China may evoke images of crowded cities, smog and taxi drivers who can't understand any English but for us China will now also mean a field of wild flowers, picturesque villages, dramatic limestone cliffs, breath-taking architecture and a culture of tradition and meaning. Just back from 11 days in China and we loved it! An online travel agency helped book everything for us so that in each of the four locations we chose to explore (Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin and Li Jiang) a tour guide and driver would meet us at the airport or train station. This took the stress out of not being able to speak Mandarin and meant we could pack more in because we had our own mini bus to take us directly to places and pick us up the moment we were ready to move on. The tour guides were also a wealth of information about local customs and ancient history.
Highlights included
* the beautifully preserved buildings and grounds of the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace in Beijing
* a walk on the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section) which exceeded our extremely high expectations
* an acrobatics show, a kung-fu show and a most amazing musical "impressions" show in an outdoor theatre with the limestone cliffs and the Li River making an impressive backdrop
* Taking a sleeper train from Beijing to Xi'an
* Busy market streets and haggling with friendly traders
* the girls practicing their Mandarin and adding to their vocab
* The terracotta army in Xi'an guarding an emperor's tomb which were only discovered by a local farmer in 1974
* a river cruise and then cycling through the Li River Countryside
* swapping holiday photos by phone with the Bearsleys on their Aussie road trip at roughly 11am and 7pm each day, including the Bearsleys and their Chinese house guest at the Walls of China (Lake Mungo, NSW) and the Bertrams spotting exotic kangaroos at a zoo in Guilin
* the ancient hilltown of Li Jiang where flowers and lanterns decorated the cobbled streets
* spotting any animal whether they be stray dogs, water buffalo, beetles or Giant Pandas
* chairlift rides up to the top of Mountains and a toboggan ride down again
* trying some new food like bamboo and yak's milk cheese
Photos are gorgeous! Those mountains look stunning. Looks like another well organized Bertram holiday... Cindy maybe you can consider a career change to holiday advising when you come back to Aus. Enjoy the rest of your hols. We loved our warm escape to Noosa for a week - now back to 13 degrees maximums and grey Mebourne winter :-) love Kim
ReplyDeleteWe did get moments of a Melbourne winter but were stoic in ignoring it! I think perhaps were a little bit feeble on occasions too. A breeze may not mean a jumper etc...
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful trip. Looking forward to next week and hearing all about it, Bruce/Poppa
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful experience.
ReplyDeleteIt is lovely for us mere peasants to see how the rich and famous live.
I have no idea why I can suddenly put stuff on your blog.
Back in OZ - Julia and her green gang are doing their best to kill our economy. All this "carbon tax" for 1/4000 of a degree.
Wow, what an adventure! Looks fantastic- great photos. Love Penny
ReplyDeleteDear flam Back in the real world the rest of us are freezing. All kids back to school next week and for us to get back to normal life in Melbourne after our time away. Looking forward to our next trip away.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!
ReplyDeletefrom Zoe
Hi to the Bertram family! Sounds and looks like a wonderful holiday. We are just about to book flights to China/Hong Kong and are just trying to rethink our Asia travelling style to work with Ellen. We'd love to know a bit more detail re. online agency and itinerary. Would you mind emailing us on rstarbuck.pgee@gmail.com .
ReplyDeleteRach, Pete & Ellen x