By the time I made it to China, I was sleep deprived and simultaneously energized. The 14-hour plane ride was not an easy feat since this was one of the few times I had actually been on a plane before and I was not aware of the nightmare that was turbulence. After being rocked up and down for hours, we finally landed in Beijing. Now the 12 hour time difference seems cool when you're not living it, but after arriving at about 1 p.m. which really felt like 1 a.m., my opinion on it changed very quickly. We immediately got off the plane, grabbed our luggage and began the journey.
The first city we visited was Beijing. When we first got off the plane, it was very clear that the air quality was different, China is a very industrial country now and the cities are heavily populated and booming. Some of the people I went with decided to wear face masks because it was hard for them to breathe at first however by the end of the trip most of them had taken it off after their bodies had gotten used to it. As excited as I wanted to be about being in China, my initial emotion was fear. I was actually here standing in the country where I was born, walking around the country where my family is living. Even though I was miles and miles away from my province and town I felt like I was closer than I've ever been to my birth family. Our trip was more touristy since this was a school trip and therefore, we had a set agenda which involved us getting up at 4 a.m. and falling asleep at 10 or 11. During our days in Beijing, we visited the Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, and the 2008 Olympic bird's nest. While in Beijing, it was very touristy; not all of the cities were like this.
The second city we visited was Qufu. Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius and in order to get there, we took a bullet train. If you don't know, bullet trains are high-speed trains and as someone who has motion sickness problems, they were a lot better than expected. The trains go to about 186 mph and during the whole trip, it doesn't feel like you're moving whatsoever, which is really nice for people who get somewhat sick. Throughout the bullet-train, they had people with dollies of food walking up and down the aisles and you could buy the food off, think Hogwarts Express, but there are no compartments on the train.
In order to get to our third city, we took an overnight train. The overnight trains are VERY crowded and the compartments are very small quarters. The hallway fit about two people, so it was hard to do much of anything and getting by people was a struggle. There were six people to a room with triple decker beds. I don't recommend this for people who get easily sick since the movement of the train can become very jolting and sometimes the train makes noises for the people who have a hard time sleeping.
After our 14 hour ride on the overnight train, we landed in Xi'an. The main place people go when they visit Xi'an is the Terra Cotta Warriors. In addition, we biked around the city wall since Xi'an is somewhat enclosed with walls on all sides but with tunnels in and out of the main city. While we were in Xi'an, we went to a mosque, and afterwards, we were allowed to explore the street markets. When we were there, we got to learn about bartering. Bartering is a big part of Chinese culture and it's very common for sellers to price their items as higher than they expect people to pay. The customer is then supposed to go back and forth with suggesting prices until they reach a compromise or they decide they no longer want to buy the item. Although we weren't used to doing this in America, we quickly learned to become comfortable with it because it's part of their culture and is not found to be disrespectful at all which is something I personally worried about.
When we were finished in Xi'an we took a short flight to Chengdu. In Chengdu, we had two main focuses: the panda sanctuary, and our sister school. We first went to the panda sanctuary, when we were there we were able to see all the giant pandas and the baby pandas that were newly born. Although China does not allow people to touch them, because of the germs that we can pass on to the animals, there were many exhibits in which we could see them up close. The next day, we went to a high school in Chengdu. Our school was part of a sister school program where we wanted to bring gifts to them and they gave us gifts so they could learn more about American culture while we were able to learn more about Chinese culture. When we were there we got to sit in on either an English class or a Chinese class with them and we got to learn and take notes with all the students. All of the students there spoke English and told us that they had been speaking English since they were in second grade and even younger in some cases, while some of us Americans had taken only a few years of Chinese, if any. This was probably one of the hardest points in the trip because it almost made me feel like this is what my life could've been. I could've been sitting in a room with all my classmates learning English and Chinese and having a small group of Americans come in and join our sister school. It really brought up the what if factor in my head.
The last city we visited was Shanghai. In order to get there, though, we had to take a flight from Chengdu early in the morning. This was the city we spent the least amount of time in since we had our flight back to America the next day. When we were there, though, we got to visit the Yu Garden in shanghai. This was a huge garden spread out through the whole city where we walked between bridges and got to look at all the flowers and the koi fish, it seemed like a lot of people went here just to spend time with others and take pictures. On our last night, we went to a beautiful outlook where we could see a very clear Oriental Pearl tower, the tour guide told us that every night the tower has different colors and a different pattern. When we were finished with that our teacher had a surprise for us, we had a room rented out in a mall where we were able to have a karaoke night. Karaoke is very popular for Chinese teens because they can just rent out a room and sing to songs. It was just a great way to end our 17-day trip.
As we boarded the plane for our ride home, I couldn't help but think of all the amazing sights that I got to see, many of which I'd only known about through pictures we were shown in history classes. I'd gotten to be in a land where I wasn't the minority, and where I almost felt a sense of normality being around people who looked alike. Although as I sat on the plane waiting for it to take off, I couldn't help but think about the fact that this would be the second time that I'd be leaving China. I'd be leaving to go back to my majority-Caucasian town where I was a minority, I'd be back to being thousands and thousands of miles away from my birth parents and I'd feel the sense of distance once again. Although this made me sad, I never believed I'd regret the trip. It was like a halfway homecoming. I was able to experience the country and experience what it would be like to be back, but I was able to have the distance I needed in order to ease myself into the process. Even though I had always considered China where I was supposed to be and where I belonged by the end of the trip, I knew that where I belonged wasn't there. I was right where I belonged, on a plane back home to America, holding hands with all my friends I'd made and reminiscing all the memories we'd share.
