Beijing Adventure : Day 1 (16 April 2014)

Such A Long Time,
my dream coming to live -
finally im touchdown in Beijing,
formerly known as Peking.

Me with 2 friends,
safely arrived at
Terminal 2, Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA),
KUL-BEI took 6 hours 5 minutes.

We need to take a taxi from here
to Beijing Homekey Hotel, Yu'er Hutong,
Nanluogu Xiang, DongCheng District because
all the cheaper options of public transportation
stopping their service for the day.

The taxi driver really didn't know the location of the hotel,
he needs to stop a few times by the sideroad just to phone his friends,
still the taxi fare is so expensive,as expected : 350 yuan.

We finally checked in to our room, nearly to 4 am,
not before we chatted with locals,
tiring our legs by dragging the luggages on the pathways
during the wee hours.

We woke up early - 9am,
made a short breakfast then walk to our nearest subway station :
Nanluogu Xiang Line 6, Exit E to begin our adventure.

The fare is 2 yuan each entry per person,
linked-up well to the stations within central beijing,
and all those nearby districts (suburban areas i guess).

1st destination,
forbidden city aka palace museum aka gugong
(the Chinese imperial palace from Ming dynasty-Qing dynasty)
+ tiananmen square, one of a must visited attractions,
when you have a chance to discover Beijing.

10am : we did a group photo at the tiananmen square
before we crossed the road via the underground tunnel
to the gate of Tiananmen.

Along with all those very jam-packed crowd,
we entered the gate and welcomed by the
gardens outside of the inner court moat.

In order to enter the forbidden city,
we need to buy a ticket 1st - 60 yuan per person,
but it is not without incident,
before that we already bought the false tickets -
15 yuan each to enter the museum via the Tiananmen Gate
largely containing Mao Zedong collections.

As we finally step in the forbidden city
courtyard via the Meridian Gate
(after the security check by police officer at the entrance),
the majestic Hall of Supreme Harmony welcomes us.

As for my observation,
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;
thus almost identical to each other.

Here we had a chance to see
Palace of Heavenly Purity,
Hall of Mental Cultivation
and the Imperial Garden as
we went straight to the exit door at
Gate of Divine Might (Northern Gate).

Afterwards, we strolled into the Jiangshan Park (10 yuan).
Here, We need to ascend to the top of the hill
in order to have the bird-eye view of the entire compounds
of the spectacular/awesome forbidden city.