Back from China!!

After an amazing 2 weeks, we are back from China!!! On the long plane ride home, I thought about the best way to go about blogging the highlights of our trips. Instead of one massive post, I've decided to create a top 10 list of our favorite memories. Each post will contain 2 memories each, for a grand total of 5 novel posts (6 if you include this intro).

As a brief summary - we were in 3 different cities over a time span of 2 weeks. The main purpose of our travels was to attend Scott and Bing's wedding. We started out in Hong Kong (where the happy couple live and work) and were there for 3 days, then flew to Xian for the wedding. The majority of the group went home after the wedding; however, K and I stayed in China for an additional 4 days and flew to Beijing with 3 of Scott's other friends originally from California - Victor, T and James.

After a 13 hour flight to Tokyo and another 5 to Hong Kong, we arrived and were greeted by Bing at the airport. We stayed at The Kowloon Hotel on Nathan Road - right near the harbor and shopping areas of the city. Sights we saw included the escalators, Sai Kung, Big Buddha, Victoria Harbor, shopping in Mong Kok, etc. [I've tried to create links for further explanation to those curious for more info on each sight.] Hong Kong itself is very western, and felt somewhat New Yorkish in my opinion. Very modern with beautiful skyscrapers and advanced public transportation.

To get to Xian, we took a bus to Shenzhen where we crossed the border in to mainland China before heading to the airport for our flight. Xian is much less advanced than Hong Kong, with a lower class population and people on bicycles everywhere due to lack of a subway system. Their driving is absolutely terrible and ridiculously frightening. White lines and stop lights mean nothing. It is unreal. Our hotel was beautiful - the Shangri-La Hotel - so I felt somewhat insulated from the true lifestyle of the locals. You can tell the city is really trying to ramp up tourism. Sights we saw included the terracotta warriors, Xian City Wall, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Huaqing Hot Springs, Muslim Street, etc. The wedding was unlike any I've ever been to. More to come...

Our first night in Beijing was horrible. Victor, T and James took an overnight train from Xian, while K and I flew. We were able to take a bus from the airport to the Beijing Rail Station, where we were supposed to catch a cab. Once we got there, the cab drivers we talked to pulled out their cell phones to type in a price of 80 yuan to take us to our hostel - 5 minutes away. I knew from the hostel instructions that this was no more than 10 yuan, but we were unable to communicate which was the most frustrating thing in the world. It was freezing, I was crying, we had no idea how to get where we needed to be, then FINALLY we realized there was a group line for taxi's that we ended up taking instead of hailing one off the street. What a nightmare. Other than that, the city was fairly easy to navigate. Good subway system, English signs from the Olympics, great hotel location which made sightseeing easy. We saw the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, etc.

The time difference is 13 hours, so we are struggling to adjust back to real life. It was such an incredible journey, one that opened our eyes to a completely different world, and also brought us closer together as a couple. Memories surely to last a lifetime...