Back in winter of 2017, I took a school immersion class to China. We visited various sites in Beijing and Shanghai. It was probably one of the coolest places I have ever been in my entire life. Want proof? Here's some photos from the trip:
This was taken at the forbidden city in Beijing. Right next to Tiananmen Square, the largest city square in the world. The pollution was so bad the sun was red. Creepy, cool, but mostly concerned for the environment.
Here's a view straight out of a movie, taken in one of the inner walls of the forbidden city. This is before we continued to walk in to see how big this place really was. I was not ready.
This is possibly one of the coolest photos of me, maybe ever, despite my cold and tired face. Still, this was one of the coolest places I have ever been to. This wall is truly enormous, your lungs will catch on fire as toddlers pass you on the stairs up the wall. Yup, really a breathtaking experience. (I'm not sorry)
With all these massive and intricate bits of culture all over the place, it's kind of refreshing to see something so simple and so hilariously wrong. This sign, by the way, was a sign for the breakfast sausages in the hotel buffet. Yum.
While we were at the Temple of Heaven, these Macau teens came up to our group and couldn't believe they saw real life Americans. They were really awesome, the girls from their group and the ones from our group were dancing and recording themselves. I took a selfie with these dudes, who were amazing. And all the Macau girls flocked over Kieran Magnes, really tall, classic American boy. This did not happen to me, because the camera does not lie, I really did look like this.
This is The Bund in Shanghai, which is so unbelievably cool it's hard to put into words. It's like New York, but China, but Europe. It's a truly international city. It makes you feel so small, but in an awesome way.
Chinese KFC. Just like regular KFC except it's surprisingly clean and very popular over there. Not my proudest meal, but I don't regret a thing.
You are looking through the eyes of me on one of the peaks of the great wall. Thank god you aren't experiencing this through my lungs.
Our group went to a Chinese tea house and shop. We had a tea ceremony there, and afterwards we could buy our own tea. One person spent over $100 (USD) on tea and stated that they, "Regret nothing."
This is the Summer palace. It's one of the largest palaces in the world, covering close to 700 acres. Which is four times bigger than the forbidden city. In other words, it's pretty f@&*#!$ big
This is a photo of Kieran, Lilly, and I walking down the Long Corridor in the Summer Palace. The corridor is half a mile long, and we walked all of it. It was also very cold that day, my fingers felt like they were gonna fall off.
This is also a picture from the summer palace. Nothing much behind this photo. Just looked cool as heck.
We went to Shanghai on the last two nights, and the last night we were there we went on a ferry across the bund. Shangai at night is honestly one of the most sci-fi things I have ever seen in real life. The far right building (The Shanghai Tower) is 2100 feet tall. Lights all the way up and down. Dang.
This was taken in one of the inner walls of the forbidden city. There are so many pagoda roofs it's hard not to imagine people running across them and fly-jumping off of them like in the movies.
I think it's fair to say that I'll be back again. But until then:
再见中国！
(Goodbye China)
Credits:
All photos were taken by Milo F.