Second Trip Outside of Korea: China

So I never would have thought of going to China by myself, but it was something that Susan really wanted to do while on this side of the world, so I said why not. I had never been to China and I was sure that it would be a nice trip. So we started looking into when was a good time to make this trip. It turned out that August was a good time because Susan got a week of holidays and I could group 2 of my holiday days and take the weekend. So then we had to find a travel agent to book us in for a tour for a good price. We found that it was impossible to get an English tour for the dates that we wanted, so we ended up getting a Korean tour. We figured that we would just experience China and read what we could about the places that we were at.
The first travel agent that we tried had a good price for us, but then told us that they didn't want foreigners on the trip because they caused problems and were always late. So we found another travel agent who gave us a higher price, but allowed us to go on the Korean tour.
We left early in the morning to take a bus to the airport. We met our group at the Busan airport and left around lunch time. The flight was nice, we got a meal on the plane, and then we were in China. We met our tour guide and he didn't know that there were going to be 2 foreigners on the trip. He ended up speaking English and said he would tell us about things when he had the chance.
So we were in China. It was nice to see a variety of people, as Korea doesn't have that many different people from around the world. The first place that we went was the acrobat circus. What a show! I couldn't believe that these people could bend like they did. It was amazing!

This is a picture of the acrobat show.
After the show we went for supper. The restaurant that we went to was very nice. We all sat at a huge round table with a glass turn table in the middle. The food was brought and we all started in. The food was great! I was so happy to have food that wasn't bland or that you had to add salt to. The problem, however, was that the Koreans didn't like it because of the salt. They complained about it. I couldn't believe how much of a big deal that the Koreans made about the food. It was almost embarassing. I figured that when you are given something to try, you at least try it and if you don't like it, eat something else, but keep your mouth closed.
After the supper we went to a shopping area. I thought 'ok here we go, let's do some shopping,' but this was shotly lived because we only stayed for a total of 15 minutes and then we were told it was time to go. What a waste! I was to find that this was how things were going to be the whole trip because Koreans don't like to take the time to enjoy things. Everything for them is fast, fast, fast.
From the shopping area we went to the hotel. Susan and I were given our own room. It was quite a fancy hotel, but I believe that it was catered to Koreans as the beds were really hard and the food for breakfast consisted of some Korean food along with Chinese food. When we got to the room I crashed because I was totally tired and we were to get up really early so that we could have breakfast and leave the hotel at 7:30.
The next day consisted of going to the Ming Tomb, which we didn't even see a quarter of it before we were swept off to another place. The part of the tomb that we saw was very interesting. I found out that they still havin't found the last emperor as of yet. From the Ming Tomb we went to a jade factory. We saw how the jade was shapped and then had time to go shopping for a little while in the shopping area. I ended up buying a nice bracelet and a little folding picture frame that had pictures of pandas on one side and the Great Wall that was made of marble. From there we went for lunch. Again we were sat at large round tables and the food was brought. It was good food again. After that we were allowed to do a little shopping in the shopping area of the restaruant. Here I was able to buy a few things for friends.
After gathering together, we headed off to the Great Wall. When we arrived at the spot were we were to go up we found out that we had to go up a lift. It was pretty high going up. What a view from the top of the Wall. We were allowed to walk to the highest part of the Wall, approximately 10,000 feet at the top. The hike up was crazy! It was so hot out and the stairs were uneven and then there were streches of steep flat parts to walk up. I finally got to the top, very hot and very thirsty. I bought some water and also found a really nice wind chime and bought that also. I took some really cool pictures of the view. You can literally see for miles and you could see the Wall running along the mountains. It was really cool! Coming down the Wall was as hard as going up only if you were not careful you could go head over heels if you leaned forward. It was an experience for sure.
From the Great Wall we went to a valley and had a boat ride though this mountainous area. The water was an emerald green. It was nice to be able to relax and take in the view of everything.
This is me on the Great Wall.
From the boat ride we went for supper. It was shabu shabu (a boiling pot that you add meat and vegetables to and it cooks right in front of you) and it was delicious. After supper we had a foot massage. That was an interesting experience because the people doing the massage ended the massage with a group patting thing where everyone was in sinc. Then we went to the hotel.
The next day started early again and we headed off to an oriental healing place. Susan and I skpped out on that and went to look around. We were at the Tienimen Square, but we couldn't go into the building because the line up was enormous. When the Koreans came out of the healing place, we walked to the Forbidden City. What a place! It was gigantic. It took about an hour and a half to walk through the place. It was neat to see all the different parts of the City. From there we took a rickshaw ride. This was really neat because I had talked about a rickshaw to my native speaking students and now I was experiencing it.
This is a picture of me in the rickshaw.
After the rickshaw ride we went to have lunch. Lunch was peking duck. It was my first time trying duck. It was quite fatty, but it was tastey all the same. After lunch we went to a tea house. Susan and I were able to have an English session here. We tried 4 kinds of tea and learned a little about the different teas. For example, you atually slurp some of the teas because it brings out the taste in the tea. They also showed us ways of helping to keep the tea pot in good condition. I ended up buying 2 kinds of tea, a leechi tea and a beauty tea. I was also given a really cool teas set that had black dragons on it. When you put the tea in the cups the dragons turn red. This was my most expensve buy on the whole trip, but I think it's worth it.
From the tea house we went to the silk factory. Here we had an English tour and found out how silk was made. Very interesting. We also found out how they make the stuffing for blankets from the silk. From there we went to another healing place, this one a North Korean one. Susan and I skpped out on that also. From there we went to the aquarium. It was nothing compared to the one that I went to in Busan, but it had the biggest underwater tunnel tank. It was interesting.
After that we went for supper, which ended up being Korean food and was not very tasty at all. Susan and I didn't eat anything, but we asked if we could go somewhere after. We went back to the hotel and then asked the tour guilde if he could give the taxi driver directions to the shopping area that we were at the first day that we came. So we went off by ourselves and had dinner at McDonalds. It was an enjoyable time out and then we went back to the hotel.
This is a picture of the women at the silk factory making the stuffing for the blankets.
The last and final day in China was filled with going to the Summer Palace and the pearl factory. The Summer Palace was very nice, but we could have spent so much more time there. We were literally rushed through the place. There was a beautiful pond area. The pearl factory was very interesting. We were shown how the pearls were taked from a clam and we were given 2 of the pearls from the clam. There had to be about 20 taked from one clam. After we were allowed to do some shopping. I bought a few little things. From there we went for lunch at a North Korean restaurant. We were able to see a show and eat some pretty good food.
This is a picture from the pearl factory as they are taking the pearls out of the clam.
After lunch it was time to go to the airport. I ended up buying a DVD of our trip. All in all it was a very interesting and fun trip.