The longest flight I’ve ever been on was 5 hours on a trip to Mexico for our wedding venue vacation, and here I was this time last week gearing up for a 12 hour flight to China! C H I N A! Talk about traveling, it was a full day of flights, transportation, time adjustments, and language barriers. I had nothing to complain about though, one of my closest friends, Miya, and I were headed into a week of Beijing explorations, new adventures, and a personal experience in Traditional Chinese Medicine (aka TCM)!
I have so many stories to share I don’t even know where to begin, so I’ll start with how it all began. Miya and I were invited by Juicertrip to join their Ctrip group of travel enthusiasts to journey around Beijing learning all about Traditional Chinese Medicine. Miya is 100% holistic by belief and lifestyle and I love submerging myself into new ideas and cultures, so there we were! We found ourselves among 8 other bloggers and journalists, and two of the writers were from one of our favorite blogs, our friends, Local Adventurer! First on the agenda was a traditional Chinese cuisine served family style, where we got to know one other and learn more about what we were to embark on in the coming days.
Among our days of visiting China’s famous landmarks, were first hand experiences in acupuncture, healing massages, medicinal herbs, natural hot springs, and stress fighting Tai Chi moves!
This was us at the Beijing University Of Chinese Medicine. So much was happening here I had to capture all of the things going on in this one moment. From left to right: Dan laughing at the situation before snapping a photo, as our professor instructs us on how to make flu prevention sachets. Caroline, Franka, and Erin smiling over Franka’s interpretation of the featured herbs, while Amanda and Miya got started. Not pictured, Josh, Lena, and Jackson who were taking awesome photos. Also not pictured, each of us deeply inhaling each bowl of herbs to guess what each contained 😉
From these 6 herbs, of which we could easily identify cinnamon and eucalyptus, we created these beautiful scented “flu sachets” that you smell daily and is believed to ward off the flu. There are so many plants, herbs, and medicinal substances used in TCM that an entire museum is dedicated to the history of Chinese medicine and it’s materials. It was pretty fascinating to learn about what goes into different medicines and powders, and the powers each has to heal from within. The idea of internal related to external really settles in when you get to see what 657 acupuncture points actually looks like on the human body. I’m captivated by the idea of healing the way China views medicine and not ‘numbing’ the way we do here. I’m the girl who even thinks I’m about to maybe get a headache and I pop a pill. I don’t like being uncomfortable I’m the first to admit it. I learned so many different ways to heal ailments naturally on this trip.
A very exciting moment for the group was when we got to share our enthusiasm with local officials and members of the press during the opening ceremony. Check us out following along in some traditional Tai Chi moves directly following the speeches. Our Sifu instructed us on how to relieve stress and pains simply by moving our bodies. It was like a beautiful dance, reminiscent of yoga meets martial arts. Tai Chi has been performed for centuries in China to lower stress and anxiety, and enhance balance, flexibility, and mood. Big thanks to Dan for capturing this moment, if you spot me you’ll see how focused I was!
Once we got back to our hotel, the Beijing Jinyufengshan Spa Resort, we took a dip in their renowned natural hot springs! A few times we all looked at each other to remind ourselves that we were sitting in a hot spring, in the middle of winter, in CHINA! These 39+ degrees Celsius pools of water are rich in minerals which get absorbed through the skin and were the perfect addition to our trip. Our evenings of hot tea and hot springs.
I can’t thank everyone enough for this incredible trip and the memories our group created along the way.This post was just a glimpse into our 3 days in Beijing with one of the coolest group of people and I can’t wait to share what Miya and I did with our remaining 3 days ! David and Hash of Juicertrip, our friends on the Ctrip team, the Beijing Tourism Development Committee, and our gracious hosts, thank you all so much for having us and we can’t wait to visit again!
And more picture time! Dan once again with his photography skills! Here we are doing our own version of ‘Forbidden City Tai Chi’, “Still Got Juice” style! Ha! From exploring the Great Wall, wandering the Forbidden City, going temple trekking, and experiencing Beijing the way we did, it couldn’t have been a more memorable trip. I’ll leave you with this fun video Miya created while we were at the Forbidden city, spinning in circles the way we do when we find the perfect center point.
You can follow along in our adventures from this trip using the hashtags #juicertrip #ctrip #visitbeijing and #TCM_Beijing! If you’d like to learn more about Beijing, TCM, and the trip we took you can check out these links!
Beijing China Official on FaceBook
Visit Beijing on YouTube
Visit Beijing on Instagram
Visit Beijing on Pinterest
Have you ever heard of TCM? Do you practice different forms of holistic approaches in your own lifestyle? Ever been to China! Hen gaoxing jian dao ni!
