China part 1 - days 1-5

All right. Blog post number 1 from Asia. Where to start.....

Our flight to Beijing was uneventful and easy; 11 hours direct. I felt ok when we landed, but it was only 2:30pm local time when we did. By 8pm local time (5am Vancouver time) I was dead on my feet. Unfortunately the beds in Beijing were like bricks, and despite my fatigue I did not sleep well that night. It actually took about 3 days to fully get over the jet lag.... It was terrible.

DAY1: The only thing of interest that happened on the day we arrived was that we met our tour group. There are 11 of us all together plus the guide. Overall an interesting group. Firstly, there is an old couple from Sweden. They took the trans-siberia railway here. Not sure what inspired them to do an adventure tour, but good for them i guess. There is also a semi-crazy middle aged Aussie from Melbourne. All she talks about is Chinese propaganda. Her plan for one day was to go down to the university and "talk to some well educated people who are not influenced by the commie propaganda"...... Alright nut job, sounds fun. Otherwise the group is good. Chris and i have mostly been hanging out with a couple from Ireland (joe and kelly) and a girl from Perth (jasmine) She and I have been discussing Perth a lot and it's making me miss Australia. But I suppose being here in Asia will suffice.

DAY 2: Our first full day was busy. We went in the morning to the temple of the heaven park with joe, kelly and jasmine. It was really interesting. It's a large park in the city, and it seems to be where older people gather to exercise and socialize. There were groups of 50 people dancing in sync to music, people playing tennis on make shift courts, people practicing tai chi, people playing Chinese hackie sack (which is a hack with feathers coming out of it), old men playing checkers and cards, badminton, old men drawing chinese characters on the pavement in water, and so on. It was nuts. Chris bought a Chinese hack and we joined in for a bit.

After a struggle to find somewhere with edible food for lunch (we ended up at KFC - yuck) we went to Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city. The forbidden city was massive....went on forever. Really remarkable and definitely worth visiting, but after an hour or two it all started looking the same. There must have been 20 large gates in that place. We had an awesome dinner (as a group) of peking duck and other local specialities. Total cost -$5.

DAY3: Chris and i were still super jet lagged so we were up early. We made a quick stop at the beijing zoo just to see the pandas (as we will not be going to the panda sanctuary in changdu). It was pretty awesome. There were a lot of pandas and we could get pretty close. Also, they were really active, walking around, eating, etc. After we spent a few hours at the summer palace which was gorgeous. Once again the palace buildings all kind of looked the same, but it is set on a beautiful lake and we were able to climb up part of one of the temples for a great view. We spent the afternoon at the Beijing olympic park. We saw the crows nest and the water cube, and went inside and walked around. Beautiful facility. But we didn't realize that there was an awesome water park inside with some crazy slides! Had we known we would have been prepared and brought bathing suits. Oh well.

DAY 4: a private van picked the group up in the morning and took us 3 hours away from Beijing to a quiet section of the great wall. There is a section closer to Beijing that you can visit, but it's apparently really crowded, so it was nice that we got to go to a part without all the tourists. The wall was spectacular. We climbed about 10k of it..... 28 towers I believe. I use the word "climb" quite literally; it was all up and down. Some of the sections and steps were so steep that I had to use my hands. The experience was amazing and there were sections that we had all to ourselves. The weather was also fantastic, which made the experience even better; clear blue skies, 24 degrees and a fantastic breeze. My favorite part was reaching the steep towers (after climbing a bunch of steps) and looking out at the view while having the breeze cool me off. Sounds kind of cheesy, I know, but it was fantastic. I think i enjoyed it more than the pyramids, as there was no one hassling me, and by actually climbing the wall, it felt more interactive.

We spent the night at a guest house 15 minutes from the wall....basic accommodations but it was ok.... The bed was comfier than in Beijing.

Day 5: travel day. We travelled back to Beijing, before spending a few hours in a market, before catching a night train to xi'an. The market was kind of interesting; I bought a few little gifts. You could expect to pay about 10% of the original asking price.

The train was better than expected. It was 6 beds to a berth, but each berth is not closed in, so there is space to move around. For the most part it was a smooth trip. The worst part was the squat toilets..... Not my favorite in general, but made much more difficult by a rocking train. Some thoughts so far: China is crazy; it's just so different. Im definitely not on vacation, I'm traveling. There is very very little English, which makes things hard. People don't even know the word hello. I've never been anywhere where literally no one can speak literally no English words. The beijing subway system was easy though, as it was in English from the olympics, so that was the best way to get around. We have been really enjoying the random English translations we have seen places; it's just like the stereotype as none of them make sense. It's pretty funny.

Also funny is the fact that I think some people here think I might be an alien. Some of the looks I have gotten from people starring at my red hair have been priceless. Some are looks of shock, others confusion and one woman looked just offended. Kelly (who also has redish hair) said that she has made multiple Chinese babies cry, just by looking at them. I believe it. One pleasant surprise so far has been the food. I wasn't sure what to expect, but so far its Been ok. Yes, there are weird things like cow tongues and pig intestine on the menus, but as long as you stick to the basics (like Kung pow chicken and beef and noodles), you are usually ok.

That's all for now. Will post again in a week or so.

Siobhan Sent from my iPad