Well, China went by in a blur. We saw a lot and got to spend some valuable time with my uncle and aunt in Qingdoa as well; a fabulous time. We spent the first 1 nights in Shanghai, exploring the city in the rain and eating wonderful fried dumplings on multiple occasions. Yummmmmy! China was not as much a culture shock that I imagined it would be - perhaps having spent some months in South East Asia has helped.
After the first 2 days in Shanghai, we flew to Qingdao, where we were greeted by my Uncle Nick. On the way from the airport to his and Wen's apartment, we learned that he has learned to drive like the Chinese do as well - talk about skills! We spent a few days exploring Qingdao seeing the boardwalk, people's square and walking along the beaches - a very spread-out and lovely city; the windsurfing events for the Olympics are due to be held here later this year and you can tell by the amount of effort being put forth daily towards beautifying the city.
Uncle Nick then took us, via High Speed Train to Beijing for 5 days; what a fantastic city! We spent the days exploring and seeing Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, the street food vendors, markets etc. We also rented bikes for a day and took in various parts of the city on an add-day biking adventure, highlighted by lunch along the lake (and eating Tree Bark!)...what a fantastic city to bike in - although I did cut off 2 taxis and come close with a few buses, it was a great adventure.
We also went to the spa a couple of times to get our feet and backs worked on, found a DVD retailer, had yummy Italian food and GELATO!!, explored markets for hours on end and had a great time chatting and getting to know our family again....and are very much looking forward to Uncle Nick and Wen's visit later this month.
We spent our last night in Shanghai, walking around the neighbourhood of our hotel, eating Pizza (I know, it should have been Chinese), bowling (the hotel has a bowling Alley in the basement!) and drinking wine at the hotel bar, remembering all of the good times this trip has brought.
We finally boarded our Air Canada plane from Shanghai about 4 hours later than we had planned (change of times we were not notified of previous to us going to the airport) and had a fairly uneventful trip home (watching lots of movies and not sleeping). We had planned to take a Taxi home but to our surprise, our mom's and my dad were waiting for us at the airport, and after hugs and greetings, we drove home.
What a trip; I cannot describe how much we have experienced, learned, shared and enjoyed this adventure. It truely had been the trip of a lifetime and I am so glad to have experienced it all with my special person. Thank-you to all of you for following our journey and sending e-mails and comments and keeping us up to date on your lives as well. Perhaps we can do this again sometime???
Love always,
Karrie
