Well, since Beijing had a brief stop at TaiYuan capital of Shanxi province and met some delightful people who could speak English, which was nice for me.
Then on to Xian where we met Becky who I had not seen since 2004, who also speaks English quite well. While there we did the obligatory trip to see the Terra Cotta army, which was an interesting and worthwhile visit. Very well designed buildings and visitor center. Also went to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower in the City Center which are beautiful buildings from past dynasties. Xian is a pleasant city and the people friendly and polite.
Moved on to Chengdu capital of Sechuan province, where they like very hot and spicy food. Again a lovely city and quite "laid back" by comparison with other cities so far visited. Met the brother-in-law and his brother-in-law plus his wife who looks more Japanese than Chinese and is extremely beautiful and charming. Nice to see Chen again as it is 3 or 4 years since we have seen him as he works away from home so much.
The weather has not been very kind except for a few hours of sun at Xian but there is a cold wind mostly which makes for a lot of dust. We had to go and see the Giant Panda research center yesterday and I must admit the creatures are very adorable to watch, especially at feeding time when they lay on their backs and get stuick into some serious bamboo crunching!
Now to go and get and write some postcards.
1 comment:
Hi John, I am enjoying China once again through your blog.
I have made three trips there and found it surprisingly fascinating considering how apprehensive I was at first at the thought of going there.
Unfortunately, the primary language used for my last two trips (one a Buddhist pilgrimage and the last one a family holiday with a Buddhist monk as guide), was Mandarin which I am not sufficiently fluent with, I do not know the names of many of the towns that I have visited. I believe we were in Suzhou province, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, Shantou, Shenzhen and many other little towns along the way.
Looking forward to see more of China through your blog. Thank you.
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