Alex in China

I knew it would happen, I’ve fallen way behind on my postings. So much has been going on and I haven’t had the time to sit down and recap it. I panicked recently when I thought about how much I would have to write to catch us up. But really, a lot of we did this last leg of the trip was sightseeing so I think the best way to catch up might be through a series of pictures and videos.

“Sightseeing” has such a boring connotation attached to it. I really wish there was a better word I could use. These are the places I’ve dreamed of visiting and they were everything I imagined they’d be. Our group has certainly had to deal with a pretty intense schedule but we’ve managed to hold our endurance and I’m glad we did. It’s so tempting when you’ve been trekking across a foreign country for days on end to just give up and sleep through it all. But I think I can honestly say that we held on until the end.

So, to make things simple, I’ve uploaded all my favorite photos that show the remainder of our time in Beijing and Xian. And of course there’s some videos thrown in! (side note: this wasn’t the end of our time in China…just the end of our “traveling tour” of the country. Next up we’ve got internships!)

If I’m not mistaken, this was at the temple over looking the forbidden city. The forbidden temple wasn’t nearly as “forbidden” as you would think it would be. In fact, it was bustling with people. It was full of history though, which I can appreciate. When ever our tour guide started to get a little boring, I would try and imagine what the place was like during the dynasty times. But most of all, I enjoyed the giant portrait of Chairman Mao dominating the front entrance. Egocentric? Just a little.

I think I’d have to say the Great Wall was my favorite part of Beijing, hands down. We showed up on the foggiest day possible which, in my opinion, made for a nice effect. After wading our way through the families who only wanted to walk 1/2 mile we came upon a stretch of the wall that was an extremely steep downslope. Holding onto the rails, we half slid half ran down the wall, making a few stops to take pictures with various groups of giggling girls.
And to explain the banana picture…Derrick and I just thought it’d be hilarious to say we ate a banana on the Great Wall of China. We bought a few the night before at the market and packed them in my backpack just for that picture. I think it was well worth the effort.

I honestly can’t remember which temple this was exactly. A Tibetan temple maybe. It’s pretty beautiful though, right?

After day’s of walking, Aaron felt like he had pulled something in his right foot. Being the great friends that we are Clark, Trey and I agreed to go get a foot massage with him. You know…for moral support.

There are cats all over China, especially on our university campus. This one we found at a Muslin mosque in Xi’an.

Outside the Great Wall there were pits with black Chinese bears. These guys knew how to catch my attention as the danced and bowed on the poles.

We got to spend the afternoon with one of Tio’s previous Chinese students out by the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was built by a crazy empress who wanted a “vacation palace”. She told the people she was building a naval base as she poured all the nations money into the palace. I’m sure they were pleasantly surprised by the outcome!

We were able to tour the number one university in China, Peking University, while in Beijing. And wouldn’t you know it, it also happened to be graduation day! We grabbed a few of China’s best and managed to get this picture with them.

Ever since the Temple of Heaven, we’ve all become addicted to Chinese Hackeysack. It’s way more entertaining than that boring old American hackeysack (and it looks cooler too). Basically, you put together a stack of metal pongs with four feathers sticking out the back. Whenever there’s a few minutes in between activities we pull it out for a quick game. This game was right after meeting the Peking graduates.

Probably the best form of transportation China has to offer, the sleeper train. You get your own bed…on a train! There’s nothing better than falling asleep to the sound of train tracks and waking up to a beautiful view of the Chinese countryside. My only complaint was the forced wakeup by some Chinese train attendant over the speakers in our room. “Prepare to be awaken for glorious morning by beautiful Chinese music”. Any wake up message that asks me to “prepare” to be awaken can’t be a pleasant experience!

Ah, the Terracotta warriors. I remember reading about these guys back in High School. China considers the warriors their “8th Wonder of the World”. It was definitely an impressive sight to see the hundreds of stone soldiers in the original underground vault they were discovered in. We even got to meet the old farmer who stumbled upon the relics. I actually feel bad for the guy. He’s basically a prisoner of the museum , forced to sign autographs for the rest of his life. I guess that’s what you get for discovering an invaluable piece of your country’s history!

In Xi’an we were able to bike around the ancient city walls early one morning. Xi’an is China’s original capital, and also one of the hottest places in China. I don’t blame the Chinese for moving their capital away from the city of infinite heat. It made for a good opportunity to sweat out any sickness we were feeling and get back into shape. Also, it was just plain cool to be able to bike around the wall of one of China’s oldest cities. I even have a nice blister on my hand to remind me of the experience!

So after being delayed five hours at the airport and flying in at 3am we’re finally back in Qingdao. It’s great to be back, I’ve definitely missed the ocean breeze and our a/c! We’ve got our internships now for a nice change of pace…expect a post about all that very soon -a