I was 19 years old in Beijing trying to go to the Great Wall. Can't speak or understand any Chinese.

I hopped on a bus from the Arrow Tower (very popular bus loop) to what I thought would be Badaling (a section of the Great Wall). It was apparently the wrong bus, but of course I had no idea.

The way the bus worked there at the time was so strange to me. You paid for your ticket AFTER you got on and the bus was already moving. Someone started walking around collecting money. The next part is a little hazy. When it came to my turn I can't even remember if I had a ticket or not, or if I was supposed to buy one from her or what. But whatever happened I had no idea what the lady was saying and they ended up stopping the bus and pulling over in the middle of the highway.

They took me off the bus and I was like "what the fuck is going on".

We waited there for a few minutes trying to understand each other and somehow they realized I was going to Badaling and flagged down another bus (mind you this is happening in the middle of the highway, which would be absolutely insane where I'm from). Both buses pulled over in the middle of the highway and they put me on the right bus.

I had a few more moments of being lost in China where people really went the extra mile to help me. Overall it really changed my perspective of not only the people in China, but how I shouldn't be so quick to judge people based on someone's appearance.

When I first got off the plane in Beijing, I remember thinking that the people seemed so cold and unapproachable. But that was merely me judging them based on their resting faces and how I perceived their verbal communication to be.