Our friends and family were really surprised that we were taking a trip to China. People know we love to travel, but for us going all the way to China was almost as daring as, well, going all the way to China. But we did the 17-hour flight with only a few minor moments of panic, mainly because the only on-board entertainment was Chinese Idol. It was a reminder that (gasp!) the world doesn’t cater to English speakers.
We visited three cities, each completely different than the next. Alex captured our trip with his Leica, old school black-and-white film style.
Beijing was sparkling clean. Residents walked the streets and exercised without worry. Beijing is a good mix of history and modernity–you can walk down the steps of a luxury hotel and find yourself in a locals’ market, where you can choose from a hundred vegetables you‘ve never seen before, then catch a ride in a rickshaw to your next destination. The Forbidden city and Summer Palace are amazing. We climbed the Great Wall with snow on the ground. It was cold. The next day I was sore, but I still can't believe we visited the Great Wall of China!
The next stop was Xi’An. Less cosmopolitan than Beijing, Xi’An is a place where the air is heavy and you can really see the disparity between the rich and poor. If you look down from atop the majestic city walls, you can see people living among trash heaps in crumbling structures. But, Xi’An has an ancient-city charm and after seeing the Terracotta Warriors, nothing is better than resting your bones at a tea house. There’s a tea for losing weight, a tea for smokers, a tea to help with your body’s reaction to pollution, a tea for warm liver. As Alex says, “if there’s something that ails you, there’s a tea for that."
Shanghai is a modern city. The entire city is one big marketplace, you can’t walk 10 ft without someone trying to sell you something. Shanghai is very much like any western metropolis, right down to the Starbucks. It’s big city living and big city prices, but if you use your bartering skills (as I was told to do, even though it made me a little uncomfortable) bargains abound. We also got to ride the world's fastest train.
China was amazing, we’ll be back just as soon as we save enough money for another set of plane tickets.
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