Day 8 - Leaving China

This marked the last day of our trip in Beijing, which sad to say, I fell asleep on the bus and did not manage to tour the cultural site, the Forbidden City. But nevertheless, I was glad that I had been to these places before so I did not miss out much. Still, it was a very embarrassing moment when I realized that I fell asleep during the time when everyone was touring the site.

A little background of the Forbidden City:
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it serves as the home of the emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.

It was built in 1406 to 1420, consisting of 980 buildings. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

 

  

When we reached the airport and only after we alighted the bus did I realize that I left my phone on the bus. For me, it was a very common thing since I kept losing my things. Actually, the moment I realized I left it on the bus, I already gave up hope of retrieving it. After all, we were reminded again and again to check our belongings before we left the bus, so it was my fault for leaving it behind. But, both the tour guide and the bus driver were very nice and the bus driver even made the effort to turn back to return the phone. I was really really really very thankful for their kind gestures.

And when we touched down in Singapore, I dropped my passport. I was very thankful to Ms Karen Quah for informing me that they found my passport so that I could get it back the next day. So for the entire trip, I only misplaced my itouch and landyard which was considerably a major improvement as compared to what I would usually lose.