Disneyland Hong Kong by Everett Fairbourne

Toy Storyland

I could hardly hold my legs up from all the stairs that we had hiked in the past couple weeks, but we still had one more destination. This is what would tie our whole trip together; it wouldn’t be complete without it, Disneyland! The happiest place on earth! I couldn’t wait to go! I could feel the excitement as we entered the “Disney metro.” We entered the gates of Disneyland, I could feel the magic and the excitement, when I looked to my left I saw a statue of Mickey Mouse surfing on a whale, that’s when I knew this would be great. There were so many rides we couldn’t choose, so we chose Toy Story Land. There was so many fun and thrilling rides, and the thing I loved most about the rides are that they have some sort of story to it, my favorite is the “Grizzly Gulch” roller coaster with the bears because it’s not just a machine that moves. The thing I like about it most is that when you go up a hill it slows down and starts going backwards fast, then you see some bears pressing down a TNT button and it makes a boom sound.  So then you go really fast going straight backwards.

Also, I like how they don’t only have rides they have shows, my favorite one was the Frozen show, I will never forget this quote, “singing at the top of your lungs is highly encouraged.” It’s funny because we were the only people in the crowd singing “at the top of our lungs”, all that time “practicing” in the car sure paid off!

"Frozen" sing along

Night fell and the show began, fireworks shot all across the sky, so many colors exploding in the sky. This was probably the best time in Disneyland. We were all tired now ready to go home, it was kind of sad to know that it would be a long time till I went to another Disney Land. This was a good way to end our trip to China.

Its

"Its a Small World After All"

3-D

Hong Kong by Porter Fairbourne

Hong Kong is not like the rest of China it is dirty and is very crowded. In Hong Kong there are a lot of skyscrapers.  In Beijing, there are skyscrapers but they are spread out. 

We thought Hong Kong would have really good food but we ended up not enjoying it that much. One night my mom predicted that we would end up eating at McDonalds for dinner. Our plans were that we would take a tram up to this mountain where we would have a nice dinner over looking the city. Once we arrived to where we would load on the tram there was a two-hour line. We then decided to ditch our old plans and go eat at the mall. After marching all the way to the mall we found nothing good to eat. Over time we got too hungry, and ended up eating a big mac at McDonalds, just as Mom predicted.  On our third day in Hong Kong we did have a good dinner though. We wandered the mall, looking for anything to eat, hoping that we wouldn’t end up walking through McDonald’s doors. We ended up eating at this Japanese restaurant where we ordered some chicken, beef, shrimp, and pork dumplings.

We also went to the LDS temple and we did baptisms for the dead and all of the names were super Chinese. It was quick I got to do ten names and Alta only got to do five.

Hong Kong is known for there world class shopping but all it brought me was world-class pain. We walked and walked around and it was go hot. Shopping sucks in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be.  However, it was still awesome because we got to go to Disneyland and the Temple.  Even though I hated shopping, I did manage to get some new things that I am happy about. By the end, we looked forward to getting home to Kenya.

The Longji Rice Terraces by Alta Fairbourne

While we were in Guilin we visited the Longji Rice Terraces where rice was grown. When we got there it was raining really hard but as the day went on it cleared up.  We hiked to the top of a small hill where we could see miles of rice paddies. It was so beautiful and I didn’t know rice could be so hard to grow! It was all misty and rice paddies looked like puddles edged into the mountainside. There was several farmers picking and planted rice plants here and there wearing there flat cone hats.

 We walked down to a local restaurant where we had lunch. It was really good! There were a few stray dogs that we passed on our walk and Everett went hunting to find them to give them our leftovers.

The village where the rice paddies were was full of woman with shiny dark hair that reached the floor.  I thought it was cool that so many people could have such long hair. They rolled it up in a bun on the top of their heads then wrapped in a material. They use a special homemade shampoo and conditioner that is made from fermented rice and other things.

On our way home we stopped and bought some special shampoo and conditioner and it is really awesome. I thought it was really interesting that the rice farmers devote their life’s to making rice and they are always working.

Biking in Yangshou by Porter Fairbourne

After a two hour boat ride on the Li River we came to a small place call Yangshou. We walked through the narrow streets till we came to a local bike rental shop. Everyone picked out the bike they wanted and then we started on our adventure. At the first part of the bike ride we were riding on very busy streets. We had to maneuver ourselves through lots of cars, motorbikes, scooters, and people. Little Evi almost got nailed by a scooter. While biking through the city you could see lots of shops and restaurants. You could also hear the cars and scooters beeping every other second.  

we departed from the city we found ourselves cycling towards mountains that looked like a little kid drew them. In the mountains there was a lot less traffic so I sped up, leaving my family behind me. The weather was fair to us after we got off the boat but it was a little hot, so the wind on my face felt nice as I passed scooters. I let my family catch up to me and we left the smooth road to go on a different road. This road was gravely and had potholes but I can say the view was absolutely beautiful. 

 

we continued on this new road we saw locus flowers in smooth water pond. We saw fields and fields of rice farms at the foot of these peculiar mountains. Farmers were working in the rice fields with their triangle hats on, only looking up briefly to watch us go by. After my dad stopped to take some photos of us (which probably sucked because I’m really bad at taking photos) we then went on back to our car so that we could take three-hour drive back to our hotel. Then we woke up the next morning ready for another adventure.

Zhangjiajie National Park by Alta Fairbourne

While we were in Wuliyaung, China we visited Zhangjiajie National Park. The National park was astonishing.  It was full of scenic caves, flowing rivers, adorable monkeys and tall pointy mountains. This is where the movie “Avatar” was filmed, and it almost looked unrealistic. While we were in China my dad told us that we would be riding an elevator up to one of these mountaintops; I thought he was kidding. Usually we just hike to the top of the mountain.  I have never heard of taking an elevator to the top of the mountain. I didn’t know he was telling the truth until we got there.

The elevator was so tall it looked like it could reach outer space, and I couldn’t believe I was going to ride it. Inside the elevator was smaller than I imagined but it had a glass wall where we could look outside. Once the elevator got really high we could see the whole park, super cool. It seemed really fast for an elevator we got to the top in less than a minute! At the top there were roads, houses, buses, shops and tons of people. Who knew that a National Park could be so busy? I thought national parks were supposed to remain natural and environmentally friendly. 

The Mcdonald's on top of the National Park

We walked around the mountains and looked at the amazing views of the park. We were happy to find out there was a McDonald’s somewhere on top of the mountain.  We were not so happy when we heard we had to take a 40-minute bus ride to get there. After the painful, bumpy bus ride we took a small walk to McDonald’s where we had an amazing lunch. Living in Kenya makes what we considered disgusting foods back in America, delicious.  Instead of taking the elevator down we took a different route to hike down. We weren’t on a dirt path we were walking down concrete stairs.   I have never walked down so many stairs in my life!

Zhangjiajie National Park was really beautiful and it was very different then any National park I have ever been to. In Zion’s National Park the only building I remember seeing was the tollbooth. In this National Park it had everything short of a mall, for all I know.