Despite how much i loved Japan we had to leave. :(

We arrived in China tired and hot, so we went straight for the hotel. Again- one of the smartest things we have ever done was to hire a tour guide, here our tour guides Chinese name was about 47 letters long so he let us call him Sam.

Beijing, China- The first night we did nothing but try to get used to the pollution. My Dad would keep telling us how much more polluted it was in Shanghai. As for me it was hard to get used to the air for I have lived in small towns chocked full of clean air for all of my life.

The second day we drove to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the palace of the Emperor of China. That Emperor believed that China was the center of the world and seeing as he was the Emperor he should live in the center of china. In my opinion that is a little self centered. This Palace was stocked full with treasure of jade, gold, ruby, and sapphire. I still cannot imagine what one person would do with all of that room not to mention all of that treasure. It was very interesting to learn all about the Emperor; Sam would talk about everything that happened at that time in great detail.

Our next destination was the Temple Of Heaven; this is a very tall building where the Emperor and Empress went to pray for a good harvest. It was so beautiful. A while there was spent learning, walking, and sweating.

The 3rd day was a marathon! We went to the Great wall of China- and we hiked our brains out. Charlie, Jack and I went ahead of our parents to hike up the mountain and back to the lift, (because they were a little ALOT slow.) Leave it up to me to get lost on the Great Wall of China. As I walked along trying to find the exit which was little more than a hole in the wall I started to realize that I was lost. I finally found two hot and sweaty Americans--(not hard to spot) which were my mom and dad.

Next was the Sacred Rode, this was a long walkway leading up to the Emperor’s tomb. It is lined with huge stone animals. Half of The animals were kneeling to pay tribute to the Emperor and the other half rose up to towering heights guarding his tomb. This was so pretty!

The 4th day we went to a local family to eat a local lunch. We rode rickshaws’ throughout this cobble stone neighborhood back to our van. We went to the zoo where we looked at the pandas. They were up and about- an unusual site from my mom and dad’s stories. They would tell us that it was like seeing a panda run a marathon if he walked across his pen, because seeing pandas usually meant watching a furry black and white fluff ball in the corner of his habitat. The silk market was next; we just bought a couple of DVDs for a good price. By the end we were all too tired to drag our feet back to the van, we made it though, if barely

After Beijing we went to Xi'an and met our tour guide Xin. She and I would play cat’s cradle and cards while in the van. We saw the terracotta warriors, one of the 7 wonders of the world- it lives up to that title! The Terracotta warriors are around 6000 life size clay Chinese soldiers, each one having different faces, clothing, and ranks. As well as horses, weapons, and chariots. They were arranged in a Chinese battle formation. These were built by slaves who were commanded by the very first emperor of China- Qin was his name, in order to protect his tomb. Shortly after this emperor died, these clay figures were destroyed by peasants during the peasant uprising because they thought Qin was a cruel man so they destroyed the legendary protectors of his tomb.—around 2000 years later the remains were found by a local farmer who was digging a well.

There’s your history lesson for the day!

One of my favorite things about China was the People always trying to take pictures with us. You see, White American children are still a rare sight to see in China because China has been opened to the West since the late 70s so I suppose it must be cool to see a American child. At first we all were giddy with glee thinking we were getting the rock star treatment with everyone wanting to take pictures with us but after a while when they started to touch our faces or hair as if we were not real it started to creep us out a little.

A short plane ride and we are now in Tibet. Our new tour guide Lo Song took us to our 5 star hotel, (a first for me,) and we are all ecstatic about the new luxuries despite our altitude sickness. After a while we all started to get headaches, and feel a little loopy. It’s hard to breathe because the air is so thin—you feel tired and almost like you have the flu. Did you know that they actually have bottled of oxygen in the hotel rooms?! You put the hose in your mouth and twist the knob so the air flows and you take deep breaths. We have a lot of medicine that can make us feel better though. I mean stuff like pills, chews, and a lot of water, we also have these syringes without the needle on I mean, and you squirt .1 ml of the lotion like substance on your wrist and rub your wrists together being careful not to get it in your eyes! After a min you wipe a alcohol swab on them and wash your hands-- it really helps!

Today we went higher up the mountains to see the largest monastery in Tibet. My dad who was feeling the worst would, as we climbed up the steep stone steps, mutter to no one in particular, "oh great let’s bring the Nolans 13,000 ft up in the mountains and then make them climb flight after flights of steps." We would dash ahead, hoping that he would not hear us giggling.

Day after tomorrow we take a 3 day train ride back to Beijing then we are off to Vienna!

Anna Nolan- Over and Out!