Chasing Chaos: Tour of Beijing

Culture Shock:
noun

a state of bewilderment and distress experienced by an individual who is suddenly exposed to a new, strange, or foreign social and cultural environment.

For example, Sarah and Kayla experienced quite a culture shock upon arriving in China.

It took Kayla and I a few days to really start enjoying Beijing. This is due in part to the fact that our first 3 days were filled with torrential downpours, strange food, and inability to speak the local language (or find anyone else that could), and really rude roommates. We had a few moments where we really thought we were going to have to move up our flight and leave China early. However, we moved to a new hostel in a different part of the city on our 4th day and it changed our entire outlook. Our new place, Sanlitun Hostel, was in a very relaxed part of Beijing and was close to both sightseeing areas and fun nightlife scenes. We were also very fortunate to meet two girls, Anna & Ellie, and they really helped us to enjoy our stay. Ellie has been studying Chinese for years and she kindly helped us do things like order food and talk to taxi drivers. She had also lived in Beijing for a year so she was able to give us some insight on things to do and places to see. Overall we really enjoyed our trip and are looking forward to meeting up with our new friends in Europe!

Here are some photos of Beijing Hot Spots:

Great Wall of China