China: land of the dirty, home of the fake

Well it sure is good to be back in the promised land ;) China was definitely an eye opening experience and I can confidently say that I have had my fill of China and we aren't sure if we plan on going back anytime soon... We did see and do some pretty amazing things and we learned so much about China and its people. The people there are so kind and warm hearted. They have an innocence about them (in a non-innocence way…)... In the short time that we were there we met some awesome people.   For example while we were in Beijing shopping at the Silk market we decided that there was just too much good stuff that we were passing up so we needed to exchange some more money. We were walking along the street looking for an exchange place and this girl runs up to us and asks us with her sweet broken English, "where you are from???" we replied that we are Americans and were here on vacation, visiting Coles parents. She then goes into asking us if we were brother sister, boyfriend & girlfriend...We explained we were married and that it was ok to be married at a younger age. The Chinese people are expected to be married between the ages of 23 & 26 I think it was... She was shocked to learn we were married and asked us about religion, because she knows that sometimes when your married young you have a religion. Unfortunately we could not talk to her about religion because in China there are laws forbidding Christian proselyting. We could get into a lot of trouble just talking about it on the streets with any Chinese native. So when she started talking about religion we got super scared. Until we found out that she was a baptized Christian as of a few months ago. So we did talk a little bit but definitely did not go into any detail with her on The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints. After about 15 minutes of answering her questions on the street she offered to help us find a money exchange place only if we would go across the street and look at her artwork in the University she attended. We agreed and I ended up buying some of her artwork to help her pay to study abroad in Germany. It felt good helping her out... I just hope that it wasn't a scam...... hahaha By the end of the art tour she did help us find a money exchange place and we were all happy cuz we got our money and so did she...:)


Our trip started off AWESOME! We were waiting in Seattle fro the flight and the flight lady at the check-in desk at the gate called our names! we thought we were gonna be kicked off the flight or something. She tells us that the flight was full and that they would like to upgrade us to FIRST CLASS! WAHOO!!!!! We obviously said yes and were SO excited :) We didn't know what to expect. We now know why it costs so much for first class.....
1. They give you a sweatshirt and sweatpants
2. You get a full 7-8 course meal.....
3. Your own TV, not on the back of the seat in front of you...
4. Your chair turns into a bed! yes we slept on beds flying to China
5. Hot towel to clean your face and hands
6. A travel bag with face wash, toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, mouth wash, etc
And all of these things you keep! :) Here are our first class pictures :) And I did forget to take a picture of the salad.. :(

 There were some great times and some bad times we had in China. 
The Good:
1. The people
2. The shopping!!!!!!!
3. History
4. Tourist spots: Great wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Silk Market, etc. 5. American food....
6. Money exchange rate
7. Shopping :)
8. First class :) 


The shopping there was incredible however just because it was really cheap always meant that it was fake. EVERYTHING IS FAKE! We have come to learn that China people have mastered fake in every way. Everything we bought there was name brand like, Armani, D&G, North Face, etc... but not the real brand. It looks incredibly similar to the real thing and we were so amazed at how they were able to accomplish this. So while shopping we learned to barter with them and got some superb deals! I got some Toms and a pair of Nike shoes for a total of $35. Got all the girls in Young Women's a gift for a total of $40. We sure had a hard time fitting all our stuff into suitcases.  


Why the shopping was so good was because of the exchange rate. We exchange a hundred dollars at a time to be safe and be able to come back with some US dollars and so when you exchange $100 you get in return 630 Yuen. Lets just say that that is a lot over in China.... I got the two pair of shoes for 230 Yuen. So you can see that it goes a long way! It was awesome! We took Taxis everywhere and if we were in the taxi for 45 minutes you would probably pay around 45 Yuen, which comes to $7. So really the only expensive part about China was buying the plane ticket and getting there! Other than that it is VERY cheap! 

The reason why I added American food to the good things about China is because I did try a lot of authentic foods, and because I did this I was punished with a really, really, really bad case of diarrhea. :( EVERYTHING literally went straight through me and I was in the bathroom every 5 minutes :( So towards the end of the trip we stayed and ate at places like McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut. And the food actually tasted like American food. Very delicious and helped me get better :)

The Chicken that (i think) made me sick :( It was delicious tho!!!

 Visiting the tourist places was a real treat and we enjoyed every minute of it and also learning about the History of China. It is a very fascinating country. 

 The Great Wall

 Tiananmens Square: T-Square

T-Square

T-Square

Gondola ride to Great Wall

Great Wall

Great Wall

Great Wall

 The hike up these stairs was incredibly hard!

Great Wall

T-Square

T-Square

Gondola to Great Wall

 T-Square

T-Square

Olympic Games Opening Stadium

Forbidden City

 Forbidden City

 Forbidden City

The place where David O McKay dedicated the land and the Church Purchased this tree!

Plate under the tree telling the story

Tiananmens Square

 Forbidden City

 Forbidden City

Forbidden City

These were built throughout the whole Forbidden City because when the Emperor was young he loved riding his bike around and the Empress tried putting a stop to it :)

 Forbidden City: the Emperor loved his Gardens

 Forbidden City Emperor Gardens

 putside the Forbidden City. Very homely place

 YAY! Wedding Day for this beautiful Bride. Outside the Forbidden City

 I took this picture late but they give you 99 seconds to get all the people across the street!

This looked fun! Sad we were too hot and beat from walking the very BIG Forbidden City

 A panda's home at the Panda zoo

 :)

 Adorbz!

 they love watermelon :)

 :)

 You pick this bag up and that is how much a baby panda weighs... There was an asian couple and he tried lifting it and couldn't. So Cole and I wanted to feel how heavy it was and they stepped aside to watch us lift it and it was no problem for Cole or I. The Asian girl looked at her boy and walked away cuz he couldn't lift it! It was HILARIOUS! :)

 At the Panda Zoo

 I'm a Panda!!!

 About 5 times a day Asian people asked to have their picture taken with us. I guess ALL Americans are famous to those Chinese!

Cole with his random picture of the day!

:)

 Temple of Heaven. It was about 115 degrees that day so it wasn't that much fun unfortunately...

 Temple of Heaven. The walk the Emperor took for some ceremonies and sacrifices

 No one was allowed to walk on this center part of the sacrificial walk because it was sacred to them. So of course I had to walk on it ;)

 BIG Buddha we found on the side of the mountainside in JiNan

 You had to hike up to see the Buddha so they rented these out for you to ride down on!!! Yes those stuffed animals had wheels on them so you could ride them down as well!!! :)

 Random Chinese version of zumba in front of the BIG Buddha

 Temple of Heaven

This was their way of telling us to stay off the grass! No one knew English there and no one knew how to write it either... Weird

Nice profile of the Buddha

 This is how bike riding is done in China :)

 :) sometimes we would see a husband driving with his wife and 2 kids on the back!

 First picture with my new hair..... just woke up ;)

 Yes people still do pray at the incense...

 Biggest incense i'v EVER seen!

 At the Train station just getting to Qindau at the Yellow Sea

 The Yellow Sea with Qindau in the background :)

Starfish and turtles for sale for the locals to eat!!! The food there is weird and gross!

Qindau :)

Qindau :)

 Now for the BAD:
1. Toilets 
2. Hot and Humid
3. EVERYONE SMOKES
4. Government
5. A few rude people here and there (but no matter where you go there will always be rude people)
6. Smog
7. Food
8. Customer Service
9. Taxi drivers
10. Traffic
11. TOO MANY POEPLE IN CHINA
12. Dirty12. No one knows how to speak English, only the educated Chinese
13. You can't drink the water there


When you brush your teeth, drink water, wash your face... it all has to be done with water bottles or Culligans water in a 5 gallon jug.... It sucks to have to worry if you drank faucet water. Cuz if you did you can easily get a bug/parasites. It is the same with the local Chinese as well. I feel sorry for all of them! 


The toilets there are literally Holes in the ground. The only good thing about them is that they are porcelain. We dreaded going to the bathroom in public so if we could, we would hold it until we got back to the hotel where they had normal toilets... We visited a city on the coast of the Yellow Sea called Qindau (ch-ing-dow) and that was when i was recovering from my sickness...Well the worst happened and I had to go right then and there! we found a bathroom and had no time to find a different one otherwise I would have an even worse problem to deal with.. :/ I walked in the stall to find no toilet paper pee, poop, and blood EVERYWHERE! Yes that was a typical bathroom because they do not flush toilet paper in China so they wipe and put it all into a basket next to the toilet or the floor.... I seriously had no choice but to use that bathroom. Thank goodness I had toilet paper in my backpack. My mother-in-law had prepared me well :) I was so relieved that only had to happen once!!! And about the dirtiness in the bathrooms...I am NOT exaggerating at all! 


The weather there was about 98 degrees plus another 15-20 degrees from the humidity. Way worse than the humidity in Hawaii. We were constantly wet with sweat the only place with air conditioning was the hotel...:( The smog was so bad there that even on a clear day you could barely see the top of the tall buildings. It gets super clear, for China, outside the city... I'm not sure how the people there live! It's depressing not being able to see the beautiful blue sky. 


 Literally every male there smokes. We would be taking a taxi and the driver would have no problem lighting up right then and there.... My worst experience with this was one time we took a dirt road and the driver just finished his cigarette and rolled up the window because he did not want dirt in the car...or he didn't want to breath the dirt.... We about died. I swear we almost died from second hand smoke :/ 


So the first 3 days of the trip we were in Beijing and there is approximately 22 Million people there...we then went to JiNan, a smaller town/city, for the remainder of the trip, where my in-laws were teaching English. There is approximately 6 million people there. Therefor making the Traffic horrible! The law is that the people yield to the cars not cars yield to people like America. So we saw over 100 times where a car almost hit someone. It is insane there! All in all there are just too many people that live in China. The biggest city in China has about 35 Million people. I am glad we decided not to visit ;) 


Customer Service is very different.... If you ask someone a question, 1. They probably don't know English, and 2. They will direct you to someone else because they only know what they are selling like yogurt and that's it! I guess that is their way of making enough jobs for everyone that lives there! When we were at the airport trying to check our bags in we had to wait in line for about 2 hours.... Once we finally made it to the check-in counter we were told that we were there too early so we could not check in… By then Cole and I were ready to get home and were done with the way that were constantly being treated... We got upset and asked to speak to a manager and they said not necessary here in the line go to the front and check in... I guess the managers there do not like being bugged... we had to go through customs where they check for your visa and boarding pass. After waiting in that line Cole went through first and everything went smooth, then it was my turn.....The government guy looked at everything and said in broken Engrish...."u need departure slip..." he showed me what it was and I said ok well my husband who you just let through didn't have one so why did I need to have one?... I was not about to wait in line again and get separated from Cole..... He just looked at me...I asked again and he said next prease.... I said NO! You should not have to make me get a departure slip if he Doesn't have to.... he just stared so I went and quickly filled one out. By now I was FURIOUS! I didn't wait in line, just slipped in front and went straight to his counter.... I slapped the slip and my visa on the counter and he got real pissed...oops! Probably shouldn't have done that! TOO LATE :) I said here's the departure slip can I get through now!???? He just looked at me with a nasty look on his face as if he wasn't going to let me through.... About 5 minutes and an apology later he let me through...... :) 


The best and worst experience of china!  
THE BEST! Teaching English to the students there with my father-in-law :) what a blast! He let Cole and I lecture for a few hours and we had a blast! 
THE WORST! So I was told that I should get my hair cut in China because it is Cheap for Americans (after the exchange rate its like $10) and they do a great job. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law as well as their friends got their hair done and said it was good! :) So I was considering on getting my haircut anyways so I thought why not bring some China back with me :) Worst idea EVER! I go in and get my hair washed twice :) then he starts cutting..... Next thing I know I have a pixie cut!!!!!!! and I start crying because I asked for an A-line cut! I seriously wake up every morning and I am living a nightmare! I feel like a little 12 yr. old boy. Thank goodness my hair grows somewhat fast!!!! 


we had the opportunity to spend my birthday in CHina! Cole took me to Beijing and we just did some pretty awesome bargain shopping at the silk market all day! we got some really great things like jackets shoes things for our house. I got a gorgeous tea set..of course for hot chocolate ;) When we got back frm the 2 hour train ride from Beijing Cole made me dinner on the roof of the hotel. The weather was cooling down, we had a beautiful view and a delicious dinner! :) He is such a great husband and I definitely got spoiled for my birthday!!!! Here are some pictures :)

Dinner on the roof... It was dark adn the flash blinded me ;)

 Dinner and fun birthday decorations :)

 :D

 Cupcakes Nancy made for me :) and the fun decorations she put up! definitely made me feel loved on my birthday! I AM SPOILED :)

 THe beautiful but not good half cake half cream b-day cake :)

YUP! got my birthday crown!!! :)

Other than all that our trip was good :) and I am SOOOOOOOO glad that we were able to have the experience that we did :) Next big trip we are planning is France :) CANT WAIT!!!!!!!