From the Tianjin Nanshi Food Street, we walked back to Dong Lai Shun Restaurant where we had our Tianjin Hotpot lunch earlier on, to use its Toilets, cos according to our tour guide Wang Jing, the Toilets in Nanshi Food Street are very dirty!!

Dong Lai Shun is but only a very short distance beside Nanshi Food Street.

Arriving at Dong Lai Shun Restaurant :

Heehee that’s me using the Toilet inside Dong Lai Shun Restaurant – photos taken by Wang Jing.

Low Toilets like these, where you can see the persons’ faces from outside, or where you can see others while inside the cubicle, are very commonly seen all over China.

In fact, these Toilets are very much better & really clean, cos some of them come with NO doors!! Or just drains without doors out in the open!!

Some are far far worst with faeces all over the floors & even the walls!!! YES believe me cos I’ve actually seen & used these incorrigible Toilets while travelling in the Silk Road, China!

Dong Lai Shun Famous Mutton Advertisements inside the Restuarant :

Dear standing at the Dong Lai Shun Restaurant’s main entrance on the 1st level – see the huge green “Dong Lai Shun” Chinese characters Ornament :

We’re now leaving Tianjin to travel back to Chengde passing through Beijing. Once seated inside our Chinese driver Sifu’s car, Wang Jing shared with us some very crunchy yummy nuts which she bought in Nanshi Food Street.

The following Slideshow contains photos I took of us leaving Nanshi Street, Tianjing, on our way back to Beijing :

It would take us about 2 hours drive back to Beijing from Tianjin. And while we were sleeping very soundly inside Sifu’s car, we were suddenly woken up by our car coming to a stop by the roadside of the Expressway. Sifu’s car has just broken down, which completely caught us all off guard!! Sifu’s car actually belonged to Wang Jing & his China travel agency Boss, & it was also a pretty new car, yet it’d just broken down haha!!

Sifu checking on the car engine, while our tour guide Wang Jing was assuring us all would be well & safe.  

Our tourmate Uncle helped look into the car engine too, to see if he could help in any way.

Sifu & Uncle decided that was nothing they could do to restart the car so Wang Jing called her head office in Beijing for help! Luckily we were very near to Beijing then – only about half an hour drive away.

In fact, Wang Jing was telling us how Lucky we were cos initially she had asked Sifu to take the shorter countryside road from Tianjin directly to Chengde. But cos Sifu was not fimiliar with the road (though Wang Jing knew the way), he decided to take the longer route by driving back to Chengde passing through Beijing instead!

According to Wang Jing, if we’d taken the countryside road & if our car were to break down there, we wouldn’t be able to get much help from car mechanics that easily & conveniently! It was cos we were so near Beijing (only half hour drive away), that help could be reached & arrive fast enough!

We were indeed very blessed! And thank god it was only 3 plus in the afternoon when the day was still bright when our car broke down!

So we were all just seated in the car waiting for help to arrive as soon as possible.

Out of boredom & fun, Dear & I decided to self-take some photos of ourselves seated in the back of the car :

The beauty me haha – see the Jade Necklace I’m wearing – it was bought at the Yaxiu Market in Beijing :

Dear making funny faces to amuse me :

Btw, I really like Dear’s “Xian Bing Ma Yong” T-shirt which he bought in Yaxiu Market, Beijing – Haha I’ve fallen in love with the Bing Ma Yongs ever since I visited the Museum of Qin Terra Cotta Warriors & Horses in Xian, Silk Road, 2 years back!!

As our car was parked by the roadside in the middle of the Expressway – vehicles & big Trucks kept passing by us from behind – pretty scary cos they were all driving really fast!

See the below orange plastic bag – that’s “Pretty” lying inside there – our newfound friend from Tianjin Nanshi Food Street!

Dear holding our lovely ”Pretty” :

Dear decided to bring out “YuYu” too – our Fortune Pixiu from Beijing where we just got to meet this morning!

Dear holding our precious “YuYu” :

About 40 mins later, our rescuers the car mechanics from Beijing finally arrived to check on our car.

In the meantime, Dear was playing with me again, & haha this time he was kissing me heehee!!!

Then Wang Jing, who had gone outside the car to the side grasses near the fenced off farm field, came back & gave me this wheatgrass which Dear was holding :

Close-up view of the wheatgrass :

View of the nearby farm field from inside the car :

Below photo shows Wang Jing by the side of the farm making a call for more help – we needed a new car replacement - a stronger car to bring us all to Chengde :

And Wang Jing came back & gave me a stalk of wild Pink flower which she picked from the grass patch – how sweet of her!

Beautiful flower with the beautiful me heehee!!

And Wang Jing even got the car mechanics from Beijing to bring us a huge pack of “Wang Wang” Biscuits!!

Dear enjoying the “Wang Wang” Biscuits :

Me holding & reading the Chinese Newspaper which Wang Jing gave me – haha think she knew I was pretty bored sitting in the car & so really tried entertaining me constantly heehee!!

Nice article & pictures on the Juyonguang Pass of the Great Wall of China in Beijing where we had visited 2 days ago – bringing back many beautiful memories!!

We waited & waited for more than 2 hours from the time the mechanics arrived – they were really helpful & good & tried all kinds of methods to revive our car, but still it was not fixed!! Then Dear was urgent & needed to use the Toilet!! But of course he had to do it the natural way! And Dear was ok with it, since he’d done it just this morning on our way to Tianjin.

It was getting dark after almost 3 hours when our car finally could start again (after a burnt wire was replaced), & so relived & very happily we drove on towards Beijing. But we weren’t that lucky cos after only a few minutes, our car slowed down & broke down again, & the mechanics who were driving infront of us, had to come look at our car engine & restart it again.

Our car soon got restarted & we moved on, but haha again only for a few minutes before the engine died again!! And again the mechanics had to get our car restarted, & this went on for the 3rd time! Then the engine completely died & could not be revived anymore cos the part where the wire was replaced completely burnt & there was smoke coming out of the car!!

Now, the mechanics finally decided to tow our car, which they should have done it more than 2 hours ago!!! Anyway, smoke was still inside & around our broken down car & it stinked, so both our tourmates Auntie & Uncle & Dear & myself decided to take cover inside the mechanics’ car instead, to tow our broken down car (where only Sifu & Wang Jing remained seated inside), all the way to Beijing.

Slideshow containing photos of what I’ve just described above :

And It was already dark by the time we were driving towards Beijing.

It was Dear & my very first time meeting with such an experience when travelling overseas - Thank god we were but only half an hour’s drive from Beijing!

But we still haven’t had our dinner, & we still had to travel to Chengde from Beijing after dinner – Good Luck to us ha!!