China

Wow China! We had an amazing time. I have to admit I am a bit naive. Since we are living in an Asian country, I didn’t think visiting China would have be much different. It even sounds wrong witting that and I can’t believe I thought that at first. I think it was due to exhaustion. I was so ready for a vacation and I got so much more. First was Beijing. We met up with our friend Melvin and our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. The Temple was closed, but we were able to cruise the park. It was a beautiful shaded park filled with ancient architecture, people and fresh cut grass. Ya, I haven’t seen fresh cut grass for a few months. First Shocker: Beggars. They will ask you to buy anything and you name your price. They follow you, complement you, lie to you. Anything for some yuan. In the hot sun filled with hundreds of people, it gets annoying, but if you want to name your price on a souvenir, it’s helpful. We also were asked to take our first picture with locals. I was being followed by these two girls. I smiled and said Hello and walked away. Jayson told me they looked so sad and he thought they wanted to take a picture with me. I couldn't believe it. Sure enough, he was right. Their eyes let up when I posed with them to take a picture. This happened all over China. It made us feel like movie stars.

The next day we joined a tour that took us to the Great Wall, Ming Tomb, Jade Factory and Tea House. On our 2 hour ride to the Great Wall we learned how over populated China is. Our tour guide explained to us that every hour is rush hour. There are only designated days that people can drive their cars. And, it’s true you can only have one child if you live in the city. If you live out of the city and your first child is a girl then you can have one more child. This policy has helped their growing population and they have seen no population growth for a consistent amount of time. Second Shocker: Population. Third shocker: Heat. Once we reached the Great Wall my eyes grew big by the amount of people I saw. It was packed from top to bottom and side to side. And the umbrellas, oh the umbrellas. We hiked thousands of stairs to reach the top. I was hit by umbrellas, shared sweat with some shoulders and locals still wanted to take pictures with my drenched self. This Great Wall experience was not as enchanting as I thought it would be. The rest of the tour was great, but I was left a little disappointed. So, a few days lated Jayson and I got a private driver and he took us to another part of the Great Wall. We got there early before the crowed and heat. We took a ski lift up, danced on the Great Wall and took a toboggan down. That was the magical, enchanting experience I was looking for. I still get chills thinking about it.

In Beijing, we also visited the Forbidden City and Olympic Park. Of course, the Forbidden City was filled with crowds of people and their umbrellas and the scorching sun. But, we were able to skip away to the quiet and serene side rooms. We took beautiful pictures and was able to take in the history and feel like we were there hundreds of years ago. Once again....magical. Olympic park was amazing too. I love watching a location on TV and then actually being able to go there. The Aquatic Cube was closed, so we were only able to go inside the “Birds Nest,” but we walked around the whole park and took pictures. Our nights in Beijing were filled with Beer Gardens in downtown and along the river. Live music was always playing and good people watching too.

Our next stop Shanghai. Shocker number 4: Shanghai is truly Paris of the East (like they say). This city is beautiful, the temperature was bearable and there were less beggars. Our first night we found a fabulous mexican restaurant. I know Mexican in China, but we have been living without it for several months and it was a real treat. The next day World Expo. Oh, wow was this place filled with people. They said 500,000 people visit the World Expo each day. There were so many people that we only went in 3 pavilions: China, USA, and Africa. But, we took a bus around and saw every country’s pavilion. I didn’t expect the Expo to be so big. Each country builds a pavilion to represent their county and their view of the future. China used a lot of technology and also had replicas of famous architecture of China. Africa was pretty much the same. But, USA a little disappointing. The building structure was your typical square and inside we watched 2 videos. The videos did focus on the future and explain how a little goes a long way. The message was nice, but the structure wasn’t that impressive. After a long day at the Expo we decided to visit that wonderful Mexican restaurant for some margaritas and a delicious bite. Bad idea, the next day we were both stuck in bed with food poisoning. We should of just kept to one day of Mexican. We are still recovering to this day.

We did make the best of our last day. We took the double decker tour bus around Shanghai. We visited the Jade Buddhist Temple, Yu Garden, and completed our shopping. In he evening we took a river cruise and tried to enjoy our last “real” Chinese dinner. 10 days was a long time and I wouldn’t of changed anything. Our experience was amazing. I hope we can go back someday.