Beijing trip!

So we pretty much spent Monday night with the Westover kids. They showed us their school and we watched chopped and cake boss and had another delicious dinner. It was nice having a normal night. We woke up and got ready to leave. The Westover's have a driver and they scheduled to have us driven to the train station so we didn't have to take the metro. It was so nice if them and we don't even know how to thank then for all they did for us. The station we went to was Nanjing South. It is a new train station and is so nice and huge and clean. It's like a nice mini airport. We took a bullet train to Beijing. 4 hours! It was so awesome and smooth. We took the metro from the Beijing South station to the China world apartments. Sarah's aunt and uncle, Brian and Celia, live there. We checked in at the reception desk and got card keys to get into the building and the apartment. We didn't have to use the card to get into the building unless it was late cause they have a doorman. They had set up another bed so that we fit five of us. It was a nice apartment with a normal kitchen! We set our stuff down and walled 40 minutes down the street to the forbidden city. The actual museum of the palace is only open on Mondays and holidays from 8am to noon. So we didn't get to see that. We went down to a Chinese restaurant and ate dinner. We walked down a few street markets and then took the metro back to the apartment.

Wednesday we woke up early to go to Mao's mausoleum at Tiananmen square. Once we were half way through the long line they told us we couldn't take bags or purses in and we had to leave the line. We decided to let two of the girls go and we would watch the bags. There was a miscommunication between us and we didn't find them for four hours. We stayed at the same spot. There was thousands of people there that day since it was a holiday but still. We went to subway for loch and took the metro to the summer palace. We met up with four of the other girls in our group who were still in Beijing and toured there then went to a Lebanese restaurant with a belly dancing show for Camberley's birthday. We went to the apartment and went to sleep.

The next morning (Thursday) I didn't feel good and threw up. The girls decided to spend the day shopping and I took the day to rest since we booked our great wall tour for Friday. It was a good thing for me to take a day to rest. I mostly napped. When the girls came back we watched The House Next Door which one of them had just bought and went to bed.

We got up at 5am and got ready for the great wall. The can picked us up at 6am and took us to the bus. The bus drove for the hours and gave us McDonalds for breakfast. I honestly can't describe how amazing the great wall is. We hiked the wall for three hours. It was so incredible and surreal to be there. I took tons of pictures and videos. They feed us a late lunch buffet and we drove again for the hours back. We went back to the apartment. Brian and Celia had just came back that day from a trip to Tibet. They got us these grass bracelets that look like twigs and it only grows in Tibet. We then went to a Tibetan restaurant and dinner show. We ate yak. It was really good. The show was so good. We got white scarves and we got to go and like throw them a certain way and then place them around the necks of our favorite singer. At the end we joined in on a dance around the restaurant with the performers. We got videos of it all. We then walked past a bunch of embassies on our way to see the worlds biggest TV screen. So awesome! Then we went to the tallest building in Beijing, second largest in China. (the largest is in Shanghai). It was an amazing few of the city at night.

Saturday we went to the temple of heaven. It was really cool and huge. Then Celia took us to the cheapest place to get stuff. She had hook ups and we bought things for Pennies! It was incredible! We went back to see if we could fit everything in our suitcases. Brian and Celia and so wonderful! So welcoming and fun! I don't know how we are going to repay them either.

We got onto the long train back to Ningbo. Trying to sleep on a 15 and a half hour train ride in a seat that doesn't recline is awful. I slept for maybe there hours total. We got back to Ningbo and took the bus home. I unpacked everything and repacked all the presents and feel asleep at 1pm. Sarah just woke me up. It's 7pm. She wants me to be able to sleep at night and not Utah time. It's kinda weird being back. It's our home away from home. The trip felt short but good. It was an incredible experience. I think my luggage home is going to be much lighter then coming here which well be very nice. Can't wait to talk face to face!

Love you and miss you!
Brittany