"Traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller," says Ibn Battuta. I have travelled to many places; I have gone to Bali, Borobudur Temple, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand. Every trip brings unforgettable memories that I keep in my mind and in my heart. Though I have had several vacations that bring good memories, none of them compares to the trip I made to China because I was able to experience winter as well as taste authentic Chinese/Mongolian food and view some of the greatest and spectacular panoramic sights in the world.
The cold winter air welcomed my group including my mother, my father, my aunt, my uncle, my cousins Grace and Garry, my grandmother, and me, as we walked out of Beijing Capital International Airport after a six-hour plane ride from Singapore. While my father was negotiating with a couple of cab drivers, I looked around, trying to adjust myself to the strange environment and the cold weather. We stayed in Beijing for three days and two nights. On the first day of our stay, we visited the Tiananmen Square, a large city square that was named after Tiananmen Gate, a gate that separates the square from Forbidden City. The sun was shining; nevertheless, it was a struggle for the group since we were not used to the subtropic climate of the country. The heat from the sun was not warm enough for us, and we had to walked into several stores every ten minutes to warm ourselves. On Christmas Eve, we paid a visit to Beijing National Aquatics Center, where the 2008 Summer Olympics was held. The fact that the building's outer wall had the natural pattern of bubbles in soap lather that was lit up with a mix of icy blue and white colored lightings made it unusual from any other architecture I have seen in my life. The lighting changed into other colors after a few seconds; at a period of time, all seven colors of the rainbow lit up the building.