Xian – Ancient Capital of China
After 3 days in Pingyao, we took another overnight train to Xian. Originally the concept of traveling by train was that we would see more of the country from the […]
Oozing Charm – Pingyao, China
A Guest Blog by Holly Melton: We had three delightful days in the ancient city of Pingyao, Shanxi Province. Reminding us a bit of Rothenberg, Germany, it is a walled […]
Beijing – Part 3: Hutong, Confucian & Tibetan Buddhist Temples
On our third day in Beijing we started our day with a tour of some of the Hutong neighborhoods of Beijing, immediately to the North of the Forbidden City. Our […]
Beijing – Part 2: The Great Wall of China
On our second day in Beijing we drove about two hours out of the city to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall. This section of the wall is the […]
Beijing – Center of the Chinese Universe – Part 1
On Monday, October 7th our Trans-Pacific cruise ended in Tianjin, China – a port city 3-hours east of Beijing. Tianjin is a large city and the ship’s Port Lecturer suggested […]
Ports of China – Part 2: Dalian
They used to say that the state bird of California was the crane, because there was so much building going on, there were building cranes everywhere you looked. The amount […]
Ports of China – Part 1: Qingdao
Qingdao and Dalian were our two ports of call in China before we arrived in our final Chinese port – Tianjin, where we would disembark the ship for the final […]
A tasty bite of South Korea – Our day in Busan
Korea is amazing! Consider the country’s modern history, occupation by China and later Japan – our lecturer Dr. Leavell called Korea the Poland of Asia. Then suffering a devastating war […]
Vladivostok – Mother Russia’s San Francisco on the Pacific
Vladivostok is the Pacific terminus of the 5,778 mile long Trans-Siberian Railway. Running from Moscow in the West to Vladivostok in the East, the Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest continuous […]
Hai, Japan – we want more!
Guest blogger: Holly Melton Mark and I have been told repeatedly that cruising is a Smorgasbord – you get just a taste of a country and can decide to go […]
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