Last night was our last and best group dinner. At dinner one of our group members requested we take the Maglev train on the way to the Pudong Airport and the guides willingly arranged it for us. The Maglev travels at speeds up to 431 kilometers per hour. It was a fun ride, albeit brief, and almost impossible to photograph the neon speed meter due to the movement of the train. [View Full Entry]

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Suzhou is purportedly the the "Venice" of China. We chose this excursion for our last day in Shanghai and it was a relaxing day, though very hot. The bus ride took about 2 hours each way and the obligatory silk factory and shopping took at least another hour. The lunch at the factory restaurant was the worst of the trip. Not only was the food not to my liking, the service was poor. One more lazy-susan meal tonight and we're done with that. The first part of the canal was very nice, but once we got on the main canal there [View Full Entry]

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Today we rocked Shanghai. We traveled by subway to the the World Financial Center, where we ascended to the 100th floor. From there we contineued to People's Park and the Jade Buddha Temple via subway and taxi. We had to remind the taxi drivers to turn on their meters, they apparently think that we are ignorant Americans, not Amazing Race contenders. All is well. Tomorrow we travel to the Grand Canal in Suzhou and then on Saturday begin our 30 hour return trip. We are healthy and happy, have spent some days on excursions with the group and others on our [View Full Entry]

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Early this morning I went to the park across the street from the hotel, after a sleepless night due to construction noise. While most of China is under reconstruction, Shangai is the center of it all as it gets a face-lift in preparation for the 2010 World Expo (or World Fair as we know it.) I am sad not to have been able to stroll down the Bund and may have to some day return to Shanghai to do so. The retirees who had risen early for their exercise and social hour were very friendly and even shared their swords with [View Full Entry]

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Today we traveled from Xian to the Terra Cotta Warrior site via the obligatory museum and store. How the group manages to spend an hour and a half at each of these places buying overpriced junk never ceases to amaze me. The museum was all I expected and more and the crowds were not as bad as the Forbidden City or the Great Wall. The lunch was nice, including some cold appetizers which we hadn't seen before. There was a candied potato dish that was divine, roast chicken and the usual beef and pork dished on the lazy-Susan. There was also [View Full Entry]

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Every city we have visited has a "snack street." In Xian the snack street/market is located near the Drum Tower and central Mosque. This is where one can sample pistachio candy, peanut candy (tastes like the inside of a Butterfingers candy bar), flatbreads, candied fruit and kabobs galore. No scorpions, sorry. After we returned from the Warrrior Museum we took a taxi into town for $1.40. We climbed up to the city wall for a view and walked down Culture Street which has many market stalls selling souvenirs as well as artwork and calligraphy. For dinner we had Sprite, dumplings and [View Full Entry]

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So far in Beijing we have visited Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, The Ming Tombs, the Olympic Stadium and the Temple of Heaven. Tomorrow we begin with a tour of the Hutong and later in the day we fly to Xian. The others in the group are great, Beijing is HUGE and the tourist sites are the most crowded I have ever experienced. [View Full Entry]

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Today we traveled to The Great Wall, via the obligatory factories (jade on the way there and cloisonne on the way back) and the obligatory factory museum lazy-Suzan restaurant lunch. It was a cooler day and thankfully overcast - perfect climbing weather. Unfortunately the side we climbed had better views of the "Great Parking Lot" than the countryside and Great Wall in one direction and it was very crowded at the beginning. As we got higher up things thinned out. We climbed/walked up for an hour, with Rob and Hannah and Harriet and I at the lead. We later found out [View Full Entry]

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I really have no idea whether I'm supposed to be sleeping or awake, but I'm in a transit lounge in Seoul, South Korea at 3:00 am. Woohoo! We have a 5 hour layover (!) and then a 2 hour flight to Beijing. I think that makes 30 hours of travel. Let's hope it's worth it. We have met a bunch of other people from our group and they are a nice range of ages. There is even a girl Rob's age named Hannah who is traveling with her grandmother. The 14 hour flight was what you might expect, I slept a [View Full Entry]

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Yup! School's out and Pedro Carpenter and I are off to China next week. If you are receiving this post, you are on my list of subscribers. If you do not wish to updates when I post from China, just let me know and I will delete you. More from China after we touch down on July 11. [View Full Entry]

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