Tranquil blue waters and lush forests are juxtaposed with crowds of tourists and selfie sticks pointing every which way. That sums up our Jiuzhaigou experience in a nutshell. Jiuzhaigou – or Nine Village Valley – is a national park in China’s Sichuan province. Here, Mother Nature puts on a spectacular show in transparent hues of […]Read Post ›
Simon and I took our first spontaneous detour from our original travel itinerary to the city of Luoyang, home to the famous Longmen Caves. The sight of over a thousand caves on Mount Longmen is something otherworldly. You can’t help but feel transported back in time to one of China’s earliest dynasties, when the carvings […]Read Post ›
What is black, white, and cute all over? Chengdu may be known as the food capital of China, but for the first time in our travels, Simon and I weren’t interested in exploring a city through our tummies. Our main mission in Chengdu was to hug a panda bear. Unfortunately, we later found out that […]Read Post ›
Carcasses hanging in butcher shops, carts overflowing with produce, and small food stalls making fresh batches of deliciousness crowd the sidewalks. Meanwhile, a constant traffic jam of pedestrians, honking cars, beeping motorbikes, and zippy mopeds, flood the narrow streets where road rules don’t exist and everyone has the right of way. This organized chaos is […]Read Post ›
When you can’t move mountains, go climb one. I don’t know why but I have a thing for mountains in China – I have been atop two before and am always hungry for more. I think it’s the fact that they are ancient, and sagacious for having lived through so much history. Great Chinese poets, painters, […]Read Post ›
On our last day in Beijing, we were met with clear sunny blue skies, something very rare for the normally hazy capital city. We surmised that it was the windstorm from the previous night that must’ve cleared the smog out. We had been at the Olympic Park when the unexpected gusts of wind whipped about […]Read Post ›
I remember the first time I visited Tiananmen Square, I thought the big open space combined with the coldness of the concrete was uninviting and uninteresting. But this time around, I think I’ve changed my mind. While it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing place you’ll ever see, the square holds much cultural significance […]Read Post ›
First order of business in China: see something grand, if not great. There’s only one place in the whole world that can meet this requirement, none other than the Great Wall of China. I daresay that I’ve seen many amazing things during my travels (with so much more to discover!), but no other sight tops […]Read Post ›
Although Simon and I weren’t made in China, our RTW trip wouldn’t be complete without a visit to our parents’ motherland. As the world’s most populous country, China has developed quickly to maintain their foothold in world economics. You probably have at least one, two, or several items in your home that bear the “made […]Read Post ›
away we roam 