China 2014

In June of 2014, we took a family trip to China. This is the story of that trip.

June 10 – 11

Bags in the Denali
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Lunch at Space Needle
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Ice cream sundae on dry ice with water
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Original Starbucks
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The fish market at Pikes Place
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View of the mountains in Alaska
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Landing in Beijing
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June 12

Met up with Lydia, she will be our national guide for the entire trip. Lydia is in charge!
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Tiananmen square
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Forbidden City
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ATM card works!
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Lunch with a local family in the old part of Beijing
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Kite Making
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Ride in a rickshaw
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2008 Olympics – Birdsnest
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2008 Olympics – Funny shaped building and athletes dorms
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2008 Olympics – Water Cube
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Cable TV wiring
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Kung Fu Show Theater
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Kung Fu Show
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June 13

New Rolex!
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Jade factory tour guide
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A worker making a jade Happy Family Ball
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Carol trying on a bangle (Chinese equivalent of wedding ring)
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On the Great Wall
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Chinese Acrobat show
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Peking Duck dinner
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June 14

Temple of Heaven
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Adult Exercise Park
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Pearl Factory
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Summer Palace
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Boat ride at Summer Palace

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Goofy hats
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At Beijing train station
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Waiting for the train
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Kids train room
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June 15

Arrived at Xi’an
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Checking into hotel in Xi’an
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More cable TV wiring
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Lunch at Xi’an
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Learning Calligraphy
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Riding bikes on the Xi’an city wall
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View of the city wall from a corner
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Dumpling dinner and show
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Dumplings in the shape of whatever food is inside them
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June 16

Terracotta Warriors
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Kids made their own Terracotta Warrior
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Pit #2
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Everybody
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One of the 6 farmers that discovered the Terracotta Warriors
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Funny sign
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Visting a school
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Teaching kids the hokey pokey
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With the whole class
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Making dinner at the farmer’s house
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Kids with the farmer’s wife
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June 17

Learning paper cutting art
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Construction of new apartment buildings everywhere
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On the plane to Chengdu
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Arrived at the Chengdu airport
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Chinese Karaoke at the Chengdu hotel
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Some English translations not spelled right
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June 18

At the Panda Reserve
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Mama and baby
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Red panda
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Carol B.’s birthday surprise at lunch
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Starbucks in China
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Different drink selections than in the US
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And Dairy Queen in China
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A loom weaving cloth, a very difficult 2-person operation
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Checking in at the airport in Chengdu, heading for Guilin
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Arrived at Guilin. Lily is our local guide, but Lydia is still in charge!
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June 19

Lily, Our local guide for this segment
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At a tea farm
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In the Reed Flute Caves
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At a silk factory
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On a bus to the Snow Lion Resort in the mountains
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Our home for the next 3 days
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June 20

Uh oh, change in today’s plans
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The tire repair guy
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Cooking school
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What we cooked
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A street vendor
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A local drink here, snake wine
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Riding on bamboo rafts
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We see a lot of these kinds of vehicles here
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June 21

The last meal with the entire group
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On a boat touring the local water gardens
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A minority group musician
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Another funny sign
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6 of the group leaving us and heading out for other adventures
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Pizza and beer for lunch
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Glass bottles painted on the inside
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June 22

Last breakfast at Snow Lion Resort
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At the train station in Guilin
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Waiting for our bullet train
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On the train
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Very fast, amazingly smooth ride
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Arrived in Changsha
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New bus, new local guide named Smile, but Lydia is still in charge
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Stoplights a major intersections have a countdown timer
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Not a lot of tourist stuff here, visited a large lake in Changde
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Dinner at the hotel
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June 23

At Jamie’s orphanage, meeting with the current director
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Mr. Xia, the orphanage director when Jamie was there
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Showing Mr. Xia pictures of Jamie growing up
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Jamie writing a message in the orphanage guest book
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Giving treats to some kids that are at the orphanage now
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A present from the kids at the orphanage to Jamie
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A bedroom at the orphange
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An indoor play area at the orphanage
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A sculpture that was at the old orphanage and was moved to the new one
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A fancy lunch with the orphanage staff
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At Jamie’s finding spot
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We drew quite a crowd at the finding spot, most of the local people have never seen a foreigner
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Needed an American food break, dinner at McDonalds
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And ice cream at a local shop
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June 24

On the bus back to Changsha
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Visting a Kai Fu temple in Changsha
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A monk at the temple tending some flowers
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At the Embroidery Institute, some of these take 3 years to complete
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We bought this 2-sided embroidery, it took one lady 20 months to complete it
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Staying tonight at the Dolton hotel in Changsha
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The lobby, very nice
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The view of Changsha from our room on the 33rd floor
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June 25

Heading to the airport, saw 2 guys taking down a billboard
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Checking in for the flight to Nanjing
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One last picture with Smile before we leave him
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Having an ice cream before the flight
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Arrived in Nanjing, waiting for bags
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Our guide for this segment, Cai
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June 26

On the bus to Jenna’s orphanage, more construction everywhere
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The lady that is showing us around
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Pictures of all the kids that have been adopted from this orphanage
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Found Jenna’s picture on the wall, yellow shirt on bottom row
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Jenna leaving a message for the kids in the guest book
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Looking at one of the rooms in the orphanage
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Looking through Jenna’s file
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Lunch at the orphanage
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At Jenna’s finding spot, a local market
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Staying tonight in YangZhou, Jenna’s hometown
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Killing time before dinner, took a taxi downtown to have Starbucks
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June 27

A different symbol for the basement
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Road signs – no bugle playing!
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Road signs – separate lanes for cars and scooters/bicycles
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Road signs – no idea what this one means
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Visiting the Suiti Mausoleum in Yangzhou
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This should be the Chinese national bird, the yellow construction crane, they are everywhere
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A very old vase in the Yangzhou museum, from the Sun dynasty
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A whole flock of cranes!
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On the bus back to Nanjing for tonight
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Crossing the Yangtze river
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June 28

Visiting Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum
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392 steps to the top, one for each million people in China when it was built
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At the top
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At the train station, heading to Shanghai
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On the bullet train
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Nearly as fast as the first bullet train we rode
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Arrived in Shanghai
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Checking in at our last hotel with our guide for Shanhai, Iris
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Walking a few blocks downtown to dinner
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Dinner at Pizza Hut. Had a pizza with bacon-wrapped shrimp, sausage, corn and onions
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June 29

Visiting the tallest building in Shanghai, the Financial Center building
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The view from the 100th floor
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Visiting the Jade Buddha temple
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Distance traveled:

The last Chinese lunch of the trip
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Lunch included some short performances by a minority group
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Crossing the 9 zig-zag bridges to get to the Yuyuan Garden
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A view from inside the garden
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A tea ceremony just outside the garden
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A daytime view of the downtown area, this was all farmland until 1990
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One last picture with Lydia before she leaves us tonight
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The downtown skyline from the river cruise in the evening
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Here is a video of the downtown area from the river cruise in the evening. Hard to believe this entire area was farmland up until 1990!

June 30

Our last breakfast together before heading to the airport
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Taking the maglev train to the airport
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This thing really goes!
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Here is a video of our maglev train ride to the airport, it gives a pretty good feel for how fast we were going.

Checking in for our flight to Seattle
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Getting ready to land in Seattle, beautiful day here
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Checked in for the flight to Denver, trying really hard to stay awake until we get home
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Back at DIA, waiting for Samantha to pick us up
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Miles Traveled
Denver -> Seattle (plane) = 1020 miles
Seattle -> Beijing (plane) = 5410 miles
Beijing -> Xi’an (train) = 746 miles
Xi’an -> Chengdu (plane) = 452 miles
Chengdu -> Guilin (plane) = 606 miles
Guilin -> Yangshuo (bus) = 53 miles
Yangshuo -> Guilin (bus) = 53 miles
Guilin -> Changsha (train) = 322 miles
Changsha -> Changde (bus) = 112 miles
Changde -> Changsha (bus) = 112 miles
Changsha -> Nanjing (plane) = 496 miles
Nanjing -> Yangzhou (bus) = 67 miles
Yangzhou -> Nanjing (bus) = 67 miles
Najing -> Shanghai (train) = 196 miles
Shanghai -> Seattle (plane) = 5716 miles
Seattle -> Denver (plane) = 1020 miles

Total miles traveled = 16448

Equivalent trip in the United States
China -> Denver
Denver -> Dallas = 789 miles
Dallas -> New Orleans = 452 miles
New Orleans -> Miami = 653 miles
Miami -> Key Largo = 58 miles
Key Largo -> Miami = 58 miles
Miami -> Jacksonville = 345 miles
Jacksonville -> Orlando = 141 miles
Orlando -> Jacksonville = 141 miles
Jacksonville -> Nashville = 477 miles
Nashville -> Bowling Green = 64 miles
Bowling Green -> Nashville = 64 miles
Nashville -> Indianapolis = 225 miles
Indianapolis -> China