Great Beijing

... my American culture, with lessons
learned by living with Ahyi.

Ahyi is a kind, practical, no-nonsense Chinese woman. She
used to be an Eastern doctor, so she knows what’s what. She has a frankness
about her that compliments her wisdom, and she has a keen ability to keep a
low-key presence, bustling about the house, taking care of everything and
watching over everyone. Make no mistake though, when Ahyi wants to be known,
she is known, and when she ...

... slumped over wooden decking, paws hanging limply over the edge, sleeping off their breakfast. Others were chomping on bamboo. Some of them looked like they had black cardigans on back to front. We also saw some boisterous baby pandas who were wrestling, pushing and shoving each other against the door to their den and fighting over a swing. We spotted red pandas, sometimes called the lesser panda. It is a racoon-sized mammal that lives in the same kind of ...

... I couldn’t believe that! We all walked as far as we could, though Dan and Luke couldn’t walk without resting in between! I am so glad I brought a pair of fly sunglasses! The train is so packed and the kids next to me are begging to play on my computer. I better let them or they’ll never shut up!

The cost of being the world's cheap factory is starting to accumulate. As this story indicates: Every 30 seconds, a baby is born with physical defects in China, all thanks to the country's degrading environment, an official of the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) has said. "The number of newborns with birth defects is constantly increasing in both urban and rural areas," Jiang Fan, vice-minister of the NPFPC said ...

... Not bad. A meal that will more than fill you up can be purchased on the streets for about 1 USD. The cost of one nice dish at a good restaurant is about 5 dollars. If you order food for a group of people you usually order around 5 dishes... so all together maybe 30 USD after drinks, split 4-5 ways is a solid deal. You really can't go wrong here. I will try to update this when school starts in about 10 days and let you know how that goes.

Hi all, Ah it's so good to again get into my blog and let you all know where I have been and what I am up to. The last part of my journey started in Beijing. Both my sister and I arrived on the same day, April 9th and we did our own sightseeing until our Intrepid trip begin. We spent those few days doing walking tours of the hutongs, alleys where old Beijing still exists. We saw some of the best sites of the city, including the magnificent Temple of heaven, The lama Temple, Confucius ...

... by the LCD display board. The boarding process is kind of like the airport. No longer do you wait on the platform and just rush to the train as soon as it pulls in. You have to wait at a waiting room until they annouce boarding for your train. Then you show your ticket to the agent at the gate and walk down a flight of stair to the platform to board the train. It is actually quite orderly. Train ride finally! On to Lhasa, Tibet!

... the bargain price of $8 a day. The only problem was, we weren't able to load onto our blog. It seems that China's tightly regulated internet has blocked many blog sites, including travelblog. We met the rest of our group at our introductory meeting held at one of the hotel's many conference rooms. We were the only Americans. There were quite a few British, an Argentinean couple, and guy from Belgium. Our leader was from Arizona, Toffler. We were informed ...

Ce matin on se réveille doucement après une bonne nuit de sommeil chez Michel et Marie-Pierre, aka Papy et Mamy pour Killian. Killian se remplit l'estomac de lait au Nesquick et nous voila partis avec le chauffeur, et toute la famille au temple du ciel. Il se situe au Sud-Est de Beijing environ. Le ciel est bleu et nous permet ...