Qian men

Lately always got home cooked dinner at home.. bliss~

Reach Tianjin airport close to evening. Had a dinner and rushed to Beijing in this high speed train that travels 320km/hour, faster than F1. It is very steady too. You can't feel the speed too from the inside. Once reach Beijing, took a cab and reach hotel quite late in the evening.

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Tomorrow morning, late morning despite my plans to go early morning, we took an MRT to 'Qian men' . There is an MRT station right in front of our Hotel. Nice arrangement! Announcements in MRT are dual language. It said 'Qian man' in English- so farnee.

From far, the Qian Men look like China town. But which town in Beijing is not China Town huh... (cold joke...). Anyway, up and close you will realize the buildings are not leftover from Qing Dynasty or Ming Dynasty. They are actually new buildings built to look like old buildings. Think only China will do that, to preserve the Chinese-ness of the place.

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Yup you can find Starbucks, Swatch even a big-ass 3 storey Uni Qlo there. Can't imagine our Kang Xi Emporer wearing Uni Qlo can you?

The China version of Orchard Road

Anyway the purpose of us coming here is not to admired the-cannot-even-see-the-end-of-the-street Qian Men. We are here for breakfast. The famous 16 tier dim sum.

Famous 16 wraps siew mai

Imagine a wanton wrap in 16 layers of wanton skin. Then imagine they only steam the wanton body and leave the wanton tail half cooked. That is about how it is prepared. Despite that, it is not hard like stone. It is actually quite tasty if you like pork. Succulent meat steamed hot outside a thin layer of skin. I dunno how they make the 16 layers on top. This is how Beijing people have their breakfast.

They might not look filling but they are filling thanks to all the flour I bet. Rain said the skin get thicker and thicker as you venture north and I don't mean the face lar. It's the dumpling skin. Reason - probably to keep the meat warm.

After nursing our bellies, it's time to move to the Forbidden Palace.