Beijing, 24- Nov 2007

I was in Beijing 2 weeks ago and Beijing is a wonderful place. The best thing is Richard - my best friend is working in Beijing. Here is the adventure being arrange chronologically.

24 Nov (Sat)
1. Arrived BJ @ 7.20am
2. Richard picking up though he is not feeling well
3. Check-in to Richard’s mansion
4. Richard went to hospital again for further check-up
5. Daniel hungry till almost fainted (11am++)
6. 12pm, meeting up with Grace. Then went for lunch @ SOHO, 建外.
7. After lunch, went to 西单(XiDan) famous for shopping among young & trendy locals
8. Took subway to 天安门 (TianAnMen). Mario was captured (photo attached) in there
9. Walked to Wong Fook Jin, 王府井 (WangFuJing, famous tourist spot)
10. Had 小龙包 (Mini Bun), then to 百货大楼 (Beijing 1st Emporium) for window shopping
11. Walked to 东华门夜市 (DongHuaMen Night Market) for dinner. Ate 爆肚儿(fresh ox stomach soup) – the 老北京(Old Beijing snack)
12. Took a cab and went to 后海 (HouHai), this place is famous for pub and bar. There is an ancient bridge, 银镞桥
13. Lastly, sent Grace home & met Tiger, Grace’s puppy

25 Nov (Sun)
1. Woke up late, Richard went to hospital again to stay alive
2. 1pm, finally R is back. Set for lunch
3. R shivering again, went to toilet for a long time – tummy problem
4. Went to Temple of Heaven, 天坛. Walk around the garden in darkness & feeling the Siberian + Mongolian wind
5. Went to 红桥 (HongQiao market) to buy some souvenir
6. Grace’s bargaining skills truly amazing; from RMB 180/shirt to RMB 50 for 2. Super Bargain Queen
7. Went to 东直门(DongZhiMen) for Sichuan cuisine; specialty is super spicy steam boat
8. Walked around Ginza Mall; bought myself a snow cap for protection against the Siberian / Mongolian cold winter wind
9. Went back to Richard’s place and ate more food
10. And finally, sent Grace back home

26 Nov (Mon)
1. Woke up @ 6.30am, hired a driver and leave for MuTianYu Great Wall
2. Slept in the car
3. Arrived around 9.15am, not many people. Nice weather, bought cable car ticket to the peak for RMB 50
4. Amazing day, took a lot of photos; it’s always great to bring along a tripod. Walked till the end of safe zone. Richard and I had great morning walk @ Great Wall
5. Around 12.30pm, we retuned back to the entrance. Richard negotiated banana pancake for RMB5 each & coffee for RMB10. Weirdly, we were asked to pay additional RMB10 once the pancake was done; we felt being cheated
6. Bought more souvenir @ Great Wall before leaving MuTianYu
7. Went to 中关村 for lunch before checking out the malls for Lowpro camera bag. After searching 2 malls and almost giving up, we tried the last mall for the last time. We gave up and hunt for a toilet; somehow surprisingly I saw a shop next to the restroom hanging a Lowpro sign at a Nikon outlet. Wow! It’s a great day and got my camera bag for RMB480 (Singapore is selling SGD199). Very happy
8. Then took bus & went to 大宅门
9. …..I think I will stop till here. Too many to tell; but believe me, Beijing is indeed a wonderful place and I don’t mind staying there for a while…3-5 years probably.

24 Hours in Hong Kong

I supposed to upload some photos taken in HK into my blog but I didn't have the time to do so since back from Shenzhen.
While waiting for Richard to be back from hospital (I am in Beijing now), I decided to upload the photos to my blog. It is a beautiful day today and later we we are going to few tourist attraction spots and definately I share some photos taken from here.

Living Luxuriously in Shenzhen and Lowly in HK

Yahoooooooooooooo.....it's weekend! Hong Kong, here I come. That's the feeling I felt on Sat morning. I have been hearing so many stories about HK's hostel and I managed to book one for my Sat night stay. Here is something new I experienced - my hotel stay in Shenzhen was 180' different with the one in HK. Anyhow, I just need a place to sleep in HK, as long it is clean, safe and comfortable enough.

If you would like to save up some money and having no problem sleeping in a hostel like the one I had, then it is alright. However, please do a careful background search before making a reservation for the room.

Below photo is taken from The Marco Polo Hotel in Shenzhen.



And this photo is taken in HK - one of the budget hostel for a night to sleep.

Shenzhen, here I come!!!

It's about 1 hour to midnight now, here I am still blogging and commenting Kelly Teoh's blog about her sien-ness. I have about 5-6 hours to rest as I am going to catch a flight to Shenzhen tomorrow morning.

Nope, it's not another holiday trip, but it is a business trip to Shenzhen to do a support job in Dongguan. It's my 1st time and I am "super" excited about it as I am going there alone. Good thing is I am going to team up with my counterpart to carry out "Operation Rescue & Restore" mission. I have all the necessary tools readied and pretty confident for this mission.

Of course as usual, I will explore and take photos things that interest me. Just stay tune!

...."Daniel, Kambate!!! Hmmm....Don't worry, everything will turn out fine. Just enjoy the whole process and eat some more smelly toufu...and the siumai there...very nice one"...Hahaha...

Hello 28 and going strong

I had a wonderful 28 birthday celebration, which it was being celebrated in a very modest manner.

While I was driving to work on that day (Thursday), I felt a sudden peace in my heart that I do not need to worry about it, which it has been troubling in my mind for the last 5-6 days. At about 9am, I received a call from the bank and it was indeed a great news; it is a super big birthday present from Father. I was overjoyed with the news till I asked the bank officer to reconfirm the news. Hahaha.... :) What a nice way to start the day. Thank you Jesus! And for the rest of the day, I had lunch and dinner makan with my colleagues and my good buddies from EPCC. In short, it was a nice and wonderful day on my b-day.

Moving on, there will be great challenges awaiting for me. For the next 3 months, it is definitely going to be a busy months. There's business trips to go, multiple trainings to give, project to be completed, church video production to run and etc. I pray and hope I am able to manage my time well and give all my best in everything I do. A good friend of mine always says this to encourage me "DANIEL, 加油！！！"

我是房奴了。。我要加油！！ - My dreams!

Last Saturday night I attended SNL (Saturday Night Live) and the speaker for that night is Dr. Paul Ang. He shared his testimonies and how God has greatly blessed him so many times. I like the part where we were told to repeat this sentence, "I am deeply loved; I am greatly blessed; I am highly favored". Indeed when I reflect back my life, I can see how God has truly blessed me in so many little things in my life. I just feel the peace and joy in my heart that night and I know my Father in heaven is always there for me and He is going to bless me even more - more than enough till my cup runs overflow. All I need to do is to obey and follow Him. God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

Labor for a house? Yes and I am doing my best and walking with faith. And I can't express how much I am deeply in loved by God for His blessing in fulfilling one of my heart's desire.

Here's a photo taken recently by Meng Siong at Benji's home in Kulim; it's a funny and normal face photos.

I also made some MTV for the photos and uploaded in YouTube. Here is the link to PillowTalk in YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ozqFbmPtW8.

Chengdu, JiuZaiGou and Huanglong Holiday

I had a great holiday in China and I am very amazed with China's awesome scenery. I plan to go there again in the future with better camera lens and definately will be somewhere around October. The photo above is taken at the sea level above 3500 meters; it is very very cold. I took off my jacket and quickily take a photo shot. In the late evening when we return the same place, it was snowing.

Here are some photos taken.

Behind me is the waterfall taken in Huanglong.

This waterfall below is taken at JiuZaiGou. The water is very clean and clear. How I wish I could jump into the water and swim. But it is only a wish I could have in my mind as the penalty to swim in the river is RMB2000 (about Malaysian Ringgit 1000). Few years back before the China government imposed the law, everyone could swim in the river.

Look at this photo below, I really wish I could just roll into the water.

Below 2 photos are taken at the Peacock Lake. Just look at the colorful lake, which it seems like I am in a dreamland. I could see very clearly the bottom of the lake and there's a lot of fish swimming around. Taking photos during autumn is the best as this will make the whole area in red/orange in color. Awesome! This is God's creation.

Is she pretty? She is the local from JiuZaiGou known as the Zhang tribe. By the way, JiuZaiGou is about 3400 meters above sea level. I have forgotten her name, but this year she is 20 years old and she can sing heavenly.

The photo below is taken in LuokDai Oldtown, surprisingly this is a Hakka community area in Sichuan province. I took the opportunity to take a ride as I always wanted to try one. It was a nice experience. The ride cost me RMB10 yuan.

Guess what is this? Guess? Guess? Hahaha...This is the Silk Worm and.......

It is yummy. Yum Yum!!!! It is one of the local delicacies. I also tried the world most smelly taufu. Do I like it? Yes I do and it taste good. Wish I could find such food in Penang. Yum Yum!