After much fun in the city of Beijing, it was time to leave. We enjoyed our last luxurious meal at the hotel buffet, sent our luggage to the airport, and headed on our way. Before going to the airport, we shopped til we dropped at the Silk Market. Students purchased anything from silk scarves to Ray Ban sunglasses, Coach handbags, and NorthFace jackets (all copy versions of course). Our bartering skills have definitely improved as we were able to buy things for less than a tenth of the suggested price. Winning!
Our lunch was provided on the 6th floor of the Silk Market where we enjoyed a buffet style meal. Some students ate the American style food at the buffet like pizza and spaghetti, while others enjoyed the bolder choices like pumpkin patties and sea slugs. It might be safe to say that we are fluent in the use of chopsticks as there were few forks used at the buffet (if any!).
After our bodies were nourished, we proceeded to make our way to the airport. We said good-bye to our tour guide Michelle with many hugs. Even though we were sad, we will still e-mail her to find out more of her tour guide adventures and life in the land of China. Our flight left Beijing at around 2:30 bound for Yi Chang. There was some turbulence but it was a pleasant flight. We enjoyed watching a casual entertainment show on our TV screens about Chinese puppeteering and magic while eating the provided snack of seaweed covered peanuts.
At 5:30 we arrived at the “small” town of Yi Chang, only 1.3 million people. Our new guide, Holly, told us many things about the region on our 1 hour bus ride into the city center. Yi Chang is in Hubei province and is in the center of China. Main crops are corn, wheat, rice, orange trees, canola (for cooking oil), and many vegetables. They are also very famous for fish, and their favorite fish is not walleye, but carp! The region is much more mountainous than Beijing, and also warmer and more humid.
Once we got to the city center, we ate a delicious buffet with many choices, including carp. However, since they were afraid we’d have issues with the bones, they made fish “balls” and boiled them with sliced tomatoes, and they were very good, as was rest of the dishes. We checked into the Inca hotel, which is very nice. We leave for Three Gorges Dam in the morning, and we look forward to an exciting day in a new city tomorrow!
Our lunch was provided on the 6th floor of the Silk Market where we enjoyed a buffet style meal. Some students ate the American style food at the buffet like pizza and spaghetti, while others enjoyed the bolder choices like pumpkin patties and sea slugs. It might be safe to say that we are fluent in the use of chopsticks as there were few forks used at the buffet (if any!).
After our bodies were nourished, we proceeded to make our way to the airport. We said good-bye to our tour guide Michelle with many hugs. Even though we were sad, we will still e-mail her to find out more of her tour guide adventures and life in the land of China. Our flight left Beijing at around 2:30 bound for Yi Chang. There was some turbulence but it was a pleasant flight. We enjoyed watching a casual entertainment show on our TV screens about Chinese puppeteering and magic while eating the provided snack of seaweed covered peanuts.
At 5:30 we arrived at the “small” town of Yi Chang, only 1.3 million people. Our new guide, Holly, told us many things about the region on our 1 hour bus ride into the city center. Yi Chang is in Hubei province and is in the center of China. Main crops are corn, wheat, rice, orange trees, canola (for cooking oil), and many vegetables. They are also very famous for fish, and their favorite fish is not walleye, but carp! The region is much more mountainous than Beijing, and also warmer and more humid.
Once we got to the city center, we ate a delicious buffet with many choices, including carp. However, since they were afraid we’d have issues with the bones, they made fish “balls” and boiled them with sliced tomatoes, and they were very good, as was rest of the dishes. We checked into the Inca hotel, which is very nice. We leave for Three Gorges Dam in the morning, and we look forward to an exciting day in a new city tomorrow!
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