Let’s Get Down to Business!

Today, I climbed the Great Wall of China. I thought that I would not make it pass one tower, but I ended up climbing up four. The Great Wall is absolutely fantastic. Just to think that its thousands of years old, is incredible. While stopping at the towers to take a break, I got to take a look at where the slaves used to warn soldiers of when enemies were coming to attack. These towers had a weird smell to them. I can’t really explain the smell, but lets just say, it’s worse than the smell you smell when you go down a dirty parking lot stairwell. Yeah, it’s worse than the dried pee smell. But other than that, the view was beautiful, and I’m quite pleased with myself that I climbed that far. Although my knees are killing me now.
After the Great Wall, we went to a bunch of factory tours. At these factory tours, aggressive sales people were always on the attack to sell things to us. We went to an herbal tea factory, a silk factory and a jade factory. Some of us in our group were sucked into buying these purchases, and some of us decided that we would save our money and spend it on something else. Our tour guide Alan, made an approximately $650 US worth of commission from the purchases we made at these factories. We could see the money signs rolling off his eyes!
Alan thought since we spent most of our day on our feet, sent us to get free foot massages. The place we went too was full of massage trainees looking to get some training time on some new patients. Basically, we were their guinea pigs. I decided to soak my feet in what seemed like tea. After I removed my feet from the tea, my feet became extremely itchy for the whole night!
Getting a relaxing treatment was nice, but I was in the mood to do some shopping. Alan took us to a market in a bust part of Beijing to do some bargain hunting at this mall. My aunt who lives in Shanghai decided to help us bargain since she knows fluent mandarin. There was a knock off Dolce and Gabana trench coat that my other aunt wanted. The trench coat was offered to her at 700 Yuen. My aunt talked the salesperson down to selling the coat for 150 Yuen! We all were shocked at how she criticized the quality of the coat, and how she was able to talk down the price by some much. I’ve decided to take her everywhere I shop from now on!
We spent our last night in Beijing at a nice restaurant. Except that they served us this really weird looking beef/meatball dish. I swear it looked like dog food. I decided to try some, and it tasted exactly what it looked like…dog food. Not saying that I’ve tried dog food before. But it was pretty nasty.
Tomorrow, I’m leaving for Hong Kong. I’m kind of excited! Looking forward to hearing some Cantonese, and something that I can understand!
Good-bye Beijing!

Smog City, China

It’s my second day here in Beijing. My blog is blocked and I can’t update, which is seriously getting on my nerves. But I’m leaving for Hong Kong in two days, so hopefully I can posts these entries up!
My first full day was just packed with activities. My family rented our own bus complete with our very own personal tour guide. His name is Alan, and he can speak Mandarin, Cantonese and English. He’s a really nice guy, but he keeps on holding us up, constantly talking on his cell phone.
Anyways, yesterday we visited the Forbidden City. It was extremely humid. I thought I was going to suffer a heat stroke, but thank god I didn’t. The tour gave us free bottled warm water. Although it did keep me hydrated, warm water doesn’t mix well with humid weather. The Forbidden City was nice, but I couldn’t pay much attention as the humidity was really getting to me.
But, oh my goodness, after the Forbidden City, we went to the Summer Palace, just a wonderful place to be. If I had a choice of which one was better, Summer Palace takes the win! Summer Palace was built for the emperor as his summer home. There’s a mad-made lake and a man-made mountain. I took lots of pictures, and we got to ride this dragon boat across the lake. According to Alan, our tour guide, Summer Palace’s lake and mountain took approximately two years to create. Thousands and thousands of workers dug up the lake and piled it together, to make a mountain.
After dinner, we caught a Chinese Cultural show. It was an absolute spectacular. My cousin Matthew was randomly selected to volunteer to take part in an act up on stage. He had to sit inside a huge vase while being twirled by a girl with her feet. It was a hoot, everyone just about died laughing. He wasn’t scared at all, and was happy to take part. Probably one moment he will never forget.
On a negative side, Beijing has the craziest drivers ever. I thought I was going to die a couple of time, while on the tour bus. The driver was always constantly honking at other drivers. But a good bus driver otherwise.
Tomorrow, its time that I climb the Great Wall. Not too sure if I can make it due to the heat, but I’ll see how far my legs can take me!

Up In The Air. Beijing here I come!

So, as I write this, I am flying over somewhere in Siberia. My cousin Matthew is sitting to my left and my cousin Jordan is sitting to my right. I was actually surprised that they served good food on the flight. The in-flight meal was a choice of either beef or chicken with a side of rice. I chose chicken, which was pretty good. A little spicy and a little sweet, but didn’t come with any vegetables. Although, the beef choice came with vegetables with pieces of gai-lan and lo-bak. The meal came with salad, a dinner roll, and some sort of cheese cake, which I must say was pretty darn good. They also served a tuna salad sandwich, which I gave to my cousin, because it was probably the most unappetizing sandwich I have ever seen. It also smelled funny. Hopefully, he doesn’t get sick!
I have a good 4 hours left on this plane ride. My feet are swollen, my thighs and back hurt and I seem to be really tired, but can’t sleep. I tried stretching my legs, and walking around, but it didn’t help much. There is no air conditioning on this plane, which means the atmosphere is very humid and disgustingly sweaty. The movies on the plane are okay. I’m currently paused at the movie “Bride Wars”. Matthew is watching Sherlock Holmes, which he finds very boring. But I think the most awesome feature that the plane provides are cameras filming the outside of the plane.
Oh, and before I forget, just my luck, I already broke my pair of headphones. I think I either stepped on them, while they were in my backpack, or their just really crappy. Also, my hand lotion exploded in my purse. But luckily I put it in a zip lock!
Anyways, I can’t wait to land in Beijing, get something to eat and then hit the sack at the hotel. I’m super tired and I’m pretty sure that I won’t be able to adapt to the jet lag. So, wish me luck!

SOOO SORRY

I'm so sorry for not updating. I am without internet here in China. I'm currently using my cousins paid internet at our hotel in Hong Kong. But I have been updating everyday here in China. So, keep on checking back on when I load all of my entries!
If you're wanting to know, I'm having fun here! Getting use to the lifestyle here in China, it's way different than life back in Vancouver. Missing everyone! I'll update soon again!

One More Night's Sleep

I have one more night's sleep then I'm off bright and early to catch my 1 o'clock flight. I'm packed and ready to go. I still have some jitters in me, not to sure if it's excitement or uncertainty. I know I should look at this trip as a learning experience and go to China with an open and positive mind. I'm just not looking forward to the plane ride. It's so freaking long.
So, tonight, hopefully I'll be getting a good nights rest. I think I've prepared myself as much as possible, minus the knowledge of mandarin and squatting. But hopefully, I'll get help with that (minus the squatting). I'm going to update as much as possible. I'm going to be writing on the plane, and post my post as soon as I get internet.
So, wish me goodluck! I'll be arriving in Beijing at 2ish am Pacific time, 5ish pm China time. So, if you get a phone call late at night, it might be from me, haha! (Just joking, but it might be as soon as I get a calling card!)
Ok, so the next time I'll be writing will be up in the air on an airplane headed for Beijing!
China, here I come!

1 MORE WEEK!

YES! One more week until I leave. I've decided to start packing tomorrow, since I don't have time any other day in the week. But, I've come to realize, that I'm actually not that prepared. I haven't exchanged any of my money, I haven't done any research about anything about China (ie. the language and the sites I'm seeing), and I haven't even decided what I really want to see and do in China. Sure, this trip is about finding my roots, but finding my roots must involve something. We're only going on one tour in Beijing, which will obviously help. But in the rest of the cities that we'll be visiting, we'll just be cruising around ourselves. Not knowing anything of what is going on. Hmm, maybe it's time to do some quick research on the internet.
So, now I'm a little worried about getting over jet-lag. People have told me, once you get to China, jet-lag doesn't effect you. But once you arrive home, you'll be tired for days, and maybe possibly months. Last year when I came back home from my trip to Toronto with my friends, I swear, I was tired for 1 month. And, sadly enough, the time difference is only 3 hours. Sad, I know.
Just imagine me coming home from China. I think I may be distinguished as a zombie. And just my luck, I have one day to rest, and then it's back to work! So, I guess now the real question is, will Meghan make it through her jet-lag? Or will she be a zombie at work? We'll just wait and see...
The days are now dwindling down. 7,6,5,4,3,2,1!

25 More Exciting Days!

I have 25 more days left to China, and if I needed to leave right now, I could.
Today, I finally got my travel vaccinations, which I thought would be more painful, but didn't hurt that much. Although the nurse did say, I might have sleepy symptoms, and a possible fever. Let's knock on wood that I don't. And she also gave me my shot in the middle of the waiting room for everyone to see. I was not too pleased about that.
I also got my travelers visa, and a hideous photo to go with it. Trust me, you don't want to ever see that photo. It doesn't live to exist! Really, it's that bad!
So, basically, if someone came calling to me to go to China, right at this moment, I could. Except that I have a job that must comply with and probably won't give me time off, right at this moment. Oh well...
But I'm still pumped for this trip. Everyday, I'm still counting down. I think the waiting part is the most exciting. But once you get to your travel destination, everything goes by so fast that the excitement completely vanishes.
But, hey I have 25 more exciting days!