A man of my word

As promised, the following is a short but sweet recap of my week in China. Enjoy!
We arrived at the mouth of the Huangpu River (south eastern China) midnight on the 16th and were guided far up to the breathtaking city of Shanghai. After docking around 6:00am and clearing customs around 11:00am, a group of us eager beaver adventurers set off running, excited to see the town. First stop, The Bund! It’s one of Shanghai’s most famous streets, boarding the Huangpu for about 1.5km, a neighbor street to a popular shopping district. We walked down it all, top to bottom, checking out some of the buildings along the way. I read that it’s comparable to New York’s own Wall Street because of its bustling business activity. At the end of the street we turned inland and found our way to the Yuyuan Gardens and bazaar. It was a beautiful and quite park smack in the middle of the city, offering a nice break from the city life (and all the car honking…they love honking in China). We had some great Chinese tea at the famous Buxington Tea House, checked out the bamboo gardens and coy pond, then headed back out for the Jing’an temple. Despite it being virtually on the other side of the city, the incredibly inexpensive cab rides allowed us to get there quickly (4 of us in a cab + ~15/20 minute ride= $0.92USD/ person…perfect). The temple is one of Shanghai’s oldest and active Buddhist temples around housing many small shrines and one larger one with a 20 foot tall jade Buddha. Each shrine had these ornate golden Buddha’s holding different poses representing different beliefs in Buddhism. It was the first official day of the Chinese New Year which carries a lot of religious significance so were lucky enough to see hordes of monks all praying and burning incense and what have you. Oh yes, my next point, the Chinese New Year! It’s a huge celebration, which they all pride themselves in very much. While we didn’t get to witness any crazy festivals or parties (as I had assumed there would be), virtually every roof and every awning of the city dawned big red lanterns which added a really nice light-up touch at night. One thing I can say is that aside from honking, the Chinese love love love their fireworks. It’s not like our 4th of July where families would head to designated parks or clubs for firework shows, but rather anyone who wanted to could simply purchase obscene amounts of bangers and rockets, walk in to the middle of the street (stopping traffic) and light off whatever they want. All day, no matter where we were, it sounded like the city was being invaded! Even on a busy street at night we watched as 2 guys lined up about 12 boxes of fireworks in the middle of the street and just lit them off one by one. It’s loud (and makes you jump) but it’s quite fun.
Anyways, we concluded day 1 in Shanghai by visiting the Cloud 9 Bar located in the Jinmao Tower, which was supposed to be the world’s tallest building until Dubai had something to say (you can see it in the daytime photo I posted, it’s the one with a big square hole at the top). There’s actually a lot of controversy surrounding that building because a Japanese company built it, but we don’t have to get in to that now. The next morning we were up and out early visiting an art museum, the Shanghai Aquarium, and a really fun outdoor market. It was jammed with people yelling prices at you and selling cheap products (and every kind of knock-off product you can imagine). Bargaining was loads of fun. I was with two other guys and being over 6 feet each, we felt like human Jinmao Towers. At one point a Chinese man asked to take a photo of us and before we knew it there were 10 other people all squeezing in to snap off some pictures. Being a celebrity in China is pretty easy I guess.
The following morning we flew out of Shanghai and 2 hours later found ourselves in Beijing for the start of an amazing trip. I was lucky enough to meet up with a Boulder friend who speaks Chinese wonderfully and she showed us around the town helping us out with the language (thanks Lauren)! The next morning we went by guided tour (with about 80 other kids from the program) and walked through the Forbidden City (pictures above). The city spit us out at the opposite end in Tienamen Square (I might have butchered the spelling… my apologies). After a brisk walk through that we cruised down to the Silk Road market for some more bargaining then boarded a bus to the Great Wall of China! I would post all my photos of it but there’s far too many. We caught an amazing sunset, had a delicious Chinese dinner in town, and then hiked over 1,400 steps back to the wall at night to camp out under the stars. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The following morning treated us with a beautiful sunrise. After crawling out of our sleeping bags (it was in the teens 0F at night) we packed up for an easy and stunning 4-mile hike,which ended with a zipline across a river at one of the lower points of the wall. I wish I could describe this trip more but it is simply too difficult to do it justice. Hopefully my pictures will back me up. The hike ended by noon and we motored back to Beijing to visit the Olympic Birds Nest and Swimming Cube. The night greeted us with extreme exhaustion so we turned in early and flew to Hong Kong the next morning.
Hong Kong is such a great city I cannot begin to tell you. It’s so exciting, lots and lots of fun, tons to see and has a beautiful skyline. I joined an SAS trip to the outlaying island of Lantau, home to a monastery (with the best food anywhere) and the world’s tallest outdoor Buddha statue. It actually reminded me a lot of Hawaii, hot and green. It was a really enjoyable trip and by the time we got back we were ready to set sail for Vietnam! We’re back in the tropics once more so the weather is getting hotter and humid. At noon today we were ~600 nautical miles away from Vietnam with an expected morning arrival on the 26th. My only plans right now are an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta, I’ll be winging the rest after that!
And once again you all are real troopers. I typed this post and it came out to 3 pages so cutting it down to this was the best I could do. There’s no other way to cut it back while keeping the fun of the trip alive! Photos will be up soon. Thank you all for reading, stay tuned for more and more to come following Vietnam. I send my best back home and to all whom are reading.

- Chris