Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen excursion

I guess you can't come to Beijing and not go to Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square right? People will laugh at you for not visiting such places la! So we had an excursion to these 2 places yesterday. I've seen many postcard photos of the Temple of Heaven so I was quite excited about going there to take similar photos, especially since there were clear blue skies yesterday! :) But hor...my photos aren't exactly that of postcard quality leh. LOL :P Can you see the Temple of Heaven in the distance?? :)

And presenting to you...my companions for the day!
On a side note, can I just say I'm living with 2 crazy girls?! hahaha :P

天坛公园(Tian Tan Park) is a very interesting place. Many locals don't seem to mind paying the 10RMB admission fee just to go in and chill and spend their weekend dancing, playing chess, playing tennis (improvised version), playing chapteh, flying kites etc etc etc.

I must say this is a very interesting photo! hahaha. They are dancing, in case you are wondering :P
We were distracted by many things along the way, but of course, we eventually reached the main destination: Temple of Heaven!
And this is what winter in the park looks like...
Then we took a very squeezy bus - it's really the kind you got no place to hold, but just lean on whoever is in front, behind you, or to your left and right! Being in a crowded bus is no joke here okay. LOL. Good thing I start work at 10, so I don't have to squeeze with the peak period crowds all day, cos if not, I'll surely be a very grumpy layming. hahaha :P

And tah-dah! The famous Tiananmen Square!
We actually wanted to stay and watch the flag lowering ceremony, but we were 1 hour early and the wind was so freaking strong that it was VERY COLD so we left and went to eat xiao long baos! hahaha. YUM! Anyway, the cold is the kind that bites into your skin okay! brrrrr.

The original plan was to go sing karaoke, but somehow it wasn't as cheap as we thought, and other friends made it out to be, so we gave up on that plan and the group ended up at our place. Doing what? DRINKING TSINGDAO! hahaha *faints* I tell you, the Tsingdao here is really cheaper than water. A few days ago, we bought one bottle at RMB$4.20, but you know what? Last night, we found this place opposite our apartment that sells one bottle for -gasp- RMB$2.50 only! OMG. That's like only 60cents in SGD can?! hahaha. So we had a little drinking session - the alcohol content in Tsingdao very low only la - and talked a bit. LOL. I must say it's pretty good to pass time like that once in a while. hahaha.

Anyway, if you want to see more photos, they are here and here. I very lazy to edit the photos la, so if some of the colours or exposure not correct, paiseh k? haha :P Alrighty, the time now is 8.20pm, and I really got to go think of what I want to do for work! I'm supposed to come up with ideas of what I want to work on for the next 5 months! bleah.