China is massive. With my ability of not being to speak mandarin, I can never survive in a country with Mandarin as their mother tongue. Language would be the barrier that every traveller need to overcome. Yet, we, again, took such challenge to invade our mother land. Being a Chinese, I think I should visit at least once in my life. Heard a lot about China but never been, until this trip. In short, it’s simply beyond my expectation. Sometimes, it feels real good when you are able to push yourself beyond your limits, knowing not how far more you can go until you reach it. Doing the same thing I did for Indonesia’s trip last year, I caught the 5pm flight from Penang to KL. Love the moment I dropped thoroughly whatever I have in hand to my newly hired assistant and left with a slight worry but I know he can survive during my absence, thanks to my sis for helping him up too. So, yeah. Here we go!
Flew from Penang to KL, then KL to Tianjin the next morning at 8.30am. Yeah. I was seated with Jess and Aaron and was … urmmm … “asked” to Monopoly Deal with them *unwillingly* … every game would be their “birthdays” …
Finally, took a 7-day leave, away from work and everything else. Flight from KL to Tianjin took us about 5 hours and 50 minutes. Touched Tianjin at 2.30pm, that’s when the entire China exploration started.
[That's me, with our turkey-fied bags]
We kicked off the journey with bits of Tianjin, which was just a stop for us to get to Beijing.
We then took a shuttle bus from Tianjin Binhai International Airport to Tianjin Railway Station (天津火车站) which cost 10Yuan. I got really raring to ride on the smooth CRH China Railway High-speed, which is supposed to do 350 km/h from Tianjian to Southern Beijing. Believe me, the railway station does not look like a railway station, more like an airport!
A Chinese Tuk Tuk was spotted.
The zippy fast ride took approximately 30 minutes to reach Southern Beijing.
Love the chilly weather. Finally am able to stay away from humidity for a week. Don’t wanna be worried about anything else, just wanna have fun but I guess our definition of fun will probably have a slight different from yours.
Check out my first drink I had in China! Its in Chainiz! Okayy, just for fun 
Next in line, we waited for the awesome tube to Beijing South. We took the First Class Seat which cost us 69RMB. (The schedule and the pricing can be viewed here) The 2nd Class Seats will cost 59RMB, which I personally feel that there is not much different between the 1st and the 2nd Class Seats.
The insights of the train!
As soon as we touched Beijing after the half an hour ride, its all about running from one subway to another. We need to rush to hunt for the public transport to head to collect our train ticket to Datong tonight, at the same time, we couldn’t find the way out. Check this out. The routes on the board killed me, on the spot! I gave up entirely.
Challengin’ isn’t it?! What more topping up with Chinese characters on sign boards 
We took the subways across a few stations in order to get ourselves closer to the Beijing Railway Station (北京站 Běijīng Zhàn).
Instead of 8, the boys left for the train stations for the tickets whereas the rest, we headed to the nearest fast food restaurant, that would be KFC to rest our shoulders. Yea, we have been running around with our bags since we touched down. Ever wondered how pizzas in China is delivered?
Guess, everything in China had been labelled!
Its obvious that we were travellers, backpackers to be more specific at the same time, the locals are just too curios to know where we originated. We left most of them really eager and puzzled. Some guessed, Singapore, some tried Indonesia. Oh, well. They mentioned most of the countries that we have visited but not a single one mentioned Malaysia. There is one thing that we will not missed since we were in Beijing, and that would be, the Beijing duck (北京烤鸭 Bĕijīng kăoyā). Maybe it is somewhat over rated but I could tell, it tastes just like what we can get back here, or maybe better. Anyway, it is served with thin pancakes, plum sauce (甜面酱 tiánmiàn jiàng) and cucumbers, as far as I can remember. All you gotta do is dip the duck in the sauce and roll it up ala popiah with the skin and cucumber. Something different
As soon as we stepped out from the restaurant, the sun is gone and it was the rise of the moon.
No, there weren’t any werewolves in Beijing, just that the weather got chilly cold as the wind started blowing. Well again, this is something expected though. Next, we need to be at Beijing West Railway Station (北京西站 Běijīng Xīzhàn) as we will be departing at 11.45pm from Beijing to Datong. Its better to be there early. I am amused with the timing. The train is punctual, screw Malaysian time, we waited at the platform till the train arrives. One thing which I noticed, the Chinese culture, they even spit indoor, in the railway station! *traumatized*
Getting a lil excited though but sleeping in one, would be my second time. We got the hard sleeper one. Hence, there will not be any doors and will be shared by 6 strangers including ourselves.
I ended up in the same bunk as Jess, our first night together. 
Guess what, we will be sleeping through out the journey to Datong. That would be approximate 7 hours! That’s about it. Goodie nite and see you in Datong!
P/S: For more pictures, retrieve them here!
