Beijing!

Waterway at The Summer Palace.

The FUNNIEST baby alive. 

We always saw him around our little neighborhood. 

His parents put him on the back of a bike to have him eat his meals. 

(A little metal box they use to transport things in) 

It was just so cute to see this chubby little boy relaxing in there every day. 

Guru dude near the Lama Temple    

There was so many delicious 
new foods to try in Beijing.

Last semester when I came to China I went to Beijing for one of my vacations. It was really fun and I got to see lots of cool historical sites...but I wouldn't have ranked it on the top of my list. It truly is an amazing place to visit. But it is so much more common to find clean-cut chinese businessmen with briefcases than adorable wrinkly old men wheeling around carts of food. The carts of food guy is more my style. So... I'll be honest to say, I wasn't necessarily expecting greatness from this trip.

Soldiers at Tiananmen Square.

Tiananmen Square. 
(We even got to go see Mao's Frozen Body!!!)

Just after getting off the subway... Backpacks in the front! 

Beijing has sooooo many people you really have to watch your bags closely. 

But boy was I wrong! This was one of the funnest/busiest/most hilarious vacations I have ever been on! I went with a group of 13 teachers from the Kaiyin school. (About 1 hour away from us) Originally I was assigned to be their Head Teacher until they made a last minute switch about a week before we left. These girls are amazing and hilarious and just so much freaking fun. I love them sooooooo much! We actually ended up staying at the same hostel that we stayed in last time. Its called 1 Hai Inn. It was so weird to be able to help the girls find the place and to have the ability to navigate my way around a bit. It sort of blows my mind that me, this Arizona girl, who frequently uses map quest to navigate her own city... can find her way around in this HUGE-overpopulated country. We hit up all the usual places on the Beijing to-do list.  We went to Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, The Summer Palace (New and Old), Hoa Hai Lake, The Antique Flea Market, Confucius Temple, Lama Temple, Olympic Nest, Pearl Factory, Tea Ceremony, Silk Factory. We did it all! 

Cute baby bum in the crowd.

Siesta time in China. 

(Everyone goes to sleep right after lunch)

HaHa

Little chicks they were selling on the street.

We even got the chance to go to a viewing of Mao's body! That was soooooo cool to see the masses of people coming to show respects each day. (They have him frozen in a glass case) I did a lot of shopping. Beijing is where you can usually get the cheapest prices. We spent almost an entire day at the silk and pearl factory looking for clothes, backpacks, and souvenirs. I'm preparing for a mission so it was nice to buy a few skirts and shoes for cheap. The sales ladies were especially aggressive this time around though. The first part of the week was holiday for the chinese so it was a mad house. I swear a couple of those women bruised my wrists when I walked by. "Come on. Looka Looka. Want to buy purse? Purse lady?" Haha. They are funny little women. (With VERY strong grips)

The Wall.

My new chinese friend I made on the wall. 

He was walking on all these sketchy parts 

and kept asking for pictures with me. 

I love his traditional chinese uniform. So cute. 

I also got a chance to go back to The Great Wall. This time I visited the Mutianyu section of the wall. It is a fairly popular section for most tourists. The chinese holiday had just ended so it wasn't even crowded. The wall was absolutely gorgeous! There was a time where I broke off from my group and just sat there on the wall for a while, staring out at one of the prettiest scenes I've ever seen. I kept thinking about how many people in the world will never get to see this. Its one of the 7 wonders of the world and here I am dangling my feet off of it for the second time. I am so lucky to be here. Just chillin' on The Great Wall of China, no big deal. Knowing that I only have about a month left in China made it all the more significant. I can't help but promise myself that this won't be the last time I sit on this wall. You never know where life will take you, but as I sat there, I couldn't help but hope that life might someday bring me back to this beautiful country. Anyways... We hiked up to the top, spent some time hiking on the wall and then guess what we got to do? TOBOGGAN DOWN THE MOUNTAIN! It was awesome! I have never ridden on a toboggan before so it was super cool. 

One of the Temple doors by our Hostel.

The GREAT WALL!

Only the CUTEST mango lady on earth.

My vacation was a total of 5 fun-filled days. You would think with five days to spare we might have found some time to lay back and relax... but we didn't. The whole vacation was go-go-go. But if I'm being honest, I kinda like that. It means we were taking advantage of our time there. We always woke up really early and stayed out really late. Spending time with the Kaiyin girls was definitely the highlight of the trip. They are all so fun to be around and are so low stress. Those are my kind of people. I also had some really cool Uruguayan roommates at the hostel! I walked in to hear them speaking spanish and there was a cup of matte on the table so I knew they had to be South American. I got to spend a little time with them and practice a little of my spanish. We had a blast!

Shelby, Talesha and I at the Olympic Nest!

For dinner one night we ate from a random street vendor.

 I asked him what kind of meat it was and was unfamiliar with his response. 

Later we came to find out it was Donkey Meat! Welp... 

I can add that to the list now! Go China!

My favorite fruit ever! 

We made friends with a fruit market lady and 

usually bought a little something from her each night.

Sugar covered Hawthorne berries. 

A Beijing specialty.

Fluff from a willow tree. These little guys were floating 

in the air everywhere all over Beijing. It was so pretty to see it all slowly float by.

I'll eat anything wrapped in a leaf!