“So what’d you do there?”

The infamous question upon one's arrival from a different country, a completely valid question that I find myself asking others too. Well, as I said in Part I, I was taking this trip with my boyfriend and his family so we had the inside scoop from the locals on things to do.

Amongst the places we visited, the city strip never disappointed. Jay and I visited the city strip quite a few times while we were in Taishan and you’d think it was to buy clothes or bubble tea, maybe to buy a fan or a fridge, but alas this was not the case. The reason we frequented the area was actually to reach the McDonald’s at the end of the strip (#sorrynotsorry).

Walking the strip the first time was very interesting, to say the least, as Jay and I were cracking up at all of the funny knock-off brand stores, and there were plenty! There was Erke instead of Nike and New Bluonce instead of New Balance, and we even saw water bottles of what looked like Poland Spring or Evian at first glance but ended up being something completely different.

Even though there was quite a bit of foot traffic during the day, at night the strip of stores would come alive. You know those small clapping hands you would get in your goody bag at kids’ parties? Well, each store had an employee holding a big set of clapping hands to get people to go to their stores and check out the sales they had. Let me remind you this is a strip of stores, not just a few stores lining the back of a street, so not only was it loud but it was funny watching the competition from opposing store employees.

Jay and I were walking one night in search of an arcade, which we found and had tons of fun in. Walking through the strip, we were also joined by the crowds of people enjoying the night life. So not only is there a ton of foot traffic but you have these employees standing outside of their respective stores, creating as much attention for themselves and the store they work in- and the store on either side of them doing the exact same thing! Some even had megaphones and were shouting out prices to go check out. It was quite the sight and far from any store advertising I had seen being done in New York.

Later, we’d finally reach McDonald's where they sell the beloved McWings of Jays’ childhood. Unfortunately for him, McDonald's in the U.S. don’t carry the wings so he remembers them with fondness- he’s an odd one. I, on the other hand, would be hassling him to order me an ice cream cone, and yes I mean soft-serve. The McDonald's in China was serving up green tea soft-serve for the month of July, and let me just say that soft-serve was thebomb.com. By the time August came, the flavor was changed to cheesecake and I was on a flight back to New York where the McDonald's take 25 minutes to get me a 50 cent apple pie, sigh.

While in the mainland, we also frequented the spa, where I’d get a full body massage and be in a state of bliss for the following couple of days. We even visited a beautiful hot spring where you could sit in hot pools of water and just relax drinking tea. The hot spring pools had massage chairs and beds that would basically spit out high pressured water onto your body. There was also a trampoline, tire swings, and obstacle courses which were all put to good use despite the mosquitoes being ready to eat us alive.

In our last couple of days, we visited the reservoir that was a 5 minute walk from where the apartment was. Jay and I rented bikes and we biked the 3 miles around the entire reservoir, where we ended up seeing quite a few different things including a beautiful temple.

We also visited Bei Feng Shan National Forest Park, where we met the little guy below. Jay passed him a half-filled water bottle and he drank it all up and then passed the bottle back to us.

We also visited another beautiful temple inside of the park that was absolutely gorgeous inside. There were also some very big gold statues of the Gods that were all very beautiful.

The still and humid air didn’t stop us from walking around the area that was otherwise empty, permitting us to stop and take in the beautiful view.

There were so many beautiful sights to see in China, and despite the negative perception some people have of China being dirty, I can tell you that China is a whole lot cleaner than any of the streets in New York City. I never saw any knocked over trash bins or really any trash just lying around.

There was also so much agriculture and trees every time we would go out of the city itself. I don't think I would have experienced China the way I did if I were to have ventured on my own. For that, I am incredibly grateful to my boyfriend and his family for letting me experience their culture and their beautiful country with them.