The tourist

As promised, here are some touristy photos. This is Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Lest you think it's out of focus, Beijing has a big smog problem. The only blue sky we saw during the entire 12 days was this view:

We went to the Great Wall. Much of the almost-4,000 miles of it has fallen into disrepair, but there are 3 places where tourists can go. The most popular spot is at Badaling, about an hours' drive from Beijing.

It is steep and there are many vendors along the way with trinkets to sell. When I asked Gary our guide if these vendors pay the admission fee each day to get in and pester tourists, he said he didn't think so since most of the people know each other and certain things go un-noticed.

We visited the city of Xian (pronounced "she-on") to see one of the real highlights of a trip to China--the terra cotta warriors. This is an army of life-sized soldiers and horses (there are over 8,000) that was built and buried (in formation according to rank) in about 200 B.C. by the first emperor of China to protect him in the afterlife. It was discovered in 1974 by some local farmers who were drilling a well. There are many still to be unearthed. Scientists are trying to figure out how to preserve the colors. All were originally brightly painted.

We took a 3-day Yangtze River cruise from Chongqing to Yichang. We traveled about 400 miles, which represents 1/10th of the entire length of the river. We sailed through the Three Gorges--narrow spots along the river with high mountains on each side. We boarded a smaller boat, a sanpan, for a ride through the lesser (or narrower) gorges.

We traveled through the 5 ship locks of the new Three Gorges Dam, a huge project that was just completed to control flooding in the lower regions of the river.

And finally a stop in Shanghai.......

Oh, and I almost forgot....heh....heh.......a coupla real couch potatoes!

Back to crafty content next time.....and maybe a few curmudgeons......