Hello!

I just spend six days in Hong Kong and China and fell in love with it. I was able to visit Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Each city was completely different from one another, which made the trip extremely diverse. Hong Kong was very westernized and most people spoke English, Beijing was a lot more cultural and hardly anyone spoke English but it had all the major sights that I was able to see, and Shanghai was clearly an up and coming city. This was my first port where I traveled in a small group, and it allowed us to meet so many different people from all over the world.

My first day was spent in Hong Kong and I went in with no plans. Walking around felt like a bigger New York City with huge sky scrappers, big advertisements, shopping and restaurants everywhere. I ended up taking a bus to an area with shopping and beaches. The bus ride there was super cool; there are sky scrapers everywhere and they are all built in the mountains. A few of us got super lost in the city, but because the public transportation was unbelievable it didnt take long to find our way back. That night most of the students on the boat went to an area called LKF, which was a long street with bars and restaurants. I was surprised at how many foreigners I talked to that are all living and working in Hong Kong but from the US and Europe.

The following day I flew to Beijing. On the flight I sat next to a man who was originally from the United States, used to work for the US Embassy and has been living and working in Beijing for the past seven years. He ended up telling me everywhere to go, even gave me a phone number of a car company to take us to the big sites we needed to go to. He was super nice guy and without him getting around Beijing wouldnt have been as easy as it turned out to be. Once I arrived into Beijing I could tell it had a different vibe then Hong Kong. It was an older city and the people spoke hardly any English. The hotel I stayed at was a block away from an amazing food market. It was all super cheap and was cooked right in front of you. Granted, some of the things they were selling was NOTHING I was going to try. At the market they were cooking shark, starfish, cockroaches, grass hoppers, and other unmentionables. I went to all the major sights in Beijing including the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and the Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium). The Great Wall was a work out because the ground was so uneven and parts were extremely steep. I actually woke up sore the next morning. We decided to be standard tourists and bought panda hats that we wore the entire time on the Great Wall. I was happy I had it too, because it was really cold up there! Overall the sights were all really cool to go to and were obviously full of tacky tourists like us.

I ended up going to a concert in Beijing. It was an unreal experience. We went and got tickets before the concert started and met a boy our age that was originally from Moscow and has been studying in Beijing for the past couple years. He spoke English and Mandarin so we ended up hanging out with him all night. He showed us around fun areas, and then while we were out we met some people from Australia and Britain. Traveling with only five people led us to meet a lot of people and we ended up having a great time with our new friends. The concert ended up being all foreigners and it was in a small venue and it was one of the best concerts I have ever been too.

After spending three nights in Beijing I went to Shanghai which is were the ship picked us up from. I only had one day there but it was huge and was a super fun city. I ended up going out that night and meeting a guy that was born in the US and has been living in Shanghai since he was a kid. We ended talking and I found out he has cousins who live in Eden Prairie. Being halfway around the world and meeting someone that I have mutual connections with just proves what a small world it is.

I traveled with a kid that is 67 with blonde hair and he was a celebrity. It was hard getting anywhere without people taking pictures with him. You would see people taking pictures behind him and pulling him aside to compare heights. It was hilarious, but definitely got old by the end of the trip. Also, it was impossible to get a cab ride in Beijing. Either the cab driver didnt know where they were going or they wouldnt even pick us up. It took us thirty minutes to hail a cab once. There was so much that happened in China it is hard to remember all the details. Overall, China is definitely a place I would love to go back to some day!

I get to Japan in one day already. It is my last big stop before I start making my way back home!!

Ash