Beijing 2024 - Flying from Penang to Singapore to Beijing

Welcome to a new country label on my blog - Travel - China! I'm excited! Cause China has granted free Visa for Malaysian to visit China in 2024, and I just had to go. To date, Malaysian has been granted another 5 years of free Visa, so I now have a 5 years plan to visit China! Doing at least one location each year. But to clear the air, 2024 wasn't the first time I visited China. I have been to China twice before, both times with my husband and family. But 2024 with my free visa, it was actually the first time I went to explore China based on my own agenda! So LFG! Lol. 

Trip started at Penang actually, hence the above Pulut Hitam dessert I had at the airport as we await our night flight to Beijing. Interesting thing we found out, it was actually cheaper to fly a transit flight from Penang to Beijing than it was to fly direct from Singapore to Beijing. And since I was already in Penang, the husband decided to join me to save some money, and so we took off from Penang. But our flight was late for almost more than an hour! And we had a connecting flight to catch in Singapore! Luckily, we were traveling via Singapore Airlines, so I am betting the journey would be as smooth as possible!

My free supper on the first leg of my flight. I knew I was going to be sitting the whole night, so I skipped dinner as I wanted to enjoy all my free food on the flight which I have already paid for! I didn't minded the Pulut Hitam cause for some reason, I really really love Pulut Hitam since I was a child. I love the chewy texture of the pulut, the colour, as well as the creamy coconut milk. Extra bonus points too if they included longan inside! But wait wait, we were writing about free pizza on flight! So yeah, one slice of pizza curtesy SQ!

Since our place was late taking off, we landed pretty late in Changi Airport too. There was a Sunflower display event on which I was hoping to catch, but guess what, no time! We had to hurry to our gates to clear security! What a rush! No time to even browse and shop! SQ why you like that!

We made it to catch our second leg of our flight from Singapore to Beijing China! And I was wondering what time they would serve food. I wanted to eat my dinner and sleep through the flight, ready for some China Chinese food!

With the efficiency of SQ, we got our food around 1 hour taking off? Anyway, glad I was hungry! I forgot what they served, but knowing me, I probably ate everything! And off to sleep I went. Excited!

The next morning I woke up to this! How cool! Now I know why the call China as 大路 . I didn't really know what to expect really. I haven't been to China for a long time, almost ten years!? And I've definitely never been to Beijing, the Capital of China before. 

It was quite a clear morning when we were approaching Beijing Airport. I could see the mountains in the horizon as the sun started to rise.

And the development of the city below, with it's huge infrastructure blending in together with the river was mesmerising. It was obviously a city view, but I was glad that there were still green patches around the city, and I hope that river water runs clean! I've heart so much horror stories about China. Heck my own husband didn't even want to accompany me on this trip! But I was dead set to come anyway. And even though I'm scared, I plan to come yearly too! Cause even though China and Chinese scares me, there is just so much to explore here, and I just love the food here! Plus it's quite friendly to my retired budget too.

So here starts my actual exploration of China! Right at the capital Beijing. I actually have two must-do list on my itinerary: (1) To touch the Great Wall of China - cause every Chinese people has this dream, and (2) to visit the Forbidden City - cause well, it's forbidden! So I must go visit it! Lol.