Start-up Trip Report – March 20, 2010

Flight path from Newark to Beijing

Ni hao (hello in Chinese),

Hope you are all doing well and are ready to join us on another travel adventure. This time, we are heading to China for about a month, leaving Sunday March 28 and returning the end of April. We were tempted to do this trip as a guided tour, but after lots of research, we decided we want to try it on our own.

We have been been studying and working on our Mandarin language skills in preparation for this trip; unfortunately, the language is very complicated; but at least we know how to use a few basic phrases (we think)!

Here is our itinerary:

Beijing (8 nights) - includes a trip to The Great Wall

Pingyao (3 nights) - an ancient walled city (UNESCO site) for a chance to experience a small town

Xi'an (3 nights) - home of the Terracotta Warriors

Yangshuo (4 nights)- laidback scenery with beautiful landscapes along the Li River

Guilin (2 nights) - includes trip to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces

Hangzhou (3 nights)- famous lake town

Shanghai (4 nights)- includes trip to Suzhou (garden city)

Internet cafes are disappearing so we are doing something new. We are taking our netbook (small laptop) on this trip. Most of our hotels have WI-FI connections, so hopefully we will have no trouble sending you our trip reports. We may also try to upload some pics as we go.

One side issue: we've never stayed for any length of time in communist country, and this will be a first. We're not sure how tightly their government controls outgoing info. Their censorship rules may affect sending our usual trip reports(?). We just don't know if they block outgoing info, and can't seem to find out from anyone. Hopefully it will not be a problem, as we've been sending email to various hotels and tourism sites/agencies over there for the past few months, and receiving good info back form them. If it is a problem, bear with us; we'll be in there trying, at least. If anyone has any info on this "potential problem", we would be glad to hear from them!!

We are so happy to have you all "stowed away" in our suitcases and travelling right along with us! As always, if anyone objects to receiving our trip reports over the next month or so, please let us know, and we'll drop your name from our list; we do not want to make our reports a nuisance to anyone.

See you on the road!!

Frank and Anne