Off the Wall

We are officially 24 hours from Vietnam.  China was awesome, and Hong Kong was my favorite port so far.  We stayed the first night in Shanghai and went to the clubs that night with my friend who speaks Mandarin.  During the day, we had tried street food including octopus tentacles on a stick and a delicious bread item resembling a thick tortilla.  Each cost only 2 yuan (6.8 yuan = $1 US) The next day, we flew to Beijing to start our six-day tour.

On our first full day, we got to see the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square (I don't think that's spelled correctly).  the Forbidden City was created by the emperor of China as a place for royalty that no common people were allowed to enter.  It is surrounded on all four sides by a flat, 30 foot stone wall.  The emperor made sure no trees were planted around the border in order to discourage sneaking into the city.

That evening, we hiked up to the Great Wall and spent the night sleeping on it.  We all felt very cold and uncomfortable throughout the night, but the experience was definitely worth it.  We awoke early the next morning to see the sunrise.  Later that afternoon, after hiking for several miles, we ziplined off the wall.

The next day we took a rickshaw ride through the Hutong area of Beijing.  This area included many poorer neighborhoods in the city.  Afterwards, we went to the Summer Palace, a place the emperor would send his wife in the summer so he could spend some quality time with his concubines.

On the last day we saw the Temple of Heaven.  The morning after, we flew to Hong Kong.  What an amazing city.  It contains the building Batman jumped off in a scene in the Dark Knight.  The city is mesh of culture and structure.  Surrounded on one side by mountains, and the other by ocean, it is truly unique.  Interspersed between the skyscrapers are small markets run by the lower-income members of the city.  Looking at it from a distance, you would never guess that these small markets and shops existed between the towering buildings.

I've still got some planning to do for Vietnam, look for an update in about a week.