great wall of china

The Great Wall of China is one of the great man made wonders of the world, and top of my list for this trip. We have already been to Machu Picchu in Peru, did Angkor Wat in Cambodia last month, and now, climbing the Great Wall in China....and of course, we do it in style!!!

Mutianyu is the part of the wall we chose to climb. It's 90 km north of Beijing and stretches about 2 km long. It is less touristy than Badaling and the scenery is top notch. We saw a bunch if panda hats the day before and thought they were super cute. We saw them again walking up, and each bought one for pics!

 

On the wall, we were attempting to do jumping pictures. This really cute couple asked to help take the picture for us instead of us using a self timer. We also did a jumping picture for them, and i think theirs is better than ours!! Tien took this picture of me in a panda hat...taking a picture of them...and it makes me laugh every time I see it. The girl is so cute, and the guy is just hilarious with his ballerina jump and China hat!!!

stretching to climb the Great Wall!!!

Kat slid into full split after this shot! *_*

see no panda, hear no panda, speak no panda

love this set tien took of kat and i

a pic of the whole Great Wall

literally climbing the great wall!!!

 falling off the great wall

panda FAIL *_*

 

eating in beijing, china

exploring china

I stand out in China in this outfit. I fit in a lot better in Southeast Asia where the weather is wicked humid and hot. Flying in, I didn't anticipate the weather to be a nice 75 degrees F with not much humidity at all. It's actually quite similar to California. Here, all the women are covered from head to toe in something. I found it really interesting, watching the women dress. Many are dressed like I normally would in the States, but all bare legs are covered with pantyhose if they are wearing shorts or skirts. More than being conservative, they just don't want their skin to be exposed to the sun. Although Vitamin D is great, it isn't as important as preserving their porcelain skin. As dark as I am right now, I was quite surprised to get so many Chinese locals coming up to me, and telling me I look Chinese. They would gesture to my features and say "face is Chinese." I had this effect on the Thais, the Laotians, and the Vietnamese. Guess I'm adapting to each country better than I thought!

H&M halter, pants from Thailand, bag from Laos, Old Navy flip flops, Aldo sunglasses