Ni Hao!
Can't believe it's been a week already. Feel like I have done so much. Spent about 5 days in Beijing altogether, and I liked it! Defo think that China is a place I could live so far (for a little while anyway). I almost feel like a celebrity. So many people want to have a photo with you, and often just take them without your permission. We have spent most of our time at the most popular tourist attractions. On our first full day together (Wednesday) we headed to the Forbidden City. On Thursday we went to the Summer Palace and to a food market in the evening. Although I bravely ate some of the nicer looking foods, this was more Alex's idea of fun than mine! Friday ended up being pretty chilled. In the morning we had to get Alex's passport from the Vietnamese embassy and then we headed for the Underground City. Unfortunately this was closed, so in stead we spent the afternoon shopping. We didn't end up buying anything as everything is pretty expensive. I'm don't really like it when people pressurise you to buy something when all you want to do is have a look, so it is putting me off shopping. Not good! On Saturday we took a 3 hour journey to the Great Wall of China- my favourite day so far. I'm not sure what I expected, but I didn't expect the amount of stairs we had to climb and the steepness of it. My legs completely ached the next day, and I am still feeling it now. Alex obviously enjoyed the challenge and took it as an opportunity to show off- timing himself running up the stairs, and mocking me as I struggled with a bottle of water.
On Sunday we took a 7 hour train ride to Tai'an, which is where we are now. I was surprised at how easy the journey was. The people on the train all seemed really friendly, and there was the most adorable chubby Chinese baby to keep me entertained for about 5 minutes of it! In China babies don't appear to wear nappies and their trousers have holes around the bum area to make it easier for them to go to the toilet. When the lady opposite was holding the baby I was hoping he would do his business on Alex...didn't happen. We intended to climb Tai'shan Mountain today but it was pretty expensive and we didn't think it was worthwhile. Tomorrow we are getting an 8 hour night train to Nanjing. We originally wanted to go straight to Shanghai but all the trains are fully booked due to a Chinese holiday which is coming up. Booking a train to Nanjing was hard enough and probably one of the most frustrated parts of the trip so far! Alex warned me that I would get frustrated by the Chinese people who often push in in queues, and you just need to accept it...not a chance! After queuing for around an hour 3 guys pushed in 2 spaces in front of us. I was not happy. I couldn't believe that the guy stood in front of us didn't say anything to them. The language barrier did not stop me. Having an argument with somebody who doesn't understand a word of what you are saying was quite funny, but I was so angry! Anyway, the tickets they were after had all sold out- got what they deserved. More people pushed in as well, this time coming from the side of the queue at the very front. Again I told this one guy not to push in, and he told me where to go- 'Fuck you man' in an attempted English accent, which was quite amusing....and then Alex told him where to go. Anyway, we got our tickets in the end, but I still can't believe so many people get away with it!
That's all I have for now...and some photos below! I will get back to trying to upload Eastenders on youtube with little success!
xoxo
