- Packing
- A week of extremes
- Preparation
- Dress Rehearsal
- H6, #13, and Bo
- Vlotho
- Stockholm
- Tallinn
- Helsinki
- Helsinki II
- St. Petersburg
- St. Petersburg II
- Moscow
- Beijing
- Beijing II
- Beijing III
- Beijing IV
- Xi’an
- Xi’an II
- Shanghai
- Nara – Halfway plus one day
- Kyoto
- Back in the (Former) USSR
- Muroran
- 180th Meridian
- Seward
- Ketchikan
- Vancouver
- St Paul
- Chicago
- New York City
- North Atlantic
- 78 Days and 9 Minutes
- London
Alive and well in sunny Xi’an. The train ride last night was kind of full, but the people we shared the cabin with were very nice. Had a cross-cultural discussion with a few Chinese men who were on the train with us. The discussion went on for some time with frequent gaps as each side went through their respective phrase books looking for the correct word. They were interested in what we thought of China and what our opinion of the Clinton-Lewinsky story was.
Also had a good chat with a Belgian tour guide currently taking a group of 41 around China. He shared with us some of his experiences of what it takes to get a group that size from place to place.
Last day in Beijing was pretty good. One of the things we did was to go to the Beijing Zoo and see the Panda Bears. I have never seen pandas before, so that was fun. Sadly, the rest of the zoo was not as well maintained as the panda exhibit and it was depressing. In addition, the behaviour of some of the zoo visitors was appalling. So it was a mixed experience.
The terrain as we neared Xi’an was full of valleys and low mountains, still covered in early morning mist. In the hillsides, were dug a number of caves, still in use but I could not tell if only for storage or if the ones I could see were also dwellings. We are looking forward to seeing a little more of the countryside tomorrow as we start to explore more of Xi’an. At present, our plan is to see the Terracotta Warriors tomorrow.
This entry was posted in Around the World
