This morning Qinqin picked me up at my hotel and we took a taxi over to the bus stop. We took a public bus about an hour out to the Ancient Zhujiajiao Water town. They call this the Venice Of China. We walked over the famous Fangsheng Bridge. We continued walking through the area which is lined with all kinds of shops. A lot of the seniors come out to this area to buy food. We went through the Kezhi Garden. Kezhi means planting vegetation in the spare time o...

Shanghai is a much newer city that doesn’t have quite the history as Beijing and Xian. They say that Xian is the past, Beijing the present and Shanghai is the future. My guide Qinqin picked me up at my hotel at 9am. We started the day by walking through Fuxing Park. Every morning the park is filled with seniors exercising, dancing, painting, singing, playing badminton and doing all kinds of other stuff. The park is like one big seniors center. We took a t...

Today was a travel day. I took the subway from my hotel to the train station. Another bullet train ride to get to Shanghai. Beijing, Xian and Shanghai are located in a triangle so it is pretty much the same distance from Beijing to Xian as Xian to Shanghai. I arrived in Shanghai and ventured into the city on the subway. I am becoming a pro at this subway thing, although I must admit it is pretty straight forward and everything is written and said in English....

Today I decided to take a tour to the Terra-Cotta Warriors. I should of stuck to my original plan and did it myself. So much wasted time and forced shopping! With that being said, I was picked up at my hotel and was part of a group of 7. We visited a small archeological site called Banpo Village. This village was discovered when they were planning to build a power plant in the area in 1957. A village from about 6000 years ago. The women were most powerfu...

My day started early, up and out the door by 6am. My train left at 805am and I had to be at the train station one hour early. My guide Vivie showed me where to stand and that I could flag my own taxi down. She wrote directions on a card for me and the driver took me to the right train station! The high speed trains have different stations. I made it with lots of time to spare and was able to get a McDonalds coffee, first coffee since I got here. There are S...