OAT Day 1-01 - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - Flight from Denver to Los Angeles - Trans-Pacific Flight The luggage was all packed in the car when our alarm went off at 3:15 AM! By 4:10 we were on our way for another Overseas Adventure Travel journey. Ready with a new camera for Gennie, extra note paper, and lots of additional pages in our passports, we were off to China! Traffic at ...
Read Day 1!
OAT Day 1-02 - Monday, April 7, 2008 - Flight from Narita, Japan to Shanghai, China We arrived in Narita, Japan a bit late and went right to the World Club Lounge to freshen up after our 12+ hour flight from Los Angeles. We were able to check our e-mail accounts and I posted the 1st day’s journal. The desk clerk called our flight so we hustled down to Gate 15, not far from the ...
Read Day 2!
OAT Day 1-03 - Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - Visit the Bund - Home-hosted Lunch - Shanghai, China New time zone, different sleep patterns! Long before the alarm we were both up, getting caught up with our emails and Gennie’s University of Phoenix class materials. After a leisurely start we went down to the 2nd Floor for a wonderful breakfast. The selections included both western and ...
Read Day 3!
OAT Day 1-04 - Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - Explore Zhu Jia Jiao Village - Acrobatic Show It was warm in our room as the air-conditioning was not working last night. I guess it was switched back to the “cold season” mode. We opened our windows and heard the sounds from the city streets seven floors below. Our biological clocks still seem to be on Colorado time so we woke up early ...
Read Day 4!
OAT Day 1-05 - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - Optional Suzhou Tour - Shanghai, China We had to be out early this morning as we were all going on the optional trip to the city of Suzhou. We had breakfast and a great conversation with Marvin and Don, professors from Ohio University. At 7:50 we joined our group of 9 with our guide Matt. We walked to the subway station and were ...
Read Day 5!
OAT Day 1-06 - Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - Explore Yuyuan Garden and Shanghai Museum - Flight to Beijing, China We woke up to another cool and cloudy day in Shanghai. Today we did not leave the hotel until late morning so we had lots of time to chat at breakfast. Our pre-trip companions have been so delightful; it is fun to compare books, travels, and family experiences. There ...
Read Day 6!
OAT Day 2-03 - Saturday, April 12, 2008 - Beijing City Tour Including Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City-Welcome Dinner - Beijing, China We were awake before the alarm went off, but we slept well and did not wake up on Colorado Time; I think we are adjusting to China! After a shower and breakfast we met the other 5 new members of the group that arrived from the USA last night. ...
Read Day 7!
OAT Day 2-04 - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - Visit Cloisonné Factory-Explore Great Wall of China - Beijing, China We woke up to sunny skies and a cool day; it was 57° and 59% humidity. It is interesting that the sun brings out the smile in all of us! At 8:30 we met the bus and headed for the Great Wall by way of the cloisonné factory. Our Beijing city guide, Hong passed out a ...
Read Day 8!
OAT Day 2-05 - Monday, April 14, 2008 - Visit with children at Beijing Opera School-Optional Summer Palace Tour-Optional Peking Opera Tour with Dinner - Beijing, China The weather is improving each day we are in Beijing; it was 74 degrees and only 50% humidity. The smog seems much worse today, but we could still see the sun! We showered, had breakfast, and got ourselves ...
Read Day 9!
OAT Day 2-06 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Optional Summer Palace Tour-Explore Hutong Neighborhood-Home Hosted Lunch-Board Overnight Train for Xian Our last morning in Beijing was a leisurely one. The sun came up at 5:37 AM here and the workers began scraping and drilling at 6:30 five stores below us on the street. We finished packing our big bags as they had to go out at 8:30 ...
Read Day 10!
OAT Day 2-07 - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - Arrive in Xi’an-Tai Chi Demonstration-Explore Shaanxi History Museum-Explore Muslim Quarter-Water-Light Show - Xi’an, China Morning came later here in Central China. The sun came up at 6:12 as we were traveling west. China for all of its expansive land mass only has one time zone. The USA which is slightly smaller than China has only 4 ...
Read Day 11!
OAT Day 2-07 - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - Visit Lacquerware Factory and Herbal Market-Noodle Making Demonstration at Local Restaurant-View Terra Cotta Warriors - Xi’an, China We received our wake up call at 7:00 - nice to have a good night’s sleep after the train ride. We had breakfast and left the hotel at 8:30. The day was a bit cooler with cloudy skies. The temperature was 66 ...
Read Day 12!
OAT Day 2-09 - Friday, April 18, 2008 - View City Wall-Tour Jade Factory-Visit Hu Xian Farmers’ Village- Visit Big Wild Goose Pagoda-Visit Guang Ming School - Overnight Homestay in Hu Xian The morning began for us at 6:15 for our last day in Xi’an. We had breakfast with Jeanette, the artist from the Detroit area. Last night we packed most of our things so we were ready to have one ...
Read Day 13!
OAT Day 2-10 - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - Visit Hu Xian Farmers’ Painting Village-Fly to Wuhan-Transfer to Maoping-Embark Yangtze Cruise Ship - Yangtze Cruise, China We spent a quiet night in our rural village. Caryl from Edwards, CO and Jim and MaryAnn from Prescott, AZ and Gennie and I were together in our clean but modest home. Our simple breakfast this morning, was a boiled ...
Read Day 14!
OAT Day 2-11 - Sunday, April 20, 2008 - Cruise Through Xiling Gorge-Explore Three Gorges Dam Site - Yangtze Cruise, China All: please change the Google map to 'Satellite' or 'Hybrid' – the Gezhouba Dam is the closest to Yichang while the Three Gorges Dam is 40 km upstream. We woke up at 7:15 without an alarm or wake up call. By the time we took our ...
Read Day 15!
OAT Day 2-12 - Monday, April 21, 2008 - Explore Lesser Three Gorges-Wu and Qutang Gorges - Yangtze Cruise, China We left our overnight docking area about 6:10 AM. We could hear the engines working hard to pull away from our mooring site. At 6:15 our alarm went off - it was an early morning for a busy day today. We showered and got right out on the deck to take photos of the ...
Read Day 16!
OAT Day 2-13 - Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - Explore Fengdu -Visit Relocated Families - Yangtze Cruise, China All: please change the Google map to 'Hybrid' – You will be able to see the immensity of the city of Chongqing, China on the Yangtze River. We had docked in Feng Du about 2:00AM for the remainder of the night. We passed many small towns and a few ...
Read Day 17!
OAT Day 2-14 - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - Cruise to Chongqing-Museums-Overland to Chengdu - Chengdu, China The rain was heavy this morning as we woke up in Chongqing where we had docked for the night. This is the end point for many of the Yangtze River Cruises. After breakfast we finished packing and were out of our rooms by 8:30. To leave the Victoria Rose we had to walk ...
Read Day 18!
OAT Day 2-15 - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - Fly to Guilin-Elephant Trunk Hill-Fubo Hill-Pedestrian Street-Night Market - Guilin, China Our overnight stay in Chengdu was brief and uneventful. The hotel A/C is not turned on until the weather is warmer and reaches over 20º. Even though this Xin Hua International Hotel was a “4 star” the breakfast was very meager and the hotel was a ...
Read Day 19!
OAT Day 2-16 - Friday, April 25, 2008 - Fish Boat Journey River Li - Guilin, China We had a very nice buffet breakfast in our hotel atrium and then met Matt and our driver, Mr. Ma for our 45 minute drive to the river cruise. It was cool today, 68 degrees and the humidity was 59%. Matt described the weather here as very changeable because of the influence of the mountains. As we ...
Read Day 20!
OAT Day 2-17 - Saturday, April 26, 2008 - Tea Research Center Optional-Reed Flute Cave-Guilin Children’s Palace - Guilin, China Our alarm went off at 7:00 and we had a lot of time for our breakfast. The atrium was not crowded today, so we were able to enjoy a leisurely meal with our friends. While Gennie took a quick walk through the gift shop, I went out to get a weather report ...
Read Day 21!
OAT Day 2-18 - Sunday, April 27, 2008 - Fly from Guilin to Chengdu-Walk to People’s Park-Chinese Massage Optional- Szechwan Province Opera Optional- Chengdu, China The weather in Guilin held for us and only rained today as we were leaving for the airport. Matt arranged for us to pick up a breakfast box at 6:15 AM. As we got to the airport it was raining very hard - this being ...
Read Day 22!
OAT Day 2-19 - Monday, April 28, 2008 - Visit Giant Panda Sanctuary-Fly to Hong Kong, China Monday morning in Chengdu was gray, but not raining; a good omen for our last day in the city. We had to have our bags out at 7:30 and then went down to breakfast. We met our driver, Jack and local guide, Johnny who took us to visit to the Panda Center today. Johnny gave us information ...
Read Day 23!
OAT Day 2-20 - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - Hong Kong City Tour-Hong Kong by Night & Asian Cuisine Optional Tour - Hong Kong, China Hong Kong was as busy at 6:45 AM as it was at 11:45 last night when we went to bed. We had a great variety of choices for breakfast and then met Randy for our city tour at 8:30. Ninety-five percent of the people here in this Special Administrative ...
Read Day 24!
OAT Day 2-21 - Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - Day at Leisure - Hong Kong, China We woke up at 7:30 and had a leisurely breakfast at our hotel. We ate with Matt and had more questions to ask him about his beautiful country of China. We had the whole day to explore so we started out armed with our cameras and a city map. We checked in with Connie, Caryl, and Jan who were enjoying a ...
Read Day 25!
OAT Day 2-22 - Thursday, May 1, 2008 - Flight Across the International Date Line - Home to Colorado We woke up to a 4:30 call and we had to have our bags out by 5:00 AM. Matt had arranged for us to have a breakfast box delivered when the porters came for the luggage. Neither the boxes nor the porters came! Don, Jeanette, Gennie, and I were on the early Northwest flight so we ...
Read Day 26!