The McClish's German Adventure: China

We had a fabulous 12 days in China!! We saw so much and are so exhausted.

We visited Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong. We saw almost everything you can see in the short amount of time.

I'm going to try and write about a different city each day to share with everyone what all we did. Otherwise, it would be like a huge novel. Each day started between 6-7am and ended between 9-10pm. It was non-stop, but so worth it!!

First is Beijing, home of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

We loved Beijing and Jason got his Peking Duck Dinner, one of the highlights of the trip for him.

We started our tour by visiting the Golden Street, a famous commercial street, the afternoon of our arrival. Interesting here was the side street with the vendors that were selling just about any type of food you can imagine grilled and fried. They had silk worms, star fish, fruit, and no telling what else. I didn't want to know.

We woke early the next day and headed to the Summer Palace. It was amazing! Looking out towards the water is a mini Marco Polo bridge the emperor had built in honor of Polo.

After lunch, we toured the Forbidden City, saw Tianeman Square and even went into the South Facing Gate (they were closing, but let us in anyway). That's the night Jason feasted on his Duck. After dinner we went to see a Chinese Acrobatic Show. It was like watching the kid version of Cirque. They were so young and did some of the same tricks. It was really cool!

The following day we toured a Pearl Factory and learned the whole process of getting the pearls and what they can make with the leftovers (Pearl Powder for the face - said to be a great sunscreen type agent). Then we hit up the infamous Great Wall!! Those steps were insane!! It would be one thing if they were even of it there were little stopping points along the way, but there was not. I made it up till the gift shop and stopped. Jason is a "hero" because he made it to the very end! That was exhausting and our legs were killing us after that! Before lunch we toured a Cloisonne factory. We saw a fantastic show at the urban planning museum and had a few minutes to explore before we headed back to the bus to see a demonstration by a Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor. That was also an interesting experience. The doctor keeps his fingers on your pulse, looks at you asks only a few questions and then makes a diagnosis on what herbal remedies would help put your yin-yang back in balance. After dinner we went to a Flea Market and Jason really enjoyed bargaining with the vendors. His thriftiness paid off. We got some games for our Wii and 4 TV seasons on DVD for less than $40. I also got some pants. We ended the day with a traditional Chinese Massage. It was interesting. There were six of us in the room and for $25 we got an hour and a half massage, including the feet. The guy freaked me out when he lit this jar on fire and put it on my foot. It wasn't hot, but seeing fire near your foot would freak anyone out if they weren't expecting it.