and his discples to worship and pray to Heaven. In those days, only the King was allowed to pray or ask anything from heaven.

For the Olympics, the China's government spent billions of RMB trying to restore the historical architecture in Beijing - it pulled of wonderfully. They have restored all the detailed drawings on each piller and roof painstakingly. It really is kinda stunning to see the amount of work they have put into it.

My uncle is caught up in the Olympic daze

But seriously, from my totally honest point of view the Temple of Heaven is NOT worth visiting. Kinda rubbish actually, its soooo boring!! If you really want to see more temples/olden china architecture everyone is better off going to see the Forbidden Kingdom or the Summer Palace (which I will blog about eventually) .








If you are around GouMau, Beijing business central you should however stop by to visit Trader's Hotel. This is the hotel where all the massive names stayed in during the Olmpic games, big names such as George Bush, the president of India, Princess of Jordan, etc etc.

And there is little doubt as to why they choose this place.

Ceiling of the hotel

There are more photos of this place but I was rushing so they did not turn out too good T_T. I will end my post about Beijing here for now.