Easter Miracles

How do you top a day at the great wall? You don't, but you certainly can match it. Kate, Rachel, Sydney, Mckae, and I decided not to take a tour the next day in hopes of saving some mula. Loooong but beautiful Easter day goes as follows:

Tiananmen Square. Because of the holiday, there was a never ending line just to get into the square. But we elbowed our way in like we were born here. (Seriously, there is no such thing as cutting in line or even lines in general.) We spent some time walking around the square and read about the eerie history.

Then off to the Forbidden City. It's HUGE. You can just walk and walk into new sections of the "city" which only the Emperor and his concubines inhabited. On top of that, it's BEAUTIFUL. Everything is so ornate and Ming Dynasty style to the T. But wait, I forgot! When buying our tickets we showed our student IDs and only had to pay 20 yuan instead of 60! #EasterMiracle. We were so happy that we sang Easter hymns while entering the city.

I guess the Forbidden City is still forbidden. #yellowtape

We ate lunch at the park across the street from the Forbidden City and this man comes up to take our picture and then offered to but us food. We politely declined his offer because he was old and little too eager beaver for our likings. 

Then we went to the Temple of Heaven. Some nice people helped us find the way to the subway. We have had a lot of those experiences where strangers are there to help us right when we need it and there is no way we would survive China without these godsends! #EasterMiracle2. I loved the Temple of Heaven. It was one of my favorite parts of the day by far. And did I mention it is twice as big as the Forbidden City?! The main temple is beautiful and of course we got a good photoshoot in.

Ruining pictures since 1992

There is also a Whisper Wall where you can hear what other people are saying on the opposite side of the wall. We thought this would be a flop and not work because of the amount of people in the area. BUT it worked! I swear it was magic. #EasterMiracle3 Wanting to rest our feet for a little, we sat in a park area and had a mini easter egg (carmel candy) hunt. It was fun to get some American traditions in our China Easter day.

Rachel and I had planned to go to a Chinese Opera after everything, so our day was far from over! We went to the first Opera Hall and found that the Opera wasn't showing because of the holiday. So we decided to try to find another one and hoped we would make it on time. After some metro riding, walking, and direction asking, we found one! And we made it just in time for the show! #EasterMiracle4. Of course I couldn't understand anything they were saying in the Opera but it was a cool experience. So much high pitched singing and weird sound effects. Loved it.

After getting back home we left for clubbing. Our experience in Shanghai was such a raging success that we make it a priority. It's weird because clubbing in China feels very safe. We went with some Germans that were staying at out hostel and hopped around to different dance clubs during the night. Danced so hard my neck was sore for a whole week.

And that is how we matched a day at the great wall #EasterMiracle#5!!