Mid Autumn Festival

Been busy still trying to settle the class schedule with the school. Finally it has been sort of settled. Today, went to Longtan Park to view the light up for the mid autumn festival. The musical fountain show was also very spectacular.

Capital University of Economics and Business

Today had lessons at the main campus (west campus) of the university. It took just 30min to get there from the east campus, shorter than I had expected.

Morning coffee

Today was the first day of school. Just had 2 hours of briefing about Chinese law and school procedures. Had to have our morning cup of coffee. There are about 70 Starbuck outlets in Beijing. These were bought from the ShinKong Place shopping mall near the school.

Xidan Bookshop

The titles at this absolutely vast bookshop (Běijīng's largest) are largely Chinese, but the basement is home to what might be the city's best selection of English-language titles. There are all the classics, Austen, Dickens, Hemingway, Twain et al, but there are also books on China that have slipped past the beady eye of the censor, as well as an expanding range of new fiction.

Subway

Subway lines are well-labelled in English. Announcements are also made in English.

Small but strong

Er guo tou "second distillation" (literally "head of the second pot") is a clear, potent spirit and takes six months to produce. 56% alcohol. This tiny bot is 10yuan.

Workers Stadium - 工人体育场

Workers Stadium (Gōngrén Tǐyùcháng) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Chaoyang District of north-eastern Beijing, China. It is mostly used for football (soccer) matches.

Under the bodhi tree

Had a chinese traditional massage today. It was painful at times but I felt very good after that. The Bodhi Therapeutric Retreat is comfortable and has a good ambience.

Summer Palace

Visited the Summer Palace today. It was a clear blue sunny sky so a good day to be out. With so many photos, it was hard to decide which one to post.

Here you see the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha. I didn't go up there as the ticket I had was limited to the palace grounds only. Will defintely visit this place again.
Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Carrefour, Beijing

Finally arrived here in Beijing this morning at 7am. Didn't sleep much on the plane. After getting to the apartment, i was off to Carrefour to get some groceries. It was just about 15 min to walk there. This is going to be one of the places (or maybe the place) that I'll be going often. It's always comforting to have familiar settings... (there are two Carrefour stores in Singapore)