CHINA!!!

*China, including Hong Kong, was very cloudy, foggy, smoggy, polluted, etc… whichever one is your favorite word to describe to constant gray sky we had tainting our views and photos while we were there. Because everything looked gray all of the time, when you saw things with color, they just looked that much more vibrant and beautiful because the grayness of everything else made them pop visually.*
So I left the ship in Hong Kong with a Semester at Sea group. We left on a trip to Beijing where we were able to meet and interact with students from Renmin University. The international flight from Hong Kong to Beijing was a pretty incredible flight compared to the Southwest ones I usually end up on. The plane was absolutely gigantic, we were served a full meal (it didn’t even taste too bad AND it came with free wine and soda), then Haagen Daz? ice cream for desert. It was pretty nice.
When we arrived, we checked into our hotel… not nearly as nice as the flight, to say the least. Actually, my friends and I made a funny video highlighting its downfalls… all of them. From the bus we took to the hotel, we were able to see the stadium and aquatic building for the 2008 Olympics. Beijing is really excited to be hosting them!
The first night in Beijing, we had dinner at Renmin University with several of the students. It was fun to interact and eat with them. They learned a lot from us and we learned a lot from them as well. Afterwards, a few of us went out for some karaoke with them. THAT was really fun and quite an experience. Culture at its best!
The next day, we went to the Ming Tombs. I took a lot of pictures there and it was a lot of walking around. China is not only gray, but also a lot colder than the other ports we have been to so far. I knew it would be chilly, but I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. Cold humidity doesn’t really help an already bad hair-do. I pretty much look like a bad-hair-day bum wearing the same sweatshirt in all of my gray pictured from China! Oh well… what can you do. After lunch, we went to The Great Wall and I hiked to the top (it was either the beginning or the end of it) from where we started (I don’t really know where we started, but it wasn’t at the other end!) Hiking The Great Wall of China was incredible. My legs are still soar. It was a little bit different from hiking Table Mountain, but much of the same effect… I felt really out of shape, it was a lot of stairs, I was out of breath 5 steps into it, and the finish line couldn’t come fast enough. However, once I finished, nothing could match the feeling. The view, although quite gray and cloudy, was still unbeatable. I met some interesting people, from all over the world and people from the U.S., at the top of the Great Wall and had a good time taking some fun pictures. (Maybe I was stalling because I knew the only way down was the same we I got up… more stairs.) After about 30 minutes at the top of The Great Wall, I started heading down. When I got tired of the stairs, I started sliding down the railing. It was pretty fun, but I got the biggest wedgie ever. Don’t worry, my friends got it on video. (Not the wedgie, but the sliding.)
After the Great Wall, we went to a nice restaurant for a traditional Peking Duck dinner. I’ve eaten duck once before, when I lived in Oregon. It really does taste just like chicken. After dinner we had free time to do whatever we wanted to. I went back to the hotel and got some rest.
The next day, we went out to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. They were great to see, but it was still cloudy, actually raining, and still cold. There were also about a million people because we were in China visit tourist attractions! The most unforgettable thing was being treated like a celebrity among Asian people. They love seeing Americans and everyone wants a photo of themselves taken with one. People would run up to me, throw their baby in my arms, and then step back ten feet to take a picture and never say a word. Others would put their camera in your face and say “Photo?” and as you say yes… they instruct their family to gather around you. And others will tell their kids to stand by you and just take your photo, but then their kids look scared and confused in the pictures. It was really funny.
After lunch, at another really nice and yummy restaurant, we rode on bike rickshaws through the narrow streets in Beijing. It was interesting to see the narrow streets and fun to ride. Our driver was repeating the last word of everything we said, so we started repeating what he was saying and then we were all laughing and having a riot. It was really fun. After that, we went to the Silk Street and Pearl Market to do some shopping. It was really hard-core bargaining and there were so many people in the market. It was packed, the shop owners were pushy, and bargaining skills were in high demand. I got some good deals on a few things, but didn’t want to spend too much money shopping.
After dinner, again it was nice, and again, it was rice, we went to a Peking Opera. It was my first opera experience and it was spectacular. There was a lot of tumbling and dance. I expected more singing at a ridiculous octave, but either way… I had no clue what was really going so I think I got it. I learned that the Peking Opera was one of the four aspects of Chinese culture and I was glad to have seen it.
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and went to the Summer Palace. There wasn’t much explanation about the significance or history of it, but again, I took a lot of pictures and it was a lot of walking around. Good times. After another lunch with rice (9 meals of rice in a row), we visited the Temple of Heaven. It finally got a wee little sunny and even a little warm for the three layers of sleeves I had been wearing for the rest of China. I fixed that predicament by splurging on a popsicle that tasted like sweet pudding.
After the Temple of Heaven, we went to the airport and flew to Shanghai. We got to the airport 5 hours early…plenty of time to get a bite of some KFC (you know… American food!).
When we arrived in Shanghai at the ship, 500 other students were arriving back from Beijing which made for a long line of waiting people to get their bags checked and back on the ship. And it was midnight, really cold, and still cloudy. I showered and went straight to bed because I had to get up 4 hours later for some Tai Chi. Again, and because it was so early in the morning, it was cold. Just like snorkeling, I’m not any good at Tai Chi because it’s a little like dance, but I had a great time doing it regardless.
Later in the day, I went out with Eddie, Ashley, and another guy, Kadero. We had no agenda; we just got in a cab and went to the other side of the river. There was a tall tower, sight seeing thing, but it was still so cloudy that it wasn’t worth paying to go up in it. After meandering aimlessly, we found Hooters in Shanghai and invited ourselves in. We spent the rest of the day there because it was happy hour and we got 50% off for being college students. We didn’t mean to spend the whole day there, and time went by fast so we hadn’t even realized that we did, but we wrapped it all up by singing and dancing to the YMCA with the Hooters girls. Well, Eddie and I danced and sang while Ashley and Kadero got it on video and took photos. Hooters is better in the States… and bigger.
It was back to the ship by curfew (in the pouring rain) and early to bed for class the next day. Asia just keeps getting better and better. Now on to Japan… Konichiwa!