Hong Kong / China

Hello everyone, or should I say “Nｉ Hａｏ　ｍａ”!
I just got back from China! Over the past 6 days I was able to spend one day in Hong Kong, four days in Beijing and one day in Qingdao. I had a really good time and was able to see pretty much all of the “touristy” sights!
Hong Kong was great, the hong kong dollar is really pretty it’s pink and purple and the exchange rate is about 7.8 hong kong dollars= $1. Beijing and the rest of China operates on the Yuan, and the exchange rate is about the same…(it might be about 7.6 Yuan to the $1).
On our first day in Hong Kong, we decided to split up because Celina and I wanted to shop and the others didn’t! Celina and I had no idea where we were going, but we hopped into a cab with a driver who didn’t speak one word of English and pointed to a location on the map that we thought was a market. He started driving and after a while we began to notice that the meter was moving pretty quickly….we finally came to a stop and ended up paying about 10 US dollars for a fare that should have been about ½ that! We got out of the cab and began looking around for the market. After a few minutes of walking around and asking different Asian people if we were in the right place (only to receive blank stares because none of them spoke a word of English) we found a blonde haired man who looked like he knew where he was going and asked him if he knew where the market was. He told us that we were about ½ hour away from where we needed to be and that our best option to get there would be to take the number 6 bus. Even though we knew nothing about where we were going we wandered around until we found the no. 6 bus stop where we met a red haired woman from Texas who had lived in Hong Kong for a while and told us that we were in the right place. We caught the bus which actually ended up being along a scenic route that allowed us see a lot of the city. Hong Kong is full of tall buildings and scurrying people. It was very exciting. I really liked it there a lot! Once we finally made it to the market we were able to do some shopping and mingle with a lot of people both locals and tourists. We found a Mc Donalds as well as a Starbucks. We decided to have some of both…..it’s been like 3 months since I’d had some Mc Donalds! I had a happy meal, and I’ve never enjoyed a burger so much in my life! When we were done with our shopping, burgers, and coffee, we headed back to where we had first caught the bus...(even though we didn’t exactly know where that was). We had made plans to meet up with the others to see a light show at the Hong Kong harbor at 8 pm. We began trying to figure out where exactly the harbor was and after asking numerous people for directions, only to be looked at with blank stares and confused looks, we were again forced to seek out anyone we could find with blonde hair. We finally found a man who stood out like a soar thumb and we asked him if he could help us. He told us that he had lived in Hong Kong for about 10 years and that in order to get to the light show we needed to take a subway train. He helped us find the subway, helped us buy our tickets and even showed us which train we needed to take…we thanked him for all of his help, before hoping on the train. I don’t know how we did it, but we managed to find the light show. It was really cool, the lights flashed to a musical soundtrack which was played over loud speakers behind us. The show kind of reminded me of the Vegas show that we always watch on the ceiling of that dome in the downtown area. We decided to head back to the ship, and no sooner did we get to our room, did we get a phone call telling us to get ready because we were going out. We took a taxi out to a strip of bars and clubs and eventually met up with the others. We had some drinks outside of the local 7-11 (where alcohol is sold at very affordable prices-unlike the prices at most of the bars) and ended up hanging out on the sidewalk outside of the bars for the majority of the evening. It sounds really strange and lame, but we had a good time….there were tons of SAS kids out and when we finally headed back to the ship, we were very ready for bed.

On day 2 I arose bright and early. I had signed up for a SAS Beijing trip, and my group was leaving at 7am! I ended up doing this trip on my own and was feeling kind of nervous because I didn’t really know anyone that was going with me. We headed toward the airport and boarded a 3 hour flight to Beijing. Once we had arrived, we immediately headed to the summer palace. The Summer palace served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, In December 1998, the Summer Palace was placed on the World Heritage List. It is declared as an "outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape garden design, incorporating the works of humankind and nature in a harmonious whole." It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park.
Next we headed to our hotel and checked in….I met my roommate (who wasn’t very nice), and then got ready for dinner. I had some authentic Peking Duck! It was kind of scary, but I guess it was ok considering I don’t really like duck very much. After dinner we went back to the hotel where I purchased some internet minutes, and then went back to my room to get some sleep.

Day 3 was really busy. We woke up bright and early and headed over to the Great Wall of China. The great wall was about 2 hours from our hotel so I took a little nap on the way over. There are several different sections of the wall, but we visited the Mutianyu section….which, in my opinion, is the best! The wall was built to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during the rule of successive dynasties. The Great Wall is one of the existing megastructures and the world's longest man-made structure, stretching over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles). We took (what reminded me of a ski lift) to the top of the wall and then spent about 45 minutes hiking along the wall. We stopped and ate some lunch (ewww tuna sandwich with extra mayo….which I definitely didn’t eat) and then headed back to where we started. The wall was really cool and I met a few girls that I ended up hanging out with and made them take my picture. The best part of the great wall was the way that we got down….There was a toboggan on the Great Wall that we could slide down. This was sooooo fun! Who would have thought that I would ever have been able to slide down the Great Wall of China!! I purchased a t shirt and then we headed back to the bus. Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of the four great temples located in Beijing. The other prominent temples include the Temple of Sun in the east, the Temple of Earth in the north, and the Temple of Moon in the west. All the buildings within the Temple have special dark blue roof tiles, which represent Heaven, and all of the temples are built without any type of screws or nails…they are all dove tailed meaning that they have been woven together…kind of cool, and definitely beautiful!
We then headed over to the silk market where we were able to get in some shopping before dinner. The market was great….there was every kind of knock off product known to man, and we also got to try our hand at some serious bargaining….I think that I am pretty good at doing this. I got a few bags/purses, and some pretend North Face jackets!! Dinner was on our own that evening, so I met up with the new friends that I’d made on the wall and we headed out to find a place to eat. We found a restaurant that looked really good, and sat down. None of the waiters spoke English, so we relied on pictures of different foods to help us order. I don’t know what we ate, but it was pretty good! After wards, we attempted to go out. I was running low on funds at this point, so I didn’t really have any drinks that evening, but we ended up having an ok time…

Day 4 we woke up early and headed to the Forbidden City which was the residence of the terrestrial Emperor. It is refered to as forbidden due to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. After that we went to the Tiananmen Square which is the largest open-urban square in the world with a total area of 440,000 square meters. The square has great cultural significance as it was the site of several key events in Chinese history. Outside of China, the square is widely known for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
After visiting Tiananmen, we had lunch at a restaurant that served food specific to a small tribe in China…the restaurant was called Afanti and the food was really good….it kind of reminded me of Indian food a little bit. We went to the Lama Temple where we were able to see the largest Buda in the world and then headed (once again) to the silk market where I broke down and ended up doing a little bit more shopping. We had a good traditional Chinese dinner and then headed to an Acrobatics show….this was my most favorite part of my entire China trip…it was soooo good, better than Cirque De Sole (spelling?)-but sort of similar. I have a ton of pics of the show and even took some video!
Our last day in Beijing consisted of visiting another temple/garden which included a scenic boat ride which was kind of fun, having a delicious lunch at a very modern Chinese restaurant….(this was my favorite meal that I had in Beijing) and then visiting the Beihai park. Beihei Park is a large public park that is especially popular among the older crowd. In China, the average individual retires at about age 45-50. After retirement, many of the people fill their days by playing at the park. Beihei park was full of people (both old and young) playing backgammon, hackie sack, dancing, ribbon twirling and playing instruments. I thought that this was one of the neatest and most interesting things that I observed because it is so different from what we would consider “elderly activity” in the states. Instead of sitting in front of a television in some elderly home rotting away, these grandmas and grandpas were outside playing. I really liked it here! Even though the park had a large elderly crowd, we also saw lots of children and babies. Many of the baby’s had slits in their pants (for easier access for potty purposes)…this was really prevalent all over china, but I especially noticed it at this park…I took a couple pictures of baby butts! It’s actually pretty funny!
Once we left the park, we hopped into some rickshaws and sped through the narrow streets of china taking in a lot of the scenery before stopping to visit a private home. The people in this house worked as paper cutters, and did some of the most intricate and beautiful paper cutting work that I have ever seen. We had dinner at a “Western style” buffet, and then headed to the airport to catch our plane to Qingdao where our ship was now docked. This was a really icky flight with lots of turbulence and I had to sit in a middle seat. Once we finally arrived at the ship I was exhausted….I checked in and went straight to sleep!

On the last day, my group of friends finally returned from their Beijing trip….they decided to take a train from Honk Kong to Beijing and then again from Beijing to Qingdao. In total, they spent about 32 hours on a train….yuck! We slept in and then headed out to see the sites in Qingdao. It wasn’t as fun as Hong Kong or Beijing, but we made the best of it….we ate at a really good Pizza Hut, and visited a Chinese Walmart before finally heading back to the ship. Over all, I had a really good time in China. There was a lot to do, and my trip was really busy. I thought overall that people were pretty friendly and I’m beginning to notice that people throughout the world are a lot more similar than we are different- someone even asked me if I was half Chinese….funny huh? I guess my eyes are a little bit squinty.
I have a busy two days ahead of me….We will be in Japan on the 25th. I’ve got lots of papers to do and am not feeling so hot….I’ve got a pretty bad cold (again) and the sea’s are kind of rough so I’m feeling a little sea sick! Lets hope for the best! I’ll see you all in about 3 weeks!
Love, Val