Dumpling for Breakfast
The night before we were already planning “what to eat” for breakfast the next day. We decided to have Beijing dumpling. Based on google search popular three dumpling stores were listed, they were Xian Lao Man, Mr. Shi’s Dumplings, and Baoyuan Dumplings. All have outlets near our stay, “base Beijing Wanfujing Serviced Apartment“.
After reading several “reviews” we decided on Mr. Shi Dumplings. Using BaiduMap we mapped out the bus routes which had “lesser” walking.
When the morning came we left our stay and walked 300 metre to the bus stop. Then boarded bus 106 (3 stops) and then bus 82 (4 stops). On the Baidu Map we were tracked our movement on the bus and alighted once we reached the correct bus stop.
After alighting the bus we walked forward and turned into a side lane very soon we reached Mr. Shi Dumpling. At 9.45am we were the first batch of customers for the day! The interior of the restaurant was nicely decorated, a quaint looking restuarant.
We studied the menu and ordered two dishes. One was dumpling and the others was a meat dish (slice strip pork) which was to be eaten wrapped in thin dumpling skins.
The drink water/tea was free, on the house. Our breakfast was delicious and by the time we were done we felt very full. The cost of the meal was ¥79. After the meal we went back to our “stay” by buses again.
Summer Palace
We had already visited the most crucial “must-visit” places in Beijing which were Forbidden City and the Great Wall. The rest of the attractions were nice but not essential, anyway we still had a full day for sightseeing so where should we visit? We decided to visit the Summer Palace.
From our stay to Summer Palace by cab was about 30 min which was half the time required if we were to go by subway (line 6 + line 16). The cost of the cab fare was ¥54 and the distance was 19km.
At Summer Palace, we went to the ticket office to purchase our entry tickets. Upon showing our passports the ticketing staff told us that entry was free for senior age 60 and above and this included foreigner. Wow! this was VERY NICE. In the many countries that we had visited, senior referred to those age 65 and above and discounted tickets or free entry did not apply to foreigners!
The Summer Palace or Yihe Garden (simplified Chinese: 颐和园; traditional Chinese: 頤和園; pinyin: Yíhéyuán) was built by the Chinese Empress Cixi as a pavilion for quiet retreat. It was a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. This imperial garden during the Qing dynasty included Longevity Hill (万寿山; 萬壽山; Wànshòu Shān), Kunming Lake, and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covered an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres (1.1 sq mi), three-quarters of which was water
It was amazing to know that the central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 square kilometres (540 acres) was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. Longevity Hill was part of the Yanshan Mountains and in front to the hill there were traditional Chinese buildings from the foot to the top.
We spent a couple of hours exploring the ground. We crossed the Seventeen Hole Bridge to the island across the bridge. We walked along the foot path leading toward Longetivity Hill but we never got there as the path was barricaded off nearer to the hill.
There were big and small pleasure boats for hire on the lake. Many visitors were out in the lake on them. The weather was turning hot and after a couple hours of roaming the ground we were ready to leave the Summer Palace. We walked through the Hall Of Benevolence And Longevity again and this time we noticed the “dragon head deer body” statue in front of the hall.
We left Summer Palace and returned to our stay by cab. This time we managed to e-hail a cab successfully! We hailed the cab using the “wechat” app, under the “Me” icon there was “Pay and Services”. In the “Pay and Services” there was a “DiDi Ride Hailing”. I had already linked my travel card to wechat wallet so was able to hail and pay for a cab on wechat!
We were so happy to sucessfully e-hail our first cab in Beijing. Hurray!!!! Now we had more freedom to move around.
Before e-hailing a cab from “wechat” app, we had tried e-hailing a cab using DiDi app but was not able to hail a cab as our payment link in DiDi app was not functioning.
coffee break at a cool place
We were back at our stay ” base Beijing Wanfujing Serviced Apartment” by about 3pm, as expected it was already past check-out time. Tonight we were staying at a different hotel, one nearer to the airport so this morning before we left for Summer Palace we had already check-out of our apartment and left our luggage at the receptionist counter,
In the same building as our stay was a “cool” looking coffee place. We had passed it many times during the last few days and on this final days we felt a “must” to go in for coffee.
The decoration inside G’day coffee was as “animated” as the outside of the store. Cafe latte was fine. After a nice drinks we went on the picked up our luggage and took a cab to our next hotel.
Dinner at a Muslim Restaurant
After we checked into our hotel near the airport and had sufficient rest we were out looking for dinner. We walked down the street for about 200 metres and saw a nice restuarant. It was a beef nooodle restaurant .
We ordered three dishes to go with rice. It was egg/omelette, tofu and stew beef.
Hotel at airport
We booked Huayi Collection Hotel on Trip.com. This hotel was about 4 km from the airport and provided free shuttle services to its customer flying out of Beijing.
We were leaving on a 8am flight flying out of Beijing to Zhangye. We needed to be at the airport by about 6am in the morning to check in, so staying a night at Huayi Collection allowed us to arrive at the airport on time.
When booking hotel in China we had to make sure that we knew the English name and its Chinese name. The Chinese name of Huayi Collection Hotel was 华驿精选酒店. Unlike booking.com, on Trip.com it was easy to get the Chinese of the hotel.
When the cab driver dropped us at the hotel we were a bit confuse and wondered if we were in the right location. The English Name displayed at the hotel was “China Inn” and not “Hua Yi Collection Hotel” but the displayed Chinese matched. Besides we were at the location of the hotel on Baidu Map. We later found out that the hotel had two entrances (opposite sides) and the other entrance displayed a different hotel name, Qiu Guo Hotel.
The cost of a twin room for one night for two persons was ¥282 which was paid on site. We paid using Alipay and again splited the payment into two portions. One portion was ¥200 and the other was ¥82, both portions was ¥200 or less which did not incurred a 3% charge. If we were to pay ¥282 in one go, the final charge would be ¥290.46 on Alipay.
Our twin room was of a pretty decent size of 25㎡, The roon was large and clean. The toilet was big and clean too. The room had a window with not much of a view. The room was inexpensive and good enough for a night stay.
Other Accommodation near the Airport