Beijing Trip : Part I

Yes yes yes.. Another episode of China Trip.. This time it's Beijing baby. The capital city of China, a place where I found so packed (well, everywhere is packed when it comes to China). We went from Shanghai to Beijing via High Speed Railway a.k.a the fastest train on earth. Not a single second did I rest my eyes, I was too excited.. But enough of that, I wanna share with you all about the FEAST... It has always been about the feast.. ;p

The first eating spot we aim right after we just arrived : it's all about the PEKING DUCK

Quan Ju De : The one and only.. The most famous place to get your Peking Duck.. The restaurant itself was founded in 1864, under the reign of Qing Dynasty. They have been serving their delicious roasted Peking duck for the imperial families. The restaurant has been using the same recipe ever since.

This is the second floor of the restaurant. Almost like a small ballroom.. 

Our beautiful duck.. Yes, they cut each duck in front of you.. 238 yuan for each piece of duck. Expensive indeed. But the restaurant has been serving their delicious duck for the imperials. I think it's logical, in a way, that they charge you with such a high price

Skillful precision in every slice..

Surprisingly, it didn't produce much. There were only three plates like these from one whole duck.. At first I was too scared to be 'duck-overloaded'. 

Of course the beautiful, thin, crispy, super yummy duck skin.. *drool own self*

To wrap your duck.. In a way, it's like fajitas in Chinese version.. 

Beef Teriyaki

This is the rest of the bones with bits of duck meat that they cooked with salt and pepper style. Even though there's almost no meat, it's so delicious that I was biting every inch of the bones.. 

Trying to be healthy, it's just so wrong to have all meat and no veggies on the table..

The duck head.. And those three strands of duck meat were said to be the most delicious part of the duck. I was like 'they all taste pretty damn delicious to me'

Oh yeah, not going to forget about this. They all have a commemoration card certificate for each duck. I bet it's to honor how delicious they all are. 

Our tummies were so full all right.. My siblings didn't even have any rice to eat the duck with. I was too hungry that I ordered a bowl of rice and soon regretted it after walking out the door.. But for what it's worth, I was full.. I was happy.. I was definitely tummy-satisfied..

QuanJuDe
No.30, Qianmen Street, Beijing 
website : www.quanjude.com.cn

SECOND PLACE WE AIM.. tourist spots.. HUTONG

Yes, it's another ancient city like alley ways, which I super duper love. I went there at night time when all the lights were lighted up, it was just so pretty and romantic (in an oriental kind of way..lol). I just love how they can preserve something so old and incorporated so many modern touches to it. Not only the place was packed with tourist, the locals were many as well. It was the 'it' spot with so many bars, different types of restaurants, different cute little souvenir shops that sell mostly anything you didn't even think they would sell it in the first place. And I was completely in love with the place. I didn't even care about how packed the place was, I was too busy doing my 'oh look at this.. oh look at that' tourist tackiness. It's somehow very nice and comforting to know that the youngsters can still hang out in a place that's so old..
I didn't buy any food there.. I just wanna show you how unique and how cute the shops are..

Pretty lights, pretty everything

Pretty lights EVERYWHERE

Traditional Chinese paintings ready to be sold.. 

This shop allows you to write to yourself for the future. Inside the shop, there were A LOT of people sitting down, writing seriously. My brother and I was the only one laughing all the way to the shop.. We were not even sure why we were laughing

I love how traditional they can get

They even have a wine shop.. 

THE NEXT DAY!

Breakfast at some random local fast food chain near UIBE because that's where our hotel was.. It tasted just fine and we just needed something to fill in our stomach before we venture on our journey.. Like any other fast food chain, they have breakfast set menus.. The one thing I will always love about China is how cheap the food can be and how big the portion can get.. Oh another thing I love about China, noodles.. NOODLES EVERYWHERE... Even for breakfast set menus.. The portion was quite big that we only ordered two dishes for the three of us and decided to share it together..

Wonton for breakfast

Noodle soup with veggies.. 

LUNCH!

Xue Jun : a small simple down to earth restaurant near UIBE, famous among the Indonesian students and yes, they serve delicious dishes.. Fell in love with it at first try. There's nothing special about the place really, but I can definitely see why the Indonesian students LOVE the food here. It's cheap, it's delicious and it serves you huge portions.. What can be so wrong about that? Another thing about this place, one of the staffs somehow miraculously looks like Nobita from Doraemon cartoon series. The Indonesian students in UIBE often call this restaurant Nobita's. And yes, I did see who they were all taking about and yes I have to admit, he looks like Nobita.. 

The menu

Japanese tofu with eggs in a hotplate (20 yuan). YUMMY! The picture says it all. I think I don't need to describe how it tasted like. You be my guest. Just picture the softness, still hot, saucy tofu melting in your mouth. Okay, I did describe it after all -____-"

Some PORK tender lovin. Slices of pork belly with green beans and little strands of lomie. It might not look huge in the picture, but believe me, it's huge! Only for 26 yuan. CHEAP MADNESS

Sweet and Sour Chicken (28yuan). I love how fragrant the green peppers are. It's just different from our peppers in Indonesia..

Okay, I think this is the end for the first Beijing Trip episode.. Stay tune for the next part. Caution alert : It will involve something crawling, stinging, not so pretty being.. ;p Till that time, I bit you all ado..