The Motherland

Recovering from the worst toilet; changing mask show; new pearl earrings for only 100 RMB (around $16 AU!); cute and happy village children; GIANT PANDA; coldcoldcold; watching good-looking guys dance; taking a photo with a grandma; waiting in line for smelly toilet; CUTE POODLE; $$$; the most beautiful place I've been to; STRAY PUPPY; hingis = creep; snowy mountains; taking photo with old dog; templeee; shadow puppets; BABY PANDAS; China = best natural scenery

Heyheyhey! I am back from my 7 day holiday at various locations in the Sichuan Province (CHINA) Man it was cold and tiring but it was really a great experience (both in a good and bad way) What's more surprising is the cost of the entire tour. Want to take a guess? I bet you won't get it. Here are the deets: all meals are included, 6 nights of 5-star hotels, beautiful locations with breath-taking scenery, giant panda sanctuary, famous landmarks, 2 local shows and loads of shopping districts. Okay, I'll tell you. $99 per person (not including plane tickets..obviously). AW YEAHHHHHHH. Don't believe me? Join and you'll see how amazing the deal is! SRS :D

Okay, enough advertising (not intentional) If I were to type out everything me, Hingis and dad did on the tour, it would take many days. So I've summarised everything I learnt into 2 lists: serious points and funny points (not sure if that makes sense but I ceebs thinking about other adjectives)

SERIOUS POINTS:

• signs of devastation from the 5/12/08 Sichuan earthquake are still very clear today (e.g. collapsed bridges everywhere, mountain and building rubble scattered all over the place, and crushed cars still haven't been touched)
• the highest mountain in China (excluding the Himalayas) is over 5000m tall!
• there are over 50 different ethnic groups in China
• a specific Chinese tribe (Geurng Tribe) are excluded from the One-Child Policy in China because more than half it's people died during the '08 earthquake
• learnt some information I didn't know about Buddhism

NON-SERIOUS POINTS:

• it costs $1300 RMB to hold a 2-3 month old giant panda. $1300 !! :O That's roughly $200. And dad said, before we found out, that he would let me hold one if it was max $300 RMB D:
• OKAY, THIS IS A LEGIT IMPORTANT POINT. TIBETAN-CHINESE/SICHUAN CHINESE MEN ARE HOT. Especially this one dancer I had an eye on during the first dance performance. Seriously man, he looked exactly like Kim Bum but with bigger eyes *__* At one point, he was standing right in front of me before the perf but I didn't take a photo with him cos I thought there would be photo opps after. I was wrong. Okay, enough about him..LOL JK

Taken by dad, sorry about blurriness but he was far away :(

• Chinese people legit do not know how to line up for anything. Including bus and toilets. The three of us already raged about it in China but seriously, they are unbelievably rude and just push past you as if you're not even there. They even rushed into the bus while the bus was still going at normal speed. Not cool man, they could've died. 
• Chinese people spit and smoke a lot. Eugh
• The first toilet we went to was literally the hell of all toilets. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but it was pretty bad. We even had to pay to go in, but me and hingis were really busting so we had no choice. Basic features: long line, smell of the dead, no doors, 1 metre wall separating each person, squatting. Ok no more, it was just horrendous.
• There are so many stray dogs in China! Everywhere we went, there was a random dog walking near us. The first one we saw kept on hugging our legs (innocent thoughts only guiz) It had the cutest puppy eyes D:

Okay, that was a long read but seriously, the boys over there in China (not all, but some) are pretty good-looking..until they suddenly pull out a cigarette and light it/make that horrible sound with their mouth followed by spitting. HOHOHO, I made too much eye contact with them. Man I'm a creep.

One week down, six more weeks to go! Dad made a last minute tour booking for 3 days next week..not sure where but hopefully I can walk a lot to burn fat so I can eat more when I come back! 

Don't worry, I'm not a sumo wrestler yet! :D