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
Lunch at Space Needle
Ice cream sundae on dry ice with water
Original Starbucks
The fish market at Pikes Place
View of the mountains in Alaska
Landing in Beijing
June 12
Met up with Lydia, she will be our national guide for the entire trip. Lydia is in charge!
Tiananmen square
Forbidden City
ATM card works!
Lunch with a local family in the old part of Beijing
Kite Making
Ride in a rickshaw
2008 Olympics – Birdsnest
2008 Olympics – Funny shaped building and athletes dorms
2008 Olympics – Water Cube
Cable TV wiring
Kung Fu Show Theater
Kung Fu Show
June 13
New Rolex!
Jade factory tour guide
A worker making a jade Happy Family Ball
Carol trying on a bangle (Chinese equivalent of wedding ring)
On the Great Wall
Chinese Acrobat show
Peking Duck dinner
June 14
Temple of Heaven
Adult Exercise Park
Pearl Factory
Summer Palace
Boat ride at Summer Palace
Goofy hats
At Beijing train station
Waiting for the train
Kids train room
June 15
Arrived at Xi’an
Checking into hotel in Xi’an
More cable TV wiring
Lunch at Xi’an
Learning Calligraphy
Riding bikes on the Xi’an city wall
View of the city wall from a corner
Dumpling dinner and show
Dumplings in the shape of whatever food is inside them
June 16
Terracotta Warriors
Kids made their own Terracotta Warrior
Pit #2
Everybody
One of the 6 farmers that discovered the Terracotta Warriors
Funny sign
Visting a school
Teaching kids the hokey pokey
With the whole class
Making dinner at the farmer’s house
Kids with the farmer’s wife
June 17
Learning paper cutting art
Construction of new apartment buildings everywhere
On the plane to Chengdu
Arrived at the Chengdu airport
Chinese Karaoke at the Chengdu hotel
Some English translations not spelled right
June 18
At the Panda Reserve
Mama and baby
Red panda
Carol B.’s birthday surprise at lunch
Starbucks in China
Different drink selections than in the US
And Dairy Queen in China
A loom weaving cloth, a very difficult 2-person operation
Checking in at the airport in Chengdu, heading for Guilin
Arrived at Guilin. Lily is our local guide, but Lydia is still in charge!
June 19
Lily, Our local guide for this segment
At a tea farm
In the Reed Flute Caves
At a silk factory
On a bus to the Snow Lion Resort in the mountains
Our home for the next 3 days
June 20
Uh oh, change in today’s plans
The tire repair guy
Cooking school
What we cooked
A street vendor
A local drink here, snake wine
Riding on bamboo rafts
We see a lot of these kinds of vehicles here
June 21
The last meal with the entire group
On a boat touring the local water gardens
A minority group musician
Another funny sign
6 of the group leaving us and heading out for other adventures
Pizza and beer for lunch
Glass bottles painted on the inside
June 22
Last breakfast at Snow Lion Resort
At the train station in Guilin
Waiting for our bullet train
On the train
Very fast, amazingly smooth ride
Arrived in Changsha
New bus, new local guide named Smile, but Lydia is still in charge
Stoplights a major intersections have a countdown timer
Not a lot of tourist stuff here, visited a large lake in Changde
Dinner at the hotel
June 23
At Jamie’s orphanage, meeting with the current director
Mr. Xia, the orphanage director when Jamie was there
Showing Mr. Xia pictures of Jamie growing up
Jamie writing a message in the orphanage guest book
Giving treats to some kids that are at the orphanage now
A present from the kids at the orphanage to Jamie
A bedroom at the orphange
An indoor play area at the orphanage
A sculpture that was at the old orphanage and was moved to the new one
A fancy lunch with the orphanage staff
At Jamie’s finding spot
We drew quite a crowd at the finding spot, most of the local people have never seen a foreigner
Needed an American food break, dinner at McDonalds
And ice cream at a local shop
June 24
On the bus back to Changsha
Visting a Kai Fu temple in Changsha
A monk at the temple tending some flowers
At the Embroidery Institute, some of these take 3 years to complete
We bought this 2-sided embroidery, it took one lady 20 months to complete it
http://youtu.be/iIv4xckuC74
Staying tonight at the Dolton hotel in Changsha
The lobby, very nice
The view of Changsha from our room on the 33rd floor
June 25
Heading to the airport, saw 2 guys taking down a billboard
Checking in for the flight to Nanjing
One last picture with Smile before we leave him
Having an ice cream before the flight
Arrived in Nanjing, waiting for bags
Our guide for this segment, Cai
June 26
On the bus to Jenna’s orphanage, more construction everywhere
The lady that is showing us around
Pictures of all the kids that have been adopted from this orphanage
Found Jenna’s picture on the wall, yellow shirt on bottom row
Jenna leaving a message for the kids in the guest book
Looking at one of the rooms in the orphanage
Looking through Jenna’s file
Lunch at the orphanage
At Jenna’s finding spot, a local market
Staying tonight in YangZhou, Jenna’s hometown
Killing time before dinner, took a taxi downtown to have Starbucks
June 27
A different symbol for the basement
Road signs – no bugle playing!
Road signs – separate lanes for cars and scooters/bicycles
Road signs – no idea what this one means
Visiting the Suiti Mausoleum in Yangzhou
This should be the Chinese national bird, the yellow construction crane, they are everywhere
A very old vase in the Yangzhou museum, from the Sun dynasty
A whole flock of cranes!
On the bus back to Nanjing for tonight
Crossing the Yangtze river
June 28
Visiting Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum
392 steps to the top, one for each million people in China when it was built
At the top
At the train station, heading to Shanghai
On the bullet train
Nearly as fast as the first bullet train we rode
Arrived in Shanghai
Checking in at our last hotel with our guide for Shanhai, Iris
Walking a few blocks downtown to dinner
Dinner at Pizza Hut. Had a pizza with bacon-wrapped shrimp, sausage, corn and onions
June 29
Visiting the tallest building in Shanghai, the Financial Center building
The view from the 100th floor
Visiting the Jade Buddha temple
Distance traveled:
The last Chinese lunch of the trip
Lunch included some short performances by a minority group
Crossing the 9 zig-zag bridges to get to the Yuyuan Garden
A view from inside the garden
A tea ceremony just outside the garden
A daytime view of the downtown area, this was all farmland until 1990
One last picture with Lydia before she leaves us tonight
The downtown skyline from the river cruise in the evening
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
Taking the maglev train to the airport
This thing really goes!
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
Getting ready to land in Seattle, beautiful day here
Checked in for the flight to Denver, trying really hard to stay awake until we get home
Back at DIA, waiting for Samantha to pick us up
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