China: Xi'an to Beijing

We've had the longest, busiest days. I'm gonna try to recount each day. This day was only 2 days ago, but it's still way hard to remember.

This was our transit day. We got up early and left by 0830 for the airport. I managed to squish everything into my one backpack. Glorious. So stuffed. This time at the airport we didn't have to wait 2 hours for our flight. The flight was uneventful. I was sitting with Carson so it was entertaining.

We weren't allowed to check bags, SAS time requirement, so everyone had to shove their bags up into the overhead. Poor flight attendants and Chinese people traveling. We over took that flight with our luggage. Some people overpacked. Not I.

When I put my pictures up on facebook you'll see that I've been wearing the same clothes for all of China and most of Japan. I don't really need anything besides jeans, a sweatshirt, and fleece.

Beijing was even colder than Xi'an. We're up even farther north now. The buses met us at the airport and we got new tour guides. Ours is Susan. She's really sweet and funny, and has decided that we're all now "intimate friends." Haha. I love the phrases that the Chinese use in English.

We got taken to lunch at a big restaurant in the city. The city's pretty good. Not as built up and modern as Shanghai, but bigger and more modern than Xi'an.

This lunch took forever. Not the service, the tour guides. They made us chill there for awhile. That's the only problem with this trip, they make us chill at some places for way too long. This was probably the only meal in China that I haven't loved. It was ok, but I wouldn't recommend it. Fried chicken, rice, fungus. It was all just blah.

We got back on the buses to go to the hotel. We were gonna check in, drop our bags off, and head out to the Pearl Market before it closed at 1700. It closed early that day because of the New Year.

Carson and I roomed together again 616. After we dropped off our stuff we found out that we couldn't go, it closed at 1600. Needless to say everyone was pretty pissed off that we'd spent 2 hours at a crappy lunch when we could have been bartering for fake designer things.

A bunch of us decided to wander around Beijing and find shopping. There are literally malls everywhere. There was one on the same block as our hotel. It was 3 stories with an ice rink in the center. Amy, Lauren, and I looked around and got ice cream from DQ. Here they have some obscure flavors. Like green tea and things like that. Obviously I stuck with chocolate. Then we went back to the hotel to figure out what was around to do.

We ran into a bunch of the guys and decided to head to the food market. They got directions from Jason, one of the other tour guides. We followed them around with their map and got epically lost. Well, not lost, we just couldn't find this place. Never let boys lead. They failed. The map was mostly in Chinese, but the sun was setting so we could figure out east and west. One of the geniuses thought that the sun rises and sets in the opposite directions in China than the US. Haha. So pleased we let them lead.

We accidentally ended up in Tiannaman Square, tomorrow's activity. It was pretty sweet at sunset though. We got directions from some Iranians who spoke English. Way more international people in Beijing than any other city so far. We walked another half hour in the wrong direction. We got directions from a hotel and had them write it in Chinese for our cab drivers since most don't know English and can't read it. That shocked me that they don't understand the English alphabet. Mainly because most signs aren't in Chinese characters.

We got 2 cabs to the Wangfujing Road. It was all lit up with big shops. It took us about 15 minutes to find the rest of the group since it's such a huge area.

Down one of the alleys was what I would consider China to be. It was small with red and gold everywhere. There were little tents set up like a carnival with food. Food included: scorpion, cockroach, cicada, starfish, seahorse, squid, octopus. All of them being on sticks. 3 of the guys tried the scorpion. They were alive on the stick and had to be deep fried and had flavoring. They said they weren't bad. They were crunchy. Delightful. I got some lamb and lettuce wrap thing. It was really good. Later on we got more candied strawberries on a stick. I've always said everything's better on a stick. This rings true in China, too. Don't listen to guides telling you not to eat these street foods. There's nothing better than these fried foods. They're the true essence of China.

This alley is jammed with tons of people squishing up against you. Struggles. The girls found a place with nice jade bracelets. The guys left and we spent about an hour bartering and they each spent about $50 USD. Not too bad. They're gorgeous. I considered getting one, but they're near impossible to put on. You have to use a plastic bag to get it to roll on. My hand was all bruised the next day from trying 2 on. Fails. I don't need that.

We got some fried chicken on a stick. It was so good. Just like McDonalds chicken McNuggets. We wandered back to the main street to see what else was around before we went out drinking. We randomly ran into Sam, Mason, JD, and Anne.

I was so excited to see them. We all went down a side street to get some food. Amy and Lauren decided to go back to the hotel to shower and change before going out. We said we'd meet up with them later.

We order so many dumplings. 36 to be exact. For the 5 of us. More jasmine tea, egg drop soup, and giant beers. After dinner we decided to go to a nearby bar at a hotel. Unfortunately it was closed.

The other trip SAS ran to Beijing was staying at the same hotel as us, the Courtyard Marriott. I bbmed Tania and she was with Nolan and Brandon, so we planned to all go out together that night.

We took a cab back to the hotel and went up to Nolan's room. They had already been drinking and were getting ready to go to Bar Street. I was SO excited to see Tania. Being away from all my friends on the ship made me realize how great they all are and how much I missed them. I was so stoked to reunite with them all.

Mason went out to get some alcohol while we all got ready. The 5 of us hung out in his room for awhile before going to Bar Street. We met up with everyone at 64 Hip Hop. Literally everyone was there. It was so much fun. Nolan had been djing earlier and so Tania made friends with the bartender and got me free drinks.

Everyone was getting ready to leave to go Club Mix. Most of them had already been in Beijing for a night and knew where to go. So we got a few cabs. They didn't know any English and we spent awhile being lost. Luckily taxis are only $5 USD at most. I tried writing Club Mix thinking maybe he just didn't understand spoken English. This was true in Japan. But he held it upside down and couldn't figure it out. Somehow he figured it out by calling and texting and we got there.

Apparently there was a 50 yuan entrance fee, but I walked right in. Tania, Brandon, etc were already there. Mason and I had a few drinks. They were manly drinks and I was not a fan.

The club was really fun. So many SAS people. The music was mainstream US pop for the most part from the past few years. We all danced and stayed there forever. We lost track of time. We got back to the hotel around 0330. I hung out with the 3 guys while they smoked and we ended up talking for awhile. I went to bed at 0530 or so. I was exhausted and so ready for bed.