Suzhou - silk factory and gondola

Then in Suzchou we went on a gondola ride which was very peaceful and pleasant. The canals were serene with birds chirping and the gondola captain crooning. In the evening we went to some beautiful gardens with many buildings to visit with traditional opera, dance, theatre.

Roses in bloom.

People doing what people do. Cooking, laundry, sellling things, whatever.

very scenic and cool.

ipod fun in the train. Chiew-Dong turned me onto Vietnamese music.

We all went to KFC at least once. Here's Jack and Gavin.

And here's Jason and Marcel, S. Africans living in London for now.

Couple more shots of the warriors and remains of their chariots

and thousands of horses well preserved, but when the enemies broke down the roof and found this inaminate defense they burned and smashed it up pretty well. nothing made of wood lasted, just the terra cotta statues.

Next we went on our first overnight train ride to X'ian to see the terracotta warriors and to explore the Xian old city wall. This photo shows Gavin on top left, Jason on rt. The train bunks were more comfortable than the hotel beds in Beijing!

The Terra cotta warriors is an amazing archeological site that reveals thousands of soldiers made to protect the Emperor's Tomb. He basically enslaved thousands to build these. No two faces or stances are alike.

We stopped at a group facility for teens with developmental disabilities called Xian Huiling where we were served a spicy soup and steamed rice. Several of the clients sang and danced for us and then we had the option to support their arts and crafts endeavors.

and then later in Xian we all rented bikes and rode all the way around the old city on the wall. The sun was shining, temps in high 60's or low 70's, very pleasant and fun.

This is Sophie Meisner and Mette Schoenfeld from Denmark. They are on a long trip during a "gap year" and have already explored alot of the world. After leaving Shanghai they head to Vietnam for a month, and in July expect to be on the west coast of the US. We shared a picnic on the Great Wall. One laugh was my discovery of dried mangos which I shared, and later found out they were dried sweet potatoes. Oh well. Later in the trip we had alot of fun eating and shopping and sightseeing.

The trip afforded an excellent taste of many provincial food styles including hot pot (above) where each person has boiling pot and puts the prepared veggies, meats and noodles in themselves.

In Beijing we had a dumpling extravaganza, no kidding, with wonderful stuff and a flaming pot at the end. I was too tired after all that food to go to the special evening entertainment. Oh well, good to relax in the room and get to bed early.

Jack is very enthusiastic about regional foods. He always chose delictable things for us to try and share.

Here is Jack. He always provided alot of insight into what we were seeing, and also
infused humor into everything. Jack
studied history of China and English and
takes Intrepid and other travel groups
around. We would have struggled
horribly with tickets, trains and generally
navigating China without him. As friendly
and wonderful as the people are, they are
not very well set up yet for non Chinese-
speaking visitors.

You could hear every language on earth spoken on the wall. It is truly one of the great man-made wonders of the world. I don't know how many millions of people died in its construction.

And here's where the Mongolian barbarians were coming from.

It was definitely a highlight of the trip, especially after climbing back down and falling asleep on the bus.

Every morning of the trip I took a wake up walk in parks of some kind, usually seeing people do their Tai Chi. This park was a brief of fresh air in otherwise oppressively smoggy Beijing.

The fun really began when the Intrepid Travel group of 12 met up, led by fearless and exceptionally well prepared Jack Yuan." The climb up to the wall was strenuous but we all made it. Here is most of the group catching our breath.

We all walked and took photos and marvelled at the history of the wall built over many years. Approximately a half of all Chinese were involved in its construction, which was designed to keep the Mongolian barbarians out of China.

Rose tree of Sharon in perfect bloom along with forsythia, dogwoods, apple trees, etc.

And people wanted to have a photo shot with a foreigner. Very friendly sweet people.

Incredibly impressive ancient buildings from the .. Han dynasty I think (206 BC - 220 AD)

dragons to protect all people inside the buildings and tile details.

Imperial Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is a huge expansive area to explore with hundreds of specialized buildings the Emperor's wife used for entertainment including dancing, acrobats, places for tea, to pray for harvest, watch birds, you name it and people built it.

The area is very hilly. Lots of people picnicking and families enjoying leisure time together.

Pretty lakes and people in imperial costumes.

Beijing

I started off this trip in China with a couple of days to chill out in Beijing.
Once I got the general lay of the land around the hotel, I ventured out to
the Imperial Summer Palace for a day and otherwise explored
around. People were very friendly and often wanted me to
be in their photos and they took photos of me if I asked.
Sign language worked.

CHINA trip

this is a link to info on my CHINA trip Apr 16-30th.

http://www.intrepidtravel.com/html/trip_home.php?code=CSB

Map shows the major sites I'll be exploring. China's huge - the area I'll see might compare to flying into New York City, taking a train to Chicago, another night train to West Virgina and then leaving from Washington, D.C. --- or something like that. To stay in touch, email me at jbalaska_8@hotmail.com as I hear the Chinese government allows access to MSN Hotmail but not other commercial servers.

Break-up is here -- April UGLY but encouraging

Garrison Keilor of Prairie Home Companion says that April in Alaska
is God's way of reminding us how bad a hangover can be. It's now in
the 40's and all the glaciers and rivers and snow berms are in
"break-up." Drab grey and ugly, really. But under all that snow is
grass waiting to green up in May.

The hills are alive with the sound of water, lakes on the
streets and constant dripping. That and the Canada geese
honking their way back to Anchorage is a joyous sound for
the winter-weary.

It's quite wonderful to be out walking again, as streets are walkable.
The trails are still mushy, but in May it'll be great to get back out
hiking on the trails.