After an uneventful flight (short delay seems to be the norm) we arrived in the Capital, Beijing for a four day stay.  Kim, another winner.  The hotel was so-so but the location was great.  We tried out the hotel's dining room and were less than impressed but we've been spoiled by some great hotels in the past.  The first mor...

Due to our extensive stay in Beijing, we had the opportunity to see three of Beijing's temples.  Two were touted by LP as members of China's five finest temples, and the last was a sort of "why not?" excursion.  The temples were the Temple of Heaven, the Lama Temple, and the Dongyue Temple.  Our trip to the Temple of Heaven was a ...

Don't you love those butterflies as you can't sleep, those last thoughts of "what did I forget?", and unfortunately that sneaking suspicion of - how soon is this going to be canceled and I'll be called back to work???  8 hours before Onwalkabout2 starts, I'm doing that last checklist, but the bags were packed at the door early last night, a...

Took a flight from Newark to Beijing. On the flight, maybe 4 hours into the 13 it took, we got the second of three meals. They gave us a chicken burger and a little dixie cup of vanilla ice cream. I was drinking a coffee and thinking how I wish they would have given me chocolate ice cream instead. Took a look around and everyone else had va...

We catch a flight to Beijing, which will be our final destination in China. We meet up with our guide, Wendy, and check into the Royal Presidential Hotel. They have given us a room with one bed so we are required to move to a new room where the internet is not working. After three hours of working on it, we are given free internet use for our st...

ahoj, pete and i got back to beijing this morning. hard to believe we're leaving friday. at this point, we feel like locals. would be a lie to say that our time in weifang passed by quickly. not that it was boring--there was hardly ever a dull moment. it's just that working at the orphanage is probably one of the most physically and emotionally ...

Ni Hao I have arrived safely in Beijing, and although I may not of been so nervous about coming here it has deffinetly been more challenging than South America so far. So Im going to have a 5 minute rant about China if no one minds. Most Chinese men seem to proud to be letchy towards me and people don't seem so obviously poor and desperate as La...