http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China en-us Tue, 17 Nov 09 03:43:11 +0000 Tue, 17 Nov 09 03:43:11 +0000 Due to my current location I am going to use some codes here so bear with me. The SF rhymes with twine glue hysteria meter is wavering above the halfway to Nutsville here in Shanghai as it seems to be throughout the world. Or maybe itrsquos just the Suzanne hysteria meter. Lots of hand washing lots of me screaming don't touch that and keep your hands off your face but so far things a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-453625.html Today we had a late start as we had a restless night last night. Our hotel room is just amazing but it was extremely hot in here. We both woke at 1am and tried every setting on the aircon and thought we had it figured and went to sleep. Didn't get a lot though as when we woke in the morning it was just as hot. Luckily the settings are fixed as the cleaner helped us and we are now comfortable.We h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Lijiang/blog-453619.html Nach genau zwei Monaten China sitze ich wieder einmal in einem HardsleeperAbteil. Das gibt mir die Gelegenheit einige Beobachtungen festzuhalten. Selbstverstndlich sind diese vollkommen subjektiv.1. Laowai Chinesen sind wesentlich hilfsbereiter und freundlicher als ich mir das vor Reisebeginn vorgestellt hatte. Allerdings sind sie vielfach auch schchtern gegenber Fremden. Man muss die Leute http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-453597.html For today we offer a few small observations towards food namely eggs and dessert. Two foods we all think from time to time that we should or could do without. Let us all be honest with ourselves we love both and do well to enjoy both in moderation and perhaps coupled with a bit of exercise at least in the spirit of good health. First I present the egg hardboiled and steeped in tea. 33 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Yangzhou/blog-453592.html This week I started to worry that I hadn't blogged recently and I didn't really have any material I felt like writing about. But I told myself not to be too concerned because new things always pop up here. I was sure something would come along soon and I was right. Be careful what you wish for...I have a history of losing my wallet. It happens a couple times a year and disaster usually ensues http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-453355.html We have spent the day in transit today and it has been very draining...We left our hotel in Xi'an this morning very early and went to the airport and caught our flight right on time to Kunming which was a 2hr flight. A bit of turbulance and not the nicest landing but we made it. We then had to wait 4 hours for our connected flight to Lijiang due to a delay. It was very boring there is nothing to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Lijiang/blog-453347.html Today we took a 2 hour or so bus ride from Lijiang to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. The history of Tiger Leaping Gorge is that a tiger leaped the gorge I know hence the name duh while escaping hunters. The gorge itself is one of the deepest in the world with one side of the gorge is the Jade Dragon Snow mountain. The area is very popular for hikingtrekking our tour took the easier option to t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Tiger-Leaping-Gorge/blog-453319.html After breakfast in Kunming we left for Lijiang. Of all the flights in China so far I havenrsquot managed score a window seat to view the passing scenery from the plane window. The flight from Kunming to Lijiang is the window seat that I was hoping for but alas I was unsuccessful. However my sister got a window and wasnrsquot interested in relinquish it to me ohh well too bad maybe nex http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Lijiang/blog-453317.html This entry is a summary of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in China that we have visited. You can look at the descriptions in the photos to understand the place. We think they are the best sites to visit in China. Every visit is very educational and you get to know a little bit more about China. There are 38 sites in China and we have visited 19 so far. We will add on as we visit the other sites. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/blog-453213.html we travelled from Tai'an to Shanghai on a modern fast train which took only 6 hours. we bought the ticket at Tai'an station two days in advance our departure. a fastforward procedure the lady at the ticket office spoke EnglishShanghai has changed much more than Beijing in the last 20 yearseven the Bund and Nanjing road were unrecognizablehundreds of highrise building and skyscrapers everywhere. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-453136.html we travelled by fast train from Beijing to Tai'an and we liked the city and the surroundingsthe walled city of Qufu is only 1 hour by bus and the sacred mountain Tai Shan is not to be missed http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shandong/Tai--an/blog-453132.html I had visited Beijing 20 years ago and I have found difficult to remember hutongs and streets since so much has changed since thenthere was a constant stream of bycicles and I cycled for days in streets free of trafficmost of the sights have been cleaned and restored but the amount of people has remained the samei don't know if we were lucky but on our daytrip to the Great wall we found the monu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-453125.html Hoy he estado Shilin National Park. Se trata de un parque con un paisaje de rocas muy pintoresco un complejo krstico donde parece que las piedras han brotado del suelo. La traduccin literal de shilin es bosque de piedras. Acceder al amplio recinto es bastante caro sencillamente me ha parecido un robo pagar en la entrada 140 RMB ya que dentro del parque ni siquiera se haba incluido el trans http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Shilin/blog-453124.html the city of Datong is not really worth except for the fact that it is close to the the beautiful Caves of Yungang and the hanging monasteryvisit both the sights on a day trip by bus or car http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanxi/Datong/blog-453119.html great little town to stay for a few days and explore the surroundingslots of nice guesthouses to choose from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanxi/Pingyao/blog-453114.html We have just got home from a massive tour today in Xi'an.We spent our first night at the Grand Mercure Hotel last night and neither of us had a good nights sleep and we really needed it. The beds are like concrete we may as well be sleeping on the lobby floor. We have also had a problem with the large shower flooding the whole bathroom. We had to get more towels so Tam went to ask at reception. N http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-453111.html We joined the biker crowd in October. Who would have thought that this would have been our mode of transportation in China Many of the locals and quite a few of the teaching staff have bikes which really opens up your world. We have seen so much already that we never would have been able to on foot or by train. It is quite the sight for see us on the road white haired Rick driving along wit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Liaoning/Dalian/Jinshitan/blog-453108.html Autumn came. My favorite season. And together with autumn came first chilly nights and first cold. Days though are full of falling leaves still warm sun and sunny autumn nostagia.Sweater crochetneedled beretlike cap hot green tea and steam from rice pots rising into the air. Autumn reflections.Together with the autumn nostalgia came the decision of cancelling the return ticket. I decided to s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-453027.html On Sunday November 8th we went to the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai. Overall I was impressed by the size of this museum. It had an extremely large variety of exhibits which were mostly marked well in English. The building itself was what impressed me the most. The central area is a large geodesic dome. There are also 4 different types of movie theatres Imax Dome 3D Ima http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/Pudong/blog-453007.html CHINA POSTGetting to the post office is quite an ordeal. For some reason they don't have many post offices around nor do they have postal boxes like the red Canada Post dropboxes. When it was warmer I was able to walk to the post office which is btw a 40 mins. walk Now that it is colder I need to take a taxi to get there. So about 2 weeks ago after school Genelle and I asked Yolanda t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-452999.html