Judy’s parents recently accompanied us on a 14-day trip through China. We started in Beijing and Tianjin where we visited the Great Wall (our second time), checked out several sites of the 2008 Olympics (including the sand volleyball area), and got a pedicure (my first one ever - hey, it was cheap so why not?) as well as a massage (also a first for me and it was done by a blind person no less!).

From there, Judy and I split from her parents and headed to China’s famous Huang Shan where we hiked to the top and also crossed the dangerous Carp’s Back Bone (it’s actually made out to be a lot worse than it really is). After Huang Shan, we met up again with Judy’s parents in Chengdu. Here, we experienced the highlight of the trip when both Judy and I had the opportunity to hold a baby (but still pretty big!) panda at the Wolong Panda Reserve - a totally cool experience! We also visited the Dujiang Dam which, after over 2,000 years, is still playing a major agricultural role today. Afterwards, we were treated to the entertaining Changing Faces show in which performers are able to instantaneously swap face masks right before your eyes.

After Chengdu, we headed to the higher (and much colder!) Jiuzhaigou where we were quite surprised to see an extravagant Vegas-style show in what was quite decidedly a very non-Vegas-like area. We admired the beautiful waterfalls and uniquely colored pools of Jiuzhaigou and Huang Long. We then returned to the Chengdu area and saw the Giant Buddha - it was definitely a big Buddha! Emei Shan was our next stop, and though we didn’t find the Buddhist temples all that interesting, we did find the chubby monkeys quite entertaining. As we wrapped up our trip, we visited a textile factory where we saw the specialized skills and complex devices required to create Chinese textiles, and also saw many examples of highly intricate silk embroideries.

It was a fantastic trip and we had a great time. Here are the pics and vids.

Posted by Roger at 5:56 pm.