Mulan Signed Up For This (China Part 3)

After my two hour drive to Auburn, our two hour drive to Atlanta, our two hour flight to Detroit, our three hour layover, our twelve hour flight to Beijing, and our twenty minute taxi ride to the hotel, we were finally able to stumble our way into bed after a very exhausting day.

 Due to the thirteen hour time difference, we actually lost a day. We left on Thursday morning and got to Beijing late Friday night/Saturday morning. How that all works is still a mystery to me. But thanks to being heavily medicated on Dramamine, I had no problem adjusting to the time change.

Saturday began our whirwind tour of China.

First, the Great Wall.

 You have no idea how hard it is to climb the Great Wall. Uneven steps. Unbearable heat. Steep inclines. You look down so much you start to get dizzy.

 Clearly, you can't tell how hard it is.

 The other nationalities at camp were very perplexed by our chacos.

 And this is how we got down from the Great Wall. Total Cool Runnings style.

 First legit Chinese meal. And the only time we had dumplings.

 Chopsticks really are difficult to use when you're hungry.

 The tea shop.

 We never could find a good place to stop and get out at the Bird's Nest, so we just drove around it like 20 times.

 Wafujing Street.

After a good night's sleep, we boarded a train for 10 hours to our camp city.

The train station was a cultural experience. We were the ONLY white people there and tons of people stared at us. It was like they were seeing unicorns and telling each other, "They do exist!"

 Once in our sleeper cars we played Pass The Pigs. I always got out like five rolls in.

 You have no clue the body language and charades that took place to get us these noodles.

 And as if a ten hour train ride weren't enough, we got stuck at the train station for an extra hour because there was some mix up on where to pick us up. I was ready to walk to the nearest hotel and call it a night because I was so exhausted. We finally got to camp at 1am. Bless it.