Chengdu is one of few places you can see Pandas and also has a World Heritage listed irrigation system close by, so we chose this as a stopover point between South Korea and Tibet. It is a bit disconcerting in these times of active earthquakes around the world, to be standing right in the epicenter of where a 2008 earthquake rocked the Sichuan Province, killing (at the Government's estimate locals believe more) 200,000 people and leaving millions homeless. W...

We found the most beautiful spot to spend the last two days of our trip, Yangshuo in South West China. A rural town (city?) of around 30,000 it was definitely the smallest urban area we had visited while in China. People from Yangshuo consider themselves to be country folk and several night time disco's blared out a hip version of "Thank God I’m a Country Boy" to emphasize this mind set. Visitors come to Yangshuo for the stunning picture postcard scener...

Shanghai became part of our itinerary due to The Bund making an appearance as one of the "Unforgettable Places to See Before You Die" in a book we have. We are still not sure if in our opinion it really rates that high but of course all travel is subject to your individual experience at the time. The Bund is the old Wharf area of the river with historic opulent buildings dating back 100 or so years.These in turn are dwarfed by the high rise behind.We arrived in S...

This story should be called...How Avan & Heather, 18 Chinese, and 125 Germans cruised the Yangtze."Morgan" said each person arriving to our round table for 10. This was our first morning to breakfast on our cruise. Awkward smiles and a few single words between us (given the German's spoke little English and we can’t go much further than “Morgan” and “Danke ”) set the scene for the next three days of meals. We are on the “Y...

What was he thinking?What on earth made Emperor Qin Shihuang back in 200 BC decide that having a full size replica army  complete with chariots, horses and some 8,000 individual warriors would really protect him in the afterlife? What was he thinking putting so many resources into building his terracotta army?As the first emperor of China, he abolished the feudal system, united the states and territories his army had conquered to unify China, and then ordered ...