China 2005 / 2006

Join our 4 week journey throughout Eastern China in December 2005 and January 2006.  Click on the images to the left to see the photo albums.

Shanghai

Our first stop was here for a couple days to get used to the time shift before moving on. We also stopped back for a day later in the trip on our way to Beijing.

Leshan

We made a quick stop at Leshan to see the giant Buddha on our way to Emeishan. But where there is one Buddha, there are many Buddhas. Many many Buddhas.

Emeishan (Mount Emei)

Emeishan is one of the 5 or so Buddhist holy mountains in China. It was coated in snow and cold, so we leveraged a mountain-top hotel, cable car and monorail to help with our exploring. 

Panda Breeding Facility in Chengdu

We had some time to spend in Chengdu before our flight out to Guilin and Mary remembered reading about a panda center. Unfortunately, none of the locals seemed familiar with it. Eventually it was found and we had the chance to see a few dozen of the only 184 pandas in captivity worldwide. 

Yangshuo

Yangshuo is the smaller cousin of the city of Guilin on the Li river. It's one of the places you always see pictures of in those coffee table picture books of China.

Guangzhou

The next stop was to visit family in Guangzhou. Not only did we get to see how people really live locally, we made it out to the old family home in the suburbs. Somewhere between family and shopping, there was a brave attempt to remember Tai Chi.

Huangshan (Yellow Mountains)

Huangshan is the other place on this trip that you'll find in the coffee table books of beautiful places. The mountains seem to just rise out of the mist here. Fortunately, there was no snow and pretty mild weather.

Beijing

Beijing was just the basics:Forbidden City, Summer Palace (in Winter), Temple of Heaven and Peking Duck. 

Great Wall

We visited two Great Wall sites: Badaling and Simatai. Badaling is the closest to Beijing and covered in tourists. Simatai is a couple hours into the country and considerably more dramatic as follows the steep ridgeline.

Harbin and Yabuli

Harbin is home of an annual Ice and Snow sculpture festival. We braved a -10F climate for 3 days to explore the ice and snow structures. We even managed to spend some time at a tiger park. As if this wasn't cold enough, we also headed to the nearby ski "resort" of Yabuli.