CHINA!

The trip started out with our SUPER airplane ride from Seattle to Beijing! I have this weird fear that I am going to get sick from the circulating air in the plane so I came prepared! I had my hand sanitizer, mask and my eye shades! I even had some gloves and sanitizing wipes but everyone convinced me that was going a LITTLE overboard.. :)

We made it to the Great Wall of China! It is amazing! The architecture was beautiful. The stairs were VERY uneven. Some steps were so small you could not consider them a step and some were tall enough that you had to literally climb up it. As I am walking up the stairs, a young Chinese couple stood directly in front of me. I thought I was in their way so I apologized and moved to the other side of the staircase. They pull out their cameras and want to take my picture. So the man stood next to me, made the peace sign and we took a picture! It was so funny!


Isn't he soo handsome! Ash planned our WHOLE trip- It was incredible to spend 2 1/2 weeks with him in 2 foreign countries!
To be honest, I preferred the food in China as opposed to Mongolia. But we did visit some tourist restaurants. There are just random carts on the street selling food on sticks. There were snakes, sea horses, fish and even octopus! It smelled so gross!

China had these "EXERCISE PARKS" filled with hundreds of people in the morning stretching, exercising and working out. It was very interesting to see. They had such confidence in stretching in front of so many other people. I highly doubt that "EXERCISE PARKS" would be a popular item in America... .

This is near Tian Men Square- The building behind us is a government building.


Shopping was probably my favorite part! This market was incredible. There were vendors selling the same thing, grabbing your arm and trying to convince you that their price was lower than the vendor next to them. It so fun to talk the vendors into giving us a lower price. Ash was much better at bargaining than I was.. I got a pair of Puma's for $5 and a Coach Purse for $15. She originally wanted me to buy it for $190. SO MUCH FUN! There was so many different vendors: Watches, purses, shoes, wallets, jewelry, kitchenware, IPODs, and SO MUCH more! One little lady was literally holding on to my mother-in-laws arm and would not let her go until she purchased the bag!

We ended our China adventure in the Chinese airport. Our flight to Mongolia left at 3:30AM Sunday morning. This is Brandon and my bed was next to his. Ash had already started to find some Mongolians and was excited to begin speaking the language!