14,000 miles in 14 days

These last couple of weeks have been an insane blur of travel and emotions. If you follow me on Instagram (@HannahSouers), you have a good idea of what it has been like traveling between Shanghai, Beijing and back to my hometown in Washington State, but here are the details of the crazy adventures:

First off, Alexis (my new buddy from work!) and I spent a long weekend in Shanghai. The first challenge was figuring out how to get our train tickets online... when the website is entirely in Chinese. 

Thank god for friends who speak and read it better than us!

The more exciting second challenge was going to the train station where we took a bullet train. The train's top speed was 245 miles per hour!

​What would have been a 21 hour drive/12 hour traditional train ride ended up being 4.5 hours. 

The first night in Shanghai, we walked along The Bund, which gives a great view along the water of the skyline.

​See that building on the left... the really tall one? That is Shanghai Tower, the (second) tallest building in the world. I'll talk about that later in this post!

We started Saturday (day 2) in Shanghai by going to the Jade Buddha Temple. While it was stunning and beautiful... we couldn't find the Jade Buddha. 

The majority of Saturday was spent in the M50 District, my favorite part of Shanghai!

The M50 District is the art district of Shanghai (stay tuned in a later post about 798, Beijing's art district). Imagine a couple blocks of just local artist galleries and street art and you'll understand why I fell in love with this part of the city!

​While we couldn't take pictures inside the dozens of galleries to respect the artists' works, Alexis humored my request for many pictures with the artwork that we could take pictures of!

The last place we went to on Saturday was the Propaganda Poster Art Center... which in and of itself was an experience. Again, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside but we also survived going to it which is a plus. 

First off, we probably wouldn't have gone to the propaganda museum if Alexis's fiance hadn't recommended it.

I can only describe the entrance of the museum as.... "sketchy". We had to go into an apartment complex to get to the museum... where we met a sign that told us to take the stairs to the basement.

​Seriously. 

But we didn't die!

​It was actually incredible and anyone looking for something to do in Shanghai for cheap (25 yuan entrance fee... so less than $4), spend an hour or two here, I can't tell you how amazing it was to see almost 100 years of Chinese propaganda art!

Sunday in Shanghai (Day 3, also the day we went back to Beijing): we had to catch the bullet train back at 3:00pm but the morning was spent at the Shanghai Tower (see, I told you that I'd being it up again!).

The tower was completed in 2015, and is currently the second tallest building in the world with the world's fastest elevators! My ears popped going up with how fast we were moving.

​And I've got to say... the view was worth it. 

The weekend after my "Shanghai Adventures", I flew the 6,000 miles to my hometown in Washington State to see one of the most important people in my life, H2, get married!

​The flight was 12 hours long from Beijing to Seattle and I was only home for 48 hours but I have to say, it was completely worth it and I'm honored that H2 (We are both named "Hannah"... I'm H1 because I'm 7 months older) asked me to be her maid of honor!

The funny part about flying home when there is a 16 hour timezone different (during Daylight Savings) is that I get to see the same sunrise twice.

The sun for Friday, November 9th was rising as I left Beijing and the exact same sunrise for Friday, November 9th rose as I landed in Seattle.

​Makes a good fun fact or something later on... but makes me tired to even think about!

 The wedding was stunning and I'm proud to say I didn't cry... until it was time to say goodbye to H2. She's been my best friend for ages and the closest I will ever get to having a sister. I'm so happy for her and her awesome husband, John. 

Picture credit to Ensign Photography who took the following two stunning pictures!

While I love living in Beijing and I don't regret making the move at all... leaving was hard.

​I didn't get enough time to really be with my loved ones back home but thinking now, I don't think any amount of time is enough. The 6,000 mile difference just makes me appreciate the time I do get with them. I don't think I will ever take it for granted again and I feel so lucky that I was able to spend the time I did with them and was able to be there for H2's wedding. 

Oh, one last thing: During the wedding, my parents and two of our family friends, Amy and Brian, stole my phone to take this blurry gem of a picture. 

Stay tuned for the next post which will be about overcoming the little challenges that come with living in China!