3 Days in Beijing- Great Wall of China, Palace Banquet & Hanfu Photoshoot

Hi guys, I just got to Beijing. I just got off the train. I had a standing ticket so the entirety of the train ride I was either sitting on the floor or standing and it was like four and a half hours which really doesn't sound that bad which it really wasn't but there's a stop like every hour so I tried to fall asleep on the floor but then I had to get up and I had to move and then I have to sit back down and I don't know. I was trying to fall asleep but it didn't work out so I'm still really tired. The weather here currently is like 50 degrees Fahrenheit which isn't that cold in comparison to Minnesota weather but my body is not handling it right now. It's way too cold for me. I'm going to head to my hotel for the next couple of days and then I'm going to grab some food and get ready to go to the palace banquet that I'm going to later tonight so that'll be really fun. Alright so I'm gonna go grab some food. It might be McDonald's again I'm not gonna lie but we'll see. I don't remember taking the train last time I was in China. Maybe we did but I think we have to go through security again after we get here which I feel like is a little ridiculous but we have to do security when we get on the subway anyway so maybe that's why. So now there's a big mob of people waiting to go through security again. I hate waiting in lines especially with my big suitcase. I ended up going to the wrong hotel so I had to get a DD to the right one and now my time is cutting really close so I ordered another DD to go to the location but I guess it's rush hour right now so it's going to take like almost an hour to get there and I don't know what's going to happen. I brought my makeup so I can do it in the car just in case I don't have enough time but I'm hoping I can have my makeup done at the place. I think that's my ride maybe maybe not. I tried to do my makeup in the car but I ended up falling asleep because I'm so exhausted but now we're walking to the the palace banquet. Oh my god it's so cold outside guys I'm it's so cold. I think I'm gonna have to take the L and buy some warm clothes because I don't think I'm gonna survive tomorrow when we go to the great wall. Oh it's so cold. Okay I like I did my foundation and a little bit of eyeshadow and I tried to do blush and contour. You can like kind of see it but I'm just gonna pay for them to finish my face because I didn't have the patience and I was like if I'm gonna pay for it anyways might as well let them do more than do less. I'm gonna try my best to record the whole thing but my phone is dying. I didn't have time to charge it and I tried to charge it in the car but I got the wrong cord so I couldn't charge it either but it's okay. I'll record what I can and if not I'll just take pictures and it'll live free in my mind and I'll just tell you guys about my experience afterwards. We just finished dinner. I changed out of my clothes. I still have the makeup on. It's so cute and at the end of the show they handed out flowers and I ended up getting one which I was really surprised by. It has a cute little note. I don't know what it says though but I have a flower. It's so funny because I went in already wearing makeup and she just covered everything again with foundation and was like no we're doing this again but it's okay. I like how it turned out. The food was really really good. The entertainment was really good. Everything overall it was a really good experience and I ended up getting seated next to a couple from Australia and they knew English and I was like oh my gosh my saviors because they were able to translate for me because I didn't know what was going on half of the time so they're very nice very sweet of them. They took some pictures for me too. Overall it was a great experience. I'm so glad I came. In the beginning I was dreading it because this is how tired I was but I'm so glad I came. They gave us alcohol. It was like this plum wine. Oh it was delicious and then they had like this jasmine tea with cinnamon and like this other tea. Everything was just so good. It was so good. I almost cried. I don't know what the story was telling. I think it was a love story from what I could see. I think it's like one of those tragic love stories. I couldn't tell what was going on but I still was almost brought to tears because that's how good it was and like the dancers are very talented. The musicians are really talented. I don't know. I have no bad things to say. It was so good but I'm gonna head back to my hotel now. My phone is almost dead. I'm surprised it's lasted this long so I need the phone battery to last me until I get back to the hotel and then I'll see you guys tomorrow when we go to the Great Wall of China with Solei. So this is me tuning out for the end of day one in Beijing. It's more like half day because I've only been here since like four in the afternoon but that's the end of our first day. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Alright guys we made it to the Great Wall. We're heading to the shuttle bus right now. I think we just finished the the bus from the main city area to get to the bottom of the wall and then we have to take a bus and then we have to take like a train car cable car to get up to the top. So that's what we're doing right now. Time is currently 11 40 or so and we have to be back here by like 4 30. So we have a couple hours to explore. I'm very excited to see. You want to say hi? Do you guys want to introduce yourselves to the vlog? I'm Solei. Are you ready? We're gonna have fun. Alright we have our tickets. Time to climb up to go to the cable car and go up an ungodly amount of the mountain. It's definitely more busy than I remember from last time but I've also was here like eight years ago maybe and I can't remember if this is the entrance I came in last time or if it's not. My memory isn't good enough. Oh my god I'm tired already. So we've made it to the top of the stairs but we're still waiting in line. The line is so long. So that's where we were before. We finally made it to the top. I don't know what area we're in right now but we did make it. I already came here before but I think it's nice to see it again now that I'm older and get to remember it better because I remember it but I don't remember much. Very beautiful. Kind of giving me a nice natural glow don't you think? Once I got past like the really crowded area it's very beautiful to look at but I was getting very overwhelmed really fast staying in that area before but now I'm good. But I think it's time to go. I'm gonna start heading back because I have to be back to the bus by 4 30 and it takes a while to get down considering how long the line was to get up here. So we're gonna go head back now. I don't know where I am I'm not gonna lie. I kind of just kept walking because I was like oh it's so beautiful. I just kept walking. Yeah you don't know where I am. Time to head back. I feel very connected with my roots right now you know. Feeling very Chinese in this moment. So we made it to watch tower number six. We lost Soleil at the bathroom so now we're waiting but we finally made it to the area where the toboggan is so we can get a go on the slide down and head back. I'm so exhausted but the view is beautiful and it's still really nice out so everything is going well. But I'm ready to go down and have food and some water and some coffee. We're almost there. We did it guys. We're all finished at the Great Wall. We had to be back by 4 40 and we're making good time. I think it's like 4 45 right now so we're not late. We're all done. I wish I could have taken a video of my my picture because as you go down the chute they take a video. They take a picture of you as you go down and my pose was like this because I wanted to mock the camera but it was 30 RMB for the photo and I was like no it's not worth it. Hello everyone. It's a late start to the day but I went to go get our makeup and hair done and we put on these outfits and now we're going to take our pictures. We're going to one of the temples I think. It's very nice out today and I'm staying warm with my clothes. The fur is really keeping me warm and I have a nice little sunshade. The hair is honestly not that heavy surprisingly. Like it sits nicely on my head. It does look a little silly but it's okay. It'll look good for the photos and then I have some dangly earrings. Overall I'm very excited. I'm happy with how it turned out. I don't know if you can see it but they didn't give me any shoes because granted I have big feet so I'm wearing my my hokas right now but I'm hoping they can like crop it out or they just don't include it in the photo because it looked a little silly but that's our plan for today. Dressing up and taking photos and then going out for dinner later tonight. So I'll try to take videos during our photoshoot experience and show you guys what it's like but besides that today's a really chill day. I think we left the house around like 11? 12-ish? Started the photoshoot prep at like 12 30 and now it's like three o'clock or so so just taking a chill today and then I'll do some sightseeing tomorrow and then we head to South Korea. All right I'll keep you guys updated with how the photoshoot goes and whatnot. All right we're all finished up with the photoshoot. We're heading back to take off our our clothes, put our hair down. Their hair is falling down a lot worse than mine is because mine is kind of just like pinned on the top of my head but they got like bricks on the back of their heads and it's falling down. We're heading back to go change and then I think the plan oh my god the sun and then the plan is to go get food. I think I'm starving. I need food and then maybe go to a bar, to a club. I don't know we're just gonna follow whatever wherever life takes us. Photoshoot went well. Personally I think it went okay. My photos were very cutesy. I don't know if like the outfit I'm wearing is more cutesy. That's just kind of like the vibe the photographer was gonna give me. There's a lot of pictures of like... I don't know. I have some glitter on my face. There's a child behind me. I don't know what he's doing. Hello everyone. Today is my last full day in Beijing. It's currently like 2 in the afternoon. I'm heading to Tiananmen Square I think. I don't know. I'm just kind of walking around and sightseeing and eating food and shopping. Everything I can since it's my last day. I have no set plans. I think the only set plan I have is to going to get hot pot later with Soleil and Angie but besides that I have no plans. Is this the right way? Maybe. I'm just kind of exploring today. I did a lot yesterday mentally. The photoshoot took a lot out of me mentally but besides that nothing much. So maybe I'll take some videos along the way as I go shopping around because the shopping streets here are really cool compared to Shanghai. They're a lot more like creative and have a lot more original stuff I feel like. So I don't know. I've been enjoying shopping here a lot more than Shanghai. So I'll try to show you guys around. Originally when I first got to China I was super overwhelmed and I wasn't really enjoying myself but now that I've gotten used to how things work here a little bit for almost a week I'm really dreading leaving tomorrow. So I think... Okay anyways I think I'm gonna try to come back again next year maybe in April or something when I have my school break because I really want to explore more and go to different parts of the country. Maybe go to like Chongqing or Chengdu or other places around and just kind of explore more. I just want to be able to experience more of the culture, the food, and just whatever they have to offer because it's so interesting. It's so fun and now that I'm older I can really like get a full grasp of it because like the entire trip I've been trying to wrap my mind on what I remember from the last time we were here and I honestly don't remember anything. It was all a blur so it's nice to be able to revisit it and experience new things. So I definitely want to try to come back but we'll see what my plan looks like next year because I can't think that far ahead. The main thing that I really don't like though being here is the smell of cigarettes. Anywhere you go it reeks of cigarettes. Indoors, outdoors, in a clothing store, in the bathroom. You're never safe. It always smells like cigarettes and it kind of can get irritating because it really makes it hard to breathe. Thankfully I have my yadom in my bag so when it gets really stinky I just take a hit off my yadom. Right now I'm back on the street that I was at on Sunday but when I came here on Sunday I was on a mission. I had to go to the dinner but now that I have free time I can explore freely and look at the shops a little bit more. There's a lot of like little boutiques and cafes but I'm also not really hungry but I might force myself to get something so I can try more food. But it's very cute. There's a lot of people out walking around. I don't know, it's just like a very cozy vibe and the weather's really nice. It's not too cold, it's not too hot. I wish it was a little sunnier outside. It is really cloudy today but besides that as long as it doesn't rain I'll be okay. Oh and yesterday I was at the other walking street area and I really was trying hard to find a bathroom and I did end up finding one but I didn't realize that the bathrooms here are just like the toilets are separated by a wall but there's no stall door. So when I walked in I made eye contact with a girl as she was squatting to take a piss and I know it's normal here but it's not normal for me. I got so uncomfortable I had to leave and I was like you know what if I have to pee my pants that's what I'm gonna do but I can't. I can't pop a squat and take a pee right here. I'm too uncomfortable and I also had to go poo really bad. I'm not trying to do that in a public space where people can see me. So I'm hoping if I need to go to the bathroom again today I'll find like a good bathroom otherwise I'll just hold it in and I'll suffer because I can't go to the bathroom without some sort of covering. It's too scary. My social anxiety is not built for that. Oh one last thing. I forgot I have a goal today. My goal is to buy an I love BJ shirt for I love BJ but it's just so funny. I really really want one so hopefully I can find one that's good quality and not too expensive. Keeping my eyes peeled. I totally forgot that you need a reservation to go to Tiananmen Square so I wasn't able to go but that's okay. I'm now at Lama Temple one of the spots that my aunt recommended I go check out so we're here now because it's really easy. I just went to the ticket box and I was able to buy a ticket and go in with no problem. It closes in about 45 minutes so I don't have a lot of time but I assume there isn't too much to look at and if there is I can see it all within 45 minutes. So we're going to go explore now and then I think after that it's time to go get food so I don't know we'll see. I'm just kind of exploring around. I'm not really sure what to look for or what to expect. I've never been here before I've never even heard of this place actually so let's see. Okay I'm all finished with the temple it only took me about 25-30 minutes to walk through. It's definitely more of a place of worship than anything else so there wasn't much for me to do since I am not Buddhist so I just kind of walked around appreciated the art and the buildings the architecture and then I left. I definitely think I spoke too soon in terms of the weather. I started to feel some raindrops on my head and I think it might rain. Hopefully it's just a couple raindrops and it's not actually going to rain because I don't have an umbrella and I don't want to buy one so I feel like hopefully I'll be okay. Not quite sure though. Actually I think I'm feeling more raindrops. I think I'm doomed. I need to go find some shelter. I'm gonna go try to find a cafe and get some bubble tea or something.