October 1 is National Day in China, which means that everyone gets work off for an entire week to celebrate. Sounds great! Wonderful! Amazing! Until you realize that EVERYONE gets work off for a week to celebrate. In a country of over 1.3 billion people, the term “everyone” takes on a whole different meaning. When we realized that we had planned to spend our break in the nation’s capital (the prime traveling destination for this holiday), we shook our heads, gave each other great big smiles, and decided to plunge ourselves headlong into the madness.
look at all those people!
Did we see more people than we ever have in our lives? Yes we did. Were we completely overwhelmed by the masses and the smells and the spitting? Yes we were. Did it matter to us? NO IT DIDN’T! Why? Because two of those people were my best friend and her best friend, and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to mind at all when we were climbing the GREAT WALL OF CHINA, mesmerized by the post-Olympic lights, or awed by the grandeur of the Summer Palace.
We opted out of eating scorpion and seahorse on a stick...
My sister Lyssa and friend Kirsten met up with us (actually we met up with them:) for our expeditions in Beijing and Xi’an, and it was such an amazing adventure. The first part of our trip was in Beijing, where we saw the Forbidden City, Tianenmen Square, the Drum and Bell Towers, the Summer Palace, The Olympic Plaza, the night market (we ate fried bird's nest!), and of course the GREAT WALL of CHINA!!!!
we climbed all the way to the top!
Out of the 4 ½ days we were there, we went to the Great Wall for two of them. I would have liked to go to the wall for all of them. I love the Great Wall! I love the Great Wall! I LOVE THE GREAT WALL! I don’t know if I loved it so much because I was in serious need of climbing mountains (Shanghai is the flattest of the flat!), because of the beautiful crisp fall air, the wonderful company of family and friends, or because the wall is the most epic, marvelous, amazing, breathtaking, and downright awesome wonder of the world I have ever seen. I wish Shanghai had the Great Wall. I would be there every weekend.
We hiked up and up and up the wall (literally…I’ve never seen stairs so steep before, it was awesome), and then took the toboggan slide down! It was so fun! Definitely one of my favorite days…of my life :)
I couldn't decide which picture to post to display the enormity of my love for the Great Wall. So I created a slideshow :)
Mulan anyone?
We did more in Beijing than the Great Wall, I promise. Here's a pic of me at the Forbidden City to prove it. Lyssa has a lot more details of our trip on her blog if you aren't satisfied.
Our hostel
The second leg of our journey started with an overnight train ride. The four of us had a cabin to ourselves, and bunked together while we enjoyed our books and our Pocky’s. By sunrise most of us had slept well and only one of us had had bad motion sickness -poor Steve :(. Overall we considered it a success, especially after we were at the hostel enjoying our omelets and black tea :)
In Xi’an we explored the twistings and turnings of the Muslim Quarter, where in one block we saw hand-pulled noodles, puppies for sale, crickets in their wooden prisons, a van full of meat, a rainbow of dried fruit, and, Steve’s favorite, piles and piles of giant naan.
We of course also saw the infamous Terracotta Warriors. The whole time I kept remembering how they went there on Amazing Race one time, and how the warriors always seemed so far away. But there I was, in China, looking at the ancient remains of one of the most extravagant tombs in all of history. And I didn't even have to choose between my husband and my sister as to who my Amazing Race partner would be!
By the end of our National Day week, we were ready to get out of the huge smoggy cities and get back home…to Shanghai. That’s when the realization hit us that Shanghai really has become home to us now. In fact, it’s our very first home together (living in our own place, anyway). It was actually really special for us to come home to our lives here. We are so very blessed to be living where we are, in the community we’re in. We had a great holiday exploring the Middle Kingdom, and it gave us an even greater appreciation for what we have here in Shanghai.
I can’t wait to show it to Lyssa and Kirsten when they come visit in November on their return trip home! After our adventures in Beijing and Xi’an, they went on to Nepal where they immediately set off (with 25 other people) for a trek into the Himalayas to spread the word of the King to the villages they stumble upon. Please keep them in your prayers for the next few weeks, as they are no doubt experiencing eye-opening encounters with the King and his children in Nepal. To follow their journey, check out their blogs at: http://luhugh.blogspot.com/ (Lyssa) and http://outsidehistory.blogspot.com/ (Kirsten).