Hi everybody,

On 05 Jun 2011, at 10:10 PM, David J TAN (Gmail) wrote:
Hi everybody,

Thanks Payom, Vivian and Tony for sending me to airport. Thanks also Than & Prayut and Kelvin for making sure I get on the airplane. Very nice of all of you, much appreciated.

After a long flight and midnight dinner, arrived Beijing Terminal 3 in 6:30 am. The airport is new and huge.

After checking in hotel, freshened up and slept a while. Then off to Great Wall, this time my contact brought me to Mutianyu Great Wall. They have cable going up and also come down by 1.58 km Toboggan sled ride, which was quite an enjoyable experience snaking around forest for ten minutes. It's like roller coaster ride, but slower.

Then went to Red Snail Temple. A major temple in Beijing up in the mountain. It has 500 Lo Han statues in the forested area as one of the attractions.

From these two tourist sites, it again highlighted to me the intense competition in China. Even the major attractions have to think of new ways and experiences to attract tourists to their site.

On the way back, Mr Su who drove me around shared with me that the next three days is Beijing's centralized examination for college entry and how difficult it is to make it to the Universities in Beijing. What's more, from this year onwards, the student will only have one chance in their lifetime to take the exam. If they signed up and missed it for whatever reasons (like traffic jam) or did not do well. That's it! Some parents in Beijing are paying RMB 2,000/ two hours just to get the top teachers to tuition... wow!

This evening, tried out a vegetarian restaurant. Very good food, but the mushroom dish was HOT!!! Had to rush back to hotel to go to the toilet after that.

Tomorrow, I am off to Imperial Palace..... downtown.

Well.... may you enjoy the relax pace of studies at AIU while I experience the intense lifestyle of Beijing!

Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com