Shanghai to Beijing to Hong Kong
China was a great experience, my second foreign country and I am starting to get the hang of things. I spent one day in Shanghai where a few girls and I just roamed around the city and starting our knock off brand shopping adventure of the trip. This was my first time really bartering with people but by the end of my trip in China I definitely got the hang of it. After Shanghai I started my Great Wall adventure!
I took a 5 hour express train from Shanghai to Beijing and than another 2 hour trip to a small farm village where a group of about 40 people and I stayed for the night. It was called the Fan long di yi jia Folk Inn but was more of a hostel set up. They served us an authentic Chinese dinner, which was surprisingly very good! There was lamb; chicken, pork and noodle dishes served family style.
After the long day of traveling, people had the opportunity to actually go up and sleep on the Great Wall in 10-degree weather! I opted out of doing that but there were 18 people who chose to do it and they all looked frozen when we met them in the morning. I fell asleep to wake up at 6am to start my hike to the Great Wall at 630 am before the sun rose! Now I didn't know what to exactly expect going to the Great Wall but we all see these beautiful pictures of the wall looking brand new, but this was not the part of the wall that I saw. I visited Gu Bei Kou, which is a section of the wall, which was a gateway for the Mongolians to get to Beijing. The wall was very old and not renovated because it was a part that tourists do not go to. It was an absolutely beautiful site to see because I felt like I got to see the part of the wall that not many people get to see, plus I felt that I was on top of the world. Everywhere I looked I saw huge mountains and the continuation of the 20,000-kilometer Great Wall. A little interesting fact I learned about the Great Wall is that it is also referred to as the longest cemetery because when it was being built when people died they supposedly buried them into the wall.
I was able to hike the wall for about 1-½ hours and then we headed back to our Inn and headed back to downtown Beijing. We then visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, saw an acrobat show, visited some more markets and had a Pecking Duck lunch! I have never had duck before but it is very common dish in China. The chef brought the cook duck out and carved it right in front of our eyes and then we ate it on what they call a pancake but were more like a Chinese tortilla with a unique sauce and wrap it up like a little burrito. It was very good! I highly enjoyed it. There were also more chicken, pork, noodle and rice dishes, which were all very good as well.
We spent the night at the Beijing Traditional View Hotel, which was a nice change to your typical Hilton type hotel. The next morning we woke up for breakfast but the breakfast wasn't very appetizing because it was rice and noodles and some stale toast but it was different. We then were suppose to take a Hutong Tour which was a rickshaw cycle ride through a traditional Chinese living area and visit the Drum Tower but unfortunately people went out the night before and we were suppose to leave at 8 but had to wait for them until 9 so we had to reschedule that part until the next day. So we went to the Summer Palace and then to another authentic Chinese lunch. The food ended up being very similar each time but with just a little different taste to it.
Once lunch was over part of the group chose to go skiing and the other part, which I was included in, went to a resort spa for the rest of the day. The spa was amazing! We enjoyed different flavor scented hot springs like chocolate, lavender and papaya and then went to the sauna and steam room and took naps on heated rock benches and then repeated. It was so nice to relax and rejuvenate and treat my self a bit.
After my rejuvenation both groups met up at my favorite meal of the trip the Chinese Hot Pot dinner. Each person got their own little pot of water with a burner underneath that boils the water in front of you. You then take all different foods like noodles, vegetables, slices of pork, chicken or lamb, seafood balls and egg and you cook them in the boiling water. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!! My favorite was cracking the egg in the boiling water and letting it cook and then taking the egg and putting it in my rice and then mixing the two together YUM!!! There was nothing I didn't like about that meal.
The last day in Beijing I went to another market to get some last minute items and then finally went on the Hutong Tour where I rode the rickshaw and visited a local family home and met the owner and then saw an authentic drum show in the Drum Tower that was over looking the Hutong area.
We then took the bus to the airport and I hopped on my very first International flight from Beijing to Hong Kong!! It was a 3-hour flight, the biggest plane I have ever been on and they fed us a delicious meal and we got free movies and TV shows to watch! I watched Wreck It Ralph and my favorite show the Big Bang theory while writing post cardsJ don't forget if you want me to mail you a postcard please email me your address to Samantha.sojka.sp13@semesteratsea.org!!!
I didn't get into Hong Kong until 12 am and went straight to the ship and fell asleep. Unfortunately I only had the day to spend in Hong Kong but I would love to come back another time in my life to really explore the amazing city! It kind of reminded me of Japan. I absolutely loved it. I took a little boat tour around the harbor and went to a delicious lunch that had a buffet appetizer and I had a chicken open-faced sandwich.
I then relaxed back on the ship waited to leave Hong Kong. There was an amazing Symphony of Lights show that took place on the buildings in Hong Kong. It was the most beautiful city I have ever seen in my life. I was truly in awe.
I can't believe that I am now on my way to Vietnam and will be there in just 3 days!
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