Beijing - Day 5 (City Tour)

First stop of the day is the Beijing Zoo (北京動物園). Originally called the Ten Thousand Animal Garden, Beijing Zoo has a history of more than 100 years and now covers an area of 50,000 sq. m. The driver we got is quite helpful and chatty, so DIL asked him to be our taxi driver of the day for RMB400. Through the entrance gates, everyone went straight for the star attaction of the zoo - the giant panda bears. These big babies are slow and lazy and dirty and stinky. They pretty much lounge around all day doing nothing. Their carer came by and threw some WeetBix-looking bars into the dirty floor. The pandas got some each and went into their own private spots and started munching. Some finished early and started wrestling the other pandas for their bars. We checked out the halls featuring the other animals a bit, but that's pretty much it. Hopped on a train to see the sights, and ended up back at the zoo entrance.

Next stop is the China Central Television Tower. Covering an area of 15.4-hectare, the Central Television Tower is China's third highest tower with the height of 405 meters, and the tallest structure in Beijing. Aside from hosting broadcasting equipment for CCTV, it also has an observation deck and a rotating restaurant. The Tower is also famous for its annual race. Participants do two laps of the base, then climb 1484 steps up to the observation deck. On the lower level of the Tower is the Beijing Pacific Underwater World a.k.a. aquarium. Nothing special here, though it does have a seabed tunnel passage that you can walk through and a sea animals performance pool. After the sea lion show, we went up to the rotating restaurant for a quick buffet lunch. While the dining area rotates, the buffet section does not. It gets a bit confusing because by the time you went back for more food, you're looking at a totally different cuisine. So you either wait for the whole platform to rotate, or you can just walk to your food. Make sure you walk counter to the direction of rotation. If you walk too slowly, you might never reach your food.

After lunch, our friendly driver brought us to the Beijing Film Travel City in northern Beijing. Entrance fee costs RMB60. This studio has been the headquarters of China's film production since 1949. It became a tourist destination in 1998. According to our guide, more that 300 films and TV plays have been filmed here, including Dream in the Red Chambers (Hong Lou Meng), Luo Tou Xiang Zhi, Tea House, etc. Our guide brought us to a teahouse set where four people from the tour group were asked to act out a scene. We were told the background story and our lines, and the cameras started rolling. There's the restaurant owner, two patrons, and me as a bandit with a rifle. I'm supposed to go in and demand some revolutionary tax from the owner. The man begs for his life, while I threaten him with my rifle, and CUT! While our tour guide play back the film, I start thinking this could be a good career move for me. Interested parties could buy the two-minute clip for RMB40. No one did.

Then we were brought to a rickety sound studio where we were shown a silent film, and the sound engineer creating the sounds live, like footsteps, creaking doors, thunder, gunshots, etc. Again, a couple of volunteers were asked to add voice-overs to a short war film. The movie was played back to demonstrate to us how hard a voice actor's job is. Next stop is a multi-story building where we played laser tag. I've never played laser tag before, but I can tell this is not one of the good ones. The dummies are old, worn, and broken down. I hit some of the targets point-blank, but they still won't die. After a bit of running around in mock battle, we were led out to an old village with run-down shops and houses, representing old Beijing. There is where the outdoor shots were filmed. Again, one volunteer was selected to demonstrate how kung-fu master "fly". A young girl was strapped on a harness, hoisted up into the air using a pulley system, and she "flew" down flicking her sword here and there. Through a souvenir store where nobody bought nothing, we finally settled in an old Beijing cafe for some drinks. Our group ordered their special sour plum juice for an authentic feel. A mini-stage opened up and this magician provided some entertainment. I must say he's pretty good. The kids obviously loved it, and bought one of his magic kits.

Our final destination is the Xiushui Silk Market (a.k.a. Silk Street), a multi-level shopping paradise (or hell, depending on how you see it). If you only have enough time to shop at one place, this is the place to be. There's a floor for bags and luggage, another floor for clothes, another floor for electronic toys and gadgets, another for watches and jewelry, etc. Most, if not all of them, counterfeit. Prior to visiting this place, a friend told me that you should only pay 10% of the quoted price. I thought this to be extreme, so decided to bargain my own way. On hindsight, I should've followed his advice. There's lots of good stuff to be had, but every time we asked for the price or showed any kind of interest, the salesladies would pounce on us, and not let us go unless we agree on a price and make a purchase. At one point, one of the staff physically grabbed MIL's arm and wouldn't let go. MIL was startled and quickly ran away. DIL had to step in and do all the bargaining from then on. DIL got his DVDs, SIL bought some clothes, SIL bought a mobile phone-watch, the wife bought a bag, and I had my eye on the Wii.

Incidentally, the famous Quanjude Peking Roast Duck Restaurant (全聚德) is also here (first opened in 1864 during the Qin Dynasty). Our taxi driver told us that Quanjude used to be THE Peking duck place, but has since lowered its standards because of the huge demand. He suggested Ya Wang (Duck King or Emperor Duck), which is right along Jianguomenwai. If I remember correctly we ordered the yiya sanchi - which is a suite of three duck dishes: the traditional Peking duck wrapped in pancake, the stir-fried duck meat, and duck soup; plus a few more dishes.