Cultural Experiences
Sight-Seeing
The Great Wall
The Great Wall of China was by far my favorite day of our trip so far. It was absolutely beautiful to walk down and experience such an incredible history. As a history major, I did take one class on ancient history where I learned about the Great Wall, and it is so unbelievably incredible to be able to physically walk on and experience this history. I was able to gain a new appreciation for how much human power went into this defense mechanism. The day started out perfectly when we first got to the Great Wall and we all went into a Burger King to fuel up before our hike. As someone who always wants to try different culture's food, I was a little s skeptical, however we went in and I was able to get a real English Breakfast tea with actual milk and sugar and it was the perfect start to my day! I love my tea and I brought some with me, however without a fridge I have not been able to have milk in my tea. I love my tea in the mornings so having this little part of my day be part of my experience was absolutely wonderful. Another beverage that I enjoyed on this outing was a beer on the Great Wall! This was such a cool thing to be able to share with some friends on the Great Wall. It was also very refreshing after such a long walk! The trip ended perfectly when we went down the slide in the toboggan! This was so much fun and beautiful! I had seen this float around my social media before, so to be able to actually do that was amazing.
Chinese Traditions
On my 24th birthday we celebrated with noodles for dinner to signify a long life!
Multi-Cultural night where many of the Chinese buddies took part in different traditional Chinese performances.
Traditional Chinese Painting!
On the long weekend holiday David and I had the opportunity to spend the day with her family for a family reunion. We went for a traditional lunch that was very tasty, and then we went to the rural area to a resort hotel. The hotel was surrounded by rice fields which was very beautiful. We flew kites, had dinner, played with the animals and went for a walk. It was really wonderful to see how a typical Chinese family spends the holiday together.
Calligraphy!
Traditional Chinese Dying!
Chinese Chess!
Tea Picking!
Catching fish with our bare hands!
Playing Ping-Pong!
Traditional Paper Cutting!