Trip 2 Days 11 and 12

Day eleven we were up bright and early to catch a bus to an amusement park called Discovery Land. It seemed almost like Disney Land, but smaller with no fast passes.
In the end Xiao and I only went on one ride, while Liaoda chickened out of anything better.



We went through a haunted house too, but it wasn’t really scary at all. Liaoda was a little scared because it was dark, so he ruined the fear thrill by turning on his phone’s flash light. xD


I screamed like a pansy on this while Xiao was all cool and calm as if it were a car ride…Although the view was nice. I could see out to the ocean from there!

Anyway, Xiao and I had wanted to go on a roller coaster too, but the lines were all two hours long, so instead we all went to the beach~


We even found star fish on the beach!


There were a lot of tiny crabs along this area, and there were a lot of clam-like things too. People come here to get their own dinner~
However, I found I am scared of tiny crabs because they move a lot like spiders…

After this we went back to Xiao’s side of town by subway for dinner and then back to her apartment to relax. Now, it had been my first time really riding a subway, so this was a kind of fun little trip for me~

Day twelve we were back off to the beach!
A closer one this time.
I had wanted to swim in the ocean, since I never have~


Sadly Xiao has a lot of fun pictures from here that I don’t have. There was a little girl statue that was crouched on the ground, and a little boy was sitting on her when we walked by and holding onto her braids like she was a horse!
Xiao made Liaoda sit on it too~
Also, I hadn’t been wearing my swim suit because I thought there’d be a changing room. There wasn’t, so Xiao has pictures of how I changed into my swim suit under my clothing. xD



Liaoda had been too chicken of the cold water to join me for a swim, and Xiao likes to just sit on the beach, so I went out on my own~



After my swim, we went to a restaurant close by and had a nice dinner~








After dinner we took a nice taxi ride along the sea side then returned to Xiao’s home to pack for our trip south!

Trip 2 Day 10

Day ten is a day where Xiao had her own things to do, so while she did that, Liaoda and I were off to the aquarium~



Those fat seals are spoiled, you can pay to feed them and I think they get fed a lot.







For a while Liaoda and I wanted around the artic animals, but soon it was time for the seal and walrus show~


You could see the harbor from the aquarium~






Playing the harmonica~~

A volunteer from the audience blowing up a balloon with the walrus~

They asked if the volunteer had a boyfriend, she said yes, then they asked if he was here, she said no, so the wulrus got to kiss her~~

After the show, it would be a little bit before the dolphin one, so we went to the fish part of the aquarium while we waited.









These old diving outfits are always kindof creepy…


Too bad the toilets were underwater there… >;D












I’ve always thought horseshow crabs were cute…but for their legs since they’re like a spider’s.

This place even had mermaids!!

Oh wait…that was the start of the weirdest dolphin show I’ve ever seen…
They started with scenes of the Little Mermaid on a screen, and after some battle with pirates the price dies saving the mermaid…. then they do about three dolphin  tricks.
Also, the boy in front of me had eaten a sausage, and then his mother gave him water, he spit the sausage into the water, so huge chunks were floating around in it. Then the little girl next to him drank from the nasty water….



After the aquarium, Liaoda and I went back to Xiao’s place for a little rest before we were off to a korean themed restaurant for dinner. The original plan had been to go to a japanese restaurant, but we couldn’t find it.




After dinner, we went to a korean coffee shop across the street, it was called Maan coffee so we joked that only the manliest men could drink at this coffee shop.
Although this place had the best table numbers. Instead of just setting a boring number on the table and waiting for your order to come, they give you a teddy bear!
I wished that I could keep it…








After being separated from out cute bear, and after finishing our dessert, it was back to Xiao’s place for the night~

Trip 2 Day Birthday~~

Alright, yes, I skipped quite the number of days!
But it’s August 6th here in China, which means I’m 20!
So old!
Either way, I’ve already recieved some amazing gifts~~
Liaoda’s parents got me the 64 GB 4G new iPad! ;A; Gosh it’s awezome!
They also got me a pink pretty cover and the little thing to protect my screen from scratched~
The total was about 1000$, and I have no idea how I’ll get them gifts to match this!

Anyway, excuse the pictures. I have gotten a little plump in China, so my legs are thunderous, and I was in my PJs with the wrong color of bra…




I’m honestly already addicted to a little game on the iPad already, it’s called Happy Street~~

Trip 2 Days 8 and 9

On day eight Liaoda and I were off to the seaside town of Dalian!
We took a plane, the flight was four hours, but it was since I slept through it. I gave up my window seat to a woman who was riding a plane for the first time, so I felt a little motion sick.

And after some long travel and confusion after we got off the plane, it was straight to a dinner with Xiao and her friends! I was a little upset that I didn’t have time to pretty up first…

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Me, Xiao, and two other girls from the dinner. There was one more woman but she was out of the room at the moment. Also, these women are obsessed with taking pictures of themselves! So many pictures!

Just something that was at the front of the restaurant.

It’s hard to tell, but the waitresses were dressed in an older dynasty servant style~

After dinner it was time for all of us to head to the Dalian wine festival to watch the firework!

The other girl that wasn’t in the picture before. She has a Swedish boyfriend and had studied in Sweden. Her English was nearly flawless!










Oh, but after firework the night was not over. Near by was a big KTV, or Karaoke.
Sadly, Xiao is the one with all the pictures of that, so I only have one of Liaoda hiding behind my cotten candy!


With day eight over, day nine began, and it started with shopping!
I always feel terrible shopping in China because I’m such a picky person! Most Chinese clothing doesn’t work well with my body type.
Either way, shopping was fun!
We got to go to a black market sort of deal where the hall looks abandoned, but really there’s hidden passageways and shelves that pull out and move around.
The one we went to was selling fake purses that looks almost exactly like the expensive brands!

In the end I got a single dress to use for the club we’d be going to, along with a pair of black heels. I also got my nails done…and ruined them right away as I always do…

Liaoda putting my hair up while my nails were getting done~

After shopping it was nap time before getting prettied up for the club.
But no pictures of me again, Xiao has those.





Some of the girls had my camera and took some pictures of themselves~



After the club it was straight back to Xiao’s place for sleep!
Onwards to day 10!

raelynnmarie asked: Soooo far away. HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY. ;A; I start school on the 15th so I probably won't talk to you until the 16th.

It’s my birthday now in China ;v; Liaoda’s parents are too nice, they got me the new iPad with the best case and best everything. The total is like…1000$!! Pffffffftt! How do I ever repay that?

Trip 2 Days 5-7

Day five starts with Liaoda and I preparing to head to his town.
Everything was going as planned till we reached the train station. After a while of standing in one of the many long lines, we find that the tickets for our train have all run out!
Grand, correct?
So we went to the south station, which is less busy, and bought a ticket for the evening. Once that was gotten, we sat at the station’s KFC for about four hours before we could finally board our train.
Now, this is the first time I’ve ever ridden a train, so my ideas and dreams were a little off. I knew they wouldn’t look like Harry Potter trains, but I had hoped it would look a little like it on the inside.
Wrong.
It looked like an airplane, which was a bit dissappointing!

After a quick two hours we reached Liaoda’s town, the weather rainy and the station busy. It was just a speedy car ride to his home before we were allowed to relax.

The next day was hot, which made me sweaty, as usual. Liaoda, his mother, and I went to the supermarket for some shopping, and after that his father came and we all had dinner at a little Italian cafe, which was sadly expensive.


Some yogurt we got at the market. I like the Chinese sour yogurt, but I also like the fruity American yogurt at home. The Chinese can not fathom why anyone would add fruit to the yogurt.






A little quail egg~
Afterthe nice little meal it was back to the home for more relaxing.

The next day was even more relaxing, but this time we had a dinner to go to! It was to be with some people we had dinner with last year and it was a rather nice and lovely meal!





Liaoda and his father~




















Sadly I accidentally ate a seemingly nice red pepper at the dinner and ended up crying from how much it burned…

After the dinner we said our goodbyes to the other family and were off to prepare for our plane flight to Dalian!

Trip 2 Day 4

Day four is a trip to the Great Wall of China, or atleast the popular tourist part near Beijing.
It took some hours of driving, and some rather long lines to reach, but it was amazing. The day was a little hot, but being up among mountains made it cooler, and as we climbed higher, it got more cool.
Sadly we could not go as high as I had wanted as Liaoda is too scared of heights to go much higher.



As one can see, it was a very busy day.




This was the side I wanted to climb to the top of. There were not many people on this side since they didn’t have the lifts on this side. It was so nice and cool and I had room to breath!









Here’s a cannon the soldiers would have to guard the wall~

In places like these they usually would have small villages along side the wall for the soldiers, and their families, to live in~



After the Great Wall we returned to try and find our driver, which turned out to be difficult. He had fallen asleep while we walked the wall and was in such a deep sleep he didn’t here our phone calls. So for about an hour we wandered around the parking lots till he finally answered the call and picked us up.

Once we were back in Beijing we had a nice little lunch before it was back to the hotel for some relaxation.



After a few hours of relaxing and napping, it was off for a final dinner with the driver and his girlfriend. The dinner ended up being some lovely Beijing Duck!

Something that was in the front of the restaurant.










After dinner it was not time to rest yet.
Rather we were off to a whole street of only bars.
We walked around for a while until we finally found a bar to sit down at.





Here’s a little police boat so you know that the drunk people hopefully don’t drown～

The driver and his girlfriend ended up choosing the bar, and they chose a place called Guitar Bar. In the background you can see the woman who was singing while we drank, or rather, everyone else drank but me。

There’s the driver and his girlfriend~

This was Liaoda’s drink, it has a little fire on top!

This was the drink the driver and the girlfriend forced upon me. I took some small sips, it was mostly mint, so not much alcohol, but I made Liaoda drink most of it.

After bar street it was back to the hotel to pack and get ready for leaving the next day to Liaoda’s town~

Trip 2 Day 3

A lot has happened since this day, but I can finally get it up!
This trip was to the amazing, and gigantic, Forbidden City.
We had planned to see the flag raising in Tiananmen square, but our driver woke up late, so we’ll see the flag lower in the evening.







Poor guy has to stand there and guard the flag in the heat…

Here is the entrance gate, but not the entrance to the Forbidden City~

Soldiers train just inside the first gate.

Here is the real entrance to the city.







The road only the emporer can walk up, and down.



These are all over and used to be filled with water in case of fire.

There are dragon heads along each level to drain water.



Now, the emporer had a large collection of clocks, and this is the first in a very large room. Many clocks are made of gold, and are very expensive. Several move in many ways, others just look beautiful. Either way, the guy had a lot.







This clock actually writes, and much better than most people do!
















Through various buildings they’re display some of the decorations, or other things found in the Forbidden city, generally they’re gold.







This is a well which looks like it could only fit a small bucket, yet here when the Forbidden City was under attacked, Empress Cixi ordered one of the Emporer’s other wives to be pushed into the well. She must have been young and thin to fit, that or the process was very painful.
The soldiers say that at night they see the shade of the wife.

There was a whole building dedicated to jewerly, but to spare you of all the pictures I took, I’ll only show this and a headdress.





Behind the Forbidden City is the gardens for the emperor. However, we did not go there, and instead wandered a street nearby to await the flag lowering.

Here is the first movie theater in Beijing.


Some statues displaying the invention of Baozi, which American would call dumplings, but they’re not.

Silk worms and their life cycle at a famous silk store.

The first gate leading up to the Forbidden city.

Beijing Duck being made~
Although it was too busy for us to eat there, so instead we ate elsewhere.



The Opera House in Beijing~

Finally, as night is falling, we get to see the flag lowering, which is not as busy as in the morning, but still very busy. I was lucky enough to stand up by a light and have tall Liaoda taking pictures.





Hopefully I’ll have more time for more days soon!

Trip 2 Day eeeeehh

Well, I’ve been doing a lot, moving around, and now I’m on a comp that is too slow for uploading my masses of pictures that I like to send. xD

So I will provide of summery of all that has happened till I can get my piles of photos up.

So, since where I left you at the Summer Palace, I have wandered the Forbidden city, which was amazing. I got to walk some parts of the Great Wall, although Liaoda is too frightened of heights, so I didn’t get to go as far as I would have liked.
After the great wall was a lovely dinner of Beijing Duck, which is always amazing.

The next day we took a train to Liaoda’s town. However our early train tickets were sold out, so we had to sit around for a few hours before we caught the next train.
This was my first time riding a train! It was nice, although I got a little motion sick.

Once in Liaoda’s town, I had a time eating his mother’s cooking, going to some dinners to get fat, sweating or shimmering in the heat, and enjoying some relaxation.

After a few days there we were off to Dalian, a sea side city. The plane was delayed by two hours, so that was boring, and I got motion sick on the plane because I gave up my window seat to a woman who had never been on a plane before.
In Dalian I got to meet up with a friend, Xiao, and went right away to a dinner with her friends. One studied in Sweden, and her English was amazing!
After dinner we went to Dalian’s Wine Festival and watched the fireworks they had. Then we went to a KTV, which is karaoke, and I shyly hid with shy Liaoda, and we both sat in the corner of lame singing abilities.

The next day was shopping. Xiao spent th whole day taking my picky self around all the clothing stores they had to offer and all we came away with after hours was one dress, and one pair of heels. Before shopping we also got my nails done, and as usual….I ruined them with in minutes.
Once shopping was over, it was to the home to rest before we were off to the club. This was my first time at a club too, so I hung close to all the friends of Xiao’s and Liaoda. The music was loud, people mostly drank or smoked, they had some live singers that were good, and lights were flashing everywhere. We also had a personal waiter at our table who was forced to stand there bored and serve our every whim.

The next day Liaoda and I went to an aquarium. I got to see a Polar Bear, some cute artic foxes and wolves, many fat seals, a beluga whale, penguins, many fish and eels, and the sort.
We went to a Seal and Walrus show, which was very cute. Their tricks were amazing! They even pulled a woman from the audience and asked if she had a boyfriend. She said yes, but he wasn’t there, so they made the walrus kiss her! xD
The other show we went to was supposed to be a dolphin show, yet it was mostly a lame mermaid and prince falling in love and then the Prince died and some random fish woman danced and then they had like…three tricks with the dolphins. Liaoda and I spent the show making fun of it.
Also, there was a little boy in front of me who ate a hot dog and when he drank his water, all the chucks went into the drink…and then the little girl next to him drank it.

Today we went to an amusement park that was basically a rip off of Disney land xD
Xiao and I went one a single ride, as Liaoda is too chicken. It was the drop ride, where they take you up and drop you. I screamed like a pansy while Xiao was all casual about it. xD
After that lines were too long, and Liaoda too chicken, so we went to the beach. I collected rocks, saw starfish and clams and crabs and had a great time till I came to the conclusion that I am a vampire, as my skin was frying up under that sun, even with sunscreen on!

Well, that is it for now! Hopefully I can update more soon.

Trip 2 Day 2

Day 2 - Destination: Old Summer Palace and Summer Palace!
Which is a place used as a vacation spot for the emporer, although he doesn’t escape business. He still had to do a lot of work there!
The place was pillaged and burned twice. Once with the French and British, the second time was by the Allied forces. Both of which burned and stole, as well as broke almost anything they couldn’t carry.
It’s such a beautiful place too ;A; Why ruin it?

Anyway, the day was fun, we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel before we were off into traffic. We were lucky it was a cloudy day, but that didn’t defend us from the heat. I sweated like a waterfall, disgusting, I know.

In front of many gates in China there are two lion-like creatures. The ones of the left are female with a baby, the ones on the right are male with a ball.





Cute little animals blown from sugar ;v;


















An old water tower used to help power the fountains here~
Old military flags~



A model of what the Old Summer Palace would have looked like.

The ruins are of the European style buildings, since those were stone rather than wood.


Once we left the lovely Old Summer Palace, we went and had lunch with the driver. Oh, but the day was still young!
After lunch we went straight to the Summer Palace, which was also burned at one point.





If you can’t tell, summer is a busy tourist season.






This hall is actually very long! Each picture along the top and outside have different pictures. There’s said to be over 800 different paintings.
























This building had a lot of sacred statues, but pictures weren’t allowed, so I settled for the outside of it~







This side of the mountain has less tourist ;v;












Finally, after our legs were sore and he had climbed a mountain up and down and went around, we got to go have dinner.
The driver took us to a Korean-style barbaque, which was lovely~






Once dinner was complete, the meal paid by the boss who also paid for our hotel, we got to return to the hotel and relax,
for the next day was the Forbidden City!