Advises for traveling in Beijing

1. Language - learn Mandarin!
Even the American university students are taking Mandarin classes nowadays in order to penetrate the huge China market – in everything & there’s big opportunities for everyone. English isn’t widely accepted – at the airport, major shopping complexes, tourist attractions etc. - just a few words here & there like the Exit signs, the rest are all in Chinese characters. My initial plan was to come early & spend a day by myself in the City. Faced with the hard fact & even my cousin was reluctant to let me out on my own due to the language barrier, I followed her to the office & spent the day mostly preparing for my presentation.
I survived the next two days (weekend) at the conference venue. I took the taxi armed with the address to the hotel & my cousin’s place written in Chinese by her local staff. My efforts to converse with the drivers went nowhere, even sign language & simple English couldn’t help!

2. Foods - brings lotsa Maggi mee!
Lucky me – at the very last minute, the organizer informed me that the hotel was fully booked & since it was on first come first serve basis (due to some problem with my credit card), they offered me another hotel within the vicinity of the hotel. I thought, I might as well stay at my cousin’s place…
Lucky in the sense she cooked for me & even tapow foods for lunch. We had the typical buffet lunch at the hotel – I was told that we can eat the seafood, salad & things like that…but the plate, etc. that we used? (Can somebody advise me on this?) Even one of the local prof said, he just ate fish fillet at the McD across the junction near the hotel.
Of course, there are lotsa halal Chinese restaurants (we even came across one near to Tiannamen Sq – I’ve the pic of this one - later) but one has really to look/search for it. My cousin & my new Malaysian Chinese friend said, there’re certain district in China with mostly Muslims population so their dishes are ok (Arab’s influence like kebabish sikit) & it’s quiet easy to recognize them - look for green signboard & some sort of Bismillah @ ayat2 Quran in Arabic on it! Went for lunch once at Yashow Clothing Market – like PKNS building complex but bigger & many, many stalls – there’s a food court with one halal stall & hotpot/steamboat dinner at a restaurant in Chaoyang district (first time using a chopstick! Klu kat mesia, always asked for fork & spoon).

3. Weather - winter isn't the best time to visit China!
It’s really cold! I had on layered clothing top with winter coat, glove & layered of socks. Too bad I had to come back early coz yesterday (as predicted) my cousin said, “It’s snowing…” Aiseyman...manyak rugi lor.. klu tak boleh main snow!

4. WC
Managed to get by on earlier days by proper planning ahead. But on the last day, I went against my normal habits & drank a cupful of ‘teh tarik’ combined with nasi lemak knowing that it usually makes me run for the toilet – not straight away la. What happen was, by mid day & right when we reached the big Tian’anmen Square, I had the urgency situation calling for the nearest public toilet. My two friends (he & she) are concern, “Can you tahan or not?” Heheh… “Can lor..” *grimaced*
So, the quest for WC started..
The first one was a public toilet right at the corner of the Square. What a relief!! But when we went in, the door to the stalls has no lock or whatsoever. My friend said, she can wait for me outside & jaga lor…but how could I do my business while she was waiting outside? Some more, it was a squatting ones – (I know, kat kampong pun squat jugak but bear in mind, I had on me a tight, then thermal followed by jeans – even panjat tangga pun dah cramped!)..
Next, we went out of the normal tourist routes & found this back alley…me with the big map said, “We’re on the right track to the Forbidden City” but she said, “How come there’s no tourists at all here?” “Er….never mind, we can find place to eat lunch what!”
While they’re checking out the restaurants which allowed me to bring my tapow lunch, I kept on looking for the next toilet. “Hah, there’s another one!” At this time, I’m not sure whether I’m still interested in ‘doing business’ or not but for the sake of peace of my mind..
Both of us went in… “Aiya….this is much worst!” Worst than before, no door at all & there’re just cubicles – with only partition walls at half of my height! Definitely cannot lor…
By this time, they already agreed on one of the restaurant – a small one so I had no hope at all to use their toilet. After they settled in with their lunch orders, me & she went on looking for the elusive WC…We came across another public toilet – my guess was it’s the same as before but she insisted on checking it out. “Aha..we found it!!” (I never feel so happy on finding a toilet before this). The stalls are normal with doors & locks & I came well prepared with my water bottle…& she left me in peace as I insisted.

BTW, all the public toilets that we came across in the city & even in Badaling (one of the Great Wall’s town) are really clean & free!

I wished I had remembered to snap some picture of the abovementioned WCs – as a prove you know! Alas…I had other things on my mind…

P/s: Remember during the flight, I sat next to this Chinese boy (thanks Li!) & took the opportunity to learn some important phrases like how do I ask for the rest room etc. He did tried to teach me the proper terms but my Malay tongue got twisted & he gave up & said, “Just say WC (water closet – peninggalan zaman colonial nih)!”

The promised pic will have to wait as I've misplace the cable somewhere between kampong, my plc, my sis's plc...

The academic & shopping experience will have to wait too..need to bloghop!