Beijing....

Hello all,

So I got back from my "business trip" to Beijing last night, around 10. One of the boss at HPA decided to take Josh and I on his business trip to Beijing...it was a very last minute thing but everything is paid for so I can't complaint....much. lol. He called Josh up at 9 on Saturday, while we all were having dinner, to get our passport number and then we left for Beijing at 7:50 on Sunday morning. Got to Beijing around 10, get in our hotel, I got my own room...how fancy right? We then have lunch...delicious sushi, then he sent us off to see the Great Wall of China while he do some business. He paid a taxi driver to drove us to the Great Wall, wait for us for 2 hours or so and then took us back.

Josh and I are quite stoke about the Great Wall of China...and let me tell you, it's quite amazing. I'll need to upload some pictures of it soon. I really photo document this climb up to the highest point of the wall...and it was a bitch to climb. Really steep, and really high. And the steps are uneven, some low, some high, and people were everywhere at the begining. But as soon as you make it up top, people starts to slowly disappear because most of them can't make it that high. The view was amazing, I took lots of pictures, I can't even describe how amazing it's. THe air is so clean and cool...as Beijing is cooler than Shanghai.

The walk down was quite dangerous as well because the steps are optically deceiving. It might looks like they're all the same, but they're not. And the steepness...really kills. But we got back to the taxi, satisfy with able to check off seeing the Great Wall of China off our list, and drove home. Beijing is like....Washington DC in a way. Really spread out. Whereas Shanghai is compact and crowded with people, Beijing is spread out, wide roads crowded with cars. Traffic in Beijing is horrendous....there are traffic jams everywhere on the high way. But on the way back, we also get to see the new Olympic Stadium...pretty sweet. Beijing has really interesting architecture...i don't know whether it's because all the buildings aren't crowded together like Shanghai makes them stand out...or not. Oh and Beijing has too many trees for my taste. It was too much trees and landscape and I hardly see large crowd of people like I use to in Shanghai. It's certainly a different feel than Shanghai....and I definitely prefer my crowded, hustle and bustle Shanghai over this lazy boring Beijing. hehehe...

Got back to our hotel rooms, went to sleep, woke up, call Josh to tell him that I'm getting dinner, ate some delicious sushi, wine and dine with the client to "built client relationship" which I can't go further into on this blog....

The next day, check out of the hotel, check in our bags at the front desk and Josh and I left for the Forbidden City...which is only 2 subway stops from us. Yeah...another thing about Beijing that I don't like...their subway system is not as good and nice as my Shanghai one.....Silly Beijing-ner.

Went to the forbidden city, saw the Tianamen Square and about a million Chinese and tourists there. The line to get inside the main complex of the Forbidden City was ridiculously long. Josh and I decided that we have no desire to ever stand in-line for 2 hours with a thousand Chinese just to go inside the main entrant of the Forbidden City with a million more Chinese. So we took the route around the main complex and that turns out to be the most rewarding thing. There weren't alot of people, and nice classical Chinese parks, tons of intersting temples and altars...we took a lot of pictures. Then I saw this classical Chinese circular gate next to a bamboo forest....secluded from people and was asking Josh to take a picture and he decided to make it into a modeling photo shoot instead and I....HAPPILY Oblige. He took about 100 photos of me posing in front of this gate doing...top model things. He commented that how he sets his shutter speed to 4 frames per second and I gave him a different facial expression for every single frame. I need to put this entire set somewhere for you guys to see...you would have been so proud of me in front of this Chinese gate. So I can check the " being gay inside the forbidden city" off of my list as well. Walk around some more, saw more cool housing complex and then it's time for us to head back to meet Henry.

We met up with Henry, went to see HPA office in Beijing, had lunch, then off to a client meeting. The client office was...SICK...as in ridiculously gorgeous. Built in the style of a chinese courtyard, the interior was amazing, the office has a boat for the office so people can take to the lake right behind it to get to the restaurant that the boss of the office own...down the lake.... and the meeting room was...better than any meeting room I have ever seen in the US. Leather chairs, leather couches, round table, projectors, plasma screens...it was obscenely deck out. Had a long meeting as people debate over stupid Feng-shui thing of the land, colums around the facade, and height of roofs...then off we get to the airport just in time to check in and have dinner.

During dinner, I look out as one gorgeous wonderbread was walking by and I swear that the guy I saw was Toby Maguire. He was wearing a nice suit and glasses...Think Toby Maguire from Spiderman...he was in his semi-peter parker glasses. He was beautiful...no one believes me that it's Toby Maguire...but I'm telling you...could happen.

Got back to Shanghai....miss this city so much, the crowds, the dirt, and hot air.... and yeah, that's my trip. I'll upload some pictures soon as I need to resize them and put them up. Hold on tights guys. Yep, Beijing was great...but I don't know if I have the desire to do that ever again. Beijing was cool once, and the great wall is amazing, but like walking across the Golden Gate bridge.....once is enough. NOw I need to figure my visa out because I really want to go to Hong Kong....