Around the World in 26 Days

So I have Internet, but Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger are all banned in China, so I’m sorry that all these posts are coming out so late. Freaking censorship. 

Other than that issue, I love China so far! It’s just so different here. The city looks like any other city with skyscrapers and what not, except that everything is in characters I can’t understand, everyone is short and Asian and super friendly, and our hotel is the bomb.com! It’s one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever been to. Here are some pics. Also included is a swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, spa, a hot tub just for the girls, and a Rolls-Royce and Mazerati dealership on the bottom level. No big deal. 

Also, everything is so cheap here! 100 U.S. dollars is 640 yuans, and I got a meal and appetizer for only $7 U.S! I’m so stoked for shopping… let me tell you. 

So anyway, after our long 10-hour flight (where I sat next to a girl who studies at the Beijing Institute for Fashion Design and spoke pretty good English), we landed at 1:30 pm and met with our new bus driver, David. That’s his English name, I can’t really remember what his real name is… Yong something. It was pretty funny when we first met him because he was holding up a sign that said Sheridan University, which he mistook for Kristen, haha. David’s pretty cool, but he talks super fast so I can’t really understand what he’s saying half the time. He did tell us that he has a little daughter, and that even though she’s lonely and would like more siblings, she can’t because it is not legal. It was pretty sad to hear. 

On the bus ride to the hotel, our directors surprised us by saying we were going to an acrobat show! We were all super excited and not disappointed! The acrobats were CRAZY. They did things with their bodies that should not be humanely possible. It just kept getting more and more ridiculous. Here are some pictures. If you’ve ever seen a Cirque D’Soleil show, it’s kind of like that, but set to more traditional Chinese music and costumes. It was definitely a highlight of the whole trip for me. 

After the show, we went to a REAL Chinese restaurant, where I got sticky buns and beef with noodles for only $7, like I said before. It was SO good! And I ate with chopsticks for the entire meal! I was so happy the whole time, as Chinese food is one of my favorites back home. They definitely has some weird options on the menu, such as seafood and fish I had never heard of, and some weird looking soups, but a lot of it looked delicious and not too far off from Timmy’s Wok, haha. 

After dinner we just went swimming for a bit and had a lot of fun. Tomorrow are some business visits and Tienanmen Square!