Hong Kong & China

WOW! China was INCREDIBLE. I did so much and saw so many things in so little time. I could never have seen as much as I did by traveling independently. I went through a tour company that many other SAS students were using called The China Guide.  Before leaving in January I had signed up for the basic trip but I found out my friends were doing the all out trip that went to three different cities so I changed to be in their group. I’m getting ahead of myself though…

We arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday March 26^th. We entered the harbor with beautiful views of the skyline. It was a little foggy....or perhaps polluted….but nonetheless it was great! I went to the front of the ship to have unobstructed views of the city. It was VERY cold outside compared to the past countries we have been too. Everyone had on their long pants, socks, hats, and fleece. We got off the ship around 10:30 AM. We were spit out into a really nice mall. Why do we always port near malls?! There was this awesome designer store in the mall that had bags with the world on them….I bet they made a ton of money! We had to find an ATM as always. The exchange rate in Hong Kong was 1USD to 7ish Hong Kong Dollar (HKD). We found an ATM near the Tourist information desk….and then it ate a kid’s card so we were sketched out and found another one.

We were then walking around and couldn’t find the star ferry which we thought we needed to take from Kowloon Island (the new territories) to Hong Kong Island. This British guy came up to us and asked us if we knew where tickets were too and we had no idea. Finally we found the ticket machine….and then realized it couldn’t take 100 HKDs. SO we got the most delicious iced coffees at a store nearby….got change, tickets and hopped on to the next ferry. It is apparently the cheapest transportation in the world. It was a fun little 7 minute ride. We decided that we wanted to take the Ngong Ping 360 tram ride to the Big Buddha. So we forced ourselves to learn the subway system because it was going to be WAY faster and cheaper than using a cab. We got to the subway station which was underneath a mall, talked to the customer service desk and figured out that we needed to go on the Tung Chung Line. The ticket thing at their subway stations is SO cool. It has a touch screen with the routes on it and you touch your destination. It tells you how much the ticket is, you pop in the change and it spits out a card and change. Then you take the ticket and stick it into this reader to enter into the boarding area.  The Tung Chung line happened to go to Disney Hong Kong too!!!! We were so excited and really wanted to go but held back….we knew we would regret it. As we’re standing on the train trying to figure out where we are and where we’re going, this American guy came up to us and tried to tell us what island we were on because we didn’t really know at the time. I think he thought we were a little crazy but we were just so excited!

When we reached our destination we got out and walked to the Tram station which was very close. There was a huge long line but it had great views of Hong Kong. We decided to get the Crystal Cabin with the glass floor. It ended up being totally worth it on the way back because it had its own separate queue and we got to skip about 200 people. The tram ride was really cool and really long! We got to the other side just in time for lunch and ready to try real Chinese food! We went to this place and ended up getting a crazy waiter who basically ordered for us and told us we should share, plus ordered a side of fried rice for us. He gave us chopsticks and peanuts and said we couldn’t eat until the peanuts were gone. I’ve gotten pretty great at chopsticks lately!! We got our food which was fried rice, sweet and sour pork, cashew chicken, and some kind of really awful rice noodle and beef dish. It smelled like the streets of Vietnam and reminded us of this really smelly market. It was absolutely awful and we literally could not eat it. We told him at the end that we couldn’t eat it so he wanted to give it to us To-go. WE told him no, and he grumbled that we were wasteful and said “I give to someone.” Uhhh….okay dude. But then he DID! He put it in a to-go box and gave it to this lady. EWW!!!! After lunch we went to the Big Buddha which was really cool! We walked around and ate ice cream….we would be eating lots of ice cream in China too.  We went back to the tram where we got to skip a ton of people, got in our Crystal Cabin and took it to the beginning of the tram ride.

At this point we had NO idea what to do! We decided to take the subway back to Central Station on Hong Kong Island. By the time we got there it was getting late and we still wanted to go to Stanley Market and the Peak where you can see views of the city. I thought we had plenty of time still so we decided to walk around the streets of Hong Kong. Turns out….the streets of Hong Kong are not pedestrian friendly. There were very few sidewalks. We decided to jump in a taxi and take it to the Peak. We knew there was another tram we could take there to see the city at night. The taxi drove us up this huge mountain and the whole time we were thanking God we didn’t try to walk there because we would NEVER have made it. So we get to the top….pay the taxi driver and look around. Now what???

                We’re standing there looking very lost when the most awesome thing happens! This guy comes over to us and he’s like “Hey, you look like foreigners, are you trying to get to the city look-out?” And we’re like YES!!! He asks us where we’re from and Brittany says she’s from Massachusetts. And then he says “I’m from Israel.” We were so surprised! He totally looked, sounded, and dressed like he was from the U.S. He basically took us under his wing and found out where to go, leading us to the ticket counter and through this mall, up a ton of escalators and to the top where tons of people were looking out onto the city skyline. It was an AMAZING sight! At this point we all realized that we didn’t know what this guy’s name was or who he really was. His name was Mark and he’d been traveling in Hong Kong for the past three days. We explained to him why we were there and where we had been; he was impressed! We could actually see our ship from the point we were at so it was kind of cool to show him our home! He told us all the places he had been traveling to and that he just got out of the Israeli army at the age of 22.  We stayed up at the top for about 2 hours. It was FREEZING!!!  While we were up there, all the buildings that were lit up were supposed to have their nightly light show at 8:15PM. But it was also Earth Hour, so we never got to see it. When we got to cold and had to thaw out, we went back down through the mall where we saw a Bubba Gump’s Shrimp restaurant. I also bought some flags.

We went all the way back down to the bottom and decided we needed dinner. Brittany’s cousin who went on SAS last year said there was this AMAZING Mexican place in Hong Kong that we couldn’t miss. We realized it was dumb to eat Mexican in China. But we knew we would be eating Chinese food for the next few days. We told Mark about it and got him pumped up and craving Mexican too. He looked up the address and found out it was near the hostel he was staying at. We shared a taxi with him to the train station which we took back to Kowloon. We then wandered around and after talking to some locals….FINALLY found Tequila Jacks! It was an awesome feeling and we wouldn’t have found it without Mark’s help. We sat down, ordered up some frozen mango margaritas, nachos, burritos, fajitas, and tacos and went to town. It was the best tasting Mexican, outside of Mexico. YUM! They also had wifi there so I took advantage of it! We talked a lot with Mark about how Israel works. Boys and girls are required to go into the Army after high school. Guys go for three years and girls for two. It is customary to independently travel after you’re out of the Army which is what Mark had been doing for the past few months. We had great conversations and a blast hanging out in Hong Kong with a guy from Israel who we met on top of a mountain. It’s so cool the people you meet along the way! We also found out that Mark’s real Israeli name was Bar, and that he had lived in America for some time. After another round of frozen margaritas we knew we had to head home. It was getting close to 1AM at that point and we all still had to get to the ship, pack, and wake up the next morning to get to the airport.

Mark took us to the train station where we had hugs goodbye. We felt so close to him in so little time. He made sure we knew where we were going and what trains to catch. As we got back to central station again, all the trains shut down because it was so late. We freaked out a bit and decided we could take a taxi from there. But none of the drivers could speak English or take us in the tunnels under the river to where our ship was. We were wandering around Hong Kong at 1:30 AM and I was pretty nervous! Luckily this teenage Chinese girl helped us translate and we got into a taxi. Everyone was so nice and willing to help there! Unlike America!! We made it back to the ship that night by 2AM. I was exhausted and didn’t get to bed until 3AM and had to wake up at 8AM but it was one of the best nights I’ve had on this trip.

Sunday March 27^th began our China Guide adventure. Even though the flight that Steph and I were on wasn’t until 5:30 PM….I had absolutely no idea how to get to the airport and knew I would be way more comfortable hanging out there than I would on the ship or in Hong Kong. So at 9:15 AM Steph, Kerry, Brittany, Hannah and I began our adventure to the airport. We took the subway which is right near our ship to Central station. From there we needed to get on the Airport Express. Both Brittany and I only had 100 HKD bill so we decided we should break it since the machine didn’t take big bills. We thought we were so smart for thinking ahead. It ended up being a huge mistake. We got to the airport express train ticket counter and how much was the ticket?? 100 HKD. UGH!!! NO WAY! We were so mad. Luckily we could use credit card to get tickets. The express train was great! All the subways are VERY clean but this one was especially awesome! We got to the airport and this little lady asked us where we needed to go and directed us. We ended up being directed to the wrong check in counter multiple times so just relied on self-check in instead. I was impressed! Obviously I haven’t traveled that much and I was so amazed it could scan your passport and pull up your flight info. SO COOL! I also found out my seat was 57L. Holy cow it was going to be a huge plane!! For some reason Brittany, Hannah, and Kerry had an awful time checking in but got it all figured out. We went through security and grabbed some Chinese noodles for lunch. YUM! Kerry, Hannah, and Brittany left to get on their plane while Steph and I waited around the airport for a wonderful 6 hours. Steph went off in her own direction which was kind of annoying and really boring for me. I slept, looked at stores, tried to use the awful wifi and got frustrated and ate some ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s!). The airport is crazy! There were so many designer stores in there it was insane! I looked around in the bookstore for a while too. Then I decided to pass out on some chairs which were super comfy! The entire time I was afraid I was going to sleep through my boarding time and miss my flight. But I woke up in plenty of time. The McDonalds was calling my name and I was really curious as to what it would be like in another country. So I wandered over and ordered up a spicy McChicken, fries, and drink which is automatically a Coke. I go to sit down at one of the bar stools and this old man sits down directly next to me. I thought it was so weird because there were plenty of seats. I continued to eat and as I was finishing up, he turns to me and says “Can I ask you an obscure favor?” I was like….yeah? “Do you happen to have 40 HK cents? You see…McDonalds in the city isn’t as expensive as it is here in the airport so I’m short 40 cents to buy my alcohol” he says. At this point I’m digging through my wallet and all I can find is 5 HKD. So I say “You can have this, I’m going to Beijing and don’t need it!” He has a strong Australian accent and is going back and doesn’t need that much either. He gives me a handful of coins and thanks me. I’m pretty sure I helped a struggling alcoholic…

Then I go to the gate and sit down and put my ear buds in. An announcement comes on so I take them off. Out of the corner of my eye this little Asian lady is walking swiftly towards me with clipboard in hand. She approaches me and says she is from the Hong Kong Tourist Association and can she survey me. At this point I just want to chill plus we are boarding the plane soon so I say that I have to board shortly and won’t have time. She goes “Oh no….you not boarding now, you have time.” She sits down and immediately starts asking me questions…..oh gosh. I’m trapped. She asked me questions like how I rate Hong Kong, what hotel was I at, how much I spent, did I go shopping, etc. It was really confusing for her because I had to explain about SAS and everything so I think her survey got messed up. At the end of it I was given a pin which was kind of cool!

I boarded the plane on time around 7PM (It was delayed). There were tons of other kids doing China guide on the plane too. The plane was HUGE! It had 9 seats across (2 seats, aisle, 5 seats, aisle, 2 seats). I had a window seat which was great! It was fun to see all the lights and it was really roomy between the seats too. The plane had TV’s and a camera on the front of the plane so you could watch it take off and land. That was exciting!!! They had a really funny video for the safety briefing. I couldn’t understand any of it really. When we’re in the air, we get drinks and dinner. I couldn’t understand the flight attendant at all so the lady next to me orders my dinner. It ends up being pork, rice, salad, roll, and cheesecake. It was surprisingly good! As I am eating my rice with a fork, the lady grabs my spoon, gives it to me and points to my rice. She wants me to use the spoon to eat my rice? Whatever you say lady!

When we get to the station, we meet up with our guide Tony. He tells us about how last semester some SAS kids taught him the Frosted Flakes song about Tony the Tiger. We teach it to him again as we are driving to our hotel. There, Steph and I collapse into our beds (which are way too short for me) and go to sleep. I have to sleep diagonal in my bed….it was great! The beds were hard as rocks though! The next morning we wake up and go to breakfast where we meet up with Hannah, Brittany, and Kerry. This is when the fun begins!!

Monday March 28^th

                After breakfast at the hotel, we break up into our small groups. Kerry ends up being in group 2 and the rest of us are in group 1. We get into our coach buses with Tony the Tiger as our guide. We are SO SO SO pumped! The first stop is Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We walk around each of these places for about 2 hours. They were so crowded and full of Chinese tourists. All the tour companies have flags so you can recognize what group you are in. Or they wear matching baseball hats. We followed around a China Guide flag. The Forbidden City was awesome! We learned all about its history and how there wasn’t a place for the emperor so one of the Chinese emperors ordered it to be built. 500,000 people can fit into the Forbidden City. We saw the place where the Last Emperor sat to make decisions and this lady known as the Dragon Lady sat behind a curtain behind him to help him make decisions. He was only like 6 years old at the time. There were many sculptures of dragons and peacocks. The dragon represents the emperor and the peacock the emperor’s wife. We saw the rooms in which concubines stayed, the gardens, bedrooms, and a ton more! There are 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden City. 9 is a very lucky number in Chinese culture. After these places we went to lunch. It had a cool lazy Susan in the middle which we put all the food on. The food was delicious and the sweet and sour chicken was gone in 2 seconds! Next we went to the silk market which is a place to bargain. The prices are extremely high and you start out your bargaining at 1/10^th the price. I got a single pearl necklace there for 20 bucks! Bargaining ended up being a ton of fun! After that we drive for 2 and half hours to the place where we would sleep on the wall. We ate dinner in a restaurant at the base of the wall. According to our guide, the Chinese government has deemed it illegal to sleep on the wall but the tour guide company has special permission or connections or something. After dinner I realized it was freezing cold so I bought a hat and gloves from this lady who was pestering us to buy from her. That shut her right up! I was glad I had my gloves and hat though because I used them the entire night. We were given a sleeping bag, mat, and flashlight for the night and Tony showed us up the mountain to the top of the wall. It was a really hard climb and I had no idea how I would survive the next morning!! When we got to the top, we were greeted by our “body guard” who I honestly never saw again. There were snacks, drinks and beer up there too. We quickly picked out our spots, unrolled our sleeping bags and popped open some beers. Some girl brought external speakers for her iPod. We were jamming out on the Great Wall of China!!!!! It was a gorgeous, crisp, and VERY COLD night! It was probably about 32 Fahrenheit. It made for a fun time peeing in the woods with no toilet paper. At least I can say I peed on the Great Wall of China! I had on a sweatshirt, long sleeve shirt, coat, jeans, sweatpants, three pairs of socks, hat, gloves and sleeping bad and was STILL cold. But it was SO worth it. The stars were beautiful and many people saw shooting stars. We walked around a little but were too scared to wander off too much! We ate a ton of Oreos that night it was ridiculous! Tony taught us some Chinese songs and swears words which was fun! Around 10 or so we hopped into our sleeping bags and bundled up for the night. We all stayed up talking for hours. There was a group of about 8 of us who all huddled together to sleep. We told ghost stories and folk tales too. It was probably the worst sleep I’ve ever got but it was also the most amazing sleep ever!!!!

Tuesday March 29^th was probably the best day of my entire life. I really can’t even put it into words. We woke up at 5:30 AM to see the sun rise. It was freezing cold and we stayed in our sleeping bags to watch the sun come up. We had cold Nescafe and weird fruit bread for breakfast. The sunrise was AMAZING! Some Chinese guys came up to us giving us hot coffee. We thought it was free but we ended up having to pay for it which was a dilemma since few of us had money. We had to roll up our sleeping bags and hike down to the buses where we were the previous night to drop them off and then climb back up to the wall. While I was down by the buses the girls made this community peeing area and we were all just squatting in the bushes. It was really funny. I hiked up to the wall and began the most incredible four mile hike of my life. We went through fifteen different watch towers. At times the wall goes almost vertically upwards and the steps feel more like a ladder. The steps are also really tall and not deep at all so they can be treacherous especially if they are crumbling down. There is no railing throughout the hike either which makes it a little scary. The views got better and better and were breathtaking no matter where we were! It was definitely a hard hike but AMAZING!!! We didn’t see a single other person besides SAS kids on our trip. I literally don’t know what to say about it other than it was incredible. After our hike we were starving and drive back to the city where we had lunch. We went to the Jade market which was much like the silk market. We also drove by the Olympic stadiums. I was kind of upset because I wanted to walk around the Olympic Green but we didn’t have time. We also saw an acrobat show that night which was very cool! It was a great show and a little nerve wracking! Next we went to the same hotel we were in two nights before. Brittany and I roomed together that night. Our shower didn’t work and it took forever to get it across to them that it was broken because of the language barrier. After an hour it was finally fixed and we were able to get ready for dinner. We didn’t want to spend much so we walked to the mall nearby. Again….nicest mall ever! It had wifi and the cleanest, chicest, nicest McDonalds I have ever seen! We ate dinner there and used the wifi for a long time. We walked back to the hotel and conked out really quick! Everyone was pooped!

                The next morning (Wednesday March 30^th ) we woke up for breakfast at the hotel. I was really excited because that night we would be taking the sleeper trains from Beijing to Xi’an. After breakfast we went to a Hulling village which is the typical neighborhood that people live in. It consists of a few houses arranged around a square. There are few of them left because the government is modernizing the cities, bulldozing the villages, and putting up skyscrapers with condos in them, however they are very expensive to live in. The Hulling village we went to is protected by the government for the sake of tourism. We got there and went to a drum performance which was very cool! We also saw great views of east and west Beijing. Then we took a bicycle rickshaw ride through the streets of the village to a local’s home. We had lunch at their house and learned how to make dumplings. They were so good! Next we took the rickshaws back to the city center. During the ride it was neat to see the locals conversing in the streets. It is funny to imagine this is their everyday life. We went to a tea ceremony after our rickshaw ride. I don’t even like tea but this tea was delicious! I think I’m addicted! This ended our Hulong village experience. Next we took the bus to the zoo where we got to see pandas! We were lucky because they weren’t sleeping and were actually active and walking around! That was pretty neat to see! All of them looked fake! Lastly, we went to the summer palace which is 4 times the size of the Forbidden City. It is a place that was built for the emperor to go during the summer. 3/4ths of it is made up of a lake….which of course I loved! It looked nothing like Lake Max but I think it made me a little homesick. It was absolutely beautiful! There were many people enjoying the late afternoon, crisp spring weather. Couples were walking hand in hand and of course tourists were everywhere. We had dinner that night and then we were taken to the train station. We said goodbye to Tony there. He was an amazing tour guide! We boarded our sleeper train and headed off to Xi’an! The train was really cool! The beds were comfy and we played a few drinking games and chilled out!

                Thursday March 31^st

We woke up on the train to a Chinese lady barging into our room demanding our trash can. She mumbled something about being in Xi’an in a few minutes. I quickly got dressed, brushed my teeth, held my breath in the bathroom so I couldn’t smell the nasty smells, grabbed my stuff and stepped off the train into Xi’an. We were only in Xi’an for a day for the sole purpose of seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors. We took the bus to the museum which is huge! It’s only been 37 or so years since the warriors were first discovered. Someone was digging a well when they hit the first one. Now you walk into this building and in front of you are hundreds of warriors made out of clay. It was quite a site! There is still some digging going on to uncover more. There are also porcelain warriors that were discovered which are in worse shape but they have re-pieced them together. We were only at the museum for two hours or so. Next on the agenda was lunch. We hadn’t had any breakfast so we were starving. We went to this super fancy hotel which had a buffet. The best part was that they had French fries. Yeah….that’s sad but I am so incredibly sick of Chinese food. I can’t eat it for five days straight! I am craving American food so much! We filled up on food and then went to the city wall. The wall surrounds the city of Xi’an and is now used for walking, bicycling, and running. There is a marathon on the wall in a few weeks. Kerry and Steph rented a double bicycle which we all took turns using. It was a ton of fun and the first time I had ever been on a tandem bike. What a blast! It was nice to get some biking in! After that it was already time to go to the train station. Steph and I ended up in a sleeper car with a Chinese family who had a little toddler. He was really cute but was very loud and chattery all morning. I was in Hannah and Brittany’s room for much of the night along with a bunch of other kids from our tour group. We were playing more drinking games and hanging out. We were all exhausted but wanted to savor the last few hours of our trip! I passed out pretty quickly when I went to bed. It was really weird sharing a sleeper car with people you didn’t know and couldn’t communicate with. Last night I didn’t even change into pajamas. I fell asleep SO fast. Morning (Friday April 1^st) came quickly and we arrived in Shanghai. We were greeted by a China Guide tour guide who directed us to our buses which took us to the ship. It was an amazing feeling being back on the ship but kind of weird since I hadn’t been on it in so long. Shanghai is really cool. The architecture is awesome! It’s a little smelly and polluted. I caught a cold and a cough during my time in China….I think the bad air got to me. Yuck! I can’t wait to be on the ocean again!

I am so excited that it is finally the month that I come home! Happy April everyone! To Taiwan we go!