Dear Friends and Family, we continue to have some aftershocks in the range of 4.8 - 5.0 but have not had to leave home yet today. We did evacuate from our host family's home for about 4 hours yesterday because we were told another big quake was supposed to occur. Fortunately, this didn't happen. We watched the local news last night for about 30 ...

I was a little disappointed with Chengdu. I must be getting fed up with those huge Chinese cities. The most interesting thing Chengdu has to offer is this unique Giant Panda Breading Research Center. I had never seen a Panda in real life before. It's a fascinating animal. They spend most of their time sleeping and when they happen to be awake, t...

Chengdu is in the province of Sechuan, famous for its hot and spicy cuisine, so Chris was loving it but I got very hungry! From there we went on a day trip down to Leshan, home to the world's largest buddha statue (carved into a cliff face), where we spent a sunny afternoon flying kites with the locals on an island in the river. We also went to ...

We left Lijiang en route to a random town in south Sichuan province where we hoped to hop onto a train to Chengdu. Things did not go according to plan. The rain that we had experienced in the Gorge had caused landslides partway along the route. The result was a few hours into the trip the bus stopped, the driver said something and left......... ...

Hi everyone, We arrived back in Chengdu last night after our 4-day tour. I have little time keeping my log up to date. Please forgive my typos. Mimi is keeping a audio tape log and may post it when we get back. My log for the 4-day tour is at the end of this post. We are staying is a newly remodeled hotel. It is very good with AC and in a good l...

Finally, I have made it to Kangding after being in China for 13 months. What a trip it was as well. I saw everything from monks, monastery, yaks, snow mountains and nomads. But that is getting ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning. It all started after I had finally decided to travel during the May Day Holidays, the weeks prior to the...

Chengdu, 12-13 June: After the historic wonders of Xi'an, another marathon rail journey (17 hours, this time by soft sleeper) brought us to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Sichuan is one of China's most populous provinces, but it is also the gateway to the natural treasure trove that is south-west China. And, of course it is best known...