On the second day of our ShanHaiGuan trip, we went to the Old Dragon Head, which is the very beginning of the Great Wall. It was beautiful to look out on the ocean from the tip of the wall. There was a giant maze made out of the bricks from the Great Wall. There were also white horses, a camel, and lots of shops!
Part of the Old Dragon Head
you who know me, you know this was a stretch
for me... not exactly an animal person.
THE BEACH
The Wall runs along the Pacific Ocean, which was my favorite part of the entire trip. The weather was a little overcast, so it was too cold to swim, but we enjoyed running barefoot in the sand and wading in the water.
We also went on an incredibly fast, thrill of a lifetime, boat ride. It was a blast!
outlook points going into the beach...
FIRST PASS UNDER HEAVEN
After we left the beach, we enjoyed strolling down The First Pass Under Heaven--- a shopping street with lots of bargaining, street food, and snacks.
We also found several places where we could dress up in Chinese attire. We had tons of fun with this!
THE TRAIN STATIONS
Our train didn't leave until 9:30 that night, so we shopped for quite a while, picked up our luggage from the hotel, and then headed to the train station. We wondered why the taxi drivers looked so confused when we asked them to take us to the train station from the hotel... We understood when it took us less than a minute to get there! We had no idea it was right around the corner, and we totally could have walked. Now we know. ;)
there were no more seats...
We waited for about an hour at the train station and when there was 10 minutes until our train was supposed to leave... and no sign of it boarding, we began to wonder what was going on, if we were in the right place, and if we had missed our train. A sweet lady from Mongolia was determined to get us to the right place. She checked on our train every other minute until they let us through! We finally were allowed to board, we hopped on, the doors shut, and the train took off! No wasting time around here...
When we arrived back in Shenyang (at about midnight), we were tired. We arrived at a different train station than we had originally departed from. I had never arrived at this one before.... and had no idea the amount of energy and stamina we would all need to embark on this midnight journey through the train station. Construction.... stairs.... more stairs.... up.... down.... up again... down again... around the corner.... up again.... down again... stairs....more stairs....and more STAIRS! It was a little absurd to be honest. And not much fun with tired legs and a sleepy 5 year old.
But once again, now we know....
Other than the train stations, the trip was one of my best vacations!! Who wants to go back? ;)
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