China. . . .

My time in China began at 4:30 in the morning with a flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, the capitol of China. I only had one incident when going through security and that was because my face wash was more than 100ml so they made me throw it away. I was a bit peeved because that was my only face wash for the rest of the voyage but luckily there was a duty free shop inside the terminal and I was able to replace it. We made it to our flight and after 3.5 hours we were in Beijing. We flew into what is now the largest airport in the world – it just opened 10 days previous to our arrival. It is pretty much the best airport I have ever been in. As you can imagine everything in Beijing is geared toward the Olympics which begin in about 120 days. After we went through immigration and customs we were on our way to the city to eat some lunch. After lunch we went for a tour of the Summer Palace. The grounds of the palace are beautiful! My one and only complaint was of the amount of people there. The day we went was a holiday which doubled the amount of people who would normally be there. Our group was also stood out like a sore thumb. There was even one point on our tour where we were bombarded with people who wanted to take pictures with us – just a tad awkward, not gunna lie. Anyhoo, after our time at the Summer Palace we headed to our hotel to check in and to freshen up before our Peking duck dinner. It was interesting… they were displaying the ducks as we walked in which pretty much killed my appetite. I did try some and it wasn’t bad but I just didn’t feel very hungry after that oh so disturbing sight. As most of you know the situation between China, Tibet and the Olympics has made the headlines around the world… except in China of course. One of the only English channels in our hotel was CNN so consequently we were able to catch up on quite a bit of news from previous weeks… except of course the situation in Tibet. Every time a report on what is going on between Tibet and China would come on, the screen would go black. We spoke to our tour guide about different topics including Tibet, and he was unable to give his thoughts on the matter because he would lose his job if it got out. Another example of the censorship of China was with the Tiananmen Square student protest/massacre – the Chinese people are still told that there were no fatalities. Oh, and the best one yet – I picked up an English newspaper on the flight back to Shanghai and the headline was “Warm reception in Cold London.” – if anyone watched the news last week that was NOT the case. The Olympic torch was met with many protests and I believe the flame was even extinguished by a protestor – please explain how that is a so called “warm welcome…” Anyhoo, the next day we headed to the Great Wall. It took about 2 hours to get there with all the traffic. Let me tell you, driving in all these countries makes me appreciate the road system/drives we have in the states. We got to the wall and had the option to either take a tram up or hike up. I, of course, decided to hike… it wasn’t too bad really. I was very thankful that it was cool and wasn’t sweating like a pig like in every other country. We made it to the top after about 30 mins of steps and the view, although a little cloudy, was beautiful. We made our way up in one direction, of course stopping every now and then for photo ops. One time we ran into a group of Chinese junior high students who wanted to take pictures with my friends and I. It was quite the experience – they just kept multiplying – we were like celebrities! We made it to the top of the side we were climbing, had lunch, took more photos, and headed back down. We were off to the buses and back to the city before dinner. Our busses dropped the group off at the silk market but my friends and I decided to go to the Beijing Zoo and the Olympic Stadium instead. We did walk into the market for about 5 minutes to find an ATM and that was probably the worst 5 minutes of the trip. People were everywhere… pulling on my arm… calling lady lady lady… did I mention people EVERYWHERE?? So we got out of there ASAP and were on our way to the zoo. We took a cab which was interesting with the language barrier – I pointed to a picture of a panda and hoped he knew what we wanted. We walked around the zoo first, of course, making our way to the Giant Panda exhibit. The pandas were so cute but the place they were living – not so cute. For how much the Chinese love the Panda they sure do not take care of it the way I would have expected. After the pandas we tried to see the lions, and tigers (and bears – oh my!). With a Chinese map it is quite hard to get around but we managed, and saw the sad habitat that the tigers were living in. I have a feeling the animal rights people who will be at the Olympics this summer and go to the zoo will have a hissy-fit for sure! After the zoo closed on us, we headed for the Olympic stadium. Again, we took a cab, showing him only a picture of the stadium and hoping for the best. The public is not able to get very close and the stadium itself is still under construction so we only we able to see it from the new highway where our driver just pulled over for us. We took our pictures and all that jazz and were on our merry way. My friends wanted pizza hut for dinner but trying to tell the cab driver was a tad difficult. I ended up drawing a pizza and the pizza hut symbol and he understood but did not know which one to take us to. We ended up passing one and we all screamed for him to turn around… it was quite an adventure! After getting back to the hotel we watched the news and again, it was blacked out some of the time… The next day we first headed for a tour of Tiananmen Square. My friends and I were most enthused by the official Olympic countdown clock so we ran over there to take some pictures. Next we went to the Forbidden City, which is huge! It just keeps going and going and going. Our group was given an automatic headset/guide to walk around with which was not my favourite but it worked. Again, there were so many people there – definite invasion of bubble. It was still a great experience to see and I will always have some great stories. Next we went to the Lama Temple which was cool. We were able to see the way Buddhist worship and I was also able to talk to my tour guide (who is Buddhist) about her beliefs and the reasoning behind some of the ways of worship. I was also able to talk to my guide about her thoughts on Mao. She said her parents and grandparents like him but she does not. I was very surprised to hear her speak out against the government (even if its past). Again, it gives me reason to be thankful to live in America where we can say what we want – for or against the government. After we got back to the hotel me and a friend went to a tea house for a little tea time. It was some good tea! That evening we had the opportunity to go to an acrobatic show. I really cannot put this show into words so I will have to let the photos and video speak for me. Let’s just leave it as amazing! The next day we went for a tour of the Temple of Heaven. This was a really cool place because it is surrounded by a park where people can come and do exercises/sing/play chess etc. The actual temple was cool! The intricate detail of the painting is absolutely beautiful. From there we went to catch a trishaws (similar to Indian rick-shaw) to visit a traditional Chinese home. It was a great experience to see a home that has so much history and means so much to the family. There was also a bird there that would say “nihow”… he was my favourite. Next we went to the Bell Tower. We had a great view of the city from the top. From there we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Shanghai. Again, we left out of the brand new airport – pretty much amazing! The next morning I had an SAS trip to do sunrise Tai Chi. It was pretty much the most hilarious experience I have had yet – and no, I will not demonstrate any moves when I get home! HA! After my early morning I had another trip planned to the Shanghai auto industry. We visited the Volkswagen plant of Shanghai and got a tour of the facilities. That was pretty cool! We were able to see the cars being put together from beginning to end. Next we went to a car museum which was pretty cool… although I am not that into cars. Next we went to the Formula 1 race track and saw some 6 Ferraris racing (Alex – stop drooling!)… that was pretty darn cool to see that – not gunna lie! I got back a few hours before on-ship time so I was not able to go out in Shanghai by myself so I will just have to come back again… Anyone wanna come? Overall this was a great trip ranking up there with South Africa for sure! I was a great experience to be in China while everything (whether they want to admit it or not) is going on – Olympics, Tibet, Communism as a whole. It was great to be able to see it first hand and be exposed to something I never would have seen otherwise. Thanks for reading this! Hope everyone is doing well! I cant believe this voyage is almost over… see you soon! love love love Cherie