We Made It!

We are officially in China! After a 13 hour flight from Detroit to Tokyo, we had a 4-5 hour layover. It was much different than I expected. Tokyo has more than one airport, so we must have been at the smaller one. There weren't that many shops or restaurants, and the scenery was different too. I thought I'd see skyscrapers and tons of lights, but I just saw the beach and some fields. From the fields and houses, it didn't look that different from home. Interesting thought. It did, however, have a pretty cool origami exhibit complete with fairy tale scenes.

Neither of the flights were full of people. There were a lot of empty seats, especially on the flight to Beijing. My sister and I slept the entire 3-4 hours and arrived in Beijing at around midnight. By one thirty we were checked into the hotel and in the bed. My sleep schedule is all kinds of messed up, and we basically lost Thursday. Lol. The hotel is very nice, and everything here is decorated for Chinese New Year. 

Yesterday we went with our group on the tours. Our tour guide, Cindy, picked us up at the hotel lobby with the other 30 people in our group (That's a big group, by the way.). Yesterday we got to see a lot of sights. First we went on a rickshaw ride through an old part of Beijing. That was pretty crazy. Rickshaw drivers have no sense of safety. He was swerving everywhere and bumping into other rickshaws. It was fun but terrifying. I was also accosted by two drivers. Ha! One said, "Hi, beautiful! I love you!" The other yelled "Hey!" and blew me some kisses. Watch out, Michael. 

We saw an old traditional Chinese dwelling with the courtyard and all that. It was interesting. Because of its location (15 walking minutes from the Forbidden City) and because it can be passed down through generations (most Chinese people have to give their homes back to the government after 70 years), it's valued at around $4 million USD. Pretty crazy for a place that has no toilet. 

Later we had a Chinese lunch. Normally I'm not one for Asian cuisine, but this was pretty good. Of course, I had to pick and choose what I ate, but the veggies and beef were quite tasty. They put all the food on a lazy susan in the center of the table, and we all ate family style. It was nice. We also went to a silk factory and saw silk worms (gross). I may or may not have purchased some silk trinkets for myself and others. :)

After lunch we went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Chinese government renovates things in the square all the time, and they also renovated some buildings in the Forbidden City for the 2008 Olympics. I was very overwhelmed by the contrast of the opulence and the poverty. Forbidden City was very crowded (though not as bad as it is in the summer, I'm told), so it was difficult for me to enjoy it. I don't handle crowds well.

Today we get to see the jade factory and conquer the Great Wall! I'm pretty excited for that, no lie. I tried to throw in some pictures for your viewing pleasure, but Gmail refuses to upload them right now. I am able to VERY SLOWLY upload pictures to my Pinterest account however, so if you want to see them there: pinterest.com/katangerine

Thanks for reading! Sorry it was so long! If you finished, kudos. You're a trooper.