You Win, China

        After the absolute problem-less-ness and smoothness of India, I figured one country would have to volunteer to be extra rough. China was nice enough to step up and fill those shoes.

        We arrived in Hong Kong, a massive city surrounded by skyscrapers and sculptures and Chinese writing, where it only differed from NYC in size and the fact that we saw a monkey get captured and taken away by animal control next to a big fountain. With plans only to find a train and take it to Xi’an, we figured, eh, this will be easy. We’ll book tickets and have the rest of the day to hang around before we leave. Wrong. Got a tad lost on the walk to the train station, where they told us it would be a 30 hour train ride. Who has that kind of time when they’re traveling the world? Well, actually, a lot of people. But we weren’t any of them, so, after getting extremely lost on the way back to the ship, we got our computers, got to internet, and found cheap-ish flights out 4 hours from then and out of Shenzhen, an hour away by subway. We were trying it. We sprinted back to pack and were off the ship again in 10 minutes, this time not risking it and getting a taxi to the station.

        Because Hong Kong is somehow considered independent of China, we had to pass through Chinese immigration, which was quite the excessive process. A couple bag scans, some paperwork, and a lot of passport checkpoints later we were through and in the airport, running back and forth, trying to communicate with the people at the airline to let us buy tickets for the flight that left in now 30 minutes and counting. After being redirected to a couple different counters, we were finally told the tickets had been sold. Now over the border of Hong Kong with no way back in, we got on the internet again and found a flight out the next morning in the next city over. We retired for the night, exhausted from our mini chase through 3 very large cities in China.

        The next morning our flight was delayed an hour in the airport and another hour on the plane. Because of this, we didn’t get a chance to see the terracotta warriors like we had originally planned, and lost a day in Shanghai at the end of our trip to make room for other things. The hostel we stayed in was cute. The people spoke English, there were backpackers from all over the world, and the blueberry smoothies were delicious.

        We decided the next day we would hike Mount Huashan, the mountain used in the filming of the new Karate Kid movie with Will Smith’s kid, where people hang locks on the rails ascending the mountain as prayers. We woke up at 5:45 am to catch the 7 am bus and a two-hour ride to the mountain. Chinese people really are no help when it comes to reading letters (they only know their characters!), and we couldn’t pronounce the name of the mountain, so we did quite a bit of wandering before finding the right bus. I guess we didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into when we said we’d hike to the top, but 5 hours later and about 4 km of stairs straight up (I’d give it a 179 degree angle) we were at the point the cable car drops off the tourists who don’t want to climb. It was another couple hours to the highest peak, and the peak with the chess table from the movie, and the last bus left at 5 pm, and it was 4 pm. The Chinese are seemingly against credit cards, because there were no atms and they only took cash and the cable car station we would need to take down if we wanted to make our bus. Thank goodness for Martin, the friend we made on the mountain, who paid our way down (and we paid him back at the next atm we found!) AND spoke Chinese for us to find out which buses to take and where to go to find the bus to take us back to Xi’an. We made it back with 5 minutes to spare.

        When the bus came back to Xi’an, Martin also helped us buy overnight train tickets to Beijing for the next night, and then took us to a delicious street food restaurant in the middle of a bustling, Chinese lantern-decorated street. I’m not sure what we would’ve done without him!

The next day we took the bus to the Terracotta Warriors and discovered the true definition of a Chinese tourist. A Chinese tourist travels in a large pack of other Chinese tourists, smoking cigarettes, speaking loudly, and ignoring personal space, while listening to a Chinese tourist leader, or tour guide, and we like to call them, shout in more Chinese into a microphone facts about the Terracotta Warriors. WOAH. THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS ARE A BIG TOURIST DESTINATION. The warriors themselves were quite the site. Many years ago a King had ruled that area, including all of the statues and city-like places around the warriors. Another king came along and didn’t like this king very much, so he burned his city, destroying many of the warriors. They’re currently working to unbury, uncover, and reconstruct the Terracotta Warriors. At the end of our personal self-guided tour (aka free) I bought a mini warrior and named him Xsi-Xsi, which means thank you, and was one of two Chinese phrases I learned. The other was hello, and sounds like knee-how.

We took the overnight train to Beijing that night. My bed was the highest of three, or six, in the whole room, and quite impossible to get to. As I climbed up, my foot accidentally slipped off the step and landed on the tippy corner of the furthest end of the bed the lady under me was sleeping on. She jumped up, started yelling at me in Chinese, and ripped my foot down, causing me to slip altogether and dangle from the handle on the ceiling helplessly for about 30 seconds. When I finally did get up to my bed (it was about 7:30 pm) I just went to sleep. Thank goodness for ipods. Chinese people speak very loudly, and smoke in small spaces, might I add.

The next morning our taxi driver got lost and dropped us off at the wrong, but thankfully close by, hostel. We attempted to book overnight train tickets to Shanghai but they were full. Our next best option? Book a flight. For a lot of money. Unfortunately. We stopped thinking about that as quickly as we could and walked to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City was neat, full of big temple-esque buildings with giant thrones inside and beautiful gardens. It reminded me a lot of the Purple City we saw in Vietnam, which was said to be the influence of the Forbidden City. After walking around for a while, we went to the night market, where they sold everything from bugs to snake to dog to shark to fried bananas to fruit dipped in melted sugar. You want to try weird food, that is the place to go! A few girls came up to us and offered us their leftover snake, saying they were just going to throw it away if we didn’t try it. We did. It was bad. So bad I couldn’t swallow it. It chewed like cartilage. I bought a sprite. YUCK! We ran into SASers while we were there and hung out with them the rest of the night, exploring the city of Beijing through city lights and sounds and tastes, goofing around in the street markets and daring each other to try new foods.

Our final day started at 6:45 am when we attempted over and over again to get on a bus or a train or a SOMETHING to the Great Wall. At 1 pm we finally got on a train, and were just happy it only cost 17 yuan, or about $3. It was looking for quite a while that we weren’t even going to make it to the great wall, which would have been absolutely devastating. Most people hiked right, with tours and tour guides and signs from the Olympics. We went the opposite way, and were rewarded with a part of the wall all to ourselves. We were able to take pictures where you can see for as far as the thick smog will let you, and you can watch the wall fade into the mountains. It really was an eye opener that we were actually in China, and though we had new problems at every turn, we really did appreciate being there and loved the opportunity we had.

We caught a flight out yesterday morning at 7 am to Shanghai. When we got back to the ship, customs was a mess, so I stayed on the ship and worked out for the first time in a long time. It was really nice to have the ship almost to myself and get to use whatever weights I wanted and run wherever I wanted. The city rose up around the ship on all sides, and the view wherever I looked was just amazing. How many people can say they pulled out of Shanghai by ship, snapping pictures of the skyline and just appreciating the chance to be there?

A big problem we had was that even in asking for directions, Chinese people can’t read letters. Not English, but letters in general. I couldn’t write a street name down and have them tell me where to go. They only understand Chinese characters, which is kind of hard to fathom. At least in Brazil if I couldn’t say a street name I could show it to them on a map or in a notebook and they would know. Here I drew some fantastic pictures. And by fantastic, I mean my picture of the Great Wall looked like a necklace.

The little kids, maybe potty training age, wore pants with slits from front to back, and no underwear or diapers. I guess it’s their method of training? I saw a lot of baby butt.

I’ve never seen so much smoking in my life. Everyone. Maybe 4 out of 5 people. In the train. In restaurants. On the streets. I’m really bad with cigarettes. And there is no escaping it. Martin said the young people are changing the future. I believe in them.
If you ever go to China, know that there are student discounts almost anywhere you need to buy a ticket. Half off. It’s awesome.

The toilets were just holes in the ground. Squatting required. And no toilet paper in sight. I really appreciate America now. I think that makes me sound spoiled, but when you’re a girl, one of the small pleasures in life is being able to sit on a toilet and not feel dirty. How I missed the ship bathroom.

Yes, the “Asian Invasion” peace signs were everywhere. Did you know they do it because their political leader does it? For instance, when he shakes your hand, he’s flashing the peace sign with the other hand. You learn something new everyday!

In summary, I guess you could say I hate China right now. Every possible thing that could go wrong, went wrong, and then some. But thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I’ll love it and laugh in a week or two. We had a great experience, and I have so many stories to tell. Stressful, chaotic, rough. But worth it in the end. Just give me a little while to recover.