So my friend Maryev came to Beijing the day before the boys I went to Beijing left... Her and I spent another week in China! She is studying Chinese for fun in Kunming... She was a Theta with me a USC but was 2 years older than me... We did beijing for a few more days and did a trip to Shanghai and little side trips to Suzhou (I think that is how you spell the second place)... We lucked out when we went to the train station to buy tickets to Shanghai cause they actually still had some soft sleeper ones left leaving the next evening! On this 12 hour overnight train, there are soft sleepers and hard sleepers and basically the soft sleepers are in a cabin with 4 beds (2 low/2 high) and the cabin has a door that shuts... The hard sleepers are just in the hall and are 3 beds per wall so you cant sit up straight in the bed... considering we were 2 girls traveling, we lucked out that we got soft sleepers... The only problem was the company haha... The way there we were really lucky with 2 middle-aged Chinese men, one who slept the whole time and the other who was really nice and spoke english! He gave us his card in case we needed anything while we were there... super nice... On the train back we were not so lucky... we got 2 more middle aged chinese men, one was a police man who spoke no english but kept talking to me in chinese and the other who spoke english but i couldn't really understand him and he only wanted to talk about the financial crisis... The policeman snored sooooooo loud and woke me up several times during the night and then in the morning he straight up farted out loud and then walked out of the cabin... unbelievable!
Anyways, once we got to Shanghai we had a lovely day! It was so beautiful out side... We walked all around the old city and had great dumplings at the famous bun place there... They have soup in them so you have to slurp when you eat them, dont the Chinese know how to be attractive! haha.. Anyways, they were super good! We also treated ourselves to Starbucks coffee! It was a big day haha... we walked down the river and looked at the skyline which has apparently changed lot since Maryev was there 3 years ago! We also went to the Barbie building which is 6 floors!!! It was seriously really cool... They had cultural barbies from lots of different countries and then fashion barbies... I was very impressed haha.. its a little girl's heaven! There is really not too much to do in Shanghai so we decided to take a side trip to Hangzhou and Suzhou! This meant more trains...
We first went to Hangzhou which is known for its beauty and peaceful nature but since it was a holiday weekend (which we didn't think about) it was PACKED... It was absurd... That made it much less enjoyable then it would have been. And there must have been lots of Chinese who came there from less touristy places because I have never been stared at so blatantly and with no shame. They were like owls when they walked by and their head just stayed focused on us... and the funny thing is we would see them tap their family and point at us and then the whole family would become owls... it was very uncomfortable and i found it really annoying... It was funny though cause when there was a little water show in the lake, they all ran from everywhere to go watch... they have clearly never seen a Vegas water show... So the other problem we ran into there was that we called like 17 different hostels and NO ONE had beds available... It was nuts... Thank goodness Maryev spoke chinese so she could call everyone but we failed at finding beds in Hangzhou... So that same day we had to get back on a train to go to Suzhou where were found a place to sleep after trying like 5 hostels there... we should have planned better haha... This was the absolute worst train we were on the whole trip... There were tons of Sketchy people who don't believe in deodorant... a lady pulled out an ear pick and cleaned her ears in the train... and in that train you can buy standing tickets which means that the aisles are filled with people standing up... no personal space haha... Also, men in china grow out their pinky nail really long which i guess is to pick their noses but it is only really common among the bottom class of people, who were the passengers of this train of course... the kid that sad across from us had this long nail and I wanted to puke... Maryev and I wanted to gossip about everyone on the train so we spoke spanish the whole time! That we knew they could not understand... None of them spoke english but they could understand some of it, hence the spanish... I had this old, dirty man sitting next to me who i blame for all my bug bites I got on the train ride... all the people around us were talking to Maryev in Chinese so i was left out of all those conversations... We had been told that the train was only 2 hours long but then she asked the pinky boy sitting next to her and he said 4... before we knew it we had gone back to Shanghai on the train and then were changing direction there to Suzhou.... liars... we were sooo excited to get off that train...
Suzhou was a great little city where one street was super developed with tons of shopping and great street food and then the street next to it was charming and old... out hostel was on the charming street an it was a great little place. Unfortunately it rained the whole day we were there but we bought an umbrella and walked around anyway... There wasn't much to do in this city but it was really nice to walk around after all the train rides haha...
We spent our last 2 days in Beijing. Maryev's mom has friend who is from Beijing and she took us out one day! We had a fabulous lunch at a chain restaurant that they have in LA too! Then we got massages!!!!! Boy did that feel good after the 12 hour train ride! So we told her we didnt want to be in our birthday suits if you know what I mean because we were unsure what a Chinese Massage entailed... Lucky we told her that cause then they gave us some pajama type clothes to put on... when they walked us to our rooms for the massages, there were 2 young guys that must have been only a few years older than us that were going to massage us! We escaped a super awkward hour by having those pajama clothes haha.. The massage was absolutely fabulous and was like a normal body massage at home except that he massaged my stomach... it was really weird... I asked Maryev if her guy did that too and she said yes... apparently it is for digestion but it just felt like he was moving my organs around... We left the spa feeling absolutely amazing! Then that lady's son took us to a movietheater complex which looks exactly like the complexes and architecture in the OC... so strange to have it there in China! We saw the Wolverine X-men movie which i actually really enjoyed... We ended the day with dinner with a young couple Maryev had met when she was studying abroad in Beijing... They used to take her out to dinner so they could practice their english... they were so sweet and bought me some green tea as a present... it was really cute...
Thats about all i can think of to write right now cause its bedtime... I have been doing laundry and packing all day so that I have clean clothes when my parents come and so that my room is mostly packed up so i dont have to do that while they are here! My aunt and uncle come to HK in a day and my parents come in 3 days!! I can't wait!! It will be sooo fun and wonderful to have them here!
Miss you all at home but I will be back in the US in 11 days! May 20th~ Mark your calendars!
And i will be 21 in 7 days! I never thought i would spend my 21st in Hk with the parents! hahah... vegas trip when i get home for sure!
Me and Maryevin Sozhou
in Hangzhou
All the Chinese who ran to see the water show
Me and the Shanghai skyline!
The steamed buns with soup and meat inside! So yummy!
The famous dragon/turtle/lion statue
The building that holds Mao's body... we stood in a line of over 300 people to see the body and they wont even let you close enough to see if its really him... and also in the pic is the communist propaganda statue
Me at the Great Wall!!! The highlight of my trip for sure!
asian buildings haha... all the historic sites look just like this!
Me in the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium!
Me + Asian building... the picture is crooked, not the building
