There's so much to write about my most recent trip! I'll probably have to break it up into separate posts. So let's just start with Beijing.
BEIJING IS AMAZING!!!! I loved every minute of being there! I wish we could have gone when it wasn't a national holiday here because there were so many people! But it was still fantastic. The holiday that just occurred was the mid-autumn festival. Basically the equivalent of the U.S. fall break. We stayed in a hostel called the Dragon King Hostel and it was such a great place to stay. It was really close to the subway station. They had a great cafe with delicious Western food that we ate at almost every night. The staff was incredibly helpful and they spoke pretty good English as well. :) I recommend it to anyone looking to stay in Beijing.
Day 1 -Sept. 30
Day one in Beijing. We step out of the airport and head on to the subway to get to our hostel. I'm no foreigner to subways so I know that you need to keep an eye on your belongings. Well I had my back to the wall and I was talking to my group. There was a guy next to me but I didn't think anything of it because my bag was up against the wall. We were about to get off and I looked behind me to make sure I had everything and I see this guys hand slowly creep back under his jacket. I looked at my bag and the zipper had been opened about 2 inches! My heart started pounding even though I know he didn't get anything but the fact that he was trying to, and would have had I not looked, that was terrifying. I would have been stuck with no money on the first day of the vacation! Scary! Welcome to Beijing!!!Aside from that the subway is the absolute best way to get anywhere. Unless you want to see more of the city, then you can walk but it takes longer, obviously. Our first day in Beijing we decided to go to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. Unfortunately the Subway wasn't letting people off at the Tiananmen stop so we decided to get off on the stop before it and then walk to Tiananmen Square and I am so glad we did! We ended up happening upon this awesome street called Wangfujing street. It was a street filled with tons of shopping and down one of the side streets was a ton of really great food and market shopping where you could bargain for trinkets and souvenirs. I'm really glad we found it!
Eventually we made it to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. Honestly the whole city kind of looks the same. But it was still really neat. There were "gardens" throughout the city that were for different purposes and they had pretty seating areas. I say "gardens" because when you think of a garden you think of flowers and bushes and things like that. No, these gardens are more like trees with a few lily ponds, but mostly sidewalks and pagodas to sit at. It's really pretty and intricate!
After Tiananmen we walked back to Wangfujing street and hung out there for a little while longer then finished our day at Silk Street (or Silk Market). It sounds like a place where you'd find a lot of silk right? Wrong! It's an indoor market full of all sorts of chinese trinkets. They have knock off Prada, Nike, Converse, Adidas, North Face. All sorts of stuff. Yes, I bought quite a bit! In the silk market it is expected that you will bargain for what you want. They'll start out at ridiculously high prices but when you say it's too much and start to walk away they ask you, "Ok, how much you want to pay?" Then you go back and forth and if they still won't give you the price you want you just walk away and more than likely they will come after you and give it to you for the price you are asking for. It's pretty intense sometimes! I actually didn't like the feeling of it at first because it just all felt so contentious and hostile. But once you get used to how to bargain it's better. Some of the people in my group were really good at it.
Day 2 - Oct. 1
We woke up early and headed out on a bus to the Great Wall!!!! Seriously one of the best days of my life! The wall is so cool! I cannot believe that people built the wall that huge and that long!! It amazes me! The day we went the weather was absolutely perfect. There was no pollution, the sky was clear, it wasn't too hot. It was overall just a fantastic day. We visited the part of the wall called Mutianyu. It was a good part of the wall to visit because it's a little less touristy, but also when we went it wasn't quite the holiday yet either. So that helped. At this part of the wall they had a toboggan you could ride down, like the Alpine slide. It was pretty fun, however I wasn't able to go as fast as I'd like because an Asian woman in front of me was going so slow! That was a bummer. But the lunch that we got after the wall made up for it! I know I complain a lot about Chinese food, but that's because the food I mostly eat is the terrible cafeteria food at our school all day every day. But this food was actually really really good! If that was the food I was eating everyday I would be totally fine with life. Sigh....
After the wall we went to the Silk Market again. So much shopping! haha
Day 3 - Oct. 2
This was the day that the holiday actually started for all of China, so when we went to the Summer Palace this day it was SOOO crowded!!! It was pretty terrible how crowded it was. Not only was it crowded but walking through the palace grounds you were only allowed to go one way so everyone was filtered in and out together. It was like walking through a herd of cattle. Very crowded. But the Palace itself was really pretty. So huge. All the architecture in China is so amazing. Though after a while, all the buildings start to blend together. You see one you've seen them all. Ok not quite but close. There was a place when you first walk into the palace grounds, it's called Suzhou street. It's a mini water city. There are shops all around the water and a little bit of a ledge that you can walk around on it. In the middle of all the shops is water and there are little boats that they would use to get around in.
The Palace grounds themselves are HUGE! We spent a couple hours there and we still didn't even see a majority of it. There is a medium sized lake in the back of the complex and around the lake were more places you could go see. We didn't get to that side of the lake though. We were pretty tired of the crowds by the time we finally left.
That night we went to an acrobatic show. Chinese acrobats are so crazy! There was a giant metal cage in the shape of a hamster ball and a guy on a motorcycle went inside the cage and rode around in it. Then another joined him, and another, and another, and another. I think by the end of it there were either 5 or 6 motorcycles in this cage all driving around, amazingly not running into each other! It was insane!
Day 4 - Oct. 3
This was our last day in Beijing before we headed to Shanghai. We went to the Temple of Heaven which isn't necessarily just one big temple, but rather a big park with a lot of neat buildings all around. It kind of felt like we were in central park a little bit. In the park there are so many people that just hang out there. There were individuals playing music, people dancing, people doing some sort of exercise, entire orchestras playing music, people singing in groups. It was such a relaxing atmosphere. Even though there were still quite a few people there it was way more spread out and enjoyable. It was so fun to see these Chinese people in their element doing their own thing. When we came across a group of people singing and dancing they started pulling people from the crowd to dance with them, so my friends and I went into the middle and danced with them. It was so much fun! I really enjoyed the Temple of Heaven.
After that we went to the Pearl Market. Again, sounds like a place full of pearls huh! Well it kinda is. It's an indoor market again with multiple floors. The first floor was full of t-shirts, scarves, makeup, beats, electronics, etc. One floor was all bags, another floor all shoes, another floor all jewelry. It was a great market! I actually liked the Pearl Market a lot better than the Silk Market. I was sad that we didn't spend as much time there as we did at the Silk Market. I liked the layout of the Pearl Market better and I feel like it was easier to bargain there.
After the market we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Shanghai. We got into Shanghai that night and spent the night on the airport benches and floor. That was an adventure I'd rather not repeat. We did it that way because we thought we were going to get in later and then it would have been hard to get to our hostel because the metro closes after a certain time. Turns out we could have made it on time to the metro and a hostel...but oh well. Hindsight 20/20.
Well that sums up my trip to Beijing! I absolutely loved Beijing! It was such a fun adventure and I am so grateful I was able to go! I will post separately about Shanghai! Though I do have to say it wasn't quite as fantastic as Beijing....Maybe that's just because it was towards the end of our trip and I was tired. But it was still amazing! :)
Till next time!
xoxo Enjoy The Ride!
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