My First Short Beijing Trip.

Aha FarEast Again!!! I always used to say , i wannu go to forest-For-Est ... But the Good Lord and me had a bit of communication gap and it was misunderstood as Far-East!
And i was off on my journey to FarEast again!! This time to MainLand China.
As such i was working with few chinese off late , so am quite used to seeing all those chinese faces.
Reached Beijing city(Peking is how chinese call it),on 15th Jan evening. We were aware that it was damn cold there , and were all set with our own ways to beat the cold .. but Alas!! It was just horrifying, the instance we stepped out of the Airport, we had to stand in a line , to take the taxi , and that few minutes left me frozen. Yes, I was wearing Jacket, Gloves,Cap,shoes evrything to cover evry inch of my skin , still !!! Once we were in the taxi, it felt soo good and warm, and that was my first encounter with climate less than 0 (somewhere around -5 degree C)and It was great.
We were on our journey to the hotel,this time, we made a wise (may /may not be) choice to stay in a service apartment,so that our survival becomes less painful. LeGarden was a wonderful place to stay , and i loved my room. It was a cozy 1 BHK flate, with a nice kitchen and bath.
we were a group of 5,and we all planned to cook and eat together and my place was where all the activity is to happen! And our routine started that sunday evening. i dont exactly remember , what we made that day , i think just some ready to eats and all that , which needs just microwave.
and then it was monday morning and (U know wat!!!) it was time for work again!!!! :(
but its a bit exciting to go to a new office, just for the difference may be. But to step out to go wasn't that welcuming!!(Hey i told u its biting cold out there).
We had to , and it didnot feel that bad , aha we are humans , above that indians , can get accustomed to anything even before we know. Office was like any other site, not much organised, no big comfort zone for ur work. somehow we have to manage.
and unlike my expectations, there was not much work, and it was not hectic.
There were some delays and that was the reason , we came back the next weekend. we went to a chinese restaurant near by , for lunch , and took a chinese couleague along, to order for us. and he ordered some Vegetarian dishes and to my dismay they all tasted good !!! and we even placed a second order for one of the dishes. :-).
and Life went on for a week.
Many things happened in between though. visited few places, and most of the markets. That was one good experience shopping in china..
One can learn how Language can play a vital role in one's life , in China. Its hard to communicate with anybody , unless u are an expert in picking up new languages nad start learning chinese , with the right accent(Very important). as none of us were such crackerjack, we had a hard time.
About the shopping, there are few markets one should never miss, but be aware , if u cant bargain, its beter , u just be an onlooker , n not buy anything. we packed up early one day from the office ,and went to a place called Xidan, the taxi fellow dropped us near a big mall, and told us that it was xidan , me and pankaj , went in, n it was no less than the duty free shop of any big Airport. That was ofcourse not wat we were expecting, and i asked a lady there , if it was XiDan, and she confirmed in positive. Oh!!! we cudn't make out why evryone were insisting on visiting XiDan!!! Anyway , we decided not to waste any more of our time and took a taxi to silk Market.on the way, we see that there were many shops on the street, and many 'Sale' boards.. n Then we realised , Xidan is the name of the area ,and not the name of the mall. n it was a Communication Gap again!!!!
Anyways , we were off to silkMarket , and were prepared for many shocks! this taxi fellow dropped us near some mall , but we were beter learnt this time, and not ready to take a chance, enquired with few ppl , (ofcourse using all our miming skills), n again it was not the place we had to be!!!! We decided not to giveup n not to trust any more taxi fellows ,and started walking taking directions from anybody who could tell us, after some 2KM walk we finally reached that place , some 15 mins before closing :-). It was a kind of grey market , one thing , i can never forget is the Bargaining that happens there. Thumbrule to follow is quote 10 to 20 times lesser than the given price. Am not joking. First time in my life , i saw bargaining at such high scale, and bargained myself that way!! bout things prized at round 800 yuan for 40 yuan.. no Jokes!! Amazing part was that the guls selling the goods there , speak English, good enuf to deal with all the foreigners.
One more market , was Pearl market, which we visted on weekend, almost similar to Silk market. and near this, therz one Toy Market,the place i loved the most !! :-)
that was about the markets , and there are many shops here and there , just keep an eye , u will surely end up filling all ur bags.
Over the weekend, we been to Forbidden City (a Royal Palace of qing dynasty),and Tianmen Square , Places of historical importance. I will post some pics of the palace here soon.
so that was my short trip to Beijing , and am flying again this weekend.
hope to post a big blog about the Great Wall this time..

Keep Visiting.. :-)