This past December I was given the chance by my company to go to China for 1 week. It was incredible. It felt like a HUGE blessing from the Lord that I was able to go because the way in which I got to experience it was exactly the "dosage" of travel I was craving. Don't get me wrong, I ALWAYS love exploring new places. But Eastern Asia (China, South Korea, Japan) has never overly intrigued me. I mean I love the history and wanted to go dee the Great Wall etc. But wasn't sold on it the way I am for SE Asia, Middle East, etc. But because this trip was 1)five days long and 2) with my company -- I got the chance to see all the incredible "must-sees" in Beijing and Shanghai while still leaving me wanting to go back for more actual culture the next go around!
We know I could write forever about any given thing - so i'll just do a quick day by day write up with pics.
Day 1 - Arrival
This day was just a lesson in how crazy traffic is in Beijing. We got through the airport, and then took a few hours to get to our fairly close by hotel due to the INSANE amount of people on the road. But, upon getting to the hotel we were able to grab food, explore the rooms and get some sleep before a big next day.
Day 3: The Great Wall!!
This was an incredible experience. My biggest takeaways were:
1. it is TRULY built on top of a mountain. You had to take a ski lift to get to the top and the fact that the wall was created by people walking up and putting dirt up there to begin with is unreal.
2. Being able to ACTUALLY see the wall for miles in every direction is such a testament to the people that built it. It really is an incredible structure.
Day 4: Eating in the Hutongs
Hutongs are literally narrow streets with houses along them. The houses look like the wooden structure shown below, but are now divided into small sections for different families as opposed to one family owning all of one as they did before. The family who fed us was wonderful and the food spectacular. It was interesting to hear about the history of the Hutongs which go back to the Yuan dynasty and worth thousands today even for as small as they are.
We know I could write forever about any given thing - so i'll just do a quick day by day write up with pics.
Day 1 - Arrival
This day was just a lesson in how crazy traffic is in Beijing. We got through the airport, and then took a few hours to get to our fairly close by hotel due to the INSANE amount of people on the road. But, upon getting to the hotel we were able to grab food, explore the rooms and get some sleep before a big next day.
Gifts from our tour guides.
Day 2 - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
Day 3: The Great Wall!!
This was an incredible experience. My biggest takeaways were:
1. it is TRULY built on top of a mountain. You had to take a ski lift to get to the top and the fact that the wall was created by people walking up and putting dirt up there to begin with is unreal.
2. Being able to ACTUALLY see the wall for miles in every direction is such a testament to the people that built it. It really is an incredible structure.
Day 4: Eating in the Hutongs
Hutongs are literally narrow streets with houses along them. The houses look like the wooden structure shown below, but are now divided into small sections for different families as opposed to one family owning all of one as they did before. The family who fed us was wonderful and the food spectacular. It was interesting to hear about the history of the Hutongs which go back to the Yuan dynasty and worth thousands today even for as small as they are.
Hutong example -- people only live in quarters of them these days
Making dumplings
Day 5: Temple of Heaven and Bullet Train to Shanghai
Square = Earth and Circle = Heaven, 9 is the number of the emperor's so you see lots of this everywhere.
Bullet train - awesome, but no wifi yet! Great to see the various landscapes of China along the way however.
Day 6: Old City Shanghai and the world's largest starbucks
Day 7: Zhujiajiao Water Town
