"He who doesn't reach the great wall isn't a true man" Mao Ze Dong

October 14, 2011

Dalian, China

We made it to China! As soon as I got off the boat to do my early morning passenger tour around Dalian, I was filled with excitement. I was in China, all the way around the world, ready for all of the amazing adventures that come to me. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to be in a place where nearly everyone speaks another language, and you are the minority. Anyway, I had to find my tour bus right away, so I looked for bus 2. My tour guide Joe was a sweet old man who welcomed me right away to China, along with his assistants Tony, Li and my favorite, Nancy. I sat next to Nancy right away as all the passengers loaded onto the bus. She is an English student and this helps her to speak English and learn it when a bus full of English speakers come to her country. She was very proud of her homeland, telling me all of the amazing things she feels China has to offer. I was looking through the bus windows in awe of the old-world architecture. Our guide Joe was singing to us many songs on the way there, but it really moved me when he began to sing, “You Are my Sunshine”. Mainly because it holds sentimental value to me. My Grandpa Mesler always used to sing that to me....miss you Grandpa. 

Our first stop on the bus was at the Pole Aquarium. We were all lead to a dolphin and whale show and everything was in Chinese. Luckily, I made friends with Nancy and she was telling me what was going on. It was basically Sea World, but all in Chinese. The next stop on our bus was at a Kindergarten. We got to see all the little one’s playing and  then take a tour of their place of learning. We had to take off our shoes before we took the tour. It’s considered rude to wear your shoes inside, but it makes sense because the bathrooms are so dirty in China. And young children don’t wear diapers, instead they just pop a squat, like a dog and do their business wherever they want! They even have little holes in their pants to accommodate for that factor! In the Kindergarten, they had these adorable little bunk beds for their nap time....man, if only us Americans would have had little bunk beds for out nap times...maybe I would have taken my naps :) We then went to what was my favorite part of the tour. We got to go inside someone’s house. The host, Mr. Li, welcomed a small group an I into his home along with our translator, Wendy. Mr. Li showed us around while we asked him questions and Wendy translated. It was so sweet, he offered us tea and snacks right away. His daughter was away with his wife, but he was happy to have us visit. His home was pristine. It was simply decorated, but very clean. His daughter was a champion pianist there in Dalian. I told him that I sang, and gladly sang for him “someone to watch over me”. It was really a fun experience. Then, we all loaded back onto the bus and went to get some lunch and entertainment. The food was gourmet, and the entertainment was nothing like I have ever seen (except maybe on youtube haha). There was a guy that changed his “face” every few minutes, a guy that spinned plates, and a young girl that stretched her legs over her head and spun around on her neck. I was amazed. Seriously, the girl was the most impressive. I couldn't believe the acrobatic tricks that she could do at age eight. The food was also really spicy and delicious. They gave us tiny plates and tons of food. I couldn’t keep track of all the food I was scarfing down. The last stop, we went to People’s Square where there was a large fountain and little old ladies selling kites. I was very impressed with the culture and people of Dalian. I didn’t want to say goodbye to my new friends I had made, but I was sure grateful that happened. Lucky me. Next stop, Beijing overnight!

October 15th and 16th

Beijing, China

What an adventure today was! We (Dan, Eli, Jess, Brad, David and I) tried to get off the ship really early,  but because of strict immigration, we could not exit til about 11:30. We then get outside and we are greeted by several, angry, yelling Chinese people. They all wanted us to get into their taxi. Our tour guide on the ship told us it should only cost about 15 dollars to catch a ride to the train station, so we were set on getting the best deal possible. Once of the ladies was really angry and mean and convinced us to take a cab ride for thirty....or so we thought....she then raised it to 40. But after a while, you just go for it. You just want to get out of there and head into town. So, we got the train station in tianjin and took a thirty minute bullet train ride into Beijing. I could not believe how fast the train went. We almost got up to 300 km per hour! I tried to catch a wave of sleep, but I was way too excited. We then got into Beijing and tried to get a cab to the hostel we were looking at staying at for the night. None of the cab drivers spoke any English, and so that was impossible. It took a lot of time to find anyone who spoke any English, but finally we did, and we took the Subway into the part of town we wanted to go to. I was in NO WAY any assistance to getting there. I was lost and very thankful I was with people who were directionally savvy. After we got into our final stop, Brad and David agreed to come with us to our hostel first....but we had to find it. Again, the search was for an English speaker. We saw a group of American tourists and asked them where our hostel was. They gave us vague directions, but we were taken to this really artsy part of town where supposedly our hostel was. It was amazing. There were red lamps everywhere, cute little art shops and tons of bars. I looked at Dan, Eli and Jess and we all agreed we would want to stay in this area tonight no matter what. We were running out of time to go to the wall, since it closed at 5:00, so we just decided to stay in for the night. We couldn’t find our hostel, but we did end up finding this awesome hotel for 15 bucks a person and a guy that organized our tour to the wall really early in the morning. It was a great deal. He also told us we could still make it to the Forbidden City and Tianaman Square if we wanted to go. So, that is exactly what we ended up doing. We went to the city, and marveled at the amazing architecture, and then wandered around Tianamen Square for the night. It was breathtaking. The weather was a crisp fall delight and the sun was setting just as we walked into the Square. We were all getting really hungry after our day of travel, and so we stopped to get a gourmet meal out. The food here was so cheap, and so incredible. We were the only tourists in the restaurant, so we knew it had to be good. We had tofu, duck (including the brain), beef, cashew chicken, rice and many other to die for items of food. I was stuffed and it was under 20 bucks for each of us! I couldn’t believe it! After dinner, Brad and David went back to their hotel and called it a night, and we decided to head back to our area of town. At first, we had some discrimination coming from the cab drivers! No one would take us! We even had a card that had the chinese words and characters on it, but they scoffed at us, and wouldn’t take us. When we finally got someone to take us back to our quaint part of town, we wandered around shopped, and stopped into an awesome bar. We walked up to the loft of the bar, took our shoes off and sat on some pillows. We were laughing so much and saw several different travelers pass by, including a group of very blonde Swedish boys with cool haircuts and style. They were on vacation and heading to Bangkok the next morning. We then went back to our hotel, and I saw a group of Chinese teens lighting up an air balloon and letting it go into the moonlight. It was breathtaking, really. After that, the boys stayed in, and Jess and I decided to head back out. I mean, hey, we were only going to be in Beijing for the night. :) Live it up! So we went back to a bar and started talking with a ton of travelers from all around the world. We met an Irish guy who taught English, a few Ukrainian people, a guy from Canada and a pilot from China who lived in England. I was amazed at the kind of people hanging out in this part of town. This had to be the coolest area in Beijing, hands down.

The next day, we got up bright and early and waited for our cab driver to take us to the Great Wall. I was so tired, but happy I got to see the nightlife of China. When I stepped outside our hotel, the street was dead. It was so quiet and incredibly peaceful. Such a shift from the night time bustle. We drove to the wall, and on the way, I got all giddy because there were so many gorgeous fall trees. Nothing makes me more excited than the fall season. It was a treat seeing all of these leaves. I didn’t expect fall to be the same in China. I would say it looked similar to North Carolina, but the mountains were not the same shape. They were actually really uneven and lumpy, but quite stunning. We then literally climbed up to the highest part of the great wall that we could go. Inching up very slowly behind the massive crowd of people. However, the higher we climbed, the less people showed up haha. It was breathtaking. The views were to die for and it could not have been a more idealistic day for climbing the Great Wall. I am so blessed that I got to see this wonder at the age of 22. I was also amazed that people were taking so many photos with us, just because we are American. I felt like a novelty...it was weird. We had quite the day of traveling back to the ship, but made it back smoothly. I was so impressed. Everything was cheap, fun and not stressful. I took in everything I could and I don’t regret a moment of this little overnight getaway in Beijing. Next stop, Shanghai!