Beijing, China

5 hour plane ride from Manila and we were in Beijing! The first thought after arriving in China was: “Dang, I gotta start getting used to not being able to read anything.” From airport signs, road signs and metro signs….I was LOST. So then my second thought after arriving in China was: “Dang, I better not get in a fight with Peter.”

Luggage and immigration was easy. The Chinese tourist visa I applied for is valid for 10 years (!!)- Peter was pretty peeved when he found out I had a multiple entry visa because he only had the two entry visa that expires in 180 days. Ha. Since we’ve done a lot of traveling the past few days our first day in China was just to relax. And by relax I mean….Bargain shopping!

Hardly anyone spoke English in China. It was such a struggle to say literally anything. There was just a lot of pointing and signaling towards the English-to-Chinese app Peter had on his phone.

However, the app wasn’t necessary when it came to our visit to the Silk Market. Everyone in the market place spoke decent English and you bet they had the English phrase: “NO WAY! Impossible!” down perfectly. This was spoken (very loudly) at us whenever Peter was bargaining for a product half the starting price. But I have to hand it to Peter…he did a pretty good job shaking these poor Chinese ladies down. This is the only time and place that I’ve ever appreciated his, pardon my French, ass-hole-ness. While his aggressive attitude was great and all…the sure fire bet to get our price was the classic line: “Maybe we’ll look at another stand…”

Day 1 in Beijing was a success! I got a lot of cool stuff and souvenirs from the Market…so people better like my Instagram pics then maybe you’ll get one!

Looking forward to touring some temples tomorrow. Bye for now! (Because I don’t know good-bye in Chinese)