Dear readers,
Another adventure has passed and not just any adventure! The Globe Watchers were in China!
Let's start at the beginning...
First, we took a six and a half hours flight to Dubai followed by a flight of 8 hours to China. We flew with the airline Emirates. We must say, the fanciest flight we've ever done! (Not that we've done a lot of flight in our lives).
(Every seat had his own tv-screen and game console!)
When we wanted to board on our first flight, Ief got the message that he had a mandatory upgrade to business class, because the flight was overbooked. Conclusion: he left me alone in Economy Class (I would do the exact same thing, sorry not sorry). While I was sitting all by myself next to a couple of strangers, Ief sent me this:
Well, after a seperate (but luxury flight for Ief), we arrived at China by night! First impressions: a warm and humid weather! A driver took us to the hotel and our adventure in China could begin!
The next day, we visited the most famous area of Beijing: The Forbidden City. It's basically a palace complex and it served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government for almost 500 years. It was very impressive to see! Only remark (but also to warn you in advance): there are millions of people (read: Chinese people). It's a very touristy place. We also didn't see any 'non-Chinese' people there, strange...
We also visited Beihai Park. We had to pay an entrance fee of 10 CNY, this is €1,2. For this price, you should definitely visit this beautiful park! There were bridges, little green areas, a lake with boats, beautiful Chinese gates... A typical little China garden!
A next little area that is definitely worth visiting in Beijing is Houhai Lake. It is situated near the Hutongs, a type of narrow streets commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, especially Beijing. In these streets, we saw the typical houses of the Chinese people, the typical bike rides (yes, we did one) and the little Chinese shops.
BTW, in one way or another, I was famous in Beijing. Everybody kept asking pictures! 'You look like Barbie, can we picture?' (Note: most of the Chinese people don't speak English, so it was quite surprising they could ask a photo). On the whole trip we were there, we saw maybe 3 other 'non-Chinese' people, so a blond girl was quite exceptional.
(Note: The man with the white shirt was actually still looking for the camera app in that photo. I stood like that for 20 seconds to find out he couldn't find the app)
On the next day, we went to the center of Beijing. This includes big shopping streets, loads of Chinese people (again) and typical Chinese food markets. You can compare the shopping streets of Beijing with the ones we know here in Belgium. We saw Prada, Calvin Klein, Victoria Secrets but also H&M, Zara... So, a very good place do to some shopping.
But then....
(The following information is not suited for the sensitive reader).
We entered a typical Chinese food market street. This means: a small street, stuffed with Chinese people and the local food. The majority of this local food (beware) were insects. Snails, caterpillars, scorpions ... Some of them were still moving (I think I just puked in my mouth).
(Ief tried the moving little bastards, fried. You can see this in the upcoming vlog soon!)
On our last day in China, we went to The Great Wall of China! There are many places you can go to visit the Wall. We chose the place named 'Mutianyu', an area in Beijing's Huairou District. It was a touristy place where you can buy lot's of souvenirs of your visit, there are many restaurants and bars to go to before or after your trip...
When we came by the Wall, we first had to pay an entrance ticket and a ticket to take the shuttle bus. This bus took us up the hill. After a while, the bus stopped. We had to go out and from there on, all the visitors had a choice: or you walk up towards The Great Wall or you can take a 5 minute cable ride.
(Guess what we did)
Then, we arrived on THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA (Goose bumps moment). It was very foggy in the mountains, so the view wasn't that clear.
(Please notice the dragonfly that flew by while I was posing on the last picture)
After walking on The Great Wall of China for a couple of hours, we had the chance to take a slide down, but as sporty as we are, we took the stairs back (Okay, the slide was closed because of bad weather conditions).
A little tip if you're going to The Great Wall of China: it's quite expensive to go. You need to take a taxi to one of the place where The Great Wall is, there is an entrance fee, a fee for the shuttle bus, you need to pay for the cable ride (optional), a taxi or bus back to the center of Beijing...
The overall Chinese experience? The culture in China is different than the Belgian/European culture. Things like slurping, sniffing, spitting on the street are normal in China.
Maybe an important detail: the toilets are different. There are not much 'potty toilets', only 'squat toilets'. Also, the toilet paper can't go into the toilet, so it lays there in a bucket next to the toilet (Tip: take your own toilet paper with you, because the Chinese people do not seem to be economical on the paper).
Besides that, the Chinese food is DELICIOUS! Noodles, rice, meat dishes, fish sauces... everything tasted amazing.
The traffic in China is... ehm.. let's say: chaotic but organized. All the cars are riding from the left side to the right, the car horn was used multiple times in one minute... But hey, all the taxis brought us safe to our destination (Little tip again: make sure you have the adresses you want to visit in Chinese signs, because not every - read almost no - driver can understand English).
One more tip if you're planning to visit Beijing: don't go in July or August. It's 38°C, very humid, not a lot of oxygen in the air and not pleasant to visit something. It's better to go in in an other period.
Ni hao! (It means 'hello' in Chinese, but let's pretend it also means goodbye)
GLOBE WATCHERS 🌍
We would like to thank The Arabian Horse Global Network for the opportunity to go to China!
If you're planning to go to China and you would like to have some more details on how we did the trip, you can always mail us on contact.globewatchers@gmail.com.
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