Country #69: China, In the nick of time...

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Day 1: No way were we ready for the subways
But we did stroll down Wangfujing, Beijing's famed shopping street...

..and caught our first taste of Olympi-mania



Later, we stopped by Tiananmen Square..

where the National Museum of China features an Olympic countdown clock.


It is a good thing this happens to be a leap year. If not for that helpful irregularity, I would have missed posting anything for the month of February, and thus been required to change the name of the blog to "Adventure of the every other Month". Not too catchy.

As always, my excuse for procrastinating has to do with an unusually busy month. How busy? Well, too busy to fit into one post, that's for sure. A couple of days ago, I returned from a trip to China which makes the term "whirlwind" seem insufficient. In the course of eight days, we managed to visit Beijing, where we climbed The Wall; Xian, where we put in a visit to some famed warriors and finally to Shanghai, where I realized we were running out of time and went into shopping overdrive. We did all of this with the help of an organized tour, which is something I would normally shun, nay openly mock. However, the price for the package ($1299 + tax) was just too irresistible to pass up. Over the next couple of days, I will be posting more photos, going into greater detail about our Chinese adventures and retracting a few of the things I have said in the past about group travel (albeit in very limited circumstances).
For now, here are some pictures from our very first, jet-lagged day in Beijing. Also, check out how nicely the map at the bottom of this page is beginning to fill out.

Comments

  1. RamblingRolandMarch 1, 2008 at 5:22 AM

    Funny that you mentioned it. I was beginning to think we were going to miss your Adventure of the Month (of February). What a fascinating trip! Look forward to reading more material. Stay tuned...
    Couldn't help but think of Gulliver's Travels while I was reading your new posts this morning. These two reminded me of the Voyage to Lilliput, though I can't say why.

    ReplyDelete
  2. L@ur@March 2, 2008 at 7:49 AM

    I can see that you did a lot in 8 days that you have spend in China! from these pics it seems as a really colourful country, isnt it?
    And its a good destination because you can have it all lots of history, many places to see (i belive that one moth its not enought to see all) and good shopping! Sounds like a great adventure of the month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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