We were planning on doing a China trip for our anniversary in May, but 11 days before my spring break Andrew found a really awesome flight deal to go to China that coincided with my break so we just booked it right away! Luckily my dad knew someone that could get us our Visa quickly so we didn't have any issues. My parents came too--we can always count on them for spontaneous trips! My dad being fluent in Mandarin also came in very handy!
Our first stop was Beijing. After our 14 hour flight, we arrived and my dad's work friend Hong Tao picked us up from the airport and kindly took us to the most famous peking duck restaurant in Beijing! He ordered so much food, apparently out of respect for hist guests. I couldn't believe how much he ordered! We had duck feet, liver, hearts, duck meat, tree fungus (similar to mushrooms :/) spicy rice noodles, bread bowls with ground duck meat, salad, green beans, duck fajitas, spicy tofu, cabbage. There were 8 of us total....SO MUCH FOOD right?! I loved the bread bowls with meat and the duck fajitas! I didn't love the duck feet....they showed me how to eat the feet and then watched me do it. It was awful! It was so spicy and burned so bad (they say it clears any sinuses haha) It was so rubbery that it wouldn't chew into smaller pieces so finally I just had to swallow it whole. So gross!
Since Andrew travels so much, he always has status with the hotels which means we get to enjoy the delicious breakfasts for free every morning. The one in Beijing did not disappoint!! We also had a beautiful view of the city. After breakfast we took the subway to Tiananmen Square. Unfortunately, it was closed for government meetings for 2 weeks :( so we just walked around the square for several miles and then went to the Forbidden city to see the Emperor's Palace. It was ginormous! All I could think of was Mulan haha. We took a rickshaw around Wongfushen and our drivers told us a little about the history.
Later that evening, we walked around to get street food for dinner. They were trying hard to advertise their snake, scorpions, and other insects which looked horribly unappetizing but instead went with candied strawberries (YUM!) noodles, dumplings, and bao buns which were my favorite!
We walked 11 miles total that day!
The next day was my favorite of them all! My dad's friend Hong Tao arranged for a driver to pick us up in the morning to take us to the Great Wall. When we got there it was super windy. They had people out selling hats and gloves and other items. They kept putting hats on me and my mom trying to get us to buy them haha. I kept saying "bu yao, bu yao, bu yao" because my dad said it means I don't want it. My mom ended up buying one and I spoke the little Chinese I learned from 4th/5th grade (and my dad's help!) to bargain me some gloves!
Climbing the Great Wall was seriously incredible. It should be on everyone's bucket list!! You could see parts of the wall so far out in all directions. I was stunned the whole time. The views were amazing and the sky was amazingly clear too which isn't usual for China. After climbing some of the wall, we went down the Alpine slide which ended up not being very cool because you could't control the speed you went down so it was too slow but oh well.
We ate at a delicious little restaurant outside the wall and watched a guy make homemade noodles which was really cool. I could have eaten the noodles, fried rice and dumplings every day here! Then the driver took us to see the Olympic stadium which was massive. Lastly, we met up with my dad's friend again for dinner. This time dinner was relatively normal-- donkey meat, donkey hamburgers, edame, corn and potatoes, sweet potato dipped in corn syrup to cool it down, fruit, and of course they made me try shark fin and slugs----why did they always watch me to eat it and not my mom or Andrew?! Once again, those two items were very unappetizing. But we were thankful for Hong Tao for being so generous and kind to us.
The next morning we left Beijing and flew to Guilin. My dad explained Guilin as what you always see artwork of China of-- the beautiful green mountains surrounding the water. It is also the picture on the 20 dollar bill there. My dad's friend gave Andrew and I each a 20 dollar bill as a souvenir for going to Guilin :) They were the nicest people!
When we got there, our driver picked us up and took us to Elephant Trunk Island Park and the seven star park. After the park, we walked through the town for dinner. People were selling food all throughout the streets but we ate at a small restaurant. Then we were dropped off for the dream like Lijiang show which was the history of Guilin. It was like watching an hour of America's Got Talent! They were so talented. We stayed at a super nice 5-star Shangri-La hotel (thanks to my dad! we paid for their hotel in Beijing and they paid for ours in Guilin and Shanghai) and enjoyed the steam room before bed.
The next morning we woke up early to head to our river cruise. The cruise was about 4 hours where we saw amazingly beautiful green mountains along the water. It's crazy how different but awesome scenery around the world can be. I still can't get over the huge mountains in Switzerland, but these mountains were a different kind of beautiful! There's so much beauty/history/culture to be explored in this world and I'm extremely grateful Andrew and I have been able to experience some of it.
^ view from our hotel window
^playing video games while waiting for the rain to pass.
Afterwards we drove to the Silver Diamond Cave. At the end of the cave there were people selling artwork and other kinds of souvenirs. We bough a pretty hand painted picture of Guilin that was only 80 kuai (sp?) which was like $12! The roads were terrible on the way home, filled with traffic and very bumpy roads. When we got back we were exhausted and just went to the dinner buffet at the hotel and then packed up to head to Shanghai early in the morning.
Shanghai was our last stop of the trip. The skyscrapers were unreal--so many in every single direction. I couldn't believe how many people were there either. I've never seen so many in my life! We took the fast bullet train to our hotel (419 km/hr!). Our hotel was on top of a shopping mall so my mom and I ventured out and did some shopping.
^another view from the hotel room
Our 3 days in Shanghai was filled with spending a day at a water town called Zhouzhuang (aka the Venice of the East), walking around the city and eating street food, walking the Bund, and lots and lots of shopping.
^ so many floors in the hotel shopping mall!
^ driving in the shoulder.....a little terrified.
It was such a fun trip that I'm so glad we took. It was fun to go with my parents and see what my dad has seen and experienced every year that he took the Cadets to China.
Traveling just never gets old.
