CHINA!

Ni Hao everyone!!! I just had the best time ever in China. I feel like I may be saying that about every country but this one for sure was stupendous. My first day was spend in Shanghai and then I flew to Beijing and began a 6 day tour. I was on a tour with about 60 other semester at sea students through a company called China Guide. We were in Beijing from the 17th to the 22nd. Then, I flew to Hong Kong. My trip overall was really awesome. The fact that our tour guide through Beijing was a total babe and I had a crush on him the whole time was just an added bonus!
Day one: Tuesday February 16th 2009
We arrived in China. It was pretty freaking cold. This was my only day in Shanghai so I took the day to explore. I went around with my friends Tolan and Sarah. Currently it is Chinese New Year. I had heard rumors that it is not what Americans think it is (dragons and festivities everywhere) but those rumors were fortunately not true. The first place we went was called old town and it was INSANE. Like there were people everywhere. It was basically just shops, food stands, weird statues, and other random stuff. In China it is NOT rude to push and shove. Consequently, there was a ton of pushing and shoving. I felt like I was at a concert trying to get to the front row.
After that we walked around, got a rickshaw ride to the wrong place, walked more, and then got some dinner. The food in China is definitely different from Japan. The portions were bigger, there was more sauce, and it was more meat and less fish. We ate dinner at a part of Shanghai called People’s Square. It was like a huge promenade. Like HUGE. There were lights everywhere and stores from Nike to Gucci. There were also a lot of candy stores so we ate a lot of candy. We hung out there the rest of the night and then called it quits around 11 and headed back to the ship.
This may seem like an ordinary day but it wasn’t. Let me tell you some things I noticed in China:
People look at me like I am alien. I don’t know whether it’s the freckles, the curly hair, or my bod but I have not been stared at so much in my LIFE
China is dirty. So dirty. People throw trash in the street when they are done with it, the let their kids pee on trees, there is a constant smell of poop.
Drivers are so wild. Like there is no such thing as an illegal u-turn. Pedestrians never ever have the right of way. I don’t know if there is a speed limit. And if you don’t move cars will hit you (& buses, bikers, and moped-ers)
The Chinese eat anything. ANYTHING.
China is super super cheap and bartering is out of hand. If you show the slightest interest in a product you will be bothered by a barterer and not left alone until you buy that product. Although, you usually get it for a disgustingly cheap price
OHHHHH AND THE BATHROOMS ARE UNUSUAL. Well, they are this way in numerous places but the toilets are in the ground so you have to squat and aim. I am a girl who has not done a squat in months and was never taught to aim.
Day two: Wednesday February 17 2010
I woke up, got breakfast, and headed to the airport to go to Beijing. My friends Greta, Sarah, and Chloe were all doing the same trip as me so we traveled together. The airport was nothing too exciting. It was pretty much the same as any airport in America except stuff was written in China and security wasn’t quite as strict. The flight went smoothly. It was about two hours long. Our plane was huge – there were about 8 seats across in each row. Even though it was only a two hour flight we still got a full meal. It consisted of a container of water, some water melon, chicken and rice, and some dried radish.
When we got to Beijing our tour guides were waiting for us with a Semester at Sea sign. Let me just say we lucked out with tour guides. Vincent (<333) and Linda were their names. They were both 25 and spoke pretty good English and were totally chill and fun. Vincent even went out with us at night. Anyways, from the airport we headed to the hotel. The hotel is nice. It is an old university building or something. It’s no Holiday Inn but I have no complaints about it. We took it easy for the rest of the night. The olympics were on in Chinese - I have never watched so much curling in my life. We got some dinner at a restaurant close by. It was an interesting experience because we ate in this huge banquet room but were the only ones there. I ordered soup and it came out in a huge mixing bowl. We also ordered fried rice which came out in like a wooden bucket. It was strange but that happened to be the trend when it came to dining in China. Afterwards, Sarah (my hotel roommate) and I read Chelsea Handler’s book about all of her one night stands. It is very funny – you should read it for sure.
Day Three: Thursday February 18th 2010
So I woke up and went to the best continental breakfast of my life. Or maybe I just thought it was good because it was the best breakfast I have had in a while. All I had was eggs, toast, watermelon, and baby oranges (the size of pong balls). There were also these Chinese puff balls filled with something yellow that were delicious.
Our first stop today was the Forbidden City. This used to be the emperor's house. Basically you entered into these doors and this palace was the size of a small town. It was a lot of open area but there was tons of history in it that we learned about. Next, we went to Tiananmen Square. I am embarrassed to say that I don’t know much about this other than there was a super long line of people in line to see Chairman Mao’s dead body. Weird.
Okay so after those two places we went to the silk market. Let me try to get this picture in our head. It was an indoor market. 6 floors. All fake everything. From fake northfaces to uggs to watches, phones, polos, jeans, makeup, jewelery, etc. EVERYTHING. I have never been so overwhelmed in my whole entire life. We only had an hour and a half so I felt some-what rushed. I walked and walked and walked trying to figure out what to buy. I left with some fake true religion jeans, a fake Ralph lauren polo, and a watch. Total money spent: around 27 american dollars. But really, it was crazy because the barterers are insane. All they know how to say is “Hey lady want some ___(insert whatever they were selling)?!”
THEN, WE HEADED TO THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! We went to the Simaiti part. We hiked for a little while to get a good position to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, the clouds hid the sunset so we didn’t see much but it was still such a nice view. (we come back to the Great Wall later today)
We left to get some dinner. Now, let me describe this meal to you in detail because a couple other of the meals we had (later on in the trip) were exactly like this one. 6 -8 of us sat around a table. In the middle of the table is a piece of circle glass that spins around. We each had our own small plate, small bowl, and chopsticks (no napkins anywhere in China). About five minutes after we sat down a plate of food was put on the glass that spins. Then every 2 or 3 minutes another dish came out. There was probably a total of 17 dishes by the end. The dishes were things like orange chicken, chicken with nuts, pork and egg, corn stuff, rice, soup, tofu something or other, and a couple veggie dishes. It was very overwhelming. We all are like stuffing our faces just to keep up with all the dishes. By the end we all feel like we have ten food babies inside of us. It was good but got old fast. There was also beer with every meal so that made some people even more full.
This is when the night gets intense. After dinner we headed to the Jingsaling part of the Great Wall. We were all bundled up because it about -15 degrees celsius. Give or Take. I was wearing underarmour, long sleeves, zip up hoodie, half zip sweatshirt, regular hoodie, northface, and rain jacket. On the bottom I had underarmour spandex, yoga pants, and fleece warm yoga pants. Then, two pairs of wool socks on. We started hiking up to our sleeping spot. Because, oh ifI didn’t mention – we were sleeping on the great wall for the night. As we began hiking my layers felt a little over bearing. About 750 steps upward later (no exaggeration) we got to the sleep spot. We could either sleep out on the wall (with no walls on it) or inside a temple that had no doors or windows. I chose the temple to help protect myself from the wind. The stars were AMAZING. Like picture the planetarium times a million. There was no smog blocking our view of the sky. I have never see the constellations so bright before. I felt like I could have unbuckled orion’s belt if I wanted to (because we were that close)…is that weird? Anyways, soon after that I got a sleeping back and mat (about 1 cm thick) and found my sleeping spot. I bundled myself in and fell asleep. About an hour later I woke up. FREEZING. I have never been so cold in my life. And, if you know me, I HATE being cold. But, I was on the Great Wall so I definitely wasn’t going to complain. I woke up at least 25 more times by 7:30 the next morning for one of the following reasons:
I had to pee very badly but did not know how to go pee without a toilet (since there are no toilets on the great wall)
I was freezing and thought my toes had fallen off and were floating in my socks.
I could not breath because I had two scarves covering my mouth and my head was dug into my sleeping bag.
Despite all the bitching I just did, IT WAS WORTH IT. The next morning all my problems were solved because:
I peed on the Great Wall, literally.
We began hiking and I got warm very fast
I could breath very easily while hiking because the air was fresh and free of any stanks.
Day Four: Friday, February 19th 2010
Like I said, I woke up and became happy very fast. We had some breakfast on the Great wall – hot water (because I did not want any powdered coffee mixed in), apples, pastries, and cookies. Yum. Then, we began our hike. We did about 4 miles total today. But, do not act like that isn’t a big deal because on the Wall it is. Some of the stairs were so steep I had to use my hands and legs so I didn’t fall back. And, some of the ramps downward were so steep I had to hold onto the wall so I didn’t fall down. The hike was nothing but amazing. I loved every step I took. We took a while because we were allowed to go at our own pace and take pictures as we pleased.
At the end of our hike….we ZIP-LINED!! The funny thing about this is that there weren’t really any rules other than you had to wear a harness. But, I don’t actually know if that was even a rule, more of a strong suggestion. It was like 5 dollars to zip-line and you just took your bags with you. You did not need to sign any type of release form. If you wanted to go two at a time, you could. Greta and I went together and I video taped the whole things. Basically we zip-lined from the great wall across a small body of water to the other side of this water where the restaurant we were eating lunch was. IT WAS SWEET.
Afterwards we had lunch. It was the same exact meal at the dinner the night before. I wasn’t feelin it so I only had a little of each thing and then ate some chocolate later on. YUM.
One would think that after sleeping on the Great Wall and then hiking on it that the next step would be some form of rest. But, no. We don’t waste time. We headed right to the Olympic Village. Also, very sweet. We saw the Swim Cube, Birds Nest, and other arenas. It was very cool to see. We did not go inside but we walked around and saw where the Olympics had been in 2008. There isn’t much to say about some of this stuff other than wait til I post the pics. 
Then, we headed back to the hotel. We had the rest of the night off but had a big day ahead of us. Consequently, we got some dinner at a local hot spot and hit the sack around 9:30.
Day Five: Saturday February 20th 2010
Palace, festival, Palace, food, festival, shopping. That’s pretty much how it went today.
Today I woke up and got breakfast at the hotel again. YUM. Our first stop today was the Temple of Earth. Basically, it was a huge carnival of festivities, shopping, parades, and shows to celebrate Chinese New Year. We were able to go off on our own so we bought some fun stuff, walked around and watched. People-watching is pretty exciting in China. There is so much that people do differently. I would call them strange but I am sure they would call me strange also. (Once again, wait for the pics) I felt famous here. I had people taking pictures of me like they were paparazzi and I was a super star. But really, I was a white freckly girl with a goofy Chinese hat on (Greg- if you read this the hat I was wearing is a present for you, you’re welcome). People were lovin’ it.
Next, we went to the Summer Palace which is the Palace of the Dragon Lady. Then, we took a rickshaw ride around this little town called HuTong. We went into a local’s house and had some good food and made dumplings. It was great to see a traditional Chinese home.
Our last stop on the agenda was the Beijing Acrobat Show. OH MY GOODNESS I literally almost bought the dvd of the show afterwards just so all of you could see what I witnessed. It was insane. It was like amazing acrobatic moves mixed with the Chinese Culture (super strange). I do not know how to describe it at all. At one point there were two circles that looked like human hamster wheels that were attached. This contraption was suspended in the air and there was a guy in each wheel. The contraption spun around in circles like a carnival ride and the guys would do flips inside and then went on the outside and ran around the outside. This was the weirdest and craziest thing ever. That was just one of the many acts involved. Try You-Tubing ‘Beijing Acrobat Show’ and see if anything comes up. If it does – watch it.
That night was a wild one. We went to some bars to experience the night life. I went around with some of my guy friends and danced & and karaoked the night away!!! One thing that I noticed this night was that at the kareoke bars there were Chinese people singing songs in english. I asked Vincent if these people knew english and he said no, they only know the songs. They didnt even know the meaning of any of the weirds. I found that kinda interesting.
Day six: Sunday, February 21st 2010
Today was our last day on the tour. We went to the Temple of Heaven. It was really weird in here because it was more like a temple and then a public park. There were tons of festivities going on that were so random. For instance, there were a few ladies singing chinese opera, tons of people playing cards, and some old people playing chinese hacky-sack. When we got to this one open area there were like 100 older people just dancing around to different music playing on a loud speaker. Some were doing their own line dances, others just had their eyes closed and were moving freely. It looked totally strange but was super cool. I took videos that are real funny. Right beside the temple of heaven was an outdoor public gym. It was like a play ground for stretching and exercising. There were like elliptical looking things that had the leg parts swinging back and fourth. It was all so unique and interesting.
Later, we ate Hot Pot. Basically, what happens is they put this pot (that is super hot) in front of you and three other people that has boiling water in it. Then they bring out trays and trays of food that you cook in this hot pot. There was food from cabbage to meat to peanuts. It took a lot of work, especially for someone like me who sucks at chopsticks. but, it was very unique and fun to do. Apparently, its a really big thing to eat in winter time. Our guide said he has it three times a week with his friends.
The rest of the night was blur just because everyone was super sleepy and we all pretty much just packed and crashed really early. My flight to Hong Kong was the next morning.
HONG KONG
Day seven & Day eight: Monday & Tuesday February 22nd and 23rd
These were my two days in Hong Kong. I did not do anything too eventful since I was exhausted and since there was free wifi in the mall right next to our ship. But, Hong Kong was a really interesting place. It is a part of China but is not really like it at all. The way I would describe Hong Kong would be like a mix of Tokyo and New York City with a tropical touch. It is a set of islands so there is water and trees around. But, it is also a very trendy city with a mix of different people and a ton of high end shops.
The first day I used the Wifi, took a nap, and then got some dinner at a little local place. My friends and I walked around the city and saw the light show that goes on at the city sky line. Then, we checked out the markets. I am pretty marketed out after China but i know there are tons more to come in Vietnam! There was a crazy night life in Hong Kong with a whole street of cool bars. I didn’t participate since i was already running on empty and super sick from sleeping on the Great Wall in such cold weather so I took the subway back and called it quits (after skyping for hours). The next day we went to a famous Dim Sum place which was pretty ritzy but it was really good. Then, we took a cable car up to victoria’s peek. This is a mountain that overlooks the city. It was a really nice view.
That was all for Hong Kong!