Beijing

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So I decided to suck it up and finally finish my blog entries, so here goes my last leg: Beijing. First day here, my cousin took me shopping in XiDan's Korea City. Indeed, apparently goods that look like they are from Korean (hair decorations, clothes, etc.) are really popular here! I spent pretty much the whole day here as it's huge! It was a total of 5 floors with small shops on each floor. I had to take 2 breaks in the middle just to rest my legs. Later in the afternoon, I ran into a friend of mine from USA!! It's a small world after all I guess :D We made plans to hang out the next day.

I met up with my friend and her 2 friends for lunch in Jing Yuan, the largest mall in China (so they say). I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty big! My cab driver dropped me off on one end and I thought I was at the wrong place :/ I ended up walking about 15 minutes, through an underground passageway, to where my friends were waiting on the other side of the mall. After lunch, we got foot massages and manicures. Back in the US, I'm sure gonna miss cheap services. Later that night, my cousin took me to eat Beijing roast duck mmm.

Saturday, my other cousin drove me, his kids and his parents to Yanqing, which is where my parents bought a condo. Yanqing is to the north of the city, and barely inside Beijing. It's right around where the Great Wall is located. It's a quiet place surrounded by mountains, farmland and nature that one rarely gets a glimpse of in Beijing the city. We went to a park that offered boat rides and bungee jumping! My nephew went bungee jumping, but I was hesitant to do it as it was only $30. But he lived. That night, we met up with my aunt, uncle, and more family members who were at the condo already. We went to dinner and spent the rest of the evening watching TV and playing cards.

The next day, my aunt took all of us to a scenic driving route called 100mile path. It is not literally 100miles, we think, but close enough. We did several hiking trails, went into a cave and climbed a mountain! All in all, a very exhausting but outdoor-sy morning. I was so tired, I ended up falling asleep in the car as we drove to lunch. My aunt found a Nongjia restaurant that we ate at. Again, I'm a huge fan of Nongjia restaurants, so I ate a lot!! We took the train back to Beijing and I spent my last night trying to get some rest before my flight the next day. And that just about wraps it up! This was my first time going to China by myself, but I had a blast!!

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