China

Hi Everyone!!!!
Sorry about the delay with this email, but we have been very busy!!!! We only had 2 days on the ship between Japan and China and then 2 days again between China and Vietnam!

We got to Shanghai on February 16th and spent the day walking around the city. We ended up spending a lot of time in the markets bargaining for knock-off bags, clothes, watches, etc. I was surprised to discover that I have a special talent for bargaining!! I loved it!!!! The next day we flew from Shanghai to Beijing. Our tour guide met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. We had the rest of the night free to explore Beijing. A group of us grabbed some dinner at a restaurant right next to our hotel. We were the only people in the restaurant, they only had one menu, and they spoke no English. We ordered by pointing to what we wanted. The food came out and it ended up being some of the best Chinese food that we had the whole time!!! It was a very interesting experience, but well worth it!!

The next morning 3 of my girlfriends from the ship and I got up early and went on a walk to Jingshan Park. It was a park with a bunch of temples and people doing tai chi. We walked up to one of the temples that was on the top of a hill, which had an a amazing view of the entire city! At the temple there was a women who had traditional Chinese clothing that you could dress up in and take pictures, so obviously we had to do it. We headed back to our hotel to meet the rest of our group.

We visited The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, which were both very cool to see!!! I took a ton of pictures!!! I was shocked at the amount of Chinese people who would come up to us and ask to take a picture with them. They stared at us like they had never seen white people before. At first it was very uncomfortable, but our tour guide explained to us that the Chinese people who are visiting the forbidden city and other tourist attractions like that are typically from rural areas of China therefore, they hardly ever see white tourists.

Then we went to the Silk Market, which was a huge market filled with things to bargain for!!! I got a big puffy North Face Jacket and some gloves for about $60!!! The jacket was a great purchase because it got me through a freezing cold night on the Great Wall!! After the market we drove to the Great Wall and watched the sunset on the wall and then headed to a restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing!!! They just kept bringing out dish after dish of rice, pork, veggies, chicken, noodles, everything you could possibly imagine!!!

After dinner we drove back to the Great Wall and got dressed in all our warmest clothes and hiked up to the spot on the wall that we were sleeping on. It was sooo cold that we each got 2 sleeping bags! I slept with hand warmers all over my body!!! Sleeping on the wall was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done, but it’s not something that I would do again!! We were up early the next morning, we watched the sunrise and ate breakfast and then hiked down the wall. The hike down was beautiful and probably one of my favorite parts of my trip in Beijing!. At the end we had the option to zip line down, which I did and it was awesome!!!!

We all loaded back onto our bus smelly and exhausted, but with no time to waste we headed straight to the sit of the 2008 Olympics. It was really cool to see the birds nest and swim cube! We had the rest of the evening free, but we were sooo exhausted that we just went right to bed. The next morning we went to a Chinese New Year Festival, which was a crazy experience, There were people dancing, playing games, tons of vendors and food stands and ceremonies going on! Then we went to the old traditional town of Hutong. We went to a families house where they made us lunch and taught us how to make dumplings. Then we got to go on rickshaw tours around the town. Our next stop after that was at the Summer palace. We had dinner at Beijing’s famous Peking duck. It was the first time I had ever had duck, but it was really good! After dinner we went to an Acrobat show, which I loved!!!!! Our last full day in Beijing we went to another market, but it was one that they only have on the weekends. By this point, I was all bargained out so we just walked around.

Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven. This was an interesting place because it is a big hangout place for retired people. There were people everywhere singing, dancing, playing cards. Close to the exit to the park there was bunch of people gathered dancing and having a good time. At first we were just watching, but then we decided to all make a conga line and all the old Chinese people loved it and joined in!!!! The best part about this is that we were in the Beijing newspaper the next day!!!! Not everyone can have a story like that!!!! We also went to a hot pot lunch. This was really cool because we got to cook all of our own food. All of this eating has increased my chopstick skills immensely! I didn’t really have an option though because they don’t give you the option to use a fork!!!

The next morning we left our hotel very early for the airport for our flight to Hong Kong. We had a day and a half to spend in Hong Kong. We went to Victorias peak, which had an amazing view of the city! Then we took a cable car down. We walked around Hong Kong and then took the ferry back to our ship. The ship was docked in a huge shopping mall, it was really strange. For the short amount of time that I spent in Hong Kong, I really enjoyed it! It felt like I was in the states. Everything was in English, which was nice and made it easy to get around. It was apparent that Hong Kong was very different from the rest of China. They even drive opposite than the rest of China, which I discovered when I got in a cab in the drivers side because I was used to it being the other way in Beijing! Each port we go to keeps getting better and better!!!!! More to come!!!
Love
Em