Beijing and Xian

Our first stop for our educational field was Beijing. We left on Tuesday Nov 3rd. Right when we got to Beijing we headed straight to the Temple of Heaven. This temple was amazing. It had a lot of typical chinese architecture and was the first temple I had ever seen in China so it was my favorite one. After the Temple of Heaven we stopped at a tea house were we learned all about the different kinds of teas in China and you prepare them and drink them. From there we ate a typical Chinese meal and checked into our hotel.

The Tea House

Chris and me at Temple of Heaven

The next morning we were up at 7 am and heading to the Forbidden City. Since the government had made it snow in Beijing, it was extremely cold! (Read about how they did hear, its really interesting, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Beijing-gets-first-snow-after-meteorologists-seed-clouds/articleshow/5186405.cms. At the Forbidden City we saw Tiananmen Square as well, which was huge (obviously). The Forbidden City was even bigger though. It has about 9000 rooms/100 buildings located in it and is very colorful. When you think of Chinese buildings, the Forbidden City is what you imagine. I brought a panda hat at the Forbidden City as well which is seen below.

Forbidden City

Brennan, Calif and me in the Forbidden City (w/ Panda Hat)
James and me at Tiananmen Square

After a while, I got really tired of the Forbidden City, its literally too big and gets kinda repetitive after a while. After we had Chinese lunch we headed to the Summer Palace, which is the vacation home of the Ming dynasty when they dont want to stay at the forbidden city which is literally down the street. The Summer Palace sits on a lake though which makes it a lot more beautiful. Then I went to the Pearl Factory and brought a pair of pearls for someone...this person will see who they are on Christmas Day. Then we headed to a Kung Fu Performance which was awesome. I had really low expectations for it and when I walked out of it I thought it was the best Kung Fu performance I had ever seen ( :) ). Then we had dinner.

Outside of the Kung Fu Show

Summer Palace

The next day on Thursday we were up at 6:30 and were heading to the Great Wall (Mu Tian Yu section). The great wall was a sight to see. It still blows me away on how they were able to construct it. This day was not cold which made the day perfect for hiking the great wall. We walked on the wall for about two hours, we took a chair lift up the mountain. Then we headed down on a slide which was a lot of fun. picture below. We then had lunch at a restaurant right next to the great wall which had really good orange chicken!

We had to, EX for life

The GREAT WALL, in person!

The lift to the top

Bottom of the slide (how we got down, really fun)

On Friday we checked out of our hotel in Beijing and headed to the Bird Nest and Water Cube. This was exciting to be at. It is amazing to see these buildings in person. The only thing I didn't like was that the formula race was being held there so the track was covered up with race tracks. The water cube is under construction already, they are remolding it. I was told that a lot of the buildings in China need to be remolded a lot since they make the buildings so fast here that quality the first time around does not happen. So I did not get to go into the water cube. From there we went to the airport and departed to Xian the old capital of China before Beijing. Our Hotel was located in the center of the city walls which made it a lot of fun and pretty nice. There was a Starbucks, McDonalds and KFC right across the street which made it really convenient.

Entrance to the Bird Nest

This was suppose to be a panoramic view of the stadium but it didn't work so you have to put them together yourself.

On Saturday we headed to to climb Hua Shan which is one of four mountain peaks in China I believe. We climbed for about 2.5 hours. This mountain was incredible. It use to be a monastery and instead of trails they have stairs. There are probably over 100,000 stairs on this mountain probably way more than this. I climbed to the east peak which was a pretty difficult climb. The view was amazing though once we reached the top. There are hotels on the mountain so the only way for the hotels to get supplies is for people to carry up the supplies...as seen below, I dont know how they do it. This was an all day trip.

Top of the East Peak

A building located on the mtn, notice how steep it is (this is actually not a steep part either)

They carried all of that up the mtn. it weighs more than 100lbs. notice how steep once again.

Then on our final day, Sunday, we head to see the Terracotta Warriors. But before we went to the real ones we went and saw how the warriors were made. This place is suppose to be the most legit place to go to see how they are made. I brought a whole army of soldiers for someone back home for Chirstmas. The army that I brought was made the same that they were made hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I got to make a warrior as well which was pretty cool. They use this really moist clay and put them into a mold, thats it haha. Then once it dries they personalizes the warriors. Once we were done there we headed to the site of the real warriors. This was amazing to see! I loved seeing the warriors. It blows my mind that they exist. They are so detailed and all of them different. The whole time I was, I couldn't stop smiling since I couldn't believe what I was seeing. OO and I met the farmer who found the warriors! Once we were done there we headed to the airport and back home to Shanghai.

Featured in the Beijing opening ceremonies

The soldiers!

I honestly couldn't stop smiling, so amazing

Making my own warrior

Overall this was an amazing EFT! I loved all the history that Beijing and Xian had. Beijing is a very big city and takes for ever to get around in, I am glad that I am studying in Shanghai and not Beijing. Xian is a very small city but overall it had a good vibe and I really enjoyed it.

Just an update, next week I am going to South Korea to a Skii Resort to snowboard! I'll be having a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner there made by our very own Katy Yasick. Also I only have four weeks left in China, thats three weekends! I come home on Dec 10th.