Beijing Beijing （＞д＜）--> (✖╭╮✖)

Since it is almost time to go on my trip (t-65 days)....


I thought it would be a great way to spend my Sunday evening reminiscing about my last GRANDIOSE trip. In the summer of 2010 my family and I including Dustin went to Beijing, China for a tour then headed to Taipei, Taiwan. This entry is to describe what I saw, what I wish I didn't see and what I will never miss from that tour. < no more naked baby butts for me>

To set the stage, my mother is very asian and really looks for CHEAP deals. Unfortunately, she found one and we were forced to tag along.

Here is an array of pictures (not that many) to describe the trip. Note I didn't take much because I kept getting food poisoning or suffering from heat stroke. Overall: This could have been done at home watching a HD program of CHINA or done with a 3D TV.

Background information: This tour is government sponsored so it was dirt cheap. At first I was happy since they said the hotel would be COMPARABLE TO THE HILTON:

the front foyer looked nice.. I was getting hopeful that it meant our hotel would be nice

 The double beds seemed clean enough... under the naked eye

the washroom was a bit creepy it had a huge window so I pulled down the blinds. peeing by a window was never really one of my fortes 

also I noticed everything had a LV design to it.... YEAH land of the FAKE. Also, I realized as I tried to take a shower, the plumbing was messed. I had to turn the tub water on to get full pressure on the shower. There was also mould on the kettle. The little mini fridge got too hot trying to stay cool that it actually heated everything up.

there were some cool building designs but I really had to keep in mind that THESE building may collapse at any moment due to quality issues.

there were plenty of cute ASIAN-NESS things to pose by, such as this orange three eyed monster in the bottom floor of a mall. (I ducked into here to enjoy some AC and less smog)

Unfortunately, CHINA food was drenched in oil in some places... something about how more oil shows how rich you are. I DONT EAT OR COOK WITH OIL at home so I kept getting stomach aches, also I got food poisoning plenty of times. So what did I do. Dustin and I headed to MCDICKS the only place we knew there would be a SET standard of quality. Unfortunately, we still got sick since the ice used in the fraps and iced drinks there had tap water. DANG IT you just can't win.

we went to lots of historical sites such as this one the temple of heaven thank god that day wasn't too hot yet. Poor dustin deciding to wear jeans. HIS BIGGEST MISTAKE IN CHINA.

Went to the great wall and almost got heat stroke. We got there our bus broke down we climbed the rest of the way then went up steps while the tour guide left us. We were left there for 3 hours on a hot sunny day around NOON. yah I was about to die after that.

don't  climb for those faint of heart,actually there was an american with our tour group, he had a younger asian girlfriend. Him and his huge one pack barely made it up the steps and he kept wearing a stupid french chapeau in + 30 degrees. Thankfully he was there though, since it was also a buying tour (you are encouraged STRONGLY to buy everything) he spent over 10 G USD which made our tour guide happy which meant he allowed us to have our meals. Yes at times they withhold meals and say come on buy this pearl neckless or we can't eat.

At times you just don't want to eat because you are afraid the birds flying everyone in the restaurant is going to poop on your food or give you some sort of bird flu or related and or unknown diseases. Living in fear really made you lose weight.

there was also some forced group shots and strong encouragement to buy these said group shots.

there were also some incredibly horrible singe throughout china. this one was particularly STRAIGHT TO THE POINT. (some pic in the blog are courtesy of my brother who takes pictures of pretty much anything)

Off course who goes to Beijing without visiting someplace that doesn't have MAO stamped all over it. ~Long Live Mao? I totally should have brought some sort of UV umbrella, all I had was sunscreen.

here is the water cube at night. this is actually one of the cooler things I saw on my trip that was worthwhile. I didn't get to go into it though. 

the birds nest .. woot well I only got this close to it the heat and smog was sweltering and I tried to find some sort of shade. (they only give you one bottle of water a person and even if you brought a hole bunch you would have to lugg it everywhere. it was not a win win situation) 

off course there was the darn people dressed like mickey mouse who harassed you into taking pictures and wouldn't leave you until you paid them. they may look happy here but one min later the mickey mouse is hitting them asking for money in chinese.. totally ruins disney right there!!! 

the jade palace museum place? was fun in a way, there was some cool sculptures but technically we weren't suppose to take any pictures. Obviously I broke that rule thank god I was not put in a communist jail, i def wouldn't survive there. 

this was probably the best thing that ever happened. because our tour sucked we got dirty seats in the back. =/ but the performance was still breathtaking . I even bought a obviously pirated DVD of this child acrobatic group's different performances. This shows how China trains their kid YOUNG and trains them hard. And yes no strings..  they really do emphasize how safety is not a concern for them. 

talking about safety, we were on this bullet train it was ok we didn't really see much just excited at the speed. A week later we read in the news that this particular bullet train had crashed. .... and several were dead. WOW we got lucky. 

this mall was a mall where lots of white people go and get tricked. they really think they are getting the REAL DEAL. I remember an older couple gushing about how they saved 300 dollars buying these "NIKES" here for there family, what they failed to notice is the nike symbol being backwards. WOW . A scary fact about these kind of malls is how VICIOUS they are. Don't ask about prices unless you are going to buy or they will chase you down with a rolled up newspaper and smack you. This incident happened to me when I asked how much a juicy couture track suit would cost. It was obviously fake but i just really wanted to know what price.  PS that guy in the tropical shirt YES that was the american 

SO.

What 

Did 

I 

Learn?

DO NOT EAT THE CHINA AIRLINE FOOD you will get sick. The questionable cake in the middle there well that gave me food poisoning and tasted like ... hmm cardboard mushed together. The main entree was so salty I believe that this is where MSG started and the bread it was stale. 

DONT EAT PERIOD on a gov sponsored tour only eat at places you see blogs about. 

Dont do anything during the day when the smog is HEAVY and the heat is sweltering

JUST DONT go on a tour which makes you buy stuff.

Would I go again?

Well I probably would but not with a tour and not to Beijing. I think I would rather go to Hong Kong, Shanghai and maybe even a quick visit to Shrangri La (so indiana jones) 

For more info on my upcoming trip and my countdown and what I do to get ready on BIG TRIPS please refer to this link on AROUND THE WORLD