Day 10: Welcome Home

Prompt: Did your views on travel change?

I do not really know if my views on why I travel changed. Before this I never really have traveled by myself, I have traveled once before in 7th grade but it was to Virgina. Also before this I did not know why I travel, I knew why people travel frin reading that essay in the class. So this trip was a good chance for me to understand why I travel.

I learned that I travel to have fun. I know this is not what Pico Iyer said why people travel, but that is something else I learned doing this trip, is that Iyer was wrong, at least in my mind. He said that people travel to escape and learn, and what he wrote about tourist seemed very nagative, saying "a tourist is just someone who complains". This made me mad, not everyone is or can be a world travelor. I personally think everyone is a tourist becuase travelors go and see the same things that tourist do.

Getting back to why I travel, I travel to have fun and experience. Every trip I have ever been on I always have many funny stories to tell. I have many different experiences to share as well. These experiences range from seeing popular sights to going to not so traveled on hikes to going to popular local resturuants.

Going into this trip I wanted to have fun. I wanted to have fun in everything we did, I knew we had to be serious at certain places, but still I wanted to have a smile and try to experience it in a light and happy way. I never wanted to be mad and have a dark mood on the trip, becuase I knew it would ruin that place, meal, or moment in time for me. Which I knew would happen because that is the type of person I am, but when I did get mad it didn't ruin things for me it made it more fun because I get snippy when I am mad, which makes people laugh.

Overall, I think that I found out why I travel and I think it is a good way to travel. I enjoyed this trip, I had fun, and I think I experienced everything I could except for the food. I hope that future I take will be on or above the level of this trip!

Day 9: Top Ten's

Prompt: Top Ten Moments, Learning, Funny, and Food

Top Ten Experiences:

1. Climbing the Great Wall outside of Beijing


2. Seeing the Terra-Cotta Warriors in Xi'an


3. Swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in Hong Kong


4. Seeing the Big Wild Goose Pagoda at night, with the light show in Xi'an


5. Possible Illegal Taxi Ride in Xi'an


6. House Visit in Shanghai


7. Driving Past the Water Cube and the Birds Nest in Beijing


8. 8. Acrobat Show in Shanghai


9. 9. First Time Bartering


10. 10. Going to the school in Beijing
    

Top Ten Learning Moment

1. The Great Wall was constructed with Sticky Rice


2. The Forbidden City has 15 or more layers of brick underneath it


3. What a dragon consist of


4. A few words in Mandarin


5. How to Barter


6. Seeing the school and how it is different from our


7. The Tallest Building is in Shanghai


8. Longest Suspension Bridge that carries both road and rail traffic in Hong Kong.


9. Magnum and Tea Flavor Gatorade exist


10. That Happy Valley closes all the roller coasters at night!
    

Top Ten Funny

1. Playing Shuffle


2. Taking pictures of Chinese people taking pictures of us


3. Possible illegle taxi ride in Xi'an


4. Getting semi-lost in Hong Kong with Jennifer


5. The Bus Ride back from the Tang Dynasty Show in Xi'an


6. Karaoke on the Bus in Beijing


7. Conversations at breakfast/lunch/dinner table


8. David laughing at at taking off your shoes at security in Beijing Airport


9. Scott falling asleep while standing up in Xi'an


10. Lexa breaking the hotel room phone in Hong Kong

Top Ten Food

1. Chicken and the uncooked macaroni thing during the last night in Shanghai


2. Lychees in Xi'a
   
3. Magnum in Xi'an and Shanghai


4. Peeking Duck in Beijing


5. Sesame Seed Fried Dough during the last night in Shanghai


6. Sweet and Sour Chicken in multiple places


7. Lemon Chicken in Shanghai


8. Melon everywhere


9. Dragon Fruit in Beijing


10. Rice everywhere
    

Day 8: Goodbye Shanghai, Hello Hong Kong

Prompt: First thought on Hong Kong and how Western it is, compare it is to other cities

When we first got to Hong Kong I thought it was so pretty and tropical. Once we got outside it was horrible humid and it was gross. I liked the palm trees in Hong Kong because I never really see palm trees because I do not really go to tropical places for vacations. I also thought that Hong Kong was very interesting with all the boats and the ports. The two suspension bridges were very awesome because they hold records and now I can say that have ridden on them.

Hong Kong is very Western because of the way the city is laid out. The driving system is like the European driving system, driving on the left side of the rode and the left side of the car. It is also more Western because of the way the streets are laid out in curves like the European streets and not like a checker board like in Beijing and Xi'an.

Compared to Beijing, Hong Kong is a lot more hot and less crowded. But it is more expensive to shop here in Hong Kong then the other cities we have been to. Compared to Beijing and Xi'an Jong Kong is a lot less historical and that is due to the fact that Hong Kong was ruled by England and was given back to China. But China still really doesn't accept Hong Kong because we had to fill out a new arrival card and turn in a departure card when we left Shanghai. Hong Kong is also different then the other cities in China because Hong Kong is a group of islands strung together by bridges and tunnels. Also Hong Kong seems to more clean then other places we have visit but this is also due to the face that until the early 2000s it was under British rule.

Day 7: New Meets Old

Prompt: What did you learn about the history of the city through temple and the old city and culture through bartering

From going to the old city and the Temple I learned and saw how heavily influenced by European architecture and how the Chinese history effected Shanghai. The people here believe the same things as the rest of China, in religion and mythical creatures. In the temple we learned about the history of Buddhism and a lot about the religion and how it is celebrated there in Shanghai. Going to the old city also reminded me how crowded the city and how big the population is. Seeing this also reminded that Xi'an and Beijing has around the same amount of people and they have bigger streets which foes to show how Shanghai was influenced by European architecture.

Thew the new culture of bartering we can learn that in China, people who are very young and do not go to school will do a lot of things to tourist to get money. It also shows how they do not care if they rip people off, which shows they need money. It shows how different the United States of America and the Chinese economy culture is different because in the United States the people who sell things sell them with little influence and have here in China they put a lot of inflation on the products. But the again it is okay and sometimes socially acceptable to barter in China. The bartering shows that they are finding ways to get around laws with backrooms and secret cabinets just to get the much needed money

Day 6: Goodbye Xi'an, Hello Shanghai

Prompt: Initial reaction to Shanghai, describe east meets west in Shanghai, describe the home visit, the market visit, and you favorite acrobat act at the show

My first thoughts of Shanghai were that it looked like a China Town maybe in England because of the English architecture and the dialect our tour guide, Sandy, was telling us about. I also thought that it was a little nicer then Xi'an and on the level of Beijing's cleanliness.

The say East meets West describes Shanghai because it has many European and American influences. These influences are here because these countries imperiled that area of China and while they were there they built many buildings while they were there with their architecture style. Also the English language is found in their dialect of Mandarin, because the English were settled here for so long. The Jewish religion is found here, which is not common in the East. Judaism came to Shanghai during WWII when they were trying to escape.

The home visits were very interesting. It was a shock to see how small an average home is for three people. My family has three people and the whole apartment was the size of our living room and half of our dinning room. It was also amazing how open she was so open to us being there and all our questions. I did not know what to ask at first, but later on I did and the answers were surprising.

The market was not what I expected or was used to. Just seeing what I am going to eat move disturbs me. I like things dead when I am going to but them. But the fruits and vegetables looked very tasty. Some people bought cherries, grapes, and bananas.

The acrobats show was pretty cool. The tumbling I found neat but the choreography in between the stunts was so-so, but maybe that is because I am a dancer. I enjoyed the blue cloth thing most, were the people were spinning in the air with the aid of the blue cloth. The motorcycles were cool but did not really interest me.

Day 5: Terra-Cotta Warriors!

Prompt: What happened today?

Today we got to wake u later than usual. The breakfast at the hotel was pretty good. We then headed out to some ancient ruins, called the Bang Po, ancient river people. It was interesting because it was a lot of dirt and it was surprising that some of the structures were still standing.

After that we went to a Hot Springs. The springs were really pretty. We spilt up into small groups and wandered. My group; Alexa, Jake, Nick, Sam, Shelby, Natalie, Beth, and Samie, dipped our hands into the water and it was really hot, but it felt nice. We then wandered into a building that was kind of like a museum. And then we split up and Shelby, Nick, Natalie, Alexa, and I went to a lake things. Alexa found a pillow she wanted for her grandparents and tried to barter for it, but the lady selling it got mad. Then we found a picture that was the image on the pillow, and we took turns posing like it.
Then as a group we went up on cable cars to get a pretty cool view from the top of a mountain of the hot springs. It was a pretty smooth ride up there. and the view was nice but not of the hot spring area, it was of the other side of the base of the mountain. And I asked Nick to hold my camera and he then preceded to take many pictures of himself.

Then we went to lunch. Lunch was okay, we have had better. And Scott got sick. But he powered threw so he could see the Terra-Cotta Warriors.

The Terra-Cotta Warriors were pretty awesome! And there was more than I imagined. In fact they were still excavating some. I thought that the warriors were a small amount but seeing them in real person that close made me freak out a little only because they were really impressive and you just imagine how long and how much work was put into making them. We them went back to the hotel.

We went to dinner, and I ate out with Tom, Mason, Mr. Ewen, Cladia, Lexa, Brandon, Beth, Kip, Alexa, Shelby, and Natalie out to some restaurant near the hotel. At the restaurant we had a hot pot, but I really did not enjoy it so I ate some chicken thing which tasted good.

Then Lexa, Brandon, Shelby, Natalie, Schags, Ms. T, and I went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda fountains. There was a water show and I stayed semi dry while everyone else danced in the middle of the fountains and got soaked. Afterwards it was next to impossible to get a taxi back to the hotel. Everyone who got wet smelled like barf, it was gross. The taxi we got into we think was illegal because they did not have a meter until we got in and there was no real seats...but it was the funniest taxi ride I was ever in. Xi'an was fun, and I miss it.

Day 5: Beijing vs Xi'an

Prompt: Compare and contrast Beijing and Xi'an in history, culture, and food

Beijing's historical places are similar to Xi'an's historical places because they both involve the same Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty. The cities are almost the same because they were both old capital cities.

The two cities culture are the same cultural because they both have crazy drivers. Also, the people do not care where they drive or when they walk across a street, just as long as they get where they want.

The two cities food are similar because they use the same spices and have similar meats. Overall the serve almost the exact dishes.

The cities historical places are different because a majority of the places in Xi'an are replicated but they are also much older then the places in Beijing. While in Beijing they are more authentic but are also younger.

The Beijing and Xi'an culture is different because Beijing seems to be more developed and cleaner while Xi'an is more dirty and industrial. The culture is also different because Xi'an has a Muslim community while Beijing is all Chinese.

The cities food is different because in Xi'an they seemed to have more street vendors and more authentic Chinese food. While in Beijing the food seemed to be more Americanized for tourist and it seemed to have more restaurants as well. Overall both of the cities were alike and different, both in their own special ways.