We arrived at the Movie City of Beijing City Workers’ Club for our 7.30 pm Arobatic Show. Arobatics is one of China’s most popular Art forms & Chinese Arobats are among the world’s most accomplished.

Chinese Arobatics is said to have started during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) 2000 years ago, though some claimed it’s 4000 years old, on the basis of the mythical Yellow Emperor Huangdi having started a martial form of Acrobatics at a Victory celebration in Wuqiao some 300 km South of Beijing. It’s interesting to know that almost every adult in Wuqiao knows some Acrobatic tricks today.

Since 1987, Wuqiao has held the Wuqiao International Acrobatics Festival which is an event for the International Acrobatic Fraternity. The Acrobatics became refined during the Han Dynasty (221 BC - 220 AD) when Juggling, Fire Eating, Knife Swallowing & Tight Rope Walking were regular features. The Han Dynasty scholar & scientist, Zhang Heng (AD 78-139), has been much quoted by Chinese Acrobatic enthusiasts as having mentioned the various forms of Acrobatics in his “Ode to the Western Capital & to the Eastern Capital”.

In China, Acrobatics was traditionally not performed in theatres cos Acrobats (along with actors & actresses) were looked down upon, & viewed as being of the same social status as prostitutes. This all changed after 1949 as Mao ZeDong was a great fan of Acrobatics.

Nowadays, more than 10000 people are involved in the Acrobatics industry. Children begin their training as young as 4 to 5 years old, spending the 1st 2 years learning the basic skills such as Dancing & Tumbling, before moving on to Specialised roles. Most Acrobats practise Qi Gong, the Chinese breathing & Mental Art which helps focus attention, & help the body & mind to work in harmony.

In Beijing, China Acrobatics has since become the most popular evening entertainments for tourists.

Inside the Movie City now!

Dear standing inside the Movie theatre :

We soon got seated in the upper row. The 1st 14 rows on the ground floor are VIP seats - however, we were allocated the upper balcony seats by our tour guide but it was alright cos we felt we could have a better broader view of the whole stage below.

The Arobatic Show commenced with the ”Long Xing Tian Xia” performance.

Beautiful elegant grand entrance of the performers in eleborate Chinese traditional costumes :

Then came a group of Acrobats performing somersaults & jumping over one another; with an act of one jumping over 4 people lying in a row on the stage!!

And they even formed high towers on top of one another & spining around in a circle! Really awesome!!

Next was the Contortionists performing great stunts of body bending & flexing, which made me watch in disbelief!!

Then there was the “Lion Dance Act” by Acrobats dressed in lion costumes rolling & jumping like lions & performing stunts :

The following is a Video I took of the Lion Dancers ending their glorious Act :

We next watched the following Acrobats juggling & throwing & spinning hats & landing them on their heads, & throwing hats onto one another’s heads etc.

My favourite has got to be the below 9 female Acrobats doing tricks with Chinese Yoyos, spining & throwing them high up in the air, doing flips & then catching the Yoyos with their strings without letting them hit the ground.

And at times while watching them, I would hold my breadth & prayed that they would not drop their Yoyos!

I could still remember I used to like playing with the Yoyos when I was very very young & though I never knew how to play it well, I pretended that I was very good in it by spinning very hard the 1st throw etc……& often I only ended up laughing at myself!!!

Below is the Video showing the interesting “Yoyo Act” :

Dear’s favourite is the below Magic Face Changing performance. Dear has always loved magic tricks since young, be they by the Chinese or David Coperfield or Criss Angel - he loved them all!!

However, I regretted that the following short Video turned out rather blur due to my over-excitment!! Anyway, it shows a very swift changed color of the Acrobatic Magician’s face & it was during this time that we wished we had been seated in the ground floor area!

The next performance started with 3 ladies entering the Stage carrying umbrellas, then followed by one of them climbing up a rope extended from the ceiling. She then wrapped her hands & legs around the rope & flew in the air - & with the music that was played during the performance, it was beautiful!  

I’ve also taken a Video of the gracious “Rope Flying Act” :

The following is the exciting “Plates Spinning” performance by 10 female Acrobats. Supported on long poles, they spinned & swirled the Plates non-stop while performing stunts like balancing on top of one’s head & turing around. It was truely amazing!

My last Video of our Acrobatic Show in Beijing - the “Plates Spinning Act” :

Next was something new cos the 2 male Acrobats were half naked while performing the “Hand Balancing Act”. Both the Chinese men were very strong & muscular that they could balance themselves on each other with their hands or legs, & support each other in gravity & strength defying tricks! They really made me watch in awe!!

Then it was the Acrobats performing the act of gymnastic tumbling & jumping through stacked Hoops behind which stood the props of a Chinese Empire on Stage - it was really cool watching them!

The last performance was the “Bicycle Act”, where the female Acrobats did daring stunts with their bicycles & at times they would all end up balancing themselves on top of one another on just one bicycle!

Here’s the end of our Arobatic Show in Beijing - the whole Chinese Acrobatic Troupe appeared on Stage bidding us thank you & farewell.

Good show & a Must-see if you’re visitig Beijing the next time!! You’ll love it too like we did!

After our Acrobatic Show, our tour guide Wang Jing brought us to a famous restuaurant frequented by the eldest son of Deng Xiaoping (late leader of Communist Party of China - CCP), Deng Pufang & his family.

At the Restaurant’s entrance was a big poster of Deng Pufang being served its famous “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi” by the Restaurant’s lady owner during a Beijing Courmet Show.

“Gou Bu Li Bao Zi” literally means “Stuffed Bun that Dogs are not interested in” - the name originating from a Boy’s nickname. Many years ago, a Chinese Family found an abandoned child in a garbage dump & adopted him. Alluding to his good fortune in not being eaten by Dogs, the Family nicknamed the child “Gou Zi” (meaning “Doggy”). The child grew up to become an accomplished chef whose dumplings were very popular. His business became exceptionally good that his customers had difficulty getting his attention. People began to refer to him as “Gou Bu Li” (meaning “Doggy ignores us”), & as time passed by, the bun became widely known as “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi”.

Entering the famous Restaurant now.

Wang Jing pouring tea for us .

Our 1st dish was the following stir-fry Zucchini with Chicken.

Next was the simple stir-fry Vegetables in oil (”You Cai” in Chinese).

The following was the stir-fry sliced Pork with Onions.

Soon after, a young lovely waitress in light pink colored cheongsam came in & served us the Restaurant’s signature dish - the famous “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi”, consisting of buns topped with lots of sesame seeds, & an extra plate of stir-fried minced Pork.  

The waitress slicing open the buns & stuffing them with the minced Pork.

Now the “Gou Bu Li Bao Zi” are ready for us. It was really delicious - the sesame buns were slightly crusty & they tasted very well with the stuffed pork! Dear & I really liked them alot, & now I really miss them - wish I can bite into them right now - I’m so hungry!!

We next had the fried Pork wrapped in dried bean curd skins (like our Wu Siang/Hor Hiang but more flattened) which was really yummy!

Then we had the following deep-fried bread crusted Fish Fillets which tasted a bit fishy at times, but cos it was very crispy & well done, it was pretty good overall.

We also had the usual Chinese Egg Soup which we did not really enjoy cos most of them were pretty tastless, which made me wonder why the Beijing Chinese always cook their food real salty & oily but when it comes to their Egg Soup, it’s usually plain, dull & tastless!

We liked the dried bean curd skin wrapped fried Pork (Wu Siang/Hor Hiang) very much that we asked Wang Jing for a 2nd helping, & this time it was presented very nicely with greens & flower :

Our dinner ended with sliced Oranges for dessert.

We went back to Ai Hua Hotel after dinner, & it was at that time that I received news from my Sister back home (in Singapore) about the Sichuan Earthquake, & that she was worried that we in Beijing might be harmed too. We immediately turned on the TV to watch the local News & then realised what had happened, it was so sad……..I quickly replied my Sister that we were alright in Beijing.

We bathed & had some rest & came out again for supper about 2 hours later. Below is a photo of the wide road which we had to cross (from Ai Hua Hotel) to the opposite side to the Restaurant.

And of course we were back to the same Chengdu Mei Shi Cheng Restaurant (Chengdu Beautiful Cuisines City) cos we wanted to try their other dishes. And cos Ai Hua Hotel was located pretty far from most Beijing’s shops & they were also usually closed very early between 8 to 9pm. Luckily most Eateries in Beijing closed late between 10 to 11pm, with some even opened 24 hours. So practically there was no night shopping for us except to eat, eat & eat!! And being so close to Chengdu Mei Shi Cheng Restaurant which happened to be open 24 hours daily, & it also served good food, we would only think of it as our favourite night haunt in Beijing then!

Seated inside Chengdu Mei Shi Cheng Restaurant, we ordered the Hotpot Stir-fried Rabbit. YES!! Rabbit meat - ever since last night when I heard from our tour guide Wang Jing that this Restaurant served Rabbit meat, I was really tempted to try. But Dear was not keen cos he was not as daring as me in food choices. However, we still went ahead to order the Rabbit dish cos I wanted to.

Below Menu shows the Hotpot Stir-fried Rabbit Dish (”Gan Gou Yie Du” in Chinese meaning “Hotpot Wild Rabbit” costing 24 Yuans) which we ordered. I actually asked Wang Jing the next day if the Rabbits the Restaurant served were really the Wild Rabbits, but she said NO - they were the usual Rabbits we rear at home - my goodness!!

There was another Hotpot Rabbit Dish (”Feng Wei Nong Jia Du” or “Special Farmhouse Rabit”) from the below Menu (top left corner), but we ordered the above stir-fried one instead of this soupy one.

Upon our Waitress’s recommendation, we ordered the following “Mao Xue Wang” (translated as ”Hair Blood Prosperity”) - OOPS it sounded SCARY ha - strange name in Chinese but it was basically another pupular Hotpot Dish! Let’s just wait to see what it actually contained!

We had initially wanted to try another Hotpot Soup (from below Menu) but decided to order the Hot & Sour Soup instead.

We also ordered “Dan Dan Mien” (or Dan Dan Noodles), recommended by our young friendly Chinese waitress.

“Dan Dan Mien” is a classical dish of Sichuan (Chengdu being its Capital). “Dan Dan Mein” is named after the Bamboo shoulder pole that was used by street vendors to carry their goods on their shoulders. Legend says that “Dan Dan Mein” was invented around 1841 by a street vendor called Chen Baobao at Zigong, Sichuan Province. Chen would carry all his ingredients & a charcoal stove around his shoulders with a Bamboo pole (”Dan”) & cooked his “Dan Dan Mein” fresh on the spot & served his delicious dish from street to street.

Lastly, we ordered our drinks as recommended by our waitress too.

While waiting for our food to be served & as a lover of photography, I asked Dear to take some photos of me ”Promoting” the Chengdu Cuisines :

Hehe…….you must be wondering what I was wearing ha? It was actually my sleeping wear - a two-piece bright red silk Chinese traditional pants suit which I bought in Kuala Lumpur Chinatown 2 years ago.

Our hotel being just opposite this Restaurant, & me being too lazy to change out of my comfortable pyjamas, I simply put on my jacket over them & walked to the Restaurant with Dear! And I had even removed my contact lens & was wearing spectacles here…………And haha, I did attract some stares from the local Chinese inside the Restaurant who must have wondered where on earth did I come from, what with my so bright red hair too, hahah??!! But they were really kind & did not stare too long or gave me funny or disgusted expressions hehe!!

Dear with “Tong Yi Xian Cheng Duo” drink which is some kind of organge juice - very nice & refreshing!

Dear likes the “Wang Lao Ji” herbal Tea - cooling & healthy choice!

The below photo shows the Chengdu Snacks-Bar counter at the entrance of the Restaurant.

Here comes our famous “Dan Dan Mein” - Wow it sure looked real SPICY which I love!! The “Dan Dan Mein” plain noodles came in spicy Chili Oil, with green Vegetables & topped with Peanuts, Sichuan peppers & minced Sichuan “Ya Cai” (preserved vegetables/pickles or “Suan Cai” meaning salty vegetables).

Dear with the bowl of “Dan Dan Mein” - he was kinda scared to try it cos he said it looked so SPICY haha!!

I liked the “Dan Dan Mein” very much - it was very tasty with the whole combination of ingredients & very special too cos it was my first time eating Soup Noodles with whole Peanuts in it. It was really appetizing & I couldn’t stop eating them!

Our Hotpot Stir-fried Rabbit Cuisine was up next :

Just look at the many many stocks of Green & Red Chilies over the Rabbit meat inside the Hotpot!! Yummy Yummy!!

Dear was hesitant about eating the Rabbit meat at first cos he was afraid it has a foul smell but guess what?! He actually fell in love with it upon his first bite! And strangely, instead it was I who stopped eating (or rather slowed down my biting) when I took my first bite on the meat cos I kept thinking of the cute little Rabbits & actually felt sorry for them! In fact, I could still remember my Family used to have several white & black Rabbits in our Kampong house during my childhood, & that I used to play with them cos they were so carefree & adorable!

Then you know what, I realised after a few days later, that I must have felt that way when eating the Rabbit meat cos my Mom was born in the Rabbit year, & I’m very very close to Mom - that must be why!

See the LONG bone sitting right infront inside the Hotpot - that was the huge Rabbit Drumstick bone from which Dear had just eaten its meat! He really liked Rabbit meat alot, & well, it actually tasted very good & a bit like Chicken, except that it’s slightly more tender & has got its own Rabbit taste which I can’t describe in words!

Our very huge bowl of Hot & Sour Soup - we got a shock at its large portion!! Luckily our waitress stopped us from ordering more dishes cos she was saying it would all be too much for just Dear & I.

The Hot & Sour Soup was steaming hot, & they came with ingredients like bean curds, Wood Ear (black fungus), Bamboo Shoots, Egg Whites etc.

Dear had his first taste of the Hot & Sour Soup - it wasn’t too good actually cos it has a slightly bitter flavour to it, which I found it strange cos as a lover of Hot & Sour Soup, I knew the taste to be slightly spicy & sour - very appealing but never bitter! May be if they added more vinegar it would be better ha I wondered then……

Our “Mao Xue Wang” (translated as “Hair Blood Prosperity”) Hotpot Cuisine filled with lots of Chilies too :

Very SPECIAL & UNIQUE Chengdu Cuisine with many different types of ingredients in it - big sliced Ham (”Huo Tui” in Chinese), Beef Tripes, pieces of Pig’s Blood, Pig Intestines, Long Bean Sprouts, sliced Eels, Pepper Seeds & lots of stocks of Chilies all cooked in a slightly Chili Oil Spicy soup!I I hope by now you’re not about to throw out or something cos I know some people hate the hearing & the sight of these Pig’s organs etc!

And BEWARE, cos some of you may be taken aback by some of the following photos of this Hotpot Dish!

In case you’ve never seen or known what are cooked Pig’s Blood - well, see the Dark Brownish Red colored rectangular pieces sitting to the left side of the Hotpot - they’re pieces of the Pig’s Blood. And for those who’ve never tasted them before, well, trust me they’re actually very nice, & I like them!! I recalled that my Mom used to tell me when I was young that Pig’s Blood is healthy & it’s good to eat some at times!

A good example of someone feeling disgusted upon the sight of cooked Pig’s Blood is Dear - Dear has never eaten Pig’s Blood before since young cos he dislikes such stuffs. He refused to eat them of course, when I told him they were delicious & that he would regret not eating! However, I managed to convince him to try a little & guess what again! He actually began to like them & started eating them non-stop like I did! A surprise to Dear himself too!! But like I said earlier, Trust Me & it won’t be wrong :))

Next are the Pig’s Intestines - if you again have never seen them or rather never wanted to go near them so never knew how they looked like when cooked - hehee now see the rather big chuck pieces of white stuffs on top of the Hotpot - these are the Pig’s Big Intestines. And believe me again, they were really cleaned very well with no foul smell & taste & cooked really Deliciously too!!

Dear has seen & eaten them stewed in our local Kway Chap though he’s never very keen on them, so I was the one eating most of the Hotpot Intestines here cos I love them!  

See the below huge long Bean Sprouts - these were really Fresh & Crunchy & Yummy like the ones we ate in Korea - very Nice!!

And also see the below white piece of Beef Stripe sitting infront of the Hotpot - it was so huge that we felt a little yucky when eating it - we prefered the smaller thinner pieces lying at the edge of the Hotpot!

And the following photo shows the one piece of Eel (in the  middle towards the left) sitting on top of our Hotpot dish - the Eel was very fresh & good too!

Feeling so FULL from eating so much of what we ordered, I “dropped” my chopsticks & spoon to take some photos of the Restaurant, taking a snapshot of the wall poster of the plate of “Shui Jiao” (Boiled Dumplings). We had initially wanted to order a plate too cos we remembered how tasty they were the last time we ate here (only last night) but luckily our Waitress stopped us or else it would be too much for just the 2 of us!

Below photo shows the left-over Chilies of our Hotpot Stir-fried Rabbit Dish :

Dear & I both liked the Rabbit meat but cos he really adored it - I let him finish up most of the pieces!

The left-overs of Pig’s Blood, Bean Sprouts, Pig’s Intestines, Beef Stripes & lots of Chilies, with the Soup. The steaming hot & spicy Soup was really delicious Dear & I couldn’t stop attacking it throughout our meal - it was so so SHIOK!! And it was still hot towards the end!

We ate & ate & ate yet there was still so much of the food left! Though all the dishes were very YUMMY except for the Hot & Sour Soup which was slightly bitter for our taste, each & every portion of them were simply too much for us to take in, & they were also so Inexpensive!

In the end, we still could not manage to finish all the food - we simply gave up eating cos we were so so full! Look at below Dear’s “so full couldn’t take it anymore” expression!! Haha!!

Look at my red face!! Dear kept laughing at me cos it was so so red - well, my face tends to turn red whenever I am feeling too cold, or too hot like right now, due to the Marvelicious steaming hot Spicy soup!!

It was so funny cos Dear couldn’t stop laughing about how much we’d eaten & how good our meal was!! Really thanks to our good kind Waitress’s recommendations & advices about what best to order & not ordering too much extra too!!

Dear’s “too full too full” expression :

And his touching his big belly feeling so full so full :

It was really funny watching Dear laughing merrily being so satisfied with a wonderful sumptuous supper that I couldn’t help but took more snapshots of him :

His very cute adorable naughty expression upon my many shots :

Having enough fun we finally left our table in the Restaurant :

Hahah, what an ugly sight of our table where we just dined! See the many tissues lying everywhere - couldn’t help it cos we were only concentrating on our yummy deliciously good hot spicy food & soup & enjoying them & sweating from them that we didn’t bother to put the used tissues away nicely!!

Leaving the Restaurant now with a very jovious Dear. We were really thankful to have met our very nice friendly Waitress who was very patient in serving us when we were ordering. Besides us reminding her to cook our food with less oil & less salt, she also recognised us from our very 1st visit here last night with our tour guide Wang Jing, that we were not locals & preferred our food less oily & salty!

Always remember when you’re travelling in Beijing, if you’re also one who prefers less oily & salty food, to always inform the Beijing chefs to cook them with less oil & less salt, so that you could enjoy your food more & better like we just did here!

The Chengdu Snack-Bar sales at the entrance of the Restaurant. Though I’ve already seen & taken photos of this Snack-Bar last night, I couldn’t help but looked more closely again at the many interesting items on sales, as well as took more photos of them!

Chengdu Mei Shi Cheng Restaurant (Chengdu Beautiful Cuisines City) which I highly recommend cos it served fresh beautiful authentic tasty cuisines, besides it’s open 24 hours daily!! You MUST come try it should you be anywhere near it : 

We explored the area a little by walking further away from the Restaurant & along the same lane we were really surpised to find a small Hotel located beside the Cigarettes & Wine Store below :

There was another Cigarettes & Wine Store next to the Mei Shi Cheng Restaurant :

Dear inside the Cigarettes & Wine Store buying bottled mineral water :

Interesting bottled wines :

We bought a cup of Ice-cream before going off.

Beside the Cigarettes & Wine Store was a tiny Household Store :

Dear & I crossing the road now walking back to Ai Hua Hotel, the white building as shown below :

We’re now back in our Hotel Room, with our precious babies Smartie & Sparkie - they were both very happy to have Ice-Cream from Ma Ma & Pa Pa :

The “Xiang Nai Bei Xue Gao” (meaning “Fragrant Milk Cup Ice-Cream”) - Yam flavoured with chocolate chips - very very good!!

The Ice-cream was not too sweet, & very cooling & refreshing & the chocolate chips were big & yummy -  Smartie & Sparkie really liked & enjoyed it!

After the Ice-cream we had some of the Chestnuts which our tour guide Wang Jing bought us the morning before - they were still very fresh & tasted really good too!! Haha, now I think back, we could really eat ha - Dinner, then Supper, then Ice-cream & now even Chestnuts!! Unbelievable!!