Our Life Story | Chapter 13 - 你好中國 ( Hello China )
Today I would like to take you back to a very special trip I made in 2009.
I made this trip with my family and unfortunately without Luuk. Its still a part of my life story though and that’s why I wanted to share it with you!
Every year on my parents wedding anniversary we have this tradition of making a small city trip to celebrate. We went to different cities like Brussels and Gent (BE) But in 2009 they wanted something different. They had been saving money to surprise us with a big trip! They had been married for 25 years that year and wanted to share that with us in a very special way!
My Aunt and Uncle had lived in Beijing for several years, so my parents visited them twice before. They were so impressed by China with its culture and traditions that they couldn’t wait to show this to us. So China it was! I was sooo exited!
China here we come!
And there we go! Our first stop was Shanghai. Almost 24H later we arrived in this huge city. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we stepped out of the airport. The first thing that comes to mind is: WOW, unfortunately the second thing is: Why is it so cloudy? The smog was so heavy! I really was a bit shocked about how bad it was but strangely enough you will get used to this aswell.
We spent about a week in Shanghai and we still hadn't seen more than maybe a quarter of the city. But it was awesome. As I believe it also was a Chinese holiday season. So there were many Chinese tourist that came from the countryside to visit Shanghai. I'm guessing that these people had never seen Europeans before. So we, a dark headed man, a tall blonde woman, me, my sisters and my brother who looked like Justin Bieber in that time, we’re treated like we we’re a group of celebrity’s. Of course that’s fun for a couple of hours but believe me, you don’t want to be photographed like all the time.
After a week it was time to move on and we went to Beijing. We had this funny domestic flight with games and lotteries, all in Chinese of course so we never found out if we maybe had won something. We stayed in Beijing for an another week. There is just so much to see! In one week we visited the great wall, the forbidden city, visited a Hutong and went seeing panda’s. The food is delicious btw (Even when you don’t have a clue of what you are eating…)
In 2008 the Olympics were held in Beijing. So we decided to visit the Olympic village. What a great idea was that! The stadiums are absolutely impressive! And China wouldn’t be China if you couldn’t buy some fake Olympic medals on every street corner :)
Looking back on this trip it was amazing but exhausting as well. There is so much to see and your brain really needs some time to process all these impressions. The trip is almost 8 years ago but every once in a while I get this flashback and experienced it all over again.
Make sure you take photos and maybe write a journal going on these big trips!
Tell us all about your experience on big trips! Check out our Instagram as well and don’t forget to upvote, resteem and follow us ;)
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the second half of Feb 10. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $6.98 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Feb 10 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Thanks!
Enjoyed :) @ourlifestory