Ok, so I don't even know where to begin to try and tell you about China. It was amazing. What I did here was independent travel, nothing was through SAS, and it was me, Ally, Ellie, Korynn, Jordan, and Jason. (now you know who all the pictures are of.) We left Hong Kong on Tuesday and took a 25 hour train ride to Beijing. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. When it was time to get off the train, I was totally ready to be off, but it was a good time. We played a lot of cards, chatted a lot. It was great. And so much cheaper than flying. Where we were on the train was called the Hard Sleeper, and man, they aren't kidding. The beds were not the most comfortable thing in the world. I included a picture of us on the bottom bunks. The bunks went three beds high, and I was all the way at the top. It was a little cramped, but not too bad. I had never really been on a train before, so it was cool. When we got into the train station in Beijing on Wed. afternoon, we walked to our hostel, which was a lot farther than we thought it was, and carrying all of our bags around was not fun. But it was a relief to get there. The hostel costed us about 8 US dollars a night per person. It was just basic, we had a room to ourselves with three bunk beds. I chose to sleep on the bottom that time. We figured out the subway system, and that was how we got around in Beijing. It was really cheap and very fast. That first night there, we went to this marketplace called the Silk Market for a little while until it closed, ate some dinner, and then went back to the hostel. The next morning, we woke up early and went to T'ien-an-men Square and did some sight-seeing. Then we met with our guide to the Great Wall, and headed there. We met up with another group of students from SAS who booked this trip on the same night, so altogether there were about 13 of us for the Great Wall. It was about 2 hours from where we were in Beijing to where we went on the Wall. I slept most of the way there. When we got there, we unloaded our stuff and took a little hike up to just see the Great Wall and take some pictures. And let me tell ya, as far as walls go, this one is pretty great. Seeing it for real was just unbelievable. We learned some history from our two guides about its construction and such and then we headed back down for some dinner. Dinner was really good. We just ate outside this little store at a picnic table and got all the beer we could drink. Which was cool, but I only drank about ¾ of a bottle because it didn't take long for me to realize that just like iced tea, beer goes right through me, and unlucky for me, all we had was squatter toilets or the bushes to do our business in. I never used a squatter in India, but it was unavoidable here. Anyway, I am sure you all wanted to know the details about that....I will move on. I bought a lot of souvenirs from the little store there such as a beanie, some shirts, post cards, etc. Then after dinner, we hiked up to the wall again and set up camp for the night. Everything was provided for us - sleeping bags, mats, pillows. We had the choice of sleeping in this tower thing or setting up a tent, or roughing it outside, so roughing it outside is what we did. We had some more snacks, other people drank more beer. I stayed away from it, because while on the wall, our bathroom was pretty much wherever we could find some privacy in the bushes. ;) Now, sleeping on the Great Wall has got to be my favorite thing that I have done on this trip. It was indescribable. Just laying there and looking up at the stars was so beautiful. I have never seen the sky so beautiful, not even in Alaska. And we were the only ones around. It was just so peaceful. It did get a tiny bit chilly in the night, but I was dressed pretty warm, and it didn't really bother me. It was kinda nice to have it be colder for once. We woke up pretty early the next day because well, when the sun is your alarm clock, there is no hitting the snooze button. We had breakfast, put all our sleeping stuff away, and prepared for our 7 K hike. Now when I say hike here, I mean HIKE. It was all just up and down and up and down. And I don't just mean small inclines or stairs. We are talking steep, no railings, so steps, just dirt, and the hope that you will make it without slipping. It was pretty scary at some parts, but most of it was just plain strenuous. It was so amazing nonetheless, but a CRAZY workout. Which is all good. I still can't really feel my legs. Luckily I didn't have a backpack or anything. The hike took about 3 and half hours. It was very long. But totally worth it. Between me and Ally alone, we have 349 pictures of our Great Wall experience, and I haven't even copied the other people's pictures who were there yet. It was hard to pick which ones to post, so I tried to pick some fun ones for ya. I hope you enjoy. (as you can see from the pictures of me jumping, I still have the Cheerleader spirit in me!) After our hike, we ate lunch, and headed back to Beijing. What we did on the Great Wall was totally legal. It is only illegal to camp out without a guide I guess. But it did give us the opportunity for a funny picture next to a sign that says 'Do not stay overnight on the Great Wall.' Once back in Beijing we hit up the Silk Market again. (Yes, we went there a lot.) I got a lot of great gifts and stuff for myself as well. It was fun to bargain with them. Everybody was really nice. And just like everywhere else, they were fascinated with my piercings. They would just start counting them and say 'Oh! Beautiful!' and we are always referred to as 'Lady' or my favorite - 'Pretty Lady.' And everything was ALWAYS 'best price for you.' I have some great stories of bargaining with them. It was so much fun. We stayed at the same hostel, different room that night though. And it was a lot more ghetto. Our toilet seat had a crack in it, our shower had no curtain, and it was just special. I am not going to complain though, because I mean it was 8 bucks a night, I didn't post the pictures of the room, but I can show them to you when I get home. It was an experience. The next morning we went to the Forbidden City and the Silk Market yet again. Honestly, because things are so cheap here and you can bargain with people, I am going to have such a hard time shopping at home. (I can just see myself shopping at Brea Mall on my lunch break trying to bargain with the people in the stores.) That was just me and the girls, the two boys did their own thing, shockingly they weren't as into shopping as we were. ;) Then we headed back to the hostel. We bought tickets and transportation through our hostel to an acrobatic show. That was insane. It was so good. I got some great video of it, the pictures just look kinda weird, so I didn't post them, but the whole show was incredible. The way these people bend is just insane, and they are so strong! After the show, we picked up our stuff from the hostel and booked it to the train station to catch our overnight train to Qing Dao. This whole trip in China (not including tickets to shows, or shopping of course) costed me about $281 US dollars. That included the Great Wall, two nights in a hostel, a 25 hour train ride to Beijing, and an overnight train to Qing Dao. A lot of people stayed in nice hotels or did SAS trips which were like $700 and up. I really enjoyed doing what I did on that lower budget though, it gave me better experiences. It was so amazing. I just feel like there is so much more to do here in China. Just like pretty much everywhere else, I plan on coming back here. Now, all I have to do is win the lottery, and I will actually be able to afford it. I wont have the loan I took out for Semester at Sea paid off until I am 43. kinda makes me cringe when I think about it, but everything has been so worth it.