China! I recently came back from a 9 day trip with Lewis's family to China. It took us 28 hours to get from Boston -> San Francisco, CA -> Shanghai, China -> Huangshan, China. Our first stop was this Feng Shui Village in Huangshan where there were temples, homes, and schools dating back to the Ming and Qing dinasty. There were also scenes from the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" from this village.  
In a school / in front of the gorgeous water with lilies in the back!  
Lewis trying to be serious / a random ox on the sidewalk We then traveled on our tour bus to go to Yellow Mountain in Huangshan... definitely the most beautiful mountains I will ever see in my life. They had these amazing jagged peaks, and they have their own version of the Grand Canyon!! We climbed thousands of stairs, some of which were pretty steep and scary, took some awesome photos, and unfortunately... guys in China tend to just blow snot rockets out of their nose and onto the sidewalks... and while descending some steep stairs on the side of the mountain, my pinky landed in something GOOEY... it was a big snot load on the hand railing  EWWWWWWWWWWW. I was screaming for about a minute wiping the snot on my pinky back onto the railing, and using my Purell hand sanitizer.. that was definitely one of the grossest things EVER. But, that aside... the pictures speak for themselves.. the fog was crazy too, one second the sun would be out, the next second, a big cloud of fog would cover an entire mountain.  
Lewis and me with a very steep drop behind us! / The fog and mountains  
Lewis at me at Yellow Mountain!  
In this pic, a little over the ledge more and it's a HUGE drop / the fog is setting in!  
Lewis climbing the wall / a view of our path up the mountain
a short video of the view at Yellow Mountain! So, after a full day of hiking, the tour scheduled for everyone to get one hour foot massages... now, I've never gotten a foot massage before, so I was pretty worried that I would be ticklish or that it would hurt... boy, was I RIGHT. They have girls massage the guys, and guys massage the girls... haha. This guy started to massage my thighs first, SOOO TICKLISH, so he did the hand chopping stuff instead.. then feet, then calves... this dude massaging my calves was soooo painful, I was literally screaming... along with the rest of the family in the room =P hahaha.. it was the craziest mix of pain and laughter I've ever experienced, mostly from laughing at Lewis's brother's screams of pain. Lewis just laughed at us, and didn't feel any pain at all. Then.. our guide comes in near the end of our one hour foot massage, and says that for 80 RMB, we can get a one hour full body massage.. as in $10 US dollars. Everyone in the tour (14 of us) ended up getting the additional one hour full body massage. So yes, more pain.. this guy used these hammers on my shins like beating a drum, cracked every bone in my body, and even massaged my butt! haha.. Chinese massages are painful and crazy. I don't think they'd get away with that stuff in the US. I also couldn't speak Chinese, so he'd have to stop once in a while and ask Lewis if I was in pain or if I was just ticklish. And sometimes he'd just stop and signal for me to breathe deeply and make this calming motion with his hands to try to get me to relax. haha - his way of communicating =)  
Lewis and Me in Huangshan / our massage place! The next morning, we traveled to Hangzhou and took a boat ride across West Lake. There were so many boats on the water! We also rode in these golf carts with horns that played Chinese music to try to get these people out of the way =) haha, it was pretty funny... I felt like such a snobby American tourist. Then later that night, we saw this show called "Impression Westlake" which could possibly be one of the worst shows ever. The stage did cost $1 billion dollars to make because it was actually set IN the lake, and hundreds people were dancing on the water, but it was this old love story that I guess everyone knew about except for Lewis and me... and we didn't get it at all.  
Lewis and Me on a boat in West Lake / Me and Che-Lai  
Lewis and Me in front of boats on West Lake haha... a short video of everyone in the golf cart and the music!  
Dinner with some of the most amazing chicken ever / A house boat moving across the stage at Impressions West Lake  
A huge structure coming out of the water at the show / hundreds of dancers on the water The next day, we went to Linyin Temple in Hangzhou. This place had so many amazing temples over 1000 years old, and hundreds of buddha statues. Then, we visited one of the six "Venices" of China called Wuzhen. Then, we traveled to Suzhou and went to this place called Tiger Hill. Then we took a boat ride through a canal to dinner, where there were two people that performed for us during dinner.  
Me and Lewis at the Linyin Temple  
Look at all of the statues!  
Me and Lewis at the Wuzhen Water Village  
Tiger Hill in Suzhou / Paul on some rocks at Tiger Hill  
Me and Lewis at Tiger Hill / the boat that we are going to take down the canal in Suzhou 
The view of the canal in Suzhou / a short video of musicians at dinner! The next day, I had the best breakfast ever with beef noodles at the Sheraton Hotel buffet!! yumm... then we went to the Lingering Garden in Suzhou. This place had all of these huge rocks that were dug up from the ocean - all in what used to be someone's home. Then we went to a silk factory, a silk threading place, and then finally we traveled to Shanghai! We went shopping at Mango, ate dinner at Din Tai Fung, and stayed at the Westin Bund Center Shanghai Hotel.  
My beef noodles for breakfast! / Lewis at a bonsai garden  
Me at the Lingering Garden / Lewis hiding in the rocks  
Me and Lewis shopping in Shanghai / juicy buns at Din Tai Fung!!  
Lewis and Me in front of the restaurant / a shot of Shanghai's shopping district  
Look at all of the organized fruit!!! We had huge lychees there... yumm! The next day - we went on a tour of Shanghai and Pudong... went shopping, and I finally own two pairs of long Nike workout pants! The Nike pants in the US are always wayy to long... these fit perfectly!! =)  
The third tallest building in the world  
This place used to be a temple, but all of these stores built around it  
Lewis and Me with the skyline So after a great 9 day trip to China, we had a horrible travel experience back to Boston - it took 40 hours! Our flight from San Francisco to Boston was cancelled after 6 hours of waiting, so after being in the airport for 17 hours, we finally got on a midnight flight out to Dallas, and then to Boston. At least we got home the next day! =) | 
