Traveling Chiner

Day one in China began with an adventure in Hong Kong. Interestingly enough Hong Kong is warm and not quite under the communist government which doesn’t seem important, but it is in relation to the rest of my trip. Hong Kong is completely misleading from Beijing, where I spent the majority of my time, so day one set me off with completely opposite expectations of my trip. Day one began with catching a ferry to the city, beautiful city, clean tall buildings, New York, but clean and friendly. There are so many foreigners who travel and live in Hong Kong that I was just one of many different looking visitors. Our ferry ride led us to the subway station where Olivia and I spent about two hours navigating the subway and having a blast. There is something so invigorating about conquering a countries public transportation system.

We took the subway to find the giant Buddha, built up on a hill. Now it was never my intention to spend the day looking at a giant Buddha, but the journey was completely worth it. We rode a gondola over mountain after mountain, for about thirty minutes, giving us the most insane views of Hong Kong. The gorgeous city is set on a coast, blue and sparkling and between lush green mountains. The Buddha sits up on a hill that has been made into a tiny tourist city complete with shops and restaurants. It was absolutely breath taking. After exploring and taking photos all around the big Buddha we headed to a teahouse and sat for about an hour and a half of white tea and good conversation. After tea we headed back down the mountain and back to the ship to change for the night. Nights tend to be either a lot or just really chill. This night was definitely a really chill and it was great. Four others and me headed out to the Four Seasons Hong Kong for a pre-dinner drink. The hotel was gorgeous and the drinks although pricey were absolutely delicious. With little money left in our pockets we headed out to a cheap dinner of soup and sides in a cozy, dark restaurant.

The next morning found we had to be ready to leave by 9:45. We loaded up on buses and headed to the airport. In China I went with a group of about 75 SAS kids who were doing an independent trip with a Chinese tour group. I will tell you why I chose this trip specifically, but it comes later. So we flew to Beijing, all geared down with our warmest clothes, but I don’t think anything could really prepare us for the sting of cold we were about to feel. Oh here’s a fun story, as most people know China is terrified of flu outbreak and rightly so, they do not have a good track record with epidemics. So anyways, they give you health forms to fill out on the plane and let them know your current health status. I, in my nieve honesty, thought it proper to check the cough box. No big deal, just a little cough, so I figured harmless right. Nope, you never check the cough box on the health questionnaire in China, I don’t care if your right lung is literally coming out of your mouth, you NEVER check the cough box. I was quickly whisked away by military officials wearing the doctor face-masks. They took me to an enclosed area and questioned me about my illness, at this point I am convinced that I’m going to be quarantined in Beijing, miss my trip completely and potentially miss my opportunity to get back on the ship. Well I got a little ahead of myself. The officials took my temperature and handed me a blank sheet to re-fill out, this time not checking the cough box. Once that fiasco was finally over we headed to our hotels, threw on about 3 more layers and headed into the Beijing night, for the most random dinner at a bar in a hotel on some side street. We then made a poor attempt to head to their local bar and restaurant strip, which turned into about an hour of walking in freezing weather, asking directions with barely any English and eventually giving up and turning back to the hotel to climb under covers and warm up.

Day two in Bejieng we headed to the Silk Market to stock up on cheap warm clothes for what we were about to do that night. After about two hours of frantic running around I found myself some gloves and a hat to keep my extremities warm. Little did I know how helpful these little accessories would be. My group then piled onto our bus and headed to check out some temples and sights. I don’t know the name of them, I honestly saw so many temples that by the end they were all a big jumble and it was so cold my brain was paralyzed and retained no information. We rode around in rickshaws through tiny alleys and streets covered in melty snow and mud, which of course I dropped my brand new $2 knock-off Ray-Bans from Vietnam in and when we tried to stop to pick them up the rickshaw rolled over them. That is why I have never bought sunglass that cost more than $10. After lunch we all piled into the home of a sweet little Chinese woman who had prepared lunch for about 25 of us. It was delicious, full of dumplings, a chicken, warm vegetable, authentic Chinese food is very simple, but tasty and perfect to warm you up in the freezing Beijing winters.

That night held my most anticipated activity of the whole voyage…SLEEPING ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! I know some have already done and many will come after, but I slept on the Great Wall of China. We rode the bus two hours to a tiny town at the base of the wall, where we ate more wonderful food and then piled layers and layers of clothing on. Just as an example of how cold it was, I wore leggings, jeans, snow pants, two long-sleeved t-shirts, a polar-fleece, a hoodie and coat. We hiked about 45 minutes up stairwell after stairwell in the pitch dark and ice to eventually come to the watchtowers designated for our sleeping for the night. I was in a group of all girls and one boy, but our watchtower was the furthest away conveniently. Something about the Great Wall, the Chinese had no real fluid concept of design, sometimes there are steps and sometimes there are ramps at about an 85 degree angle straight up, which in the freezing weather are covered in ice. So there is your visual, my body covered in about 5 layers, on all fours attempting to scale the Great Wall of China covered in ice. Oh and shout out to my Dad, thank goodness for headlamps, I was the only one savvy enough to have a hands free mechanism for lighting their path. After about 15 minutes of ice skating/climbing with 24 griping girls we reached a spot to stop and regain ourselves. A couple of us took the time to look up at the stars. It was gorgeous, like standing in a planetarium, I saw stars that where all around me that I have no potential of seeing anywhere else. We made everyone turn off their lights to marvel, it was glorious, one of those moments where you are engulfed in awe of your Creator. After our climb we finally came to our stopping point and quickly spread out to claim our sleeping areas. We each grabbed two mats for the ground and two sleeping bags. The tour group brought all the sleeping gear and food and drinks up the wall for us. We set up our beds, stole about 3 packs of Oreos and sat outside for about 30 minutes marveling in the blessing of our situations. Once I hit a point of frozen exhaustion I headed to bed with my friends Ajuli, Jackie and Brooke. After worming our way into the double sleeping bags we all just lay still attempting to fall asleep.
The next morning we awoke to our tour guide Robert beckoning us awake to catch the sunrise. It was fantastic because we walked up in the night and were not able to see at all what our surroundings looked like, so our first visual of The Great Wall was sunrise, glorious. After a quick breakfast of bread and cold coffee we loaded up and headed out for a three-mile hike across the wall. It took about two and a half hours for us to complete, stopping about every 20 ft. to take pictures of each other, with each other, and for each other. We finally reached the end and were faced with the decision of walking the rest of the way to the restaurant for lunch, or paying $7 to zip line off the wall. I took the zip line route and before I knew was flying over a river. At the end of the zip line a tiny Chinese woman was trying to unhook Anjuli and I, I was not quick enough to stand up and was unfocused so she swatted me on the arm and shouted, ”Stand up!” which I quickly did after that. We finally ended up in the warmth of the restaurant and ate a delicious warm lunch before heading back to the hotel. Our bus then met us and took us back to the Silk Market for some additional shopping; I ended up pooping out around two hours in and opted to go get a pizza with the girls. We ended the night with warm showers and watching some bizarre movie about Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman.

Day three in Beijing was another day full of touring temples and outside venues in the freezing cold weather. We walked around The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and made a quick stop at The Birds Nest and The Water Cube, which was my favorite. There was something fascinating about Tiananmen Square and although you are not allowed to talk about the massacre that happened there, the only reason I am aware of the place altogether, there was something so eerie and unsettling just walking around that gave me a fascination with the Chinese government and the power it has in the lives of it’s people. It is a magnificent place, one that I would love to visit again, but the first country of the whole voyage, besides Morocco, that I would never want to live in. After all the touring we headed to the Beijing Train Station to catch our sleeper train back to Shang Hai. The train was a highlight for many of us. It looked exactly as I would imagine a sleeper train, except extremely clean. I piled in a room of four girls and claimed by bed. The night turned into hours of mingling up and down the halls with the other SAS students on our trip.

We awoke to a rainy day in Shang Hai and headed back to the ship. In my exhaustion I ended up spend the day on the ship with my friend Lane. It was too cold and rainy to try to explore and in a surprise turn of events, bad weather prevented us from leaving at our intended time, so we were granted an additional night and half day. I woke up the next morning early and headed out for a little Shang Hai exploration. We had such limited time though we made it on one subway ride and then hit a mall, where I opted to sit with my journal and the best latte of my life while Bobbi Lee shopped around. We then hailed a taxi and headed back to the ship to settle in for our two and half day journey to Japan. China was a beautiful country, full of opportunities for adventure and growing relationships. I love you all dearly and cannot wait to see you in the coming month!

Carley