When you come to China... Basically you look forward to going to Beijing THE WHOLE TIME. That's where China is. All the tourist sites that you automatically think of when you hear "China"- everything is in Beijing.
So first. Lets start with how we almost missed our train and would have never made it to Beijing, shall we?
YEAH.
That happened.
We thought we left home with plenty of time. We had about 2 hours to get to the train station (about 1 hour 20 minutes away) and get on our train. Well, we rode the metro for about 45 minutes, and realized we were cutting it close... So we started walking faster through the metro transfers - Just a little faster, not too concerned yet.
Then we got to the train station, with about 15 minutes until our train left.
Goooooooooddddd.
(insert very sarcastic tone here)
Oh and then there's security. And passport/ticket check-in.
So then we RAN. Fast.
You can just picture us, each with a backpack and big suitcase, the only white girls in the entire station, just shoving our way through crowds and running to get to our train. Emily actually ran over a guy with her suitcase. Legit just ran right over him. And that wasn't the only time that happened..
Because oh, did I forget to mention? The gate closes 5 minutes prior to the train leaving. So we had like, 8 minutes till the train left, so really only 3 minutes to get to the gate.
*pray pray pray pray pray*
We got to the gate! Ran over some more people with our suitcases, basically the whole train station was staring at us. We got on the escalator to go down to the platform, and Hey! The train wasn't even there yet!!
Then I remembered... We were taking a bullet train. Which means the doors to the train are literally open for only 30 seconds. And we didn't know which end of the platform car 19 (our tickets) was. So we get to the bottom of the escalator, turn the corner, and see the train pulling in.
You know that phrase, "deer in the headlights"? Yeah that was us. Literally standing in the headlights of the train, frozen for about 3 seconds. Then McKayla screamed. And we RAN. And then we saw car 19 pass us. So we did a quick cartoon-screeching-sliding-stop, and turned around, and ran again.
We made it on the train. And I was not 2 feet away from the door when it closed.
Moral of the story: Be early.
LOL @ OUR LIVES.
So. Onto the actual vacation.
Temple of Heaven
Our first day we first went to the Temple of Heaven. It was gorgeous! And very Chinese looking so that's cool I guess. lol. We met a family from India that wanted us to take pictures with them. That was new. Normally it's just Chinese people that want pictures with us. haha.
Pearl & Silk Markets
After we were done at the temple, we decided to brave the famous Pearl Market, and go shopping. Needless to say.... It's addicting. Every day that we were in Beijing, we went here. They have
everything. Headphones, phones, watches, hair accessories, wigs, silk, mac makeup, souvenirs, pearls, jewelry, T-shirts, clothes, hats, go pros, cameras,
anything. Literally anything you could think of, you could find it here. It is 6 stories of shop after shop after shop of
cheap bargain shopping. Cheap as in I got :
Michael Kors purse : 20$
Beats headphones and pill: 15$
Chanel perfume: 8$
Armani Cologne: 8$
Real Pearl necklace and earrings: 20$
And hundreds of other things that I'm not gonna list on here because they're gifts for people!!!
We spent 8 hours here just the first day. We probably spent 20 hours shopping here in a mere 4 days.
No shame.
We went to the Silk market once, but they didn't barter as well there, so we stuck to our friends at the Pearl Market (because by the time we left, we really were friends with most of the salesmen. pathetic, I know)
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is
amazing. And it definitely deserves the name "city". It's huge. I kept comparing it to the Vatican, because Vatican City is technically it's own city-state. The Forbidden City is probably
twice the size of the Vatican. Or at least it seemed like it. It even has a moat surrounding it. That's right. A
moat. Like, I didn't know those actually existed?
After we got through the whole city, we crossed the street and paid literally 50 cents to hike for about 10 minutes to get this
gorgeous view of the whole city. Sometimes I'm just so amazed that places like this were created by just ordinary people.
The Night Market
The night market in Beijing is famous for the absolutely most disgusting food on the face of the planet. And yes, I ate it. And it actually wasn't too bad.
Starfish
Snake
The Great Wall
Let's be honest, you can't come to China without seeing the Great Wall. So here are my obligatory photos of the place that everyone thinks about when they think "China".
Honestly though, the Great Wall was absolutely breathtaking. Because we probably climbed 2280197190857 stairs; not one part of the wall is flat. And they're all spaced awfully- some are two feet tall, some are two inches tall, some are so wide I have to take two steps, some are so skinny I can't even fit one foot on it. And they're not level at all- some stairs I swear were at 90
° angles. So yeah it definitely will take your breath away.
Oh and I guess it wasn't too bad to look at either. haha.
Really, it was gorgeous. It went on forever and ever. We climbed only a short section of it. We even climbed up the wall- as in scaled the Great Wall of China - and got on top of a tower that was clear that no one had been up there because there was tree branches and other debris all over. It was amazing.
Then, best part of it all! We went on a toboggan slide down the Great Wall of China. HOW COOL IS THAT? Here's the video!!!
Beijing was absolutely incredible. Now, the countdown to home <3(:
.JPG)
