Travel Blog Posts
Canyon Country -- Capitol Reef
Published: October 28th 2009North America » United States » Utah » Capitol Reef
October 28th 2009
The drive from Bryce to Capitol Reef was uneventful through Utah 12, except there are lots of zig-zag and up hills down hills. It makes you feel like that it will never end, but in a good way. The scenary was beautiful. Most of the hills are red-soiled, with Aspen turning gold in the autumn sun. We watched the west side of Capitoal Reef in the sunset from an overlook before we arrived at Torrey. Stayed overnight at the Best Western right next to the park entrance. The next morning, we headed over to the park. First stop: Panoramic Point. A very short walk to the overlook point. Here, you get a very nice view in the morning when you look west, where we came from. Everything is bathed in the soft morning ray. This is ... read more
August 4th 2008
Prologue: Huangshan is in Anhui province. It's very accessible by buses, trains and private vehicles these days. James and I always have fond memory of it since we both visited it in our college years. This is one of the most amazing mountain in China if you ask me. So many other mountains are associated with religious activities, but this one is not. Huangshan is famous for three wonders: 1. Huangshan Pines They grow out of the granites on the cliffs, as if they don't need anything else, and looking absolutely elegant and breathtaking 2. Rocks and Peaks on Huangshan Many of them took the form of people, animals, or something you can relate to in the everyday life. It doesn¡¯t take much imagination to figure out what they look like 3. The Fog It comes ... read more
August 3rd 2008
Prologue: It’s been a year since my last entry. Last summer, James and I toured 6 places in Yunan and Chengdu area. I broke the blogs down into 6 pieces, one for each area. This year, we decided to do a family vacation, James, me, Alan (11) and Eric (6), four of us. Our mission: to tour the Silk Road starting from Xinjiang and ending at XiAn, by air, train and bus. Due to boys’ age and their limited traveling experiences in China, we had booked our trip and transportation at Shanghai through a tour company called Rainbow Travel Company on line. We decided to give it a try since we had never joined a guided tour before. Urumqi: On July 6, we flew out from HongQiao虹桥 airport from Shanghai to Urumqi. It’s kind of like ... read more
July 10th 2007
Introduction So after we visited JiuZhaiGou, we were getting more excited about our next and last stop: HuangLong. JiuZhai was beyond our expection by all means. We heard from various sources before and during the trip that HuangLong is a totally unique place to visit, beyond anyone's imagination. Where is it? So basically the JiuHuang airport stands between JiuZhai and Huanglong. It is 88 miles to JiuZhai from the airport, and 40 something miles to Huanglong. But the road to Huanglong is such a complete zigzag in the mountain, that it will actually take a lot longer to get there (about 2 hours). Another important point about Huanglong is, the elevation is much higher compaired with JiuZhai. So you go up to like 4000 meter above sea level, and than drop down to 2000 meter. Some ... read more
July 9th 2007
Introduction JiuZhai Gou is only 35 minutes away from Chengdu by flight. From the airport to the entrance is another 1.5 hr car ride. This is the best conserved national park so far in China. It's been said that you don't need to look at any water any more after you visit JiuZhai. While it might not all be true, it really says something about how clear the lakes and streams are in JiuZhai. There are waterfalls everywhere, from the happily singing little ones in the forest to the thundering big NuoRiLang fall. The algae in the lake give the water variable shades of blue and green. Lots of fallen logs in the lakes. The water is so clean that the logs never rot. A truely unique phenomenon. We were also amazed at how well the ... read more
July 8th 2007
Introduction: LiJiang (丽江), I’ve heard friends talking about it before the trip. Most people would say it is famous for it’s well preserved ancient town DaYan(大研,) much like those you see in JiangNan (江南) area, such as WuZheng (乌镇) and ZhouZhuang (周庄). A very relaxing place which is a perfect gateway from the big city crowd. Also there are plenty of attractions nearby, such as Yu Long Snow Mountain (Jade-dragon snow mountain), the Tiger Leap Gorge and the First Bend in Yangtze River. To be honest, I’m not much of a fan for ancient town, but as a nature lover, I’m all for the mountain, gorge and Yangtze River. We left Shanghai on July 3rd, a three-hour flight over to Chengdu followed by a one-hour transfer flight, we finally arrived at Lijiang around mid-night. Half-hour driving ... read more
July 7th 2007
Said to be the glacier that is closest to the Equator. The highest peak that can be reached by cable is 4680 meter. On a good day, you should be able to spot it as far back as Lijiang Ancient town. We got there around noon, by the time we purchased the tickets, we were told that we wont’ be able to get on the cable until 3:00pm. It was a Saturday, bummer. So we wondered around trying to kill time. Our driver pointed us to a shuttle to BaiShuiHe, a free scenic spot in the park. I emphasize on “free”, since the 200 yuan you pay at the entrance will get you into the park, where there is really not much to see. You have to pay extra to go to almost any other major ... read more
July 6th 2007
The day after we came back from LuGu Lake, we checked in NanMen Hotel. The hotel manager recommended a driver with an 8-sitter minivan. He asked for 180 Yuan for one day trip to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we thought it was a fair deal, so we asked him to pick us up at 8:00am. The next day, the driver showed up on time, unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. It started drizzling early in the morning and then turned into rain. We've heard incidents of rock-slide in Tiger Leaping Gorge area when it's wet. The driver assured us that it will be perfectly safety even under this kind of weather, so we decided to go along with our plan. On the way there, we stopped by a temple, supposedly from where you can get a ... read more
July 4th 2007
James decided before the trip that this should be the first stop for our 9-day excursion. For him the reason is simple: since it is so far away from Lijiang, not too many people have been there. So after flying from Shanghai to Chengdu, then thransit to Lijiang, before barely knowing our way around Lijiang, we were on our way to LuGu Lake, via the long distance shuttle bus running between Lijiang and LuGu Lake. We wanted to find a private tour to get there but no luck. So there we were, ended on the bus. LuGu Lake is about 200 km from Lijiang. The road there is all in the mountain region. It took a whole lot longer than we originally thought. Half way down the journey, when we stopped for the bathroom break, James ... read more
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