Hi Everyone!

RAMADHAN MUBARAK! RAMADHAN KAREEM!!

I know it's pretty (so) late for me to write a post about Ramadhan. Trust me! A lot of things happened in past weeks. Well, I'm sure I pretty much said that in most of my recent posts (probably all 😅). But I don't know guys, this first-half of 2019 had me gone (almost) crazy. It feels like my heart is riding a roller coaster everyday. I'm okay now, pretty much get the hang of my self now. LOL. 😎. So, I decided to write this post in English noticing that some of my friends are not Indonesians. Please understand if you find a lot of miss-spelling and incorrect grammar.

So, Ramadhan has come! Alhamdulillah! It feels great to actually spend another time do fasting abroad. This Ramadhan was actually a little special for me, I can't share the reason why because it involves the sentimental sides of my personal feelings. However, it also took more preparations for me than the last one. I'm currently on medication process and last Ramadhan came on too strong for my health (went to Emergency Room for maybe twice). I was afraid that I can't execute it well, but unexpectedly I did an amazing job to survive. That's why then I decided that I'm ready to have my first Ramadhan Trip to Beijing.

"YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE" people said. That's the reason why we need to embrace every opportunity we have while we can. Good things doesn't come twice. My 3rd time to Beijing, I decided to enjoy it to the fullest. 3 things I always consider when I'm planning to travel:

1. Budget
2. Accommodation
3. Time schedule

Air BnB, Hostelworld, Ctrip are some of the site that I recommend you to check. If you're currently living in China WeChat and Ctrip would be the best option. If you're only come to visit, your internet plan and VPN is a must (download it before you go to China). Time schedule is also important for you so that you can manage your time wisely and visit every destination you want. Stick to what you've planned but always give a room for a little surprise moment. 

1st Day, I arrived at Beijing around afternoon so that I can directly check-in to my hotel. I booked my hotel via Ctrip and it was a good deal. I spend almost 500 RMB for 3 nights/ 2 persons. The hotel located near Qianmen where you can find bus and metro line easily. You might consider to use I-Phone Map or Baidu Map to help you find the route to your destination. First Night, we went to Wangfujin to look for ifthar. Wangfujin is a shopping district where you can find every brand (mostly high-end one), but the main tourist attraction is the street food. Unfortunately the street food was under renovation at that time, so only few shops are open.

Seafood skewers

Then we decided to call it a night since we have a big plan by tomorrow. Also sahr time was around 1.30 A.M. that we decided to save our energy.

2nd Day, we went to 3 places; The Great Wall, Jingshan Park, and Qianmen. I've been to The Great Wall twice before, so this time I wanted to do something different. For your information there area 6 spots if you wanted to visit Beijing's Great Wall; Badaling, Mutianyu, Jinshanling, Jiankou, Gubeikou and Simatai. Me and my friend did some research before we went there. Badaling is the most famous and crowded one, also since I visited there twice we decided to take it out of our list. Jinshangling, Jiankou, Gubeikou, and Simatai have quite challenging tracks and would be hard to climb since we were fasting. Therefore, our choice went to Mutianyu.

We went to Mutianyu by tourist bus from Qianmen. It was nice because we only pay 110 RMB for round-way bus fare, entrance ticket, and a tour guide. The tour guide introduce Mutianyu as the most beautiful spot of Beijing's Great Wall and still has less people to visit than Badaling. It has the longest track where you can cut into half by riding a cable car. The cable car ride costed about 120 RMB/ person.

Mutianyu was indeed beautiful. It has less visitor that Badaling and the view also is much nicer. There are 21 stops where starting from the 19th stop, we need to literally climb with both feet and hands.

You can see more picture here!

We went back to Qianmen at the afternoon and right after that we took a public bus to Jingshan Park. I heard about this park from a Korean TV Show called "Battle Trip", where they say we can see the whole Tiananmen from the highest peak of this park.




Still few people now about this spot on Jingshan Park. Most of the places we went are likely to be famous around local and young tourists. This can be an alternative spot when you're feel too tired to walk around the Tiananmen or the waiting line in front of the gate are too long. The night view is amazing, but unfortunately me and my travel-mate were dying to break our fasting at Qianmen and try the famous "Beijing Roasted Duck" that we weren't able to enjoy the peak of the Tiananmen's night view.

 For you who's not familiar with Tiananmen, let me give you a brief introduction about the place. Tiananmen in English means Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is the main (north) gate of the imperial city which includes the famous Forbidden City inside. In front of the gate there's a big square which consists of the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The gate was build during the Ming dynasty and become one of the iconic places of China.

The next stop for our trip is the Qiananmen street, where you can enjoy various kind of Chinese foods here. 

Beijing Roasted Duck

 So, for this special dish of Beijing, I would like to share a little bit on how you supposed to enjoy the meal. When you order Beijing Roasted Duck some restaurant would entertain you with the cutting performance of the duck by the chef. They will serve the duck meat with some complementary ingredients that you need to assembled by yourselves. As you can see they will give some wrapper "skin", sliced vegetables, oyster sauce, garlic, sugar, and sliced dried fruit. To enjoy the meat, you can make a wrap combining the sliced veggies, dried fruit, garlic, an oyster sauce. However, the crispy duck skin is supposed to be dip into the sugar.

Chinese Styled Starbucks

On the 3rd Day, we visited the Summer Palace and Beijing Zoo and Aquarium. Summer Palace is the imperial summer holiday site of the King and Queen back in the Qing Dynasty. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers. 

PANDAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

After the very tiring journey of walking around summer palace and the zoo, we manage to have a free time before ifthar. We decided to look for some "instagram-worthy" place and decide to visit SOHO GALAXY. I have to admit it that somehow I am not a fan of "modern-architecture" that's why I just sit and had a little rest before deciding to go back to the hotel and wait for ifthar time. There were a lot of small-local restaurant around our hotel. We decided to spend a peaceful night since we were really out of energy at that day. Anyway, we went to try some Halal barbecue at the moslem restaurant next to our Hotel.

1. The transportation card works differently in Beijing than Dalian. In Beijing we can actually rent a transportation card by depositing some money. If you're travelling by bus, you need to tap both when go in and out just like in Korea. In Dalian you only need to tap once.
2. Even though you're in the capital city, the citizens aren't familiar with English. So, when you're lost try to look for a sign (because they have English translation on it) or just follow the Map (Baidu, Iphone, Google with VPN).
3. If you're not interested on buying stuff, don't ever try to look or touch things (moreover ask and bargain) at the shop. The seller will get angry and curse you. 
4. Always take a good care of your belongings.
5. Don't expect a neat line when queuing. Everywhere is battle field. 

See You on My next Post.