B&E Photography

Shanghai: the city of lights, fashion, and high rises. We fell in love with the city nearly instantly. It was a modern cosmopolitan city with a thin layer of communism but a deep seeded love of capitalism and the good life.
We stayed in a great hotel along the river for our first night. It was the first hotel built in Shanghai and once housed famous people such as scientist Albert Einstein, former U.S. President Grant, and silent movie star Charlie Chaplin.
After getting our bearings, we contacted Natalie, a friend of a friend, who so graciously offered for us to bunk up with her and her three flat mates. She even went as far as to give up her bed to Erica and I for 4 nights! All of the girls were absolutely hilarious and really made us feel at home and, if you gals ever read this, thank you again so very much!
One evening we went to the Ritz Hotel to see the view, one on the inside and one on the outside. The inside view has a 30 story perch at the 84th floor that looks down at the piano bar on the 54th. Compliment that with the 180 degree view outside on the 87th floor with a perfect manhattan in hand and you have one heck of a place to relax (or get vertigo).
From Shanghai we took the Maglev train to Beijing which literally floated above the rails at an extremely comfortable 190/mph Once there we checked into a great little hostel tucked away in a real life labyrinth of alleyways chock full of authentic hutong residents.Our first few minutes there and we had already begun to realize how saturated Beijing was with rich history.
That first day out we ventured into and around our hostel to get a feeling for the area. Several miles away we ended up on a authentic alley street that was very popular among not only foreign tourists but locals as well. The crowds were very tightly packed and movement was very constrictive. As such, I didn't notice that someone had stealthily unlocked the lens from my camera and made off with $2500 worth of gear. We were devastated as, it not only wasted a whole day filing a police report and picking up a mandatory replacement lens, we came to find out that we never opted in for the international insurance making this theft not covered. ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!
Anyways, after realizing that bad things happen to everyone and to not get too bummed out we pressed on to see the Great Wall. Opting to see the most authentic parts of the wall, we took a three hour bus ride each way to hike the crumbling ruins of the Great Wall. It was as great as everyone had said and then some. To make it even more majestic, it had started to lightly snow making a path of white stone begging to be climbed and explored. Climb is an understatement as we sometimes had to scale incredibly steep steps and walkways that your brain could only begin to fathom how much effort was spent on such a unique and truly fascinating piece of history.
Our next big sight to see was The Forbidden City. It was captivating to learn that for 500 years the city was off limits to anyone but royalty and that no other males were allowed inside the city unless they were castrated. The penalty for uninvited guests was instant execution. The structures with their huge red columns and roof corners that flared toward the sun greatly brought about the immensity of such delicate and incomparable architecture. To top it all off, the night before we went, 10 inches of snow blanketed everything in a beautiful white powder raising the uniqueness of this once elusive place to new levels.
As we completed our last city in China we reflected on all of the fun and interesting sites we had seen as well as the one-of-a-kind people. We were truly grateful for unsolicited kindnesses we had received throughout China and sad to leave a country that, after having know nothing about, had come to appreciate and enjoy. However, it was time to move on to the last country on our route: Japan.

Erica looking "red" hot under the the bridge that constantly is changing colors in Shanghai

Another color of the bridge

View of the Financial District of Shanghai

Self portrait under the night lights of Shanghai

A giant flaming fish-bowl of alcohol that was so dizzyingly good

Old financial district of Shanghai

Underwater railway that has a Space Mountain feel

Shanghai's TV Tower Tripod

Poor little dinner snack

The buildings are so ornately designed

Old town shopping plaza in Shanghai

Very old bridge in a remote village outside of Shanghai, old meaning hundreds of years

Village canals outside of Shanghai

Keeper of the village :)

The canals in this village were so scenic and beautiful

?????? The signs here are so hard to understand ??????

Another example of poorly written signage

Does this need a caption?

Lovely gardens we stumbled upon in the village outside of Shanghai

This very infamous insignia is heavily used to denote temples, even still today, and, for anybody who doesn't know, the symbol originally dates back to 3300 BCE

Part of the village outside of Shanghai

If zoomed in, you can see a woman washing her pots in the river

Erica looking beautiful as usual

Notice the pictograph on the right; it says spitting in the subway is prohibited. I figured that was just common sense :)

The Shanghai kids

Every time Jessica (a flatmate of Natalie) would laugh, she would cover her face like a little school girl. Notice also how short Erica looks next to her! (How's the weather up there Jess? lol j/k)

The view from the 84th floor looking down on the 54th floor piano bar at the Ritz in Shanghai

The 53rd floor of the Ritz where the piano bar is

This sign was a complete understatement for going into the sewers in China; should have been used for actually inside the restrooms

Loved all the Chinese lanterns hanging everywhere

Erica with a giant cotton candy

The king's summer palace in Beijing

Beijing summer palace scenic area

The roofs of even the least important structures in the Summer Palace were ornately designed

Two beautiful bridges at the Summer Palace

Summer Palace guest house :)

Portion of the Cherry Blossom tree path at the Summer Palace, unfortunately not blooming

Entrance to our hostel in Beijing

Notice the wood slats on the tires used to prevent dogs from peeing on the rims

Erica looking great on the great wall

Wall for days

It was snowing on our walk along the Great Wall where we climbed the highest sections

The steep terrain made for some very steep steps

Picture #1,456,893 of the Great Wall :)

We chose to visit the most authentic parts of the wall where they are crumbling in front of our eyes

Notice how far the wall travels in the background

Framed

Curves ahead

The wall of the wall on the left had completely crumbled

Great Wall picture # 989,323,923,323

Climbing was completely steep, with no uniformed steps, and all of them were made by hand

Poser

Tienanmen Square in Beijing

No snow one day, and a foot the next

Entrance to the Forbidden City, notice Chairman Mao

A river runs through it

"Heavenly Gateway" to the Forbidden city

It was absolutely freezing, good thing I had my audio tour keeping my ear warm

Panorama of the center of the Forbidden City

Erica having a blast in the snow; only her fourth time in her life being in the snow

Erica so hot she's melting the snow (yeah, that was cheesy)

Forbidden City Panorama

Couldn't go through that door

Erica doesn't stick out at all in this country

Can't really understand the need for the airport to make a sign for "No Grenades" allowed; isn't that common knowledge along with no nuclear products and guns? lol

Charming, historical, and well populated despite its small size, Tunxi was a great find for us. We had finished earlier than expected in Guilin and, after hastily researching somewhere to go and fill the time, found ourselves in a part of China with a great blend of culture and modern convenience.

We happened upon our hostel by chance when our other hotel had given us such bad directions that we were forced to find something else as the night was getting late. A great couple visiting from Shanghai randomly helped us along to their hostel located in the exact area we were trying to spend the night. The hostel was so cheap, clean, and centrally located that we ended up using it for our jumping off points.

The next day we woke up early to catch a 6 am bus to a famous mountain in Huangshan. The mountain had three ways to get up: ascend the difficult eastern steps, the treacherous western steps, or take the glorious and pain free Gondola. Take a wild guess which one we chose! After paying for our ticket, our guide book stated the line for the Gondola should take no more than 45 mins. What came next was Erica and I's biggest test of patience yet. We rounded the corner and viewed a line twisting and turning with absolutely 'no light at the end of the tunnel.' If the line were a snake it would have been an Amazonian Anaconda the likes of which the world had never seen. Why were their so many people? We quickly ascertained that it was Women's Day in China and that all Chinese women are admitted free of charge. Every grandma, aunt, sister, girlfriend, niece, cousin, mom, daughter and then some had come to see the mountain. To top it off people were not standing in line in an orderly fashion. It was chaos at best as people shoved, pulled, squeezed, and slipped through trying to get by one another without any concern for their fellow human's well being all while blowing snot and hocking loogies making our stomachs flip and flop with disgust. How is this the norm? We found ourselves forced to jockey for position or be left at the back of the line. Admittedly, when we did shove people around, without saying a word, they would look at us like, 'nice move.... touche touche'. It was without a doubt the most irritating and nerve racking ordeal we've ever put ourselves through. After three and a half hours, we reached the top and were so fried from the experience that we barely looked around, decided instead to just find some remote villages to see, and quickly set our feet in the direction farthest away from the crowds and confusion.
It sounds really bad, and sometimes it was, but it was such a contrast to have people be so helpful in with directions and then completely and seemingly ill-mannered. However, that is strictly just our experience and we hopefully are not deterring you from seeing a truly unique and wonderful culture and landscape; it's more of a warning so that the shock isn't quite as extreme for future travelers as it was for us.

Leaving the mountain, the village we entered was really unique. It was listed on UNESCO as a world heritage site and we could see why. The entire village had small water drains that ran through them like veins; matter of fact, it was built purposely to resemble an ox's entrails for a reason we never did find out. As we first entered, we noticed three women cleaning items in the stagnant lake water. Upon closer inspection our worst fears were confirmed: two were cleaning vegetables while one of the ladies was skinning a cat for dinner. Yep! I'd say this village is definitely just reached the level of authentic! On a less stomach wrenching note, one of the bridge's in the village had been used in the very famous movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

The next day we were suppose to travel, I got very sick with the barfs and China Belly and had to stay in bed. Erica took great care of me as I slept, complained, and threw up around her. It was definitely not my most handsome moment but she tackled it like a champ!

With the previous day dedicated to being ill, it was time to head to our next stop, Shanghai, where we look forward to meeting up with friends of friends and getting to see China's most modern city.