Life between trips

Planned itinerary from Shanghai to Beijing in 2019.  Here's a day by day for reference. Click on link for more details on the place of interest or the food.  Day 1: 17 DO:  Flight from Singapore to Shanghai. Arrival at 6 pm EAT:   Dinner at 蟹黄鱼面:  STAY:  Shanghai: Mercure Shanghai Yu Garden The rooms here are very modern rooms and new. Even the plugs come with usb ports for convenience. I love the mirror particularly as its a touch screen which you can turn on the light on the mirror and can set it to mist free.  But hard to get cabs to come here as the front of the hotel is actually a bicycle lane where no cars can come. Had a few instances where the cabs we ordered couldn't come in and they finally decide to cancel our car request.  Distance from mrt is also about 15 mins walk. Not ideal but will still come again as furnishing is very new and clean.  Day 2: 18 DO:  城隍庙， Shanghai Bund Daytime EAT:   Breakfa...

There are a couple of Hutongs in Beijing with Qianyuan Ensi being one of them and also Luogu Lane being another. As majority of these are still residences you can only get a glimpse of the main entrances will walking down the streets.  After walking through the streets i head to Nanluogu Alley where the shops and cafes are to browse for souvenirs. 

One of the four temples built during Ming dynasty. The four temples are Temple of Sun, Temple of Earth, Temple of Moon and finally Temple of Heaven. The most significant will be the Temple of Heaven. The layout shows that the area is made up of inner wall and out wall. The inner part housing the complexes. While the outer wall is made up of the music administration.  The Temple grounds cover 2.73 km 2  (1.05 sq mi) of parkland and comprises three main groups of constructions, all built according to strict philosophical requirements: The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) The Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇) The  Circular Mound Altar  (圜丘坛) The most magnificent is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests built on 3 levels of marble stone base. Its the Hall where the Emperor will pray during the year for good harvests in the Ming and Qing dynasty.  The Imperial Vault of Heaven is  single-gabled circular building, built on a single...

One of the plans is to visit the Ming tombs and due to accessibility issues, the plan is to engage a driver to bring us to the locations. We found a travel shop at the bus interchange, and requested for quote of pricing. After much negotiation, we agreed and fixed the day for pick up.  First stop for the day is the Ming tombs, which are the burial site for 13 emperors of Ming dynasty. Chang Ling, the tomb of emperor Yongle is the biggest and earliest in the area. Most of the unearthed relics on display in the Hall of eminent favour which is the largest wooden architecture in China.  The tomb we visited is Ding Ling the joint tomb for the 13th Ming emperor Zhu Yijin and his two empress. It is the 1st ancient emperor tomb to be excavated. The mausoleum is the only one that is excavated.  We are told that these gold ingots bestowed to officers cannot be used as it is an honor of gift from the emperor. You can see them but you cannot use them. 😓 The emperor crown mad...