China | The Great Wall and Beijing – A home for my words.

The Great Wall of China!

Spain’s Semana Santa holiday was approaching. I laid in bed and thought, “I have ten days. That’s a sizeable amount of time. Where can I go?” I Googled something along the lines of ‘world’s greatest sights’ and came across The Great Wall of China. From there, I searched for the price of flights and boom, I was heading to China! Then I realized, I had to get a visa. Luckily, the Chinese embassy in Spain was smooth sailing. I dropped off my application one day, and came back another day and had my passport back in hand with a 10-year visa that took up an entire page. It was one of the smoothest visa application processes I have ever experienced.

It wasn’t until I was actually on the Great Wall of China that a memory was unlocked. When I was a child, I had proclaimed that I would visit the Great Wall of China one day. I knew nothing of the cost of flights or what it took to apply for a visa. All I knew is that I had a dream. While hiking along the wall, I could feel my inner child giggling with glee.

Cringey Photos

I. Promise. You. My tour guide forced these photos onto me. I pretty much played along so we could get the day onward and over with. They have never seen the light of day…until now. It was a tour that had great reviews, but I found the day to be lackluster and completely overpriced. Besides the photos below, I also remember that the day included attempting some calligraphy with black paint and an arts and crafts project. The best part was getting to see an antique Chinese wedding bed and reading about their history.

Performance Night

One word: Incredible. Another childhood dream was to run away with the circus as an acrobat and contortionist. That never happened, but I did get to see real performers at this show. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves: