Royal Banquet Dinner Style

After Temple of Heaven, majority of my group mates decided that they wanted to have their last minute shopping spree in Beijing. So, we went to Silk Street Market again.

After an hour of shopping, we grabbed some sandwiches and sodas at the lower ground of the mall and sat there for a little while. Then we headed back to the bus while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive.



Soon after, we went to one of the famous restaurant wherein we enjoyed the Royal Banquet Style Dinner.


The imperial-style restaurant features costumed waitresses, some traditional Chinese art embellishments and furnished with tables and chairs that are elegantly decorated with red, yellow and gold colors.


We enjoyed a variety of exquisite food from former Chinese dynasties, such as Bird's Nest Soup, Sea Cucumber with Pigeon Eggs, Frog-Shaped Abalone and a lot more. One of the most popular entrees on our dinner menu is the shrimp, which comes with orange bird-like sculpture carved out of carrots.


During dinner, imperial entertainment includes the dramatic entry of the Chinese musical with traditional folk dancing.



I had a chance to have my picture taken together with these two beautiful ladies. And the result… Oh my goodness, I looked like a midget here.


But don’t be deceived by the look of this picture. If they’re not wearing these towering headdresses and super elevated shoes, I’m probably taller than them. hehehe... Anyhow, I like their colorful outfit they looked cute.

PART XI: Badaling Hotel / Clothing Market / Songhe Hotel

DAY 4: August 25 (PM)

After our Great Wall adventure, we stopped at Ba Da Ling Hotel to have our lunch.

Once inside, we were led into a spacious hall with a roomful of big tables.

The buffet food station was set up in one long counter, with plates and spoons at one end. We had to serve ourselves, however, our one round beverage was provided at our table.

After our sumptuous meal, we went down on the ground floor and I saw these statues (similar to terracotta warriors) ...

And also these colorful Chinese Dolls.

(These pictures were taken inside the store in the hotel)

There are some stores in front of the Ba Da Ling Hotel.

Then our group tour went to Sanlitun Yashow Clothing Market. This is a tourist shopping area. Prices here are too high. You have to use your bargain technique. If not, you'll end up buying the items 3 to 5x higher than the original price. Now, you don't want to happen that, right?

But nothing really take my fancy. I was thinking and comparing the prices from "Divisoria" in Manila, which is way cheaper. Except the denim jacket that caught my attention. It's fashion trendy. So, I bought it.

The jacket - long sleeves with large button front closure, front pockets, contrast stitching ... and with sequined hand-embroidered design on upper back. The lady was selling it for 350 yuan (P2450), but then again we used our haggling talent for a while over the price, and luckily we settled on 100 yuan (P700).

Then we had our buffet dinner at Songhe Hotel. The place is just adjacent to busy Wangfujing shopping district.

My Out of the Ordinary Experience:
The food was fine but not particularly memorable, especially I got pissed off that night. Something happened. What's more infuriating was the fact that it was just a trivial matter. (reason: because of the table and chairs). She could have asked me in a friendly way but she didn't. Dang! She's an old woman (old enough to be my mother) who sounds like a RAVING LUNATIC that night, VERY RUDE, UNEDUCATED and GROSS IN ACTION. She think she's from a FU*#*NG noble hierarchy and so FU*#*ING important, as if she owns the whole world. (please excuse me for the words but this is the best remark to describe her).

At that time, I was really completely taken aback. I was innocent and clueless. God knows, it was very tough for me to hold my temper in those situations, but I still managed to make myself calm. She should be thankful, I was brought up by my parents to respect older people. If not, I would have SLAPPED HER BOULDERY WRINKLED HIDEOUS FACE for being discourteous and indescreet talker . She's already OLD but her behavior still STINKS ...PITY HER.

I avoided the situation because I didn't want to ruin my "China tour". I tried to mellow down and not to lose my temper. (tsk, tsk, that's the problem when you're in a group tour.) I told my husband what had happened, but despite of my rage I still advised him to just forget it.

What a day! I started my morning with a feeling of euphoria but end up at the end of the day in a bad mood. tsk..tsk... I guess this is one of my off-days. We do experience that sometimes, don't we?

True enough, God really helps those who are meek. The next day, it was like manna from heaven. I received a good news from my hubby about that woman. (I don't wanna elaborate it.) Allelujah. Hoop, hoop, hoooray!!!

But despite the fact of what happened, I still like her younger sister. She seemed nice and well mannered.

Well, it's just a memory now. I've always thought it's best not to dwell on grievances too long. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.

Part VIII: Beijing Hepingmen Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant

After a full day of touring around Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square, we went to Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant (Hepingmen Branch). The Quanjude Restaurant, the largest roast duck restaurant in Beijing, if not in the world, opened for business in 1979. It has a floor space of 15,000 square meters divided into 41 dining halls, including one, which can serve 600 customers simultaneously.

We all had an early dinner so we could be ready for the 7:30 pm Kung Fu show. When we entered the restaurant, it was crammed full and noisy.

There were two lady attendants dressed in traditional red Chinese gowns that caught my attention. They looked beautiful. I was trying to capture them with my camera but the place was crowded with people. So, I just had this blurry picture.

Our tour guides led us to our dining place. We had a set menu on every table. Beijing duck was served to us. I think it's almost fixed menu item on any Beijing tour itinerary. The waiter then cuts the meat into thin slices. Then it was served with very thin lumpia wrapper, Chinese onions and dark special sauce. The way to eat it is to put a few pieces of meat duck, coat with sauce and roll up the wrapper. The meat is tender with a crips skin but it's shining with oil. Aside from the roasted duck, every dish was superb. There were plenty of foods served on our table and it just kept on coming (phew!). We could hardly finish it. And some of my tour mates were complaining already. Thank God, we had to hold back our voracious appetite, if not it would have been a gluttonous debauch.

We were so full when we left. We piled back into the bus and went directly to the Red Theatre.

Just to give you an idea (if you're coming to this place on your own), the average cost per person is 100 Yuan to 150 Yuan (multiply by 7 for Phil. Peso). A bit expensive though.

ADDRESS:
Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant (Hepingmen Branch)
No. 14, Xi Da Jie, Qianmen, Xuanwu District
Hours: 11:00-14:00; 17:00-21:00

Part VI: Silk Market & Hongqiao Pearl Market

DAY 2: Aug. 23 (PM)

After a strenuous walking along Tian’anmen Square, we took a taxi going to Silk Market. It is a newly built 6-story building that has everything. But be wary of the bargaining system here, for they mark-up the price 6X from the original price and these are cheap knock-off items. Surprisingly, the salespersons here can speak English. Some tend to be aggressive and are eager to grab you. I remember one of our male group tour mates told a young saleslady not to touch him for it’s forbidden by his religion. And said, “We can talk but no touch, ok?” hahaha… But it wasn’t really true; he just wanted the lady to stop pestering him.

The Silk market looks like stores in Divisoria but a better version. It’s bright, spacious, and clean. The mall is arranged & organized like in Basement 2: you’ll find the Food court. Basement 1: A supermarket, bags & suitcases, shoes and leather goods. F1: Men's clothing, F2: Ladies' fashion. F3: Tailor shop, bedding and carpet. F4: Jewelry and other accessories F5: Jewelries. F6 & F7: restaurants and a pharmacy. On our first visit, I’ve never bought anything from there.

Then we went ahead to Hongqiao Pearl Market. It’s near the Temple of Heaven and two to three blocks away from Tiantan Hotel. The market has everything that you could possibly think of. Most items are fakes but there are some great varieties for souvenirs. It’s somehow chaotic compared to Silk market. On the upper floors you will find some upmarket shops for pearls and jewelries.

This is the market that I like most in Beijing because of the nice China souvenir shirts that I bought. We came across a stall selling all these China T-shirts. And they were selling it for RMB150 (1,050.00 in Phil. Peso). I was stunned. Duh! For a simple shirt, that’s too expensive. So, we bargained for the best price until they gave it to us for RMB25 (PhP 175.00). Imagine, the big difference!?!

Then we went to another stall, selling the same t-shirts for RMB180 (This is more expensive than the first one). Hubby haggled the price for a while and told them, that we just bought t-shirts from another store for RMB25 only. But the saleslady told us that their shirts are different. So, I checked it. Duh! What’s the difference?!? It’s the same material. Nothing exceptional. He haggled again, until the woman gave in for RMB50. And we told him, “No, it’s still too expensive”. But the woman didn’t concede. We got into serious bartering and Ed tried haggling again for the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th to 10th times already, but to no avail. I tried to interrupt the negotiation since it was taking time already and the conversation wasn’t going well. I told her (with a smile but with a firm voice), “This is the last price (RMB 25) that we’re asking. If you can’t give it to us, it’s ok. Will just leave”. But the woman kept repeating the same reasons. And I kept on repeating every word I said. “Oh no, here we go again”. Until we decided to just leave the store. When we were 3 to 4 stalls away, the woman yelled out “HEY!!!” at the top of her voice. I was shocked and I looked back. She shouted out loud again “COME BACK!” COME BACK! I was startled. Her alto voice was echoing all around the area, as if there was a commotion. And then she spoke in Chinese. And the rest of the people were already looking at us. I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Now, I decided to completely ignore her and kept on walking as if I didn’t hear anything. I knew that “bargaining” here is a tradition and I like that, but this woman was too much. I have so much patience but from the point of view of being cheated & deceived, I’ll have to reconsider my forbearance.

We went to the ground floor. Luckily, we found a stall selling the same shirts. To make the story short, the haggling was a whole lot easier. It took us only seconds. She’s a very nice young lady. She gave the shirts from RMB 100 to RMB 20 only. Cool!

Adults Souvenir T-shirts are available in XL, Large and Medium sizes only. Medium is the smallest size (which is too big for me). So, I opted for the Kid's biggest size t-shirts. hehehe… Some fits me well especially the black and red colors. I really love it. But the rest of the colors are too small.

I saw a relatively large number of parked bicycles near the market, like this one...

After shopping, we walked back to the hotel and dropped off the things that we just bought. And we headed to a supermarket (3 blocks away from Tiantan Hotel). After we did our grocery shopping, we looked for a resto and found a Chinese Restaurant around the area. I observed that customers here are all locals. There are no tourists, except us. We just tried these two viands (see pics below). I don’t know the exact name because it was all written in Chinese. The food were super delicious and relatively cheap.

Heck of a day. I collapsed into my hotel room at 9:00pm. And my legs wrenched in torturous way after a whole day of strenuous walking.

Next day itineraries… Lunch, Tour at Tian’anmen Square (Yes, we went there for the second time), Forbidden City, Peking Duck Dinner at the Original Quanjude Restaurant and after dinner, watch Kung-Fu Show.

Beijing Sun Dong An Plaza / The Malls at Oriental Plaza / Megabyte

Wangfujing street has two major shopping malls, one of which is Sun Dong An Plaza. Six levels and a basement housing a Starbucks make up this complex. On level five there are plenty of small snack options, on level six there are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese restaurants, and on level three there is a pizza hut. But while we were there, Sun Dong An Plaza was proceeding an extensive renovation work phase by phase.

The other one is The Malls at Oriental Plaza, near Wangfujing Bookstore. This giant (only 2 levels but very long) shopping center is next to Wangfujing Street. Occupying a total area of 120,000 sq.m. are an integral part of Oriental Plaza spacing - one of the largest commercial complexes in Asia.

Prices here are a little bit expensive but provide you with a lot of buying opportunities.

A huge globe shape of Calvin Klein Jeans that we saw inside the mall:

For our dinner, we found a nice fast food located at the lower ground level of the mall by chance. It's called Megabite, it has a great variety of delicious food.

There are not only excellent Chinese dishes and snacks from different regions, but also from Asian and Western countries.

We had a hard time choosing what to eat. All the signs are in Chinese. But I finally settled on Beef with lots of beans, tomatoes & bell pepper around RMB 17 (P119.00) with soup. Oh my... so super delicious.

My face looks haggard and exhausted on this picture, due to my sleeplessness. I swear it looks hideous. So, I've got to censor this, hahaha... and look at the GIGANTIC container!

Gosh! I can't believe the food servings are huge (i guess around 2 to 3 persons can finish this).

Ed ordered a bowl of pull noodles roughly RMB 14 (P98.00)

We really love to savor and finish the food, but unfortunately we were too full. We had bulging tummies already. I felt we became gluttons and it made me sad to see the unfinished food...

Personally, I LOVE the FOOD in China due to its variety of cuisine, deliciously scrumptious and modest price.

NEXT: Silk Market and Hongquiao Pearl Market>>>

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