My favorite part of the train ride was morning time.  Chinese people wake up at the crack of dawn! 95% of them were up and rustling around even before 6am! I just had to laugh because it?s too funny that they woke up that early ? especially when the train wasn?t going to stop for at least another hour! Being on a sleeper train is an excuse to catch up on sleep! They all sat there devouring their cardboard bowls of instant noodles.  We arrived in Qingdao a f...

We all met back at the hostel by 6pm so we could end our stay in Beijing with a bang --- we went to see an Acrobatics show! IT WAS AMAZING.  I?m pretty sure it even topped the Broadway shows that I?ve seen ? the performance was just THAT good.  We had great seats?the theater had stadium seating and we were probably in the 6th or 7th row from the front.  The show was almost a mix between the circus and a dance recital.  The performers had to only be ma...

I woke up around 6am when I noticed a few others were climbing up to the watch tower to take some pictures.  Luckily, the sky was much clearer than the day before! I climbed up the super-steep and super-narrow steps of the watch tower to get a good view of the Wall.  Seeing it is just incredible! Ah! You all need to go see the Great Wall ? it?s just that AWESOME!!!! The Wall looks like a long snake that twists and turns and extends for miles and miles.  ...

  Our room at the hostel was perfect because we all were in one room with 3 bunk beds and we even had our own bathroom.  The shower was gross, but it did the job.  I?m convinced that our pillows were stuffed with bricks.  They definitely were 10 times better than our tater tot ones in Cameron Highlands, but they were not the best.  Hey, we can?t complain, though, because our accommodations were great for only $8/person per night.    We wo...