Just got back from China last night, and I'm exhausted.

Nothing really went quite as expected. We arrived in Hong Kong, and my brother was not there to greet us, as he was in quarantine with his daughter and the nanny while the wife was in the hospital with swine flu. My parents and I were pretty much on our own for the first week or so.

Fortunately, my brother called us and told us about his friend who runs a guest house in Yau Ma Tei, a suburb of Kowloon, which is part of Hong Kong. So we hopped on the MTR and rode over there with all our luggage and stayed at the Golden Island Guesthouse for the first week. Our room was small, but it quickly became home, and I got to watch Chinese TV all the time. XD

Jet lag was horrible. China is 12 hours ahead of where I live, so we pretty much had to get used to sleeping all day and walking around all night. XD We would go out and do something till about 12 or 1, then go home for a nap in the afternoon, then go find dinner, then go to bed. Our beds were a bit stiff, and I'd wake up every 2 hours until about 2:30 or 3, when I'd lay awake until my parents woke up.

China is very crowded. People walk the streets at all hours of the night, and only about 8% of the population seems to own a car. Everyone basically walks everywhere, takes a taxi, or rides the MTR, or some kind of combination. It's just about impossible to get fat around there.

The markets were pretty interesting. Haggling is pretty much expected, and they follow you until you decide to buy something. :3 There were open tanks with live fish and other aquatic animals, so you could pick what you wanted, then they'd go and kill it for you. Pig's feet, intestines, tongues with the jaw still attached, noses, it was great. The wet markets weren't very sanitary - meat sitting in bundles on the ground, no usage of gloves, no precautions, no cleaning - and yet the Chinese are so hyped on wearing surgical masks, cleaning the house, and washing your hands every time you do anything. XD

I was really excited to go to Hong Kong Disneyland. HK Disney is pretty much like the Magic Kingdom at WDW, but it only has 3 lands, and it's smaller. And Chinese. Most of the stuff was in English. The Golden Mickeys was basically a live show in Cantonese awarding Disney movies for different subjects, which was pretty interesting. There was also the Festival of the Lion King, which I'd never seen before, and that was in English. The Chinese are apparently pretty whipped on Stitch, cuz they were having Stitch's Summer Party, and selling all kinds of merchandise for Stitch and Angel, whom I'd never even heard of before, and having Stitch's Summer Dance Bash, where they'd parade onto Main Street, then the crowd would join in the games and dancing. Maybe this is all going on at WDW and I'm just unaware, but I dunno.

Didn't get home until about 11:30, then I went to bed around 1 after being awake for 31 hours. X3 I pretty much slept all day, and now I can't seem to get tired at all. XD

Overall, it was an entertaining, educating, and pleasant trip that I never thought I'd have the chance to go on. We bought lots of things we didn't need, and lots of gifts for friends and family. We had to get another suitcase for our stuff. XD It was interesting, and a lot of fun, but after all the plane rides and family craziness that went on over there, I don't plan on going back for a good long time. :3