Hong
Kong to Yangshou Yangtze River
to the Yellow Mountains Shanghai,
Suzhou and Shaolin
Luoyang, Xi'an and the Terracotta
Warriors Pingyao,
Datong and Beijing
The trip to China idea started a
couple years ago.
Bill's Dad had an opportunity to go to Tianjin with a
group of students from the University. The trip finally happened this
spring. After a bit of fiddling around with
schedules we decided to meet up in Hong Kong in mid-June.
Our trip would be with G.A.P.
Adventures again. We believe the small group travel and immersion into
a countries culture that they specialize in makes the trip memorable. And
once again G.A.P. did not disappoint.
We traveled for a month from Hong Kong, inland cruising the Yangtze River, on to
West Lake, the Yellow Mountains and Shanghai and then north to Xi'an (home of the
Terracotta warriors), visited some towns nearer the Gobi Desert and then ended the
trip in Beijing, walking the Great Wall.
We rode in planes, overnight trains from soft sleepers to hard seat class,
chartered vans, buses, Chinese cruise ships, narrow canoes, bamboo rafts, bicycles and by
trusty foot. We ate thousand year old eggs, fish head soup and some dishes
so spicy even us chilli pepper loving Texans had second thoughts about. We
were surprised to see a number of McDonalds, KFC's and Pizza Huts everywhere we
went and prided ourselves on not entering any of them.
To follow along on our trip just click the links above. (Best viewed if
you have the true type font "Takeout" that can be downloaded free here.)
You can see many more pictures by clicking on the "Photos"
tab
on each page. Also as you read along any underlined
text will link to a corresponding photo or an interesting link. There are
even a few video clips along the way.
Hope you enjoy the report.
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