Category Archives: Jeff in China 2019

We were privileged on our last day to attend the 90th birthday celebration of Yan Ping’s father Bao Lin. It was a heartwarming wonderful celebration at an incredible restaurant with fabulous food. In attendance, the family’s closest friends, Bao Lin’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and of course there was a beautiful birthday cake. TheContinueContinue reading “Episode 8 – Bao Lin’s 90th Birthday Celebration”

We flew from Chengdu to Kunming on China Eastern Airlines. Like all the new infrastructure in China, both the Chengdu and Kunming airports are large, well planned, clean, modern, efficient and built for expansion. Kunming is the capital of Yunnan Province which is bordered by Burma, Laos and Vietnam and is largely mountainous where manyContinueContinue reading “Episode 7 – Kunming”

We took the fast speed train from Xi’an to Chengdu and no surprise the train departed on the minute from Xi’an and arrived on the minute in Chengdu, fewer cars but every seat taken. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province. 33 million people live in Sichuan province, 17 million of which call Chengdu home.ContinueContinue reading “Episode 6 – Chengdu and the Giant Pandas”

It’s so much fun to ride these trains. To get to Xi’an we took another high speed train from Beijing. It left precisely at its 2:00 PM departure time. 16 passenger cars with 68 to 85 passengers per car, over 1200, and not a single vacant seat. The stations and cars are clean, comfortable, beautifullyContinueContinue reading “Episode 5 – Xi’an and the Terracota Warriors”

Chairman Mao Zedong is quoted as having said (probably inaccurately) that “a man who has never ascended the Great Wall cannot call himself a hero.” Unlike the Forbidden City whose construction was ordered and completed as a single project during the reign of a single emperor (Emperor Yongle 1404-1420), The Great Wall was multiple projectsContinueContinue reading “Episode 4 – The Great Wall and Beijing Day 2”

In contrast to the modern international metropolis which is Shanghai, Beijing, China’s seat of government and power is a mix of old and new. For 1000 years, it served as the center of power for multiple major dynasties. In the 13th Century under the rule of Kubla Khan it was known as Khanbaliq, then theContinueContinue reading “Episode 3 – Beijing Day 1”

Shanghai is indubitably one of the world’s great metropolises. Enormous but not intimidating, orderly and clean. Flower gardens and floral displays everywhere, flower lined avenues, walls of flowers and flower boxes on every street and corner. Our hotel was in the Jing’an district named for the ancient golden Jing’an temple of which I had aContinueContinue reading “Episode 2 – Shanghai”

Tomorrow morning at daybreak I catch a flight to San Francisco and then non stop to Shanghai for a two week tour of the People’s Republic of China. I know what you’re thinking “you sure travel a lot. Didn’t you just get back from Dallas?” I know, crazy right? But crazy in a good way,ContinueContinue reading “Episode 1 – Two Weeks in China”