China

I haven't written in awhile and its mainly because I was preparing for the past two weeks. It has been non-stop fun since the end of March and I am wiped out now.

The last weekend of March is the biggest weekend in Hong Kong for expats. The annual HK Rugby Sevens tournament. It doesn't matter how much you know about rugby, everyone has a blast this weekend. I was lucky enough to get some tickets back in December; they sell out in hours. I was even luckier to sell my Friday ticket for almost the amount I paid for all three days! Everyone dresses up in ridiculous costumes and sits in the stadium for about eight hours of rugby each day. It sounds long, but I never once checked the time because we were having so much fun.

As the championship was ending Sunday night, four friends of mine were landing in Hong Kong for our two week journey through China. We spent a few days in Hong Kong letting them get acclimated. Along with the six Americans, many of my friends in Hong Kong came along with us. At one time our group was 13 people.

Six of us took a train to Beijing and had an absolute blast. The rest of the group flew and we met at our hotel in Beijing. The city is so unique and hard to describe. It is a city of about 16 million people, but every place I went was as quiet and relaxed as the country side. The buildings are all painted a dull grey with black roofs, certainly an effort of the Communist cultural revolution to dull the life of the city, but I thought the color brought the city to life and gave it a warm feel.


On Easter Sunday, eleven of us piled into a mini-bus and drove three hours out to the Great Wall of China. No picture or story can describe to you the feeling of being out there. The terrain is gorgeous, the Wall massive and the hike is treacherous. Our section of the wall was a mere 500 years old compared with 2000 in other sections. We hiked 10 kilometers for four hours and never saw a soul. The pictures I took will never do this wonder justice. Truly amazing.

The final day I spent touring the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and Summer Palace. The architecture is truly unique and beautiful. The size of the palaces is overwhelming. But, one can only stare at buildings for so long so we basically sat on the lake at the Summer Palace and enjoyed some beers.

After leaving Beijing, the group had been whitled down to the six Americans. Let the fun begin. Shanghai was night and day different from Beijing. Much more cosmopolitan and one of the fastest growing cities in the world. We stayed in the French Concession and marvelled at how it reminded us of the West Village. We had some great food and saw some sites like the Bund and Pudong. One night was spent with some bottles of wine atop the tallest hotel in the world, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, on the 87th floor.

The trip across the country opened all of our eyes at how amazing this secretive society is. China is emerging with great momentum and changing by the day. I appreciate their culture at a new level now eventhough I've been in Hong Kong for seven months. I saw some amazing things and have some more great memories to share with some of my best friends.