(fpr pictures, just see the photos page)
I just came back from a trip to, borrowing from Mike, the "forefront" of Civilization. The seat of power of a civilization that has been at the forefront of advancement in early times and is now the main proponent of cheap "mass market" goods in the world. A place of many firsts - paper, gunpowder, siopao, pansit, etc.. (oddly enough, even a "good" senator even points to them as the forefathers of corruption).
We (that would be me, Abby and Mike) went to Beijing last week to attend a training for the company were all working for and we immediately grabbed the opportunity to experience to immerse ourselves in the place and the culture by going a day earlier than scheduled. It was a day of many firsts as this was my first trip out of Southeast Asia (and my first international trip not going to Malaysia - finally!) and my first trip on business class - and what better way to experience your firsts with Cathay Pacific as your plane (you gotta love their business class and their lounges- though the only point of comparison i have is that of the local co-shared flights that we had to travel in). Our adventure started even before we arrived at Beijing when we started being too comfortable in the Cathay Pacific Lounge (the Pier, I think) and we forgot that our flight was already in ten minutes. we had to rush to the other side of the airport (much like in amazing race, but without the cameras and the bulky backpacks). We did reach it in time and were cozily settled in our seats when we found out we had to transfer to another plane. oh well... the rest of the day proved to be uneventful except for the fact that i lost my set of keys somewhere in our transit and so had to have the concierge force open my locks.
The following day, while most of you might still be asleep we were already on our way to see and experience one of the greatest wonders of the world, the Great Wall and boy what an experience it was. Starting from the cable car ride to the base of the wall (you can actually walk to the base from the parking area, though it might take you about three hours or so according to our guide) up to the point where tourists can't go any further, you will not help but feel overwhelmed by the experience and be marveled by the ingenuity and the hardships that the chinese had to go through in order to erect this massive structure. I won't go into narrating the events of our tour but for those interested to know, we went to the Mutianyu part of the wall (there were also Badaling and the other one i forgot), we chose the right part of the wall (you can go two directions) and the time it took us for a complete roundabout was around two hours (complete with the rest stops and the picture taking)
The rest of the week was actually spent on the course and a few trips to the ultimate "Divisoria" one can ever go to. Though I would still believe that for amateur hagglers like me Divisoria will still be the cheapest way to buy clothes, Silk Market is still the place where haggling is a precious commodity in order for you to maximise your RMBs. Imagine being offered an adidas jacket for 600 RMB (roughly 3,600 pesos) and bringing it down to just 80 RMB! (480 pesos). So here's a warning to all those planning to go there, if you are not too keen on haggling or afraid of too much personal contact with the sellers (i tell you, they have vise-grips for hands there) or may appear to look interested in everything that's offered to you, then Silk Market is definitely not for you.
Anyhow, moving to a different topic, I was quite surprised with Beijing, they had ginormous buildings (i mean really BIG buildings, both horizontally and vertically and space-wise) as well as expansive roads (a normal road there is about 6 lanes + the bicycle lanes). Makes you really wonder why can't Metro Manila have the same good urban planning as KL and Beijing have. It is also interesting to note that most of the cars we saw there were MBs, Audis and BMWs (made me wonder if they also pirate cars there.. hmmm). So it really appeared the Beijing is a very nice and modern place to live in (though I can't say the same for their subways). Maybe it had also something to do with a certain big event going to be held their next year. (I think its called Olympics..)
On to another topic (apologies for having no coherency for this post). I will not comment on the training itself as it is supposed to be proprietary (as students of Sir Salita would know what's with proprietary stuff) I will also not be talking about the people i worked with there for a few reasons: 1.) I didn't get to bond with them as much as I did with the people in Gourami. 2.) It would be improper since they might misinterpret what I'll post (if anyone ever gets to read this) and 3.) some were really full of shit that others might misinterpret Shell people in general.
So I guess basically that's my Beijing post. I really do wanna thank my two companions, Mike and Abby, my fellow Gouramians - something that really connects the three of us in a lot of aspects (in fairview!!!) hehehe, to our other compatriot Chito who I learned a lot from and totally enjoyed going around with, to another fellow Gouramian and the only Finance person aside from me, MingYao Tan, to ChangLong and Haomin - my groupmates who were the silent ones, to my other groupmates in Phoenix, and to the other delegates a big thanks for the memories and the learnings!
post script..
Beijing's self-proclaimed Prince of Party brought us to this club called Mix and it was a nice place, but I must say, the Chinese youth does have a strange way of dancing.. (not that I am a good one either)Ü
