Rapid Fire China: Part 1

All thanks to this website called Living Social, I got to kick off 2014 with a bang. From January 27th- February 4th I traveled to China on an all-inclusive 9-day tour for $1000 (that's including flight!!!). The tour was arranged through China Tours, but I found it through the "Escapes" section of the Living Social website. The trip was posted about 2 months before we left, so it was kind of a quick decision to go, but it was absolutely worth it!

Aside from a brief trip along the Bosphours Strait in Turkey, this was my first time traveling to Asia. I was pretty nervous about the language barrier and my ability to read signs to get where I needed to go. This is where the tour was really helpful. This was also my first organized tour, and although they all have their pluses and minuses, I think a tour was a good decision for my first venture to China. Having visited some of the major cities now though, I am pretty confident that I could go back and at least navigate the cities by myself. The Chines countryside and more rural areas seem really amazing, and I would love to visit, but that is a whole other beast.

Looking at the tour itinerary before we left, I wasn't sure how we were going to pack so many things into one day, but we did. It made for an exhausting trip, but I was really glad that I was able to see as much as I did and really grateful that they did pack the days so full. One other added bonus for our trip: it was during Chinese New Year! This made  for absolutely no traffic on the roads, emptier tourist spots, and fantastic decorations all over the place. The only downside of going during the holiday was that some shops were closed and most of the had limited hours. But in the long run, that didn't even matter because I got to climb the Great Wall of China, stroll along the canals in Suzhou, explore Old Town Shanghai, and so much more!

 

Day1: Fly from SF to Beijing

Day2: Arrive in Beijing and go straight to the hotel

Getting to China was a looooong process that started off with a flight that was delayed 3 hours. We crossed the international date line on our way over, meaning that we lost a day, but then gained it back coming home. The flight went relatively smoothly, except for the fact that I slept a grand total of about 2 hours... This did not bode well for my sleep patterns throughout the trip. For some strange reason, even that first night in Beijing I was only able to sleep about 4 hours.

Day 3: Beijing

We left the hotel at 8am, so that pretty much shattered any expectations I had about being able to catch up on sleep for the entirety of the tour. Our first stop was the Summer Palace, technically just outside of Beijing. Even though I was absolutely freezing, I was just stunned at the beautiful architecture of the Palace and the grounds. It is so unique and intricate and incorporates such beautiful colors into the building facade itself. Looking ahead to the trip, the architecture was one of the things I was most excited to see and it surely did not disappoint. We walked along the grounds of the palace, along the central lake and down the world's longest corridor. For all my ANTM fans out there, the corridor would have made for a stellar runway show.

The Front Gate

Me standing the "the corridor"

This is actually sunrise

Coming down from the Palace itself,
this is the gate to the lake entrance

After the Summer Palace we headed to a pearl factory and got to learn about one of China's most important exports. I can now tell you the colors and shapes that real pearls come in and even know how to test if pearls are real or fake. Gentlemen readers (are there any?): you've been warned. This was probably the most annoying aspect of the tour. I understand that they wanted to teach us a little about Chinese culture, but we kept going to these "sales pitches" about certain Chinese products and I could have done without that. But of course, I fell victim to the sales pitch and walked away only after buying some pearl earrings. Moving on from the pearl factory we went to the zoo to see some Giant Pandas. They aren't as "giant" as I had imagined, but they sure were cute! The gift shop had all kinds of panda souvenirs, perfect for any aged Pablo Sandoval fan, but I was able to have some self control this time and just admired the bounty of  fluffy panda products.

He was kinda dirty

For lunch we headed into the Hutong area of Beijing which is considered to be one of the oldest and most historic parts of the city. The lifestyle there is very much "traditional" and a lot less modern that some other places in the city. We got to ride in rickshaws and visit a World Champion cricket fighter! His wife also made the best meal that I ate during the entire trip. Our tour of 24 people all crowded into their living/dining room/kitchen and got served course after course after course of fresh and amazing food. Then we got to hear all about Cricket Man's (I don't remember his real name) prize cricket fights and he got to show off all his cricket training toys. Apparently this is a really big deal in China and some people loose thousands of dollars or entire plots of land betting on crickets...

His crickets have homes, work out machines, beds,
baths, and even marriage chambers

The meal that we completely demolished

Most likely where our lunch ingredients came from

Taking pictures with the local celeb

Finally, to end the day, we were off to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. I had seen so many pictures of the Square and it seemed like I already knew it, but nothing I'd previously seen really captured the size of the "square". It was HUGE. Everything was so spread out and the buildings were just massive. The space was impressive enough, and then you add in an incredibly large portrait of Mao watching over the whole scene and the fact that there is an entire city guarded by those walls. After walking the square we headed into the Forbidden City and walked through gate after gate after gate after gate, you get the idea. I don't think I have even been in such a large, technically enclosed, single space. Not only that, but every single building, gate and bridge was decorated and adorned in the most intricate way. Back in China's dynasty days, the City was where the emperor resided and it was "forbidden" because commoners we not allowed to enter. Aside from when the emperor vacationed to the Summer Palace, he and his royal court never stepped foot outside of the City's walls either. I feel kinda bad because towards the end of our tour of the grounds, I was completely zoned out and retained zero information. But I think it's fair because I was creeping into the 36 hour mark on about 5 hours of sleep.

One of my favorite parts of this trip is that I got
to do it with my momma

So incredible

One of the interior gates

So many incredible roofs!

 

Day 4: Great Wall, Great Wall, Great Wall! And some other things in Beijing

The Great Wall of China. It was been the number one thing on my bucket list since Bailey and I created bucket lists in high school. I think this was the reason that I booked the tour in the first place, I was just dying to see it. Before we got to the Great Wall, we stopped at a jade factory and did basically the same thing we did at the pearl place: learned about it and then were encouraged to buy stuff. Mentally, I moved on from that pretty quickly and was instead thinking about our tour guide's word choice of "climbing" the Great Wall versus "walking" it. Well, as per usual, she was right, it was a climb. The photos you see on Google make it seem so pleasant to walk along, but that thing is steep! It makes sense, I guess, considering it was built for protection against the Mongols. The section that we saw had 14 gates, aka towers. I only climbed to the 5th one before deciding that I should turn around, so as not to be left behind by my tour group. The hardest part about the climb was that each step was a different size, so you really couldn't find a rhythm. Even so, I allowed my mind to wander into the past and create scenarios for what it would have been like hundreds of years ago. It was truly an incredible experience and lived up to the hype. 

The starting point

Selfie at tower 5. Feeling accomplished, I headed back down

Just some perspective. I'm the green jacket
coming down from tower 2

Special New Years decorations

After nomming on some fantastic Chinese grub for lunch, we ended up at Wanfujing Street and were able to explore for a bit on our own. The street is one of Beijing's most famous shopping areas and Mom and I definitely made some dents in our wallets. It was a really neat blend of western stores like Forever 21 and Hermes and stores that sold specialty goods like hand carved chopsticks or silk. Then, we found where all the locals went to eat. It was an amazing little alleyway with street food galore. There were people selling roasted chestnuts, scorpion on a stick, starfish, bbq lizards, all kinds of stuff! I wasn't adventurous enough to try the insects on sticks, but I did have the best fried pork dumplings of my entire life and I was satisfied.

The entrance to the food mecca

The guy laughed when I took this picture

ohhhh, yes!

 That night was official start to the Year of the Horse. Our tour guide kept telling us that we should just stay in the hotel and watch the national TV program because that's what all the Chinese do, but we didn't want to do that. We wanted to be out and see how the Chinese really brought in the New Year. Well, Jing, our guide, was right yet again. We tackled the Beijing metro and made our way to Tianamen Square only to rise up the escalator and see it completely empty. There were families walking around and things were lit up, but the square itself was blocked off. Turns out practically every Chinese person goes home for New Years, eats dumplings, and stays inside at night spending quality time with their families. If you take away the Black Friday madness that has taken over our country, I would compare the celebration to Thanksgiving: a time to be with family and eat. At midnight though everyone sets off fireworks. We're talking normal civilians, on the sidewalk, shooting off the giant fireworks that explode into giant asterisks in an array of colors. Our sparklers and roman candles are child's play to them. The shooting of the fireworks goes on for about 30 minutes, but if you're tired enough, you're sleep right through it.

The metro was so clean!

Trying not to freeze

At least they are nice enough to neatly pile the
boxes when they're done shooting off the fireworks

COMING UP: We head to Shanghai and some surrounding cities for further exploration!