China February 16-February 23

So 6 days in China and 2 days in Hong Kong to cover…here goes.

The morning of China was a little rough…frustrating. There was an original set group and more and more slowly it expanded from 6 to about 13. That’s WAY too big of a group to really travel, especially in the crowded streets of China. It was just frustrating because while you didn’t want to be mean and leave people behind, you also didn’t want to hang with such a large group either. In the end it worked itself out and there were only 8 of us.

The first thing we did in Shanghai was go to the bank and then ate food. We ate at a place that had the Chinese name and then the English translation, which was “Come A Pot of Spinal Cord Lamb”…hysterical. We were cracking up. There were a lot of poorly translated things in China. It was a steam pot lunch…of mutton…yum my favorite. Unsurprisingly, I did not each much for lunch. The whole idea behind this meal is that they give you a huge pot of raw mutton and uncooked potatoes, yams, noodles, and a few other things that no one knew what they were. I only ended up eating a little bit of the noodles and this gigantic bottle of coke (about the size of two of my hands).

So after that my friends and I went shopping…my roommate Abby, and my friends Austin, Tyler, Kevin, Mem, Alyssa, and Buddy. We walked around this street called Nanjing Road in the Bund Area and immediately found this knock off store and the family that owned it was really nice. We stayed there for a bit because Austin got 16 pairs of socks for 2 dollars and Tyler and Kevin were haggling over a zippo lighter and a laser pointer. Eventually Tyler got both and Kevin got just the laser pointer. This laser pointer was ridiculous. They said you could see it up to 2 kilometers and I definitely believe them…it flashed so far.

They took us from one of their stores to another. The one woman gave me a super discount on a purse because she liked my face. We continued to walk around and then decided to take a rickshaw ride to this other blackmarket shopping center called Tao Bao. The rickshaw was soooo much fun. The motorcycles looked like they were going to break down any second. It was two per cart and really somewhat shady, but extremely fun. Austin and Abby filmed it so I’m going to get a copy for sure. The one told us that it would be 30 yen per cart and then as we were trying to organize our money to pay, the guy was like 300, 300, and then “assuming” we didn’t understand took the money out of our hands and hopped back on his bike and left…we got majorly ripped off but since there were 8 of us it wasn’t that bad and made for a really funny story.

The shopping center was a five story inside mall. But not how you would think. It was just stands all lined up in a row and while they said each floor had different things, they generally were all the same. We shopped around and of course I got some stuff for super cheap and had a blast and I learned how to haggle. I had lost my scarf at that internet café in Japan so I got a knock off Burberry scarf. I really wanted a Longchamp bag so I got a navy blue one. The last thing I got has a pretty funny story. We were walking around and found this story, which had army helmets and gear (like “vintage” stuff—collectables). There were these masks, a green one and a black one. They looked like real human faces (but without the eyes, of course). I think they were meant to hold goggles but Mem and I really wanted to try them on…so we did. Then Austin decided to buy it. We all continued to walk around and as we were leaving Mem, Tyler and I decided to buy black ones as well. The masks are really creepy. I had no idea when I was actually going to use it but it has come in handy (I’ll tell you about it later) :)

We then ate at a Chinese fast food restaurant and I got this really good shrimp but the sauce that it was in was only so so. It was so hard to order. At first we weren’t going to go because we didn’t think they would have an English menu. We started walking next door to a sit down Pizza Hut but the wait was too long so we went back to the fast food Chinese place, which turned out to have an English menu and the food was delicious. Kevin decided to try pig ears. Again, unsurprisingly, I did not. He was the only one that thought they were ok. Everyone else was gagging.

Then we decided to go back to the ship and get dressed and go to this club called M2. It was this really swanky…like high end. You had to “buy” a table. You had to spend so much money on food, alcohol, and drinks. You could have just stayed at the bar but we were there so early that we had to buy a table. It was so much fun. We drank, we danced, and had a great time. The morning was a little rough haha but it was one of my favorite nights yet.

So the next day Abby and I went to Suzhou with a Semester at Sea trip. This is a town built on the water. It was really fun. We saw about three different gardens, which surprisingly hasn’t gotten old yet. We also took a boat ride down the Grand Canal. So we traveled via this tiny boat through the village area. It was really neat…pretty impoverish…but very cool. Instead of doing about 4 different gardens we went to the local silk factory instead. They showed us the whole process of how the make clothes and quilts. I even got help stretch out some of the silk to create the comforter. It was a great day. It’s one of those trips that is too hard to explain and only pictures will do. Hopefully, you will all get to see my pictures. On a side note…I’m going to try to put some up via my friends computer. Anyway, I didn’t end up going out that night because I desperately needed to pack for my Hiking the Great Wall trip.

The next day was when I was to leave for the Great Wall for 4 days in Beijing. The first day was pretty boring. We just got on a plane, which was about 2-3 hours and then we had another 1-1:30-hour bus ride. We stayed in a 5 star Chinese hotel. This hotel had a bowling ally and an archery range. It was fabulous. The rooms were gorgeous. I wish I had taken pictures of everything and the rooms. Before dinner we walked around the strip area and went to this mall, which was a lot of fun. A girl from my hall, Kate, who I have become good friends with, was on this trip with me. She and I walked around the mall together looking for a hat and some gloves for here (which we wouldn’t end up needing). She was hungry so we thought we would check out the food court. It was a really small food court because on the ground floor there was a grocery store. As we walked around everyone, and I mean everyone was starring at us. I started getting really hot and she started turning red. I mean we must have unknowingly been naked or something because, without exaggeration, every head was turned. It was the first time I felt like a foreigner. After which we went to the area with the massage chairs and sat there for about 45 minutes. Then we had dinner at the hotel and this became the first of many family style, Lazy Susan meals. We pretty much all just hung out and after dinner Kate and I went to McDonalds for a late night bite.

The next day we woke up pretty early and headed to the Great Wall. We walked the Simatai part of the wall to the Jinshanling part of the wall, which was to be the hardest hike of the two days…and it was. This part of the wall really looked like what you expected the Great Wall to look like…high walls, stone, bricks, etc. It was definitely a lot hillier than expected. A lot of the people on the trip expected a much flatter terrain. We hiked for about 6 hours and in total about 6 miles. We had a bagged lunch on the wall, which was not very good. Luckily, Kate and I planned ahead and bough food in the grocery store and brought it. There were these farmers who stand at the start of the wall and try to sell you things…including themselves. You can pay for them to carry your bags and anything like that. One person paid for a farmer to be here photographer. The farmers would walk the length of the wall with you in hopes that you might by something. I also met this kid Martin, from Norway, but studying in New York, who is also a film major. He and I talked movies for the majority of the day. Haha Anyway, the hike was rough and exhausting. It was by far one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Some of the steps were up to my waist, which made it that much harder to walk up. All the guys with the long legs were fine and then there was me whose quads were on fire. It was so much fun and absolutely an amazing experience. That night we all just hung out at the hotel and Kate and I got more McDonalds later that night after another Lazy Susan dinner.

The next day we woke up and headed out and hiked from the Jinshanling part of the wall to the Gubeikou part. This was more of a typical hike. We were walking through the mountain areas and there were no walls along the Great Wall. It was almost like a raised path. Everyone had voted the night before on what we should have for lunch and the consensus came to getting McDonalds ordered to the Great Wall. So the first time in SAS (and this trip coordinator) history, McDonalds was delivered to the Great Wall. They (other tour guides, farmers) had to hike 2 and a half hours just to bring it to us. You only had the option of chicken or beef, but the chicken was a spicy chicken sandwich and I struggled eating it after one bite. And if that wasn’ upsetting enough, there were no French fries. Anyway, we hiked to the highest part of the two hikes, which was pretty cool. We actually could not take pictures facing one direction because it was owned by the military and we’d get in trouble. We hiked about 4-5 hours and about another 6 miles. And then bused to a different hotel in the city of Beijing. There were three other trips going to Beijing and all of them were at this hotel. Because the other trips had been there earlier all the double rooms were taken so almost all of us got a single, king size bed, with a couch, all to ourselves.

Now all meals were included and there was some amazing food. I don’t think I have ever eaten that much rice and chicken before in my entire life but each were different so it was amazing. All of the restaurants we went to were Lazy Susan style, which meant you ate way too much food because there was just so much of it. I have finally gotten down the skill of the chopsticks. Our first night at the new hotel we ate a restaurant called the Roast Duck, which is famous for the roast duck. I was a little worried at first because I didn’t like the rice and the chicken was really spicy. But then they brought out these shrimp that were doused in garlic and butter. They were so good that I had to order another plate.

That night we went to a bar across the street called Blue Green Club. The bar tender was amazing and apparently had won a ton of awards/competitions, including the Absolute Vodka Competition. I’m not really sure what that means entirely, but he was really good and made some really unique drinks. It was a lot of fun and it was filled with all SAS kids. It was the firs bar to have my drink Southern Comfort and lemonade. Yum I didn’t get back to the hotel until like 2 and one of the trips had to be up at 4:30 for their 7-8 o’clock flight. Austin was on that trip so he didn’t want to go to sleep…just wanted to pull an all-nighter. I ended up hanging out in his room until 4 am talking, having a heart to heart. It was a good time.

So I went back to my room and got 3 hours of sleep. I had to be up at 7 am for our last day in Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both of which were amazing. We learned a lot about the architecture and meanings behind the buildings. Interestingly enough but not surprising, the one topic that was off limits was talking about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I definitely took a ton of pictures. After that we went to a traditional Chinese Tea House and tried some teas…well everyone else tried different types of teas…I just sort of hung out. Then we left for the airport and headed to Hong Kong. The flight from Beijing to Hong Kong was about a 3-4 hour flight. Had you been sailing with the ship from Shanghai to Hong Kong, you would have had an extra day in Hong Kong, but if you were on a Beijing trip you got one less day there. The night I got back I just stayed in because we didn’t get back from the airport until 10:30-11 o’clock.

The next day, my first day in Hong Kong, Abby and I slept in and then went to lunch at McDonalds…haha I know a lot of McDonalds on this trip. Then we and two other girls from Bucknell, Therese and Mary went shopping in Mong Kok. It was almost set up like New York City with its “grid format.” There were three streets we went to for shopping. One specifically for sporting goods, another for electronics, and other called the Lady’s Market, which was just knock off/cheap stands everywhere (like the Shanghai “shopping center”). For dinner we went to a place called Modern Toilet. Here you sit on real toilets (not hooked up to the plumbing obviously) and ate off of sinks covered in glass. There were urinals on the wall that would like up different colors and all your food was served in ceramic shaped American toilets, Asian toilets, and urinals. Part of the menu read: With every one meal you get one large urinal. We all got a good laugh out of that. The lamps were shaped like poop, as well as display windows with pillows shaped like poop…hysterical. We were super embarrassing because we couldn’t stop taking pictures, but it was just such a clever idea…how could you not go wild with your camera?

That night we went out to this area called Lang Kwai Fan on Hong Kong Island. [Earlier we were on the island of Kowloon and you have to take a ferry to Hong Kong Island]. This area is known as Bar Street and it was overrun by SAS kids. We were all supposed to go to this club called Dragon-I, but it was lame so we hung out at other bars…specifically one called Bull Dogs. It was a lot of fun and packed with SAS kids. The street wound around the corner and there were even more students. We pouring out in the streets and at one point moved the party in this one street area. It was a lot of fun and I think I accidently stole a cup from Bull Dogs. Ooops. Definitely didn’t mean to do that.

The next morning Abby and I had a trip to Lantau Island/Buddhist Monastary. We got to see the largest suspension bridge and got to see some beautiful views. From there we visited a local beach, which really wasn‘t all that special, but I had a good time. Then we traveled to this fishing village. It was really cool and interesting to see how they lived. We walked around the market area…which smelled awful but was very cool. You could have taken a boat ride and have saw pink dolphins (ya apparently there really are pink dolphins), but Abby and I opted not to pay for it. We then took a bus to the Big Buddha…the biggest iron (I think) Buddha outside. It was massive. I got some really great pictures there. We walked down these steps to the monastery area at the foot of the Buddha. There we ate in a monastery and had a vegetarian lunch. It actually was not that filling and I had 6 mini spring rolls, which were delicious. I also accidentally tried tofu. YA I KNOW! It was alright. It came with the lemon sauce, which made it taste better, but it was more of a texture thing for me. It was a little weird and awkward to eat and there wasn’t much to it. It’s not something I think I’ll be eating again anytime soon, but at least I can say I tried it.

We have a two days break and then we are in Vietnam.