mrsjono

故宫/紫禁城
Entrance ticket: 20yuan (Student)
Opening hrs: 8.30am-5.00pm




The design of the Forbidden City, from its overall layout to the smallest detail, was meticulously planned to reflect philosophical and religious principles, and above all to symbolise the majesty of Imperial power. Yellow is the colour of the Emperor. Almost all roofs in the Forbidden City have yellow glazed tiles. Red symbolizes happiness and auspiciousness.


The sloping ridges of building roofs are decorated with a line of statuettes. The number of statuettes represents the status of the building — a minor building might have 3 or 5. The Hall of Supreme Harmony has 10, the only building in the country to be permitted this in imperial times.


Welcome to Beijing!


The Forbidden City was literally, a mini-city with 9000 people living in it. It was forbidden to commoners and the general public at that time and the officials, servants and concubines living inside were not allowed to leave as and when they please.

秀女遴选 (Candidate Girl Selection)
Based on the system of the Qing Dynasty, candidate-girls would be selected every 3 years among maidens aged 13-17 from all of the Banner families of Manchu, Mongol and Han (Chinese). preparing primarily for the position of emperor's consorts or to be assigned to the princes as their wives. In the final selection, there will only be one Empress (皇后) and several lower rank concubines (妃嫔).




清代后妃的等级为皇后一人, 皇贵妃一人、贵妃二人、妃四人、嫔六人； 此下又设贵人、常在、答应，员额多少不定，随意而设.

册封后

后宫斗争


This door


and this lamp post

looks like this scene doesn't it?


御花园 Imperial Garden










要走庆幸在你心中有爱, 要留只怪我心中仍然有恨. 每个人都选择了自己的路, 或生或死, 或走或留.残酷的宫廷争斗中不容许丝毫的感情用事, 奔走天涯相依为命才依靠那份不离不弃的爱.

不爱宫墙柳, 只被前缘误,
花开花落自有时, 总赖东君主,
风光人人俱, 寂寞谁相扶,
缘聚缘散终是梦，莫道红尘苦......
*

My neighbour

can speak chinese and majors in chinese;

opens and closes the door very loudly;

calls her oppa immediately after she comes back;

sings to herself at times;

says Yeoboseyo? the real authentic korean way each time her phone rings;

sits on her pink bed blowing her hair with her little pink hair dryer in a pink skirt with a pink hairband;

is seldom in her room;

owns a LG laptop (i sneaked into her room once to turn off her drama cos it was too loud and disturbing my slp);

leaves the rice cooker on and forgets abt her rice and sweet potatoes inside and i had to remove the plug before it explodes;

spilled rice all over the floor in the kitchen and 逃之夭夭;

throws rubbish everywhere;

reads her korean magazines when she ps (just my speculation bcos i saw those magazines in the toilet);

went for hair extension last month (i saw fake curly hair in the dustbin);

likes to drink Yakult (i often buy that and she'll finish the last bottle secretly when i'm not around);

talks differently when speaking to her oppa (like abit act cute like that);

goes out very often, sometimes late at night and comes back very early in the morning (i think she went clubbing);

seldom locks her door or brings her keys;

leaves all her shoes, slippers and heels outside her door, posing as potential hazards to the both of us when we rush to the bathroom;

lets me use her fridge, electric stove, pans, and all her food and cooking utensils;

on-s her korean dramas loudly in her room;

appeared in my contemporary chinese language class one afternoon, looking for her korean friends and i wasn't sure whether it's her till i recognise her shoes;

leaves her dirty dishes in the basin for several days;

appears and waves at me when I least expect it;

leaves all her hair accessories on the basin and I have to clear them for her each time I use the shower;

stuffs her fridge with lots of boxes and containers containing preserved korean food;

bbqs food near my door which often leaves me feeling quite hungry;

is a pretty Korean girl who farts quite loudly in her room;

forgot my name and I forgot hers too.

+ Accuracy & Reliability
While the subway takes about 25mins from Wudaokou to Qianmen, the bus may take 1 hr or more during peak hrs.

+ Cheap
Regardless of distance/stops, the train fare is 2RMB. Cab from Wudaokou to Pingguoyuan (extreme left on the red line) costs 15RMB which is more than 7 times the cost of taking the subway!

Despite its accuracy and cheap fare, I dun like to take the subway.

- Transfer
I stay at Wudaokou which is on the yellow-orange line. In order to reach Wangfujing (red line), I need to transfer twice at Xizhimen (blue line) and Fuxingmen. Sounds like going to harborfront from gombak? Wrong! In order to transfer, I need to walk the equivalent distance of sg's citylink mall from cityhall mrt to suntec city. So it means I need to walk citylink twice la! Can u imagine after walking the whole day in huge imperial gardens and palaces plus boat peddaling, still need to squeeze mrt and walk citylink twice! Some more all stairs la! And then still need to cycle back to hostel! Shag la!

- No air-con
Different lines are run by different companies. Some trains have air-con, some dun have. If u happen to stand under the fan then gd for u. If not, with a train packed with people plus a few layers of thick clothes on ur body, it's damn HOT la!

- Not convenient
Some places of interest are not located beside/near the subway. U might have to take another bus or walk some distance. Their "walk some distance" (like 15mins) can be damn far esp when u'r already very tired and ur feet are all sore from walking the whole day.

- Congestion
The situation is equally bad as sg.

Lastly, I can't hitch a free ride on the subway.

往后走! 往后走! 刷卡刷卡! 没卡买票! 没卡买票!
(Squeezing, jostling)
Rs: Wa kao no more space already still push.
Me: Push back la.
Ah bui: 我还挺舒服的. (Fat boy said to his friends that he's in a comfortable position despite the crowd)
Rs: 你当然舒服啦. 躺在别人身上.. (Of course cos you're leaning on me)
Rs to me: And he's shoving his thing in my leg lor.
Me: (无奈) (Helpless)

下一站--寺! 下一站--寺!
Rs: It's here.
Me: I don't think so. I heard a 寺 at the back. I think we better ask people.
Me: 请问下一站是北海吗? (Is the next stop Beihai Park?)
X: 还有多三个站. (Another three more stops.)

--寺! --寺!
We still couldn't make out what the bus conductor was saying so we tried to look at the sign at the bus stop. It's 白塔寺 (Baita Temple). Sounds like 北海 (Beihai). No wonder.

Some buses have the electronic system that show and announce the next stop. Those which don't have rely on the bus conductor to announce the stop. However, even if u have successfully got onto the correct bus, u might not get off successfully at the correct stop bcos most of the time, the bus conductors speak with an accent which u wouldn't be able to make any sense of.

Still Day 1: Wrong stop #1

We exited by a different gate from where we entered Beihai Park and tried to take a bus back and change 814 along the way. He was suffering from gastric and I couldn't recognise where we should alight. I only know can alight at Xizhimen and take the subway. The bus was approaching Xizhimen but I don't know where exactly should we alight. I asked around and a lady told me I can alight at this stop, walk in front or the next stop and walk backwards to the station. We waited for the next stop and realized to our horror that the bus went on the expressway and it was a VERY LONG WAY BACK to the station.

Day 2: 永远搭不到的323

We examined the map the night before and checked there's a 323 at the bus stop outside the school. Unfortunately, there wasn't any 323 when we got there so we asked around. Someone told us to take some bus to Zhongguancun and change 323. Another person told us to take some bus to 人民大学 (Renmin University). We checked against the map and decided to follow the 2nd suggestion.

So we got off at Renmin University only to find there's no 323. We struggled for a long time at that bus stop. We asked for directions but they were not clear to us at all. In the end we decided to board any bus that comes next and ask the driver. After we got onto the correct bus, we saw 323 coming out from the other side of the road...

Even the map is not reliable.

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Day 3: Non-existence of bus lanes

Day 3 was pretty smooth-sailing bcos the places we went were quite near THU. As we stood on a bridge watching the traffic, I noticed the bus stops are too small to accommodate the number of people waiting for bus. Pedestrians, cyclists, buses and taxis all fight for the same lane. How not to get congested?

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Day 4: Wrong stop #2

We took 103 to Wangfujing from I don't know which gate of Forbidden City. It passed by the main street of what looks like Wangfujing to me from my faint memory of the place so I thought we should get off the next stop. However, the next stop was too far away from where we should be going and we had to walk again. Of cos the number of times we alighted at the wrong stop didn't stop here.

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Day 5: No more bus

After asking for directions again, we managed to find a bus stop. We saw the all too familiar 814 passed us. We waited for some time but 814 doesn't seem to come. He looked at the sign for a long time and said "I think no more bus already.."

My feet were all sore and painful from walking the whole day. It was getting late (and cold) and starting to drizzle. It was 10.30pm only and there's no more bus?

Sigh.

---

By the 6th day, we have already gotten several free rides on the bus.

对不起 打扰一下 我们是问路的 请问

对不起 打扰一下 请问

对不起 打扰一下 请问

对不起 打扰一下 请问

对不起 打扰一下 请问最靠近的捷运站在哪里？

There was once we were in a jersey shop a man overheard rs asking the shop attendant something. I heard the man say to himself "对不起 什么呀?"

I was so disturbed with his way of asking directions.

"U don't have to say sorry. Neither do u have to say 打扰一下. Neither do u have to say u'r asking for directions bcos clearly they can see u'r lost. No need to be so polite. No one cares about manners here."

And obviously he forgot he's in Beijing, not Taipei bcos the subway is called 地铁 here, not 捷运.