Today is panda day! We need to get an early start because pandas are most active in the morning. We have a buffet breakfast at the hotel, but there's little Western fare and the selections are underwhelming. On the way at 8:30. It's a grey, hazy day, even though the forecast promised sun. Pollution is probably a factor. Most people are sniffling and coughing by this time from exposure to the bad air, and there seems to be a cold making the rounds. We drive through Chengdu. It's a "small" city of only 4 million, the capital of Sichuan province. There's noticeably less English signage than in previous cities, but like the other cities we've visited it is busy and crowded, with bad traffic and lots of construction. In a way, it is a microcosm of ... read more

We sleep well. A light breakfast at the hotel, and we have a free morning. We wander around the village, make some purchases, and stop for coffee at a shop. (Digression: The coffee in China is remarkably inconsistent. Sometimes it is hot and strong–occasionally overly strong, and sometimes it is lukewarm and weak. It is mercifully good this morning.) The village is a remarkable construction, built essentially on sheer cliffs, most buildings perched precariously on brick or bamboo foundations, linked by an interconnecting web of pathways carved out of or constructed from pieces of bare rock. Wheeled vehicles would be useless, so sure-footed horses and donkeys move materials around. Chickens run free and the crowing of roosters is constant. A few dogs and cats can be seen. There are pigs in cramped pens, destined to appear ... read more

We wake up to a beautiful morning in Yangshuo. What an incredible sight! All around and even in the town stand sheer limestone mountains in a variety of shapes. Although it's a sunny day, there's a mist around the more distant peaks. We realize now that these are the mountains so often depicted in Chinese paintings. They remind me a bit of the mountains around Rio de Janeiro. I wonder if the geological processes that created them are the same. A not-so-great breakfast at the hotel, then on the bus. Our first excursion today is a boat ride on the Li River. We descend from the bus to the peer along a residential street with a few shops. Here is how the vast majority of real Chinese live, in ramshackle homes patched together from wood and ... read more

We wake up in our 2nd major city of the trip: Xian (or more properly Xi'an, pronounced Zhee-jann, two syllables), ancient capital of the Qin, Han and Tang dynasties, among others. Breakfast at the hotel, a nice cross-cultural buffet that includes home fries, which quickly attract a crowd. We are on the road by 9:30, on the way to see the terra cotta warriors, one of the most anticipated attractions of the trip. We drive through Xian, which is another thoroughly modern city, with many impressive sleek office buildings and condos, and a great deal of construction going on. JW tells us that a subway is being built, the first stretch of which opened just weeks ago. Once out of the city, we enter a rural area dominated by fruit farms. Most of the route is ... read more

Having trouble keeping up with the blog. Our itinerary is so packed that we have almost no free time. What I've been able to accomplish so far is mostly the fruit of my sleeplessness in the wee hours of the morning. Breakfast at the hotel and an early start today, because we have a long bus ride ahead. We're going to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, northeast of Beijing. This area of the wall has been extensively renovated along a 5-kilometre stretch and is less crowded than the more dilapidated section of the wall closer to Beijing. The traffic is heavy but not intolerable. We start to understand just how large Beijing actually is. We are driving through the business district, an endless parade of modern skyscrapers with some familiar and unfamiliar names. Beijing ... read more