Some of the Juicy Details...

I have been negligent in my blog postings lately.  It has been a week now since I have returned from my trip to China and I wanted to share a little from the trip with all of you in blog world! So I received some questions about why, of all places, was I visiting China. I have been a college instructor in history for some time and have always wanted to visit all of the sites that I have studied. Beyond that my bf invited me to join him on the trip to meet his family living in China.

The trip was an amazing experience. I learned so much about the people and culture of China. There were some particularly interesting things that were either too beautiful or too strange to pass up.

One of the biggest differences in China was the change in bathrooms:

The majority of bathrooms in China consist of a squat toilet. Western toilets are a rare find in most parts of the country. Even in private homes the majority of "facilities" are squat. The other big difference is the lack of toilet paper. Bathrooms do not provide toilet paper so you need to carry your own wherever you go. I actually became a napkin scavenger in restaurants.

The infamous squat toilet...

These cute little kitschy rides were everywhere! They each had a video screen with a driving video game and played cutesy music. The sheep in the center is a new cartoon character that is super popular right now. He is everywhere!

As a vegetarian I was surprised to see open air meat stands everywhere. This stand was by the ocean.

A village bus

Alleyway in the city of Yentai

The "Intimate Lover" van, a van for taking newly wedded couples to photo shoots

Ceremony for the dead in a Buddhist temple

A shrine to Guanyin, goddess of fertility and motherhood. In an effort to get pregnant my bf's cousin came to pray to Guanyin and became pregnant soon after. 

Waste disposal is not incredibly developed. This is a ditch filled with garbage in a small farm village. This ditch was literally right behind the stands of the market vendors. 

A house in the small market village with a goat

The small village market- There are small businesses everywhere in China. In villages to cities you can find small businesses of every kind including shops, pharmacies, and restaurants.

A shop in the small farm village

People people everywhere... This was our visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing. There were tons of people there. Apparently forming lines in China is a rare happening this was a crowd of about one hundred people trying to force their way to the front to take a picture of the emperor's throne room. 

The Great Wall- So the Great Wall is not actually just a wall in the flat traditional sense. It actually climbs mountains. The wall is all stairs, thousands of them... We climbed this mountain all the way to the top!

Beijing food stands outside of the train station. I sampled some delicious stinky tofu. It was super tasty!

I will be back with more pics soon! For now I am going to try to enjoy the sunshine outside.