Me, Adam, Thomas, and Katie(Adams cousin and wife) went to Beijing for the weekend. It was so much fun! We went to get our tickets for the fast train and they were sold out....we were so sad because we thought we would have to cancel our trip, we went back to get sleeper tickets (beds for the 13 hour train) and we got tickets on the fast train but only to zhibo, and we could just buy tickets to Beijing on the train. So Adam and I plan on meeting Thomas and Katie at the train station. We live pretty close so we got there about 15 minutes before the train is supposed to leave. We wait outside for a while and they aren't around. Finally we go to the platform to wait for the train and Adam tells a guard to tell Thomas and Katie to RUN if they got here in time. They train is about to arrive and Adam goes up to check one more time and I am worried standing there because the trains don't wait at all. They leave on the dot. Luckily the train was like 2 minutes late and Thomas, Katie, and Adam are running to meet the train! We are so blessed. Adam and I would have been going to Beijing by ourselves. It was crazy. The tickets we got meant that meant we only had a seat to zhibo(30 min) and then we got standing tickets(which cost the same) so for rest of the 4 hours we stood. There were lots of people standing. It wasn't too bad. One of those China things you have to experience while here. Katie and I eventually sat in the isle. We then got to our hotel and because Katie and Thomas hadn't got their passports from the police station we had to make it look like they weren't staying with us. You have to have your passport to stay in a hotel and there are certain hotels that allow foreigners. We figured they knew when they put extra towels and slippers in our room, but they didn't say anything. The first day we went shopping. It was so much fun! We thought we would only shop for 2 hours...we were there for 5! You end up buying stuff you didn't really care to have just because of the thrill of bargaining. Adam was worried because I spent $100 U.S dollars (almost 700RMB) in a half hour. But that is why I save so much money for shopping when we go to Beijing. :) They have everything is these markets. They are super pushey and start out with ridiculous prices because they know foreigners pay for it....not us! I got this "leather" jacket(they say everything is real!) and she started out at 5,500rmb. I was like are you crazy?? So we bargained and you have to walk away atleast twice but in between me bargaining for it this girl from Hawaii got the jacket for 500rmb and she was super happy. I got the same jacket for 220rmb. We got true religion jeans, uggs, ballet flats, Ed hardy tee, sweaters, scarves, perfume, makeup, jewelry. We ended up going shopping another day and it is so fun! I love it! We then hit all the sights again. This national holiday was the 60th anniversary so it was a huge celebration. We went to the Great Wall which is amazing. We wandered around the Forbidden city and walked across the street to Tianamen square. It is a huge square and there were all kinds of floats for the celebration and there were TONS of people! Every where you look. We went to the summer palace. It is a beautiful place there. Probably one of my favorite sights! We went and saw an acrobat show and it was really cool. They did a trick with a big metal contraption(I'll send a pic) they did this trick at the circus this summer! But we were sitting in the first row and they started to undo the cables and it was swinging out and kind of scary so they made us move a few rows back. That was pretty exciting. We met an Australian couple that told us it was better to be considered Australian. We were like great we are glad that you are a proud Australian but we are proud to be Americans. We had a great time. It felt like we where in Beijing for a couple of weeks instead of 4 days. We were rushing to get to the train station to go home. We were running around like crazy and barely made it on to the train to go home. Us five americans running down the streets through the train station seems to be a common occurance. We can't seem to make it to the train station early for the life of us. We are getting our work outs running to catch our trains!
2 comments:
i so wish i could go shopping there! glad your having fun!!
HI :) This is Heidi, Alan Fransn's wife...do you remember me??? Well, I was just looking at Kacie's blog and noticed your Beijinger post so I clicked on it...that is so cool that you guys live in China! Where do you go to church at? I lived in Shanghai for my junior-senior years of highschool and loved it! That is so exciting for you guys!! If you don't mind I will probably be reading your posts once in awhile because I'm super jealous of you now :) Have fun!!!
Post a Comment