Beijing & Guangzhou

On December 2013, I had the chance to lead a friend of mine to Beijing. This guy is a manager in an industrial company and he goes with the name Hairol. Initially, I offered my assistance in being his interpreter and tour guide for Beijing trip only. But after some discussion, it really tripped me out as he requested to guide him to Guangzhou as well. Frankly speaking, I wasn't sure how to get there and what to do after getting there. But luckily he told me that he would help me to figure something out too. So, there we go, a seven-day triip to Beijing and Guangzhou.

Beijing

First of all, we arrived at the Beijing Capital International Airport, which located at the north east side of Beijing city. To be frank, our whole journey in this city was super easy, simple and no frustration at all. Beijing city offers some great facilities and transportation that allow you to travel across it with no worries. Well, unless you stop at the wrong bus station or subway station, or getting caught in the middle of the peak hour ( around 5 to 8 pm ), then you'd probably be spending the next two-three hours waiting for nothing.

From the airport, we took an express subway train, which connected directly to the city center ( Dong Zhi Men Station ) with the cost RMB 30. From there, we took another train to the Qianmen Subway Station and got our self a nearby cheap hotel, QIanmen Courtyard Hotel. A traditional budget hotel, with oriental artistic design. Cool isn't it?

 During out stay in in Beijing, we managed to visit places like Nan Luo Gu Xiang, Forbidden City, Mutianyu Great Wall and Ice Skating Park. I'm pretty sure you guys have heard some of those. Don't worry about the rest that I've missed, I'll share them in my future updates.

It felt so alive, being able to visit those places again, as if someone had given me a ticket to my hometown, other hometown, I mean. If you could see the photographs below, I wasn't the only one who was so thrilled.

 

Guangzhou

We spent only four days in Beijing. Although it wasn't enough, we still had to go, as my friend here had business to attend. For the next trip, we'd planned not to take the airplane. Instead, we took the bullet train. Well, one thing I can assure you about the train, is that they didn't use the word 'bullet' for nothing. But sitting inside the caravan, it didn't give us even a slight feeling that we were moving so fast, we were given the sight of speed meter, though.

 I couldn't recall the total time we had taken while on that train, probably around 8 hours or so. It felt like eternity in there. By the time we reached Guangzhou, it was already dusk and we had no idea where to go. Seriously, going there was not my plan.

But you know what, I was lucky, I think I was extremely blessed. We met this this middle-age couple while on the bullet train and we had a brief conversation. Just to be a weird coincidence, those people were tour guides from Malaysia too and they offered us help, by paying them with a bit of cash, of course.

In the end, we wind up in the Clivia Hotel, at Jiefang North Road, which fifty percent of the customers were all Malaysians. I was told that those people were all merchants. They'd came all the way to this place just to get cheap items to sell. Well, everyone pretty much knew about it, but nobody told me it was this much. As if when I walked on the nearby streets, I could see at least a Malaysian out of ten pedestrians.

I forgot to take more photographs in Guangzhou, we were all exhausted due to this commuting, I guess. The photo above was taken on the first night we arrived. I had absolutely no idea where was I. We just wondered around aimlessly. But the things they sold there was pretty cheap, as if you could purchase two items with a single price, Malaysian price I mean.

Anyways, we spent our next day entirely for shopping, business shopping for my friend here, nothing much to share. 4 days in Beijing and 2 days in Guangzhou, that seems super short, but it was fun. For sure, it won't be my last. I'll find a way to get there again, someday.

I hope you guys will plan for your fun trip next, as I've planned mine in April.

A quote to share: "Though we travel the world over to find the beauty, we must carry it with us or we find it not - Ralph Wardo Emerson"