National Museum of China. July 18 2018
Warning: Bring your best clothes. You are the exhibit.

We went there in the morning and entered right away, being a group from the Confucius Institute. Or maybe just because we were a group. I liked to think it was the first option because it made me feel like I was a part of something more important.
The first thing that struck me about the Museum was how liberal it seemed. China being a communist country, let’s just say I had slightly already formed expectations about how people should act. And they completely shattered those. From  tired people sitting on the floor right in the middle of a gallery, a little boy enthusiastic about an artifact or two girls who stopped me in the hallway, complimented me and gave me a souvenir just because I was "so beautiful", the people there became my favorite pieces of art. I would later realize that it wasn't just me observing the Chinese people, but also them observing me. I would have been blind not to realize it though.
How? Because they didn’t just observe, they stared, and ,when they didn't stare, they took pictures. It was though the most polite stare I had ever seen because it was purely curious. We were kind of flattered when they took things to the next level and asked us to take pictures with them or when we were taking a group picture and besides our photographer, there were another five people smiling at us.
Why were they so curious?
 Back at China, our favorite communist friend. Besides the huge exposition about " Xi Jinping- the sun of our lives", as a postal card I saw in the souvenir shop said, and the communist party, Chinese people almost too interested in us non-asians was also an effect of the government, our tour guide explained. Most of the visitors at the National Museum had never left China and lived in the countryside. They only  saw non-asians on the TV so they would probably have the photos they took with us framed and  show them to all of their friends.
I’d always secretly wanted to be famous, even though I didn't really do anything to be famous for (if the Kardashians can..., right?) so I guess this was kind of a free trial to celebrity. I felt like Beyonce after that, I could feel when people looked at me in the streets and knew why they approached me even though most of them didn’t speak English. When I returned home I almost offered to take pictures with strangers. My self esteem and ego grew so much they almost needed a separate seat on the plane. My celebrity wave ended but the memories are still glamorous enough.

China is undoubtedly a beautiful country, but, even more than that China is a beautiful experience. It is so tremendously unique that you can do nothing but live it. And I did.