As april 12th dawns upon me, it is now clear that my time here is ending soon. The HR dept. officer even came to talk to me today, on leaving formalities like pay and confirmation of air tickets. NP's side was also sure to send me a mail regarding details of my departure and arrive flights and times (WHICH I believed I had filled up before .....) and regarding my final report. This will be a longer post, more because of pictures then of words :) Hope you enjoy them as I have enjoyed taking them :) ~ Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt ~

It always seems that for the last 2 fridays, Boss beats us to our game :P Everytime we get plans of our own, he asks us out for dinner before we get the chance to ask him out :P hahas. This friday was Hu Bei food at some place near our place. Claypot braised beef. Super yummy :P

I don't know what this is, but heck, it sure tastes good ! ....
...... and what's more, it has meat in it !!! :P
Weekends are more or less "standard" per say. Saturday would be out with boss on photog trips - and I dare say, my photography have improved under his "guidance". Anyways, places I had left to visit was The Forbiddon City and Tian An Men, as well as The Summer Palace. Saturday saw me at the Forbiddon City. And I must say, that after taking the D70 out for a spin for 2 days, both on saturday and sunday, I am sold to the idea that digital is the way to go. Sure, Ill still keep my Canon around for abit of film, prolly IR mostly, but when I get my DSLR, the F65 Nikon will more or less go at a very low price or get stashed into a cupboard somewhere :P The lenses ofcourse, I will keep for usage on the DSLR if it be a Nikon.

One of the most well known views of TAM Square...Tian An Men on a Saturday ! Beautiful day it was, and lucky for me too, cause it was my last weekend in Beijing. The previous week, I was there, but was windy as hell, and was late, so I scrapped the plan and went to the Bugis Junction of Beijing (Xi Dan) instead.Old replica of the teracotta horse ... hahas. Pirate until liddat :P Historic relics also can pirate and display in public hahas :P kidding

Haha 3RMB taiwan sausages. All over the place in Beijing, however, still can't beat the 1RMB ones I had in HuiZhou, but like what boss saes, the meat inside that one may be ... well you get the picture... this ones are filled with flour.... much to my dismay... did not have the crunchy rubbery outter layer and the inner meaty layer like standard xiang changs normally do.

Wu Yua Hua or may flower (so that is what I was told) Sakura?Lets just say that some rather unsavoury characters pilfered these "knobs" ..... have they no dignity... ruining their own culture like that...

I don't really know what these people were looking at, but its located on the second level of one of the towers in Tian An Men. From the words written on it, it says Country Scenery, so I guess thats what it is. And you got to pay to view... I ain't pay'n good money to view that !

This picture.... thanks to its location way beneath knee level and in a confined location .... took me a zillion shots to "perfect". With my FSLR, I would not even have bothered with this ....

Imagine being in this pic, only the lion is real, and the ball is your big head... :P
hmm.... I swear that I did not see the green guy before manz.... wierd :D

People still use this !! hahas. Seagull TLR with cable release. I got myself a Pearl River, and tested it a Chang Cheng, have yet to get the film washed though.

The picture the guy with the Seagull TLR was taking, or atleast something like that. At approximately 5+pm, when the sun is about to set, loads of photographers throng to this particular vantage point outside the Forbiddon City, to get a nice picture or two of this tower, when the lighting is nice.Hahas, if you thought the TLR was good ... This large format camera user takes position on the best camera seen on that day :P
AND this BEST thing about Saturdays ?? The food :P hahas. Steamboat was on the menu ........
..... and mini lobsters too :D at Gui Jie (ghost street)

Sundays are also fixed, morning is to church with boss, followed by outs by myself or with friends. This week, we went to Liu Li Chang (cultural street) as well as Hou Hai (bar street) and Bei Hai gardens (the emperors play ground)
Due to SOMEONE being late ... :P we had to attend overflow (which is outside, cause even the underground one was full liao ! Not bad lar got plasma TV summore hahas. We stood there for 1.5 hours though... no seats.
Lunch at Liu Li Chang... due to some cock up in the kitchen at the xiao chi restaurant in one of the back alleys, this is all we had for lunch... coupled with one bean paste bun each !
My main purpose ofcourse is photography :)
LiuLiChang - This place is basically, a narrow street flanked by shops selling small knick knacks on both sides. The Chinese just LOVE carving stuff up, be it jade, wood, stone or concrete ! And they did a pretty good job too.

Bei Hai Gardens - The emperors playground ! One guy occupy so much land ..... then leave the farmers to starve.....

Hou Hai Bar Street ! One of the Clarke Keyes of Beijing !
And Presenting Buckies !!!! Oriental Style :P

Tuesday after work ! Farewell dinner between friends :)
I have been constantly strained on what to give to 2 of the colleagues and friends which I can say I knew more or less better then the others as a leaving thanks (particularly JL). So I decided, why not give food ! hahas, so I treated them to dinner steamboat at "The Sunny Place" hahas, I myself have also been wanting to try that place out anyways.I saw TD riding his bike back home from the office on one occasion, and asked him if I could have a hand on it for awhile (have been sometime since I owned a bike ..... thanks to a certain contractor....). He was kind enuf to lend it to me for a whole evening the next day !!