I'll Go Back To China Just To Say "Chiner" "Pander" and Wear My Panda Hat

Well what to say about China…it was freezing….I slept on the Great Wall…in the freezing weather, …oh and there was snow…and not many other people get to see the wall with snow on it. I enjoyed Beijing, did lots of shopping. Ate lots of Chinese food, man I am missing it already, I could stay there just for the food. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell for those of you who want the short version. Now here is the long version

The first day I spent in Hong Kong with the tour I put together through the China Guide, we got to see all sorts of cool stuff. We went up to Victoria Peak and got a great view of Hong Kong, had a great dim sum lunch, saw Arbedeen Fishing Village and went to Man Mao Temple. We also got to go to Stanley Market through our tour to do a little shopping, but it wasn’t the best market I have ever seen in my life, I heard the shopping in Beijing was good so I waited till then. That night Collin had invited me earlier in the day to go to dinner with him and his mom, and some of our other friends. We went to this cute little restaurant close by with a great view of the waterfront buildings for the light show. We had an amazing and long dinner with wine and conversation and a light show (which is nothing like the Disneyland one…hopes crushed). After that we went out to LKF and I met up with friends that were there too, just enjoyed being there watching everyone make a fool of themselves as usual. I did get to call Emily while in the Russian Ice Bar (so lame) because there is free wifi everywhere in Hong Kong (but not China). We finally headed back to the ship and got a good night’s sleep as we had to be up and ready the next morning to be taken to the airport. After we got all checked in, Gio, Grace, and Lindsay and I all went to get some food. I got myself two orders of pan fried dumplings…yum yum. Then we proceeded to wait for our plane so we could board and get ourselves to Beijing.

When we arrived in Beijing we got to our hotel, checked in and then Randall, Gio, and I went to dinner with some other people and had the worst American food of our lives. I didn’t want to eat American food but we ended up there and it was just terrible. Then we hung around that place talking with the people who were selling stuff and bought our Panda hats! Yay! We were arguing over prices until Randall finally put her hat on and was like, “guys let’s just pay her it’s fine, I really like panda hat” (I just literally laughed out loud as I wrote this because the tone was hilarious). So we wore panda’s and roamed the streets near our hotel. We headed back and hung out in Randall’s room then headed to bed as the next day was going to be eventful, because it was the day that we headed to the Great Wall.

In the morning we woke up and they took us to the Silk Market because the weather was colder than they expected for us to sleep on the great wall and they wanted to make sure we had enough warm clothes. So I got some water proof pants, and long thick socks so I wouldn’t freeze my butt off. Then after we were done there we proceeded to go on a hutong tour where we ate at a family’s home and learned about the hutong’s and that family’s particular story. Then we rode a rickshawk through the rest of the hutongs and ended up and the drum tower and got to watch them play the huge drums. After that we then proceeded on our long journey to the Great Wall of China. I knocked out for a while but as we got closer it was fun to see the temperature continue to drop even though it was like 3 in the afternoon. We were the first bus to get to the spot where we were doing our sunset hike. We hiked up there and got some great pictures of the wall with the snow and the sun setting, and some panda hat pictures too haha. We then went back down and had dinner a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain, after dinner is when the real fun began and we all realized that we were really going to freeze our asses off. So we started putting on our 8 layers of clothes each on the bus, which was interesting and had about an hours hike up to our sleeping spot and that’s where we just hung out until it got too cold to not be in our sleeping bags. I saw my first shooting star finally, and I am glad I can say I saw it on the Great Wall of China. We fell asleep freezing and woke up freezing to a beautiful sunrise and I couldn’t feel my feet which was fun. The lame people slept in the guard tower where they had a fire but me and my friends slept out under the stars like champions…guess I am ready for Minnesota winters now dontcha know?

So that day was full of hiking and then heading back to Beijing for our last night in Beijing. I ended up going to the market again and a Chinese Acrobat show with some friends through our tour company which was crazy to see, and then afterwards we headed back to the hotel after spending twenty minutes trying to get a taxi that wanted to take us back to our hotel. It was a huge problem. We finally got back and we ate at this little street food place which was amazing! Then because we were so tired we just went back to the hotel while everyone else went out and partied with the Ying Yang Twins (oh well). I met up with some other friends who were just drinking beer and chatting and I chatted with them until I was too tired. The next day was going to be very long and I wanted to make sure I got some sleep for our epic journey of all the sights in Beijing.

In the morning we got on our busses and started our day off at the Forbidden City, it was huge, and never ending it seemed like and there were so many people. It was also very cold so we were literally running through the Forbidden City so we didn’t freeze. The pictures are awesome so I can’t really talk about it other than saying I was there. As we ended the tour of the Forbidden City we then reached Tiananmen Square and ventured that way as our bus was meeting us on the other side of the square. It was really weird to be there and not talk about what happened but just walk through it. Since the government forbids anyone from talking about it we couldn’t ask our tour guide about it either. After we left there we went to a local restaurant where we had the best duck lunch and other wonderful foods where we got to use the thin tortilla like things to put the plum sauce with the duck in it.. Gosh it was sooo good! Anyway after that we went to the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube. I decided to pay to get into the Bird’s Nest just for your Kyle. It was amazing. The structure itself is a work of art I couldn’t believe how crazy it was or how it was holding up the stadium for that matter. Once we left there we headed over to Summer Palace which was equally as large as the Forbideen City it seemed like since we were freezing. Then we had finished early so our tour guide with our bus driver gave us the option of going to a Kung Fu show or to another market as we had four hours till our train was going to leave anyway. So I went to the market and just hung around there until they picked us up again to take us to the train station. So now here comes the fun story…
So I am with Grace, Randall, and Gio and we went on a hunt for some food among other things for our sleeper train ride to Shanghai. We didn’t know that there was a time to board the train or let alone that the boarding time was at 9. We just knew the train left at 9:30 or something like that. So we finish our dinner and go to where everyone was and no one is there, and just our bags and sitting there, with no one around. Gio had ran to the bathroom, and it was just us three girls and finally Randall said someone needs to go get our tour guide and catch up to them, so mind you I decide to run since I planned the whole dang trip. What I didn’t tell you is that the bag I bought an hour before at the market had broken so I have a one wheeled rolling (sort of) duffel that weighs a ton from all the poker chips my supervisor gave to me and a duffel bag full of clothes and shoes…and I am running and have no idea where to go. So I finally find this gate that has the train number I am supposed to be on. I see that it’s open so I was like okay good. Well I need to get cart 4 and I am at cart 28 which by the way ended up being like cart 203482034823094 when you are running with like 50 lb weight on you. So I am running dragging everything along finally get on the train and see that it’s a mess already and I run off and start running back towards the gate to find my friends. I see them and they are freaking out. Randall is having a panic attack to the point where I can’t understand a word she is saying we get on the next open door of the train and I just have them walk to cart four and the train starts moving. We literally barely made it. So we get on the sleeper train and have drama over rooms and stuff but it eventually works itself out and we have great conversation until bed time.

We awoke the next day in Shanghai and were taken to the ship and it was all ugly and raining and since there were 70 of us we had a long line outside the ship and checking the bags process. Finally once I was done with that I went to my room and just went back to bed for a little bit, showered then went up to lunch and saw friends who wanted to go get rail passes much like I did and go shopping. So I went and did that on what was supposed to be our last day on the ship…but apparently the weather was terrible at sea so we had an extra night and half day in Shanghai. I didn’t really do much besides get my rail pass, go shopping, hang with the friends and then went to sleep. I didn’t bother to go out at night or the next day as I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Anyway, that was china, it was awesome. The people suck, they don’t like to talk to you and aren’t ncie to you but I would go back solely for shopping and to say Chiner and Pander. Woo!
A-Ram