Hong Kong, Beijing, and Quingdao

Hello from the Yellow Sea! As I write this blog post we are one short day away from arriving in Kobe, Japan, our final port on the semester long itinerary. Don’t even think for a second that since the trip is winding down our schedules are getting lighter. As typical with the Semester at Sea lifestyle (which is go, go, go if you haven’t noticed) this particular port stop was a combination of three cities in 6 days for me! The ship pulled into Hong Kong on April 3rd, I left for Beijing on the 4th, and ship left Hong Kong and sailed to Quindao on the 5th, and then flew to Quindao, China on the 7th to meet the ship and we left for Japan on the 8th.

Hong Kong was incredible. It was extremely western, very clean, and very urban, which were all welcome changes to what I have been experiencing in some of the more rural ports that I have visited on this voyage thus far. My one and only day in the city was as always spent exploring. My friends and I jumped on one of the many double decker cable cars that run throughout the city and rode it wherever it happened to take us. We didn’t know the route and had no idea where we were going, but I guess we got lucky and ended up in a beautiful shopping district. One thing that really amazed me about this city was the amount of construction that was taking place. Although the city is incredibly land locked it seemed as though they were building and improving property everywhere you looked. The scaffolding that was used was actually made out of reinforced bamboo rods that looked as though they would be pretty unstable, but I guess it worked because I saw it everywhere.

The next morning I was up early to catch my flight to Beijing. Our agenda for the three days that I spent in the city were tours of the Summer Palace, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and about 40000 temples. (Yes, I have seen a lot of temples on this trip. They are great, but I am starting to feel like once you have seen 20, you have seen 40000.) The first day that we were in the city was like traffic overload for me. I have been in some very high traffic areas on this trip, but I think Beijing’s traffic was the worst. The combination of bikes, motor bikes, buses, cable car busses, cars, and trucks in just incredible if you aren’t used to it. I did my best to adjust and within a few hours of knowing what to expect, I was fine. The city, although very modern, was surprisingly gray to me. It could have been the weather, but I just couldn’t help but think that I was in the middle of the Russian Tundra. Beijing is of course the site of the 2008 Olympic Games and let me tell you the Chinese people are psyched about the games. There are large countdowns all over the city and the Olympic logo is on everything you see from billboards to beer bottles. Like Hong Kong, there is also an incredible amount of construction going on in this city for rush to get hotels and other facilities built to handle the crowds that the city is expecting.

The Great Wall was of course one of the best parts of this trip. We got up quite early and drove about 2 hours outside of Beijing to the section of the wall that we would be visiting. We climbed the 1600 steps up to the actual portion of the wall in about 20 minutes and by the time I got up there I was pretty exhausted. I thought it was going to be a nice easy walk on the wall after that point, but someone had failed to tell me that the wall is anything but flat!! There are lots of portions that go uphill and downhill again to follow the landscape of the countryside. My friends and I had a great time exploring and trying to take creative pictures. When it was time for us to walk down we found an Alpine Slide that actually was a slide that you can go down the mountain on. It started snowing (!) while we were on top of the wall and we wanted to get down as fast as we could, so the slide seemed like the best option. It reminded me so much of my younger days at Sever Springs riding that slide 10 times in a row. Needless to say it was a good time and when you say I took a slide down from the Great Wall I guess it makes for a good story.

The next day we spent mainly in Beijing exploring the city and Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world and covers an area of about 100 acres. Needless to say… its huge! The Forbidden City was pretty cool too, but under major reconstruction and renovation due to the Olympics (I told you these people are psyched about it). It snowed again and some of the Chinese locals were laughing at lots of people in my group that had flip flops and summer jackets on. I don’t think many of us were prepared for the freezing weather that we experienced.

We ended our time in Beijing the next day and we flew to Quingdao the next day to meet up with the ship. That evening was the eve of my 21st Birthday and like all 21 year olds, my friends made sure that we celebrated in style. The port we docked at in Quingdao is in the middle of no where, but my amazing friends pulled through and found a place where we could go to celebrate.

I guess that pretty much wraps up my time in China. Now it is onward to Japan and its so hard to believe that this is our last and final port. A huge part of me is looking forward to getting back home and getting into a routine, but another huge part of me doesn’t want to leave this ship, the friends that I have made, and the feeling of having so many new experiences each and everyday. They say that Semester as Sea changes you… it really does… and I love the change that this program has brought out in me.

As always, thanks for reading. I appreciate your love and support more than you realize. In fact it means everything to me to know that so many of your have been behind me and sending me encouragement through all of this. Where would I be without all of you? I hope all is well at home.

Love,
Leah