November 17th, 2008 by Kateastrophe

I finally have some pictures from China for you! I stuck to the ones that had both people and cool touristy scenery for today. I’ve done a little ’splaining about each part of our trip, but obviously had to leave out lots and lots.

We started out our trip in Shanghai.  Shanghai isn’t much of a “touristy” city, but it does feature the fabulous Yu Yuan Gardens (which are surrounded by CHEAP SHOPPING!  Woot!).  The gardens are near the Yangtze River and therefore have a cool taste of old meets new.  In the picture below you can see the brand new Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in China (and VERY cool inside) between the Yu Yuan Gardens Tea House and some other . . . old . . . building.  Yeah.  This is actually right outside the walls of the actual gardens, which were once some guys house and private gardens.  They are very large and he must have been very rich.  The hat was GREAT for pictures that don’t include Matt’s eyes.  Awesome.

Another shot of us inside the gardens . . . awww so cute

Next we were off to Beijing.  We stayed at this AWESOME hotel called the Home Inn.  Think Best Western, minus insulation, mattresses made of anything but wood and add cement block walls and loud Chinese tourists.  All for $12 a night!  I sort of forgot to take a picture, but it was down this tiny alley that most cars couldn’t fit through, and right across from a “Men’s and Women’s Togetherness Health Shop.”  That translates in American-speak to SEX TOY SHOP.  Awesome.  The bonus was that we were just a few blocks from Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, which mean fun shopping and cool restaurants.  My Dad frequents a bar/hostel in the area and below you see Matt and I posing in front of my Dad’s painted masterpiece.  He painted this when he was at this bar a few years ago with my brother and cousins.  It’s a wizard, riding a panda, carrying hot cocoa to the freezing mountains.  Drunk much???

During our two days in Beijing we did all the cool touristy stuff.  Lucky for us, the government wanted to clean up the air for a huge diplomatic meeting, so after a night of pouring rain INDUCED BY ROCKETS we had perfect weather and no pollution.

We saw the Great Wall (which is seriously so amazing)

Tienanmen Square was closed because of all the meetings, so we missed seeing Crazy Mao’s creepily preserved corpse, but we did see the picture his craziness and then headed into the Forbidden City

We saw the Summer Palace (this picture doesn’t even begin to do it justice.  It’s amazing!) and I got to dress like an Empress for a WHOLE DOLLAR

Then we saw the Olympic Park which may have been my favorite part of the trip.  What the Chinese did for these Olympics was unbelievable.  We got to see the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, inside and out.

After Beijing, we traveled down to Shangri La.  It snowed or rained the whole time we were there, but we did get some sweet Chinese Military winter hats.  My Dad showed his true colors in the cold.

I’ll show more of the Shangri La trip later.  It was very gray . . . but fun!  Especially the part where we got ditched by our tour guide.  Wheeee!

Back in Shanghai, I did what I do best.  SHOPPING.  We shopped and shopped and shopped.  We found designer jeans for $20, knock-off designer bags, authentic football jersey, paintings, coats . . . you name it, we found it.  We had stuff tailored just for us and ate lots of good food.  This picture is one of the better purse stores.  Two rooms full of bags, PLUS a secret room in the back.  I love the secret rooms.

That’s all I’ve got for today, but join me next time for “foods that make you go hmmmm.” And “did that lady just shoot a snot rocket onto the sidewalk of the Forbidden City?!  Yes.  Yes she sure did.”