The Bund at Shanghai

The Bund is one of the cooler places I have ever. The picture that I posted this blog with doesn’t really show how beautiful and how breathtaking it is. Tyler and I had a relatively clear day and were able to watch the city transform from daytime to nighttime. It was very cool because they would ceremoniously turn on a couple different lights each minute until it was dark enough outside where the whole city was lit up.

Ryan Gleason

Xinli’s Hometown

This was easily one of the best days of the trip. We went to Xinli’s hometown village called Hongqing. It was a small, poor town, but this was the real China. It was the definition of a small tightly knit community. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone knows exactly what everyone else is doing at any given moment. When we set off fireworks on the bridge, the entire village came out to watch and cheer. At one point it started to rain so hard we had to find shelter so went to this random overhang. And the owner of the overhang came out and invited all of us into his home. Turns out he went to middle school with Xinli. That’s just the way these people are. So genuine, so ready to give whatever they have to anybody who needs it no matter who they are.

After this we had the Battle Royale. There was something about the rain and the drinks at dinner that got everybody going. On the bus we had two teams and every so often we would invade them or they would invade us and it would turn into a full blown slap fight. When we got back to the hotel, the one team hid from us on the third floor and ambushed us as soon as we got off of the elevator. It turned into an all-out brawl. The video says it all. One of the funnier moments of my life.

After the Battle Royale we made up and went to get snails and crayfish in nothing but robes and silk shorts. 

Ryan Gleason

My First Wedding

The first day on the cruise was a memorable one. I got married… How could somebody forget their first wedding? We took an off shore excursion. I forget what the name of it, but it was really nice. We saw monkeys and waterfalls and it was just overall a very scenic walk lead by our amazing tour guide Vera. On our way back, we stopped for a show in which they were demonstrating a traditional Chinese wedding. They threw a bouquet out into the audience and I caught it. I didn’t know by catching the bouquet that I was volunteering myself to be married (somehow that got lost in translation). I went up and got all dressed up and then went through the formal wedding ceremony. They would sing a line of a song and then I would say a couple words back to them and they would sing the next line. After, we took a shot of some very strong baizou (or however you spell it). That caught me off guard a little bit… I thought it was going to be water. Then we went up to the room for our fake kiss, but it looked real to everyone else. Then I learned that by getting married, I was unable to leave the country for three years. The video of the whole event is hilarious.

The cruise was one of the best parts of this trip. Even though it was mostly a cruise for old people and their grandchildren, we had a great time.

Ryan Gleason

Forbidden City

This is where the emperor forced his slaves to build an incredibly large fortress to protect him and his thousands of women. When we walked in there was this huge square plaza type area surrounded by beautiful villa looking buildings. After walking through that square, we came to another large square that looked the exact same. This happened three or four more times until we got to the end. There were just 5 unnecessarily large squares. Who knows for what. Our tour guide was an Asian man (Mike) who had trouble communicating in English so I’m sure he had the answer to this question but I will never know.

After walking through the Forbidden City, we walked to the top of the mountain overlooking it. From this vista you could also see all of Beijing. What a sight to see! I never got a picture that could fully capture the beauty of this sight so that’s a shame. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It showed me that Beijing is by far the largest city I have ever seen. The complete 360 degree view is surrounded by skyscrapers, soccer fields, rivers, little houses, you name it. Just everything. We were lucky the pollution wasn’t bad on this day. This was such a breathtaking view and may or may not be my favorite view ever.

Ryan Gleason

Beijing Center of Performing Arts

The first real day of our trip started off very early in the morning when we traveled to the National Centre for the Performing Arts. This building might have been the most impressive building I’ve ever seen. On the outside it was this enormous, beautiful looking dome surrounded by a ring of water. The only way to enter the building was through an underground tunnel. Once we got in there, the building was very open. You were able to see all the different floors from the bottom floor. The whole thing looked like it was straight out of an exhibit from a museum if that makes any sense. I stayed in Beijing for two months after this trip concluded and this was one of the places I absolutely had to come back to.

Ryan Gleason