Beijing, China's capital, is the country's second largest urban city after Shanghai and its politi cal, cultural, and educational centre. It's also the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies and a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway, and high-speed rail networks. After Akshay Kumar's Chandi Chowk to China (2009), a large portion of which was shot around the Forbidden City, actor Sonu Sood landed in Beijing last November for a threemonth schedule of Stanley Tong's next directorial, Kung-Fu Yoga, with Jackie Chan in the lead. Here's Sonu's impressions of the Chinese metropolis:

THE 'CHILL' PILL
We shot for the film between November and January in minus 10 degree Celsius. It was a challenge to do action sequences in sub-zero temperature. We would do warm-up exercises on stretching machines the makers had installed for us between takes. Shooting with Jackie and his stunt team was a lot of fun.

RETAIL THERAPY
I visited the historical Forbidden City which earlier had housed emperors and their households. Now, it is home to the Palace Museum besides Taoist and Buddhist temples surrounded by flee markets. They open only early in the morning and at night. Hebei Lake which is frozen for nearly four to five months of the year is another tourist attraction. One can even drive cars on its frosted surface. We shot a sequence with Jackie there. I went back to Beijing again in April to picturise a song choreographed by Farah Khan. Since both of us love shopping, we indulged in some retail therapy, enthusiastically hitting both the malls and the local shops. We would tease each other saying we had contributed hugely to China's GDP with all the shopping we did. I like home décor stuff and ended up buying a lot of fridge magnets, among other things.


Climbing the Great Wall Of China, one of the seven wonders of the world, was also memorable. Five minutes into my visit, I began to wonder how the Chinese soldiers stationed there handled the cold for extended periods.



This June, I was in Shanghai for a film festival. I visited the Jackie Chan Film Museum there. It has statues and mementos from his films, including the cars and bikes he has used.


FOOD FRIGHT
The most difficult part of my stay there was the food since I am a vegetarian and the Chinese are mostly carnivores. Another problem is that the Chinese hardly use any salt in their food; the cooking style is very different from ours so the first schedule was tough but I got used to it after a while. I survived on omelettes, rice, salad and tofu. Tofu is really healthy and was served in large quantities. Jackie would force-feed everyone tofu as he believes it's very healthy. He'd also cook for us. He must have rustled up at least 40 dinners for me. His tofu salad is to die for. Our director Stanley Tong is another fantastic cook and even Farah will vouch for that.

I did a 40-hour course in Mandarin before the shoot but the language barrier reared its head many times, especially when we went to local restaurants. I'd click pictures of rotis and omlettes to explain what we wanted to order. It was hilarious! We didn't party much but the entire unit would get together every weekend. And everyone, from the actors to light men and drivers, would eat together.

DABANGG MOMENT
Bollywood isn't too big in China but we worked with a few Indians who were huge fans of Hindi movies and wanted to know every detail about us. A handful of the locals recognised me and came up requesting for some pictures. They'd seen Dabangg and Entertainment. During this trip I realised China and India have a lot in common in terms of lifestyle and work culture so I didn't really miss home.

PARTING SHOT
Jackie gifted me a leather jacket, producer, Barbie, gave me a custom-designed traditional Chinese dress. Jackie also taught me Arnis, a Filipino martial art form.