7Sep David Tao World Tour 2013 in Beijing!

Beijing is my favourite China city by far, 

because it is a place where modernity meets cultural arts and history. 

I wish i had more time with all the tourist attractions i could explore, 

but i only had 2 mornings to make use of :( 

We stayed in Swissotel Beijing..

Always love hotels with huge gyms so that i can work out before rehearsals :)

Spent out first night in Beijing over a hearty fusion Japanese meal :) 

Consider myself lucky the restaurant OKRA was opened by Christine's friend.

OKRA (meaning Lady's finger), is located in Beijing 1949 area,

serves really great sake, wine, assortment of sushi, chawanmushi, 

chargrilled unagi, octopus and sesami ice cream :D yum..

Happy us after a great meal with the boss!

For those planning to visit beijing, do head down to OKRA ;) 

OKRA  

北京1949餐飲區（盈科中心南面）

I always try to find time to sneak in a little sight-seeing before rehearsals and concerts!
Willing to sacrifice sleep for travel and hotel buffet breakfast :D
So on the morning of Forbidden Palace Tour, here's my feeble attempt at eating clean..
*proceeds to grab xiaolongbao bacon and sausages after nomnomnom

The Forbidden Palace 故宫

I looked a tad too happy. It's a palace, not Disneyland kexin.. tsktsk

The beloved 公安

It was a saturday and that explains the crowd -_-

Light at the end of the tunnel!!

人山人海。。

I secretly wanted to buy the touristy Concubine headdress hairband..

This korean lady fell for it.

Tadahh!! Tourists!! 

Love the china man and his kungfu panda shirt and the lady carrying a china flag..

Most of the tourists i saw came from other parts of the china itself.

Everybody wanted to catch a glimpse of the Emperor's throne

Where the Emperor strolls and goes dating with his 23435 wives and girlfriends..

Rehearsals and show day!

Simple braids for the show this time..

Great Wall 長城

The day after show, Charis and i were determined to scale the Great Wall!!! 

We woke up at 6am and embarked on an hour's journey to one of the 7 wonders of the World :D 

*feeling hopeful *不到長城非好漢

The Great Wall is so huge it is divided into several sections.

We chose to scale Mu Tian Yu 慕田峪, a relatively shorter section, 

because we were rushing to complete the wall under 2 hours

(i had a flight to catch back to singapore in the afternoon) :(

Pretty cheap! We bought the cable ride tickets up and toboggan tickets down, all for only 125RMB! 

We were one of the first few to arrive and the cable car wasn't even ready for operations -_-

Waited from 8am to 830am for them to be done with inspection and checks.

No harness, just a handle and a prayer as we got lifted up in the skies 

that we don't get stuck up in the air!

Really enjoyed the ride because i have no fear of heights hahaa

The wall's on our right!

Hello Great Wall of China! 

It was completely empty because we were the first few up on the wall! 

So excited i tried to sing and i heard echoes :D 

Some steps were so steep we had to use hands while climbing up like dogs haha

 

We did it!

It took us about 45mins to finish the stretch, which wasn't too bad in my opinion..

I had a really nice workout that morning and stunning view to accompany my journey :D

This is the Toboggan Ride! 

Super fun i was kinda worried initially because i thought i would go all out of control, 

but apparently you could adjust the speed of the ride.

Let's go baby!

Really enjoyed our time in Beijing..
Next stop ShenZhen on 1 Oct!