Lars and I went to China on our honeymoon. We went to Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou and it was an AMAZING trip!!! We would definitely go again if we had the chance!! Seriously, it was awesome. Here's what we did!
Day 1: Well this was the day we flew to Beijing. It was a 12 hour flight and there was a time and day change to we didn't get there until day 2. So Day 1 and 2 we spent flying to Beijing.
Day 2: We arrived in Beijing around 6 pm. Lars and I didn't sleep on the flight there because we were trying to get used to China time, which is 15 hours ahead of Mountain Standard time. We got in and met our tour guide, Tiger. Then we went to our hotel and by the time we got there it was around 8 pm and we decided to just go to bed.
Day 3: We went on our first tour with the group! We got a great deal where we signed up with SmartTours to go on this trip so we had the option of going on tours with the group if we wanted or just doing our own thing. We enjoyed the tours a lot because we got a lot of history with the tours and we met a lot of cool people on them as well. So our first full day in Beijing, we went on a tour with the group. The first place we stopped was Tian'anmen Square.
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| Tian'anmen Square |
Next we went to the Forbidden City, which was right across the street. It was so big too! Plus we learned that the whole city was built with no nails, which I thought was impressive! We ended up just seeing about 5% of the Forbidden City but it took us a good couple of hours just to see that little bit!
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| Part of the Forbidden City |
After that we went to lunch. This was our first included lunch in our tour and we learned at this lunch that we had four options for soft drinks, water, coke, sprite, and beer. I'm not sure why but at a lot of places we went to, beer was considered a soft drink. After lunch we stopped by the pearl factory and learned that China has 95% of the world's market in pearls! Then we went to the Summer Palace. This is a famous garden in China. It is the best garden in all of China and it was beautiful! Because our tour group went during APEC, a lot of factories were shut down so that the air could be good for the conference so we were able to see the mountains in the distance that our guide said normally they can't see due to the air quality.
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| Summer Palace |
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| Summer Palace |
After that we headed back to our hotel and Lars and I decided to wander around. Our hotel was in the same building as a mall so we went and checked out the mall while looking for somewhere to eat. We found a restaurant called Bellagio that we decided to eat at. It was super good! I had minced beef with soup and some other random vegetables and Lars had sweet and sour pork.
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| Dinner after our first full day in Beijing |
Day 4: First thing we did today was our tour stopped by the Jade factory. We were able to see some people carving the jade, it was really fascinating! I also experienced just how attached the salespeople are there. At one point I went to go to the bathroom and I came back looking for Lars and a saleslady saw that I was looking for him and asked if I was looking for my husband, I said yes and she pointed out where he was. So yeah, she was definitely keeping track of us!
After the jade factory we went to the Great Wall of China. Our tour guide said that it was 1,000 stairs to the very top of the mountain. I did not make it up that far but Lars made it to the top. Lars said that this was his favorite part of our trip.
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| Lars and I on the Great Wall of China |
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| View from the second tower of the mountain on the Great Wall |
After the Great Wall, which was seriously exhausting, we went to lunch. Our legs hurt for about 5 days after the Great Wall. I think it probably had a lot to do with the stairs being different heights. Some of them were 6 inches and others were about 2 feet tall. It was because when it was built they just used whatever stone they could find and they didn't try to make them even.
After lunch we went to the Ming Tombs sacred walk. This was the walk that people would take to get to the Emperor's tombs. It was beautiful!
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| Ming Tombs sacred walk |
That night we had Peking duck for dinner and went to a Kung Fu show. Lars and I hadn't had Peking duck before and oh man, it was delicious! The Kung Fu show was good, we were just so tired from our long day and we had just eaten so it was hard to pay attention.
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| Cutting the duck |
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| Our dinner options- they were all delicious! |
Day 5: This was the day that we had to ourselves! I wanted to go to the National Museum and so we walked there and found out it was closed! I was so bummed! So we ended up just walking around and wandering and we found Wangfujing street, which hosts a night market in the evening. After that we were hungry so we got suckered into a cab ride to go to this famous duck restaurant and our cab dropped us off and we were so lost. Apparently we were close but we had no idea. So we found our way to Qianmen street and wandered down there until we found the restaurant and the line was out the door so we decided not to got there.
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| Qianmen Street |
While we were sitting and relaxing we ran into another couple from the tour group! So we said hi to them and talked to them about what they were doing and got some recommendations for lunch. Down the street there were a bunch of different alleyways with different restaurants, stores, bakeries, and more. So we wandered down one and found a place to have lunch. Then we went to a bakery and asked the lady what the most popular items were and bought one of each. I didn't like them but Lars thought they were okay. After that we headed back to our hotel because I needed to go to the bathroom and the one I found there only had squatting toilets and didn't have any doors. The hinges were there but the door was not on and I was not going to use that bathroom, that's for sure.
Once we got back we decided to go get a foot massage. We got a 90 minute foot massage for $34 dollars. And it was sooo nice! Plus, they massaged our arms, hands, legs, and backs as well. It was so nice!
We went back to our hotel and ran into some people from our tour group again and we decided we all wanted to go out to eat that night. So we went out to Qianmen Street with a few other people and found a place to eat dinner. I had a beef noodle soup, which I found is fairly common over there. They love their noodle soups!
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| Beef noodle soup |
Day 6: We were with our tour group today and we first went to the Temple of Heaven. This place was built with no nails or crossbeams. Before we reached the entrance to the Temple of Heaven there were a bunch of people outside doing their morning exercises. We even saw a group sword dancing! It was really cool to see so many people playing games, singing, dancing, etc together.
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| Lars and I at the Temple of Heaven |
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| Sword dancing outside the Temple of Heaven |
After that we went to a black market for knockoffs. We went to the basement of a building and then walked across a parking lot and went into a door by a parking space and they had a ton of knockoffs there. I didn't get anything there, I mostly just wanted to see the place. It was interesting!
We then went to a Chinese medical center. We were all given 15 minute foot massages and we had the option of seeing a Chinese doctor, which Lars and I did not do. Other people did though and they were told what was wrong with them and what herbal remedies would help fix their problems. It was amazing how much they could tell from just taking your pulse! They were able to tell one person was pregnant just from her pulse!
Lunch was next! We went to a hutong, which is an old part of the city where people still live, and a lady had made us lunch. It was delicious! It was probably among my favorite lunches.
After lunch we went on a short pedicab ride. It was super touristy but it was fun!
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| Lars and I on our pedicab |
At that point we then went to a tea ceremony. A tea ceremony is where you try different types of teas. We tried about four or five different teas. I thought it was great and it was cool because depending on whether you are a boy or a girl you have to hold the cup differently.
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| Lars and I demonstrating how to properly hold the tea cup |
After that we went to the market. I got a tea set, some coasters, a wall hanging, and some other things. Of course I bargained for every single item too. I'll admit, I wasn't that good at first but I quickly learned.
That night we had dinner at our hotel (surprise, surprise, more noodle soup!) and then we went with a few other people to the night market on Wangfujing street. We had a little bit of a hard time finding it so we didn't get to it until ten minutes before it closed. But it was really interesting to see the few items we did see! I was too scared to try any though.
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| Lars and I in front of the Pearl tower |
We then went on a 'hi-tech' Bund experience. It was an underground tunnel that went underneath the Bund and across the water with a bunch of random lights.
After that we were starving so we went out to eat. We ate at a one star Michelin restaurant (which means it is above 5 stars) and it was so so so good! It was definitely my favorite meal that we had. It was our most expensive meal as well, $27 for both of us.
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| The one star Michelin restaurant we went to |
Day 8: We went on a tour of Shanghai with our tour group. We went to the Shanghai museum first and that was fascinating! We could have spent the whole day there but we only had two hours. Our favorite section was the calligraphy section.
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| Shanghai Museum- calligraphy example |
Then we walked along the Bund, which is the waterfront. It was so different from the night before!
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| Lars and I on the Bund |
After that we had lunch and then we went to 'Old Chinatown.' Our guide explained why they have an old Chinatown in China but I can't remember. We walked through it to get to a garden and after the garden we did some shopping there.
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| Old Chinatown |
This garden is the only garden in Shanghai. In China, the difference between a garden and a park is that a park is free and a garden you have to pay to get into.
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| Suzhou garden |
Then we headed back to our hotel. By the time we got back we were hungry again so we went out with our favorite two couples to eat. We went to a local place nearby and had spicy Chinese food. Seriously, it was spicy! Even Lars thought so! But I sucked it up and ate it anyways. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and had drinks with other people from our group.
Day 10: We headed back to the U.S. this day. This was the only part of the trip that really irritated me. We flew back to Beijing and then to the U.S. from there. At the Beijing airport they took away our portable chargers because they were a fire hazard. Yep, this was our last flight and they were fine on every other flight but apparently, we couldn't have them this time. Dumb. Then they took away all of our drinks before we boarded the plane. I had just bought a coke too! I hadn't even opened it but I was told I had to chug it or toss it. I chugged it. But now I know I guess!
Overall, we had such a great time!!! Lars and I have decided that we love tour groups because you get to meet so many new people, make new friends, and you get to learn more about the history than I would ever have been able to research. It was an amazing trip and we are already looking forward to our next trip!! :)
