Travelling Rae: When in China, Go to China (Part 1)

When in China, Go to China

(Part 1)

So technically Hong Kong is legally a special administrative region of China, however it is not really China. Well that is how it's (and rightfully) seen by the locals.
So when I say I went to China, it was mainland China that I went to - Beijing and Shanghai.

Two major cities of China. Two very different places.

This trip turned out to be a real learning experience for me, especially as I haven't too much experience traveling overseas. And it was with such a large group!
We began with five people, and then it turned to six.

One of the major difficulties that showed us how hard traveling can be in big groups, is booking. The booking of accommodation, flights, train rides, and finding places to eat with enough extra space. That in itself was an adventure.

24Hr Train Ride to Beijing

Unsurprisingly, this was one of the more relaxed parts of the trips. Granted it was also one of the laziest.
Can you guess why? Turns out that even if there are four other people stuck in a small space with you for 24hrs, when your lying on a bed for the majority of it, you tend to drift off quite easily, and a quite a bit. Also considering that this was the start of our trip, of course we were hopeful that the rest of the trip would be breeze. We may have been a little too optimistic.

Actually now that I remember, it wasn't all rainbows and butterflies. In fact, getting to the train station was pretty eventful, especially when weather wise, it was ridiculously heavy rain. 10 seconds in the rain and wind, umbrellas being useless since your already drenched before they are even opened.

Back to the train, it was certainly an interesting experience for me, as I've never been on a sleeper train before. The trip itself has already become a haze, a blur of sleeping faces, stories and gossip, trees, rail lines, high-rise buildings, stations, and climbing up and down the ladders.

Once we had arrived in Beijing, things got real, the excitement died pretty quickly, when we were all super hungry yet seemed to have little success with ATMs. You'd think that having an travel card would help, but if it doesn't have the correct currency is essentially useless. To make things worse, I couldn't get any money out and ended up relying on my friends for financial support for the majority of the trip. Definitely made things slightly more tricky (It wasn't until we were ending our trip to China, did i finally manage to get money out).

Now I'll tell you excuses I had for this lack of money. Firstly, it took me some time to transfer money to the right card and account. Secondly, i had to actually go to an ATM, which considering the hectic days we kept having and my amazing skill of forgetting this need, the days just went by. Thirdly, I am actually quite decent at directions and map reading, and yet as soon as I rely on one other person for directions, that's it, I become too reliant and barely managed to remember how to get back to our hostel.
We did manage to get food though - McDonalds.

Day One: How to get lost in China

Then the issue of getting to our hostel was the next task. Having lived in Hong Kong for a month before this trip, you get used to people at least knowing some English. In China, nope, not so much.
Taxi drivers wouldn't take us, granted their were five of us, and these taxi's take four people max.
Luckily, we managed to get a kind lady who knew some English, to translate for us, and get us two taxis.
Note: when you get separated, make sure one of you has the address of your accommodation.

As I was in the second taxi with one of the other girls, neither of us actually had the address, nor did the driver, who was going of her memory. The drive itself was nice, a good way to see Beijing, as long as your not worried about crashing, with the way people drive there, and before long we got the driver to pull over as we tried to find the right road. Plus side - I had remembered the name of the street we needed to go to. Down side - I needed the Chinese characters for it. We couldn't contact the others.
We had stopped in a nice area, near a train station, where we soon found a 7/11, and an international hotel, where we got a map, and help!

So turns out Shanxi lane, is the place where all the tourists go. Why? because there are quite a few hostels and hotels there. How did we get there? Rickshaw.
What a way to start in China, getting lost, not knowing where to go, but ending up arriving at your destination, as the only person who seemed to know this street was a rickshaw driver! Of course, it was slightly terrifying going on a rickshaw on a main and busy road, holding onto our luggage, but it was also the best way to try a new experience and feel that relief of finding the rest of your friends.

The hostel itself, was quite decent. It was well located, not too far from train stations and close to the center of Beijing. It was convenient with all the places we got to go to.
Here's a list of the major ones (with some pictures): Temple of Heaven; Beijing Mall (Why not); Summer Palace;