Sue and Fran at the Summer Palace in Beijing, China
The adventure started in February of 2001 when Sue asked if I would be interested in a trip to China. Of course I said yes, as soon as George, who would be paying for this trip, also thought it was a good idea. We tried to talk him into accompanying us, but he thought on this particular trip he would pass, and let us have a mother/daughter fling. We had been planning to spend a few days in California, Sue's home, around May 20 to celebrate our son Ken's birthday anyway, so we decided to plan to leave sometime after that.
We would look through brochures brouchures and check the internet for a tour that sounded great. And we found one. We ended up with a 15 day tour sold by United Vacations through Pacific Bestours. It would take us to all the sites we wanted to see in particular, Shanghai, a wonderful new modern commercial capital, Beijing, the home of the Great Wall of China and Tiananmen Square, Xian, home to the Terra-cotta Warriors museum, and Hong Kong, city of intrigue and shopping.
Here are some of the photos we took on that tour. We hope you like them, and will also be interested in seeing for yourself what the new China is like, and how far it has come in recent years.
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This photo was taken on May 20th, the day before we left, of the family in Los Angeles. It shows George, Sue, Ken and Fran. We were celebrating Ken's birthday. |
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Here we are on the very next day on our way to Shanghai. George had managed to get us upgraded to Business Class which was quite a treat for that long a trip. Here's to a great adventure.
China's most sophisticated city is one of its most active seaports. Prior to 1949, Shanghai contained European, Japanese and American concessions, each maintaining its own territory and national architecture. Today, the extent of new construction is incredible. Shanghai is a fascinating testament to China's relationship with the West and a rapidly expanding commercial center that still retains its famous Bund and characteristic "old city."
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Sue and I often took an early morning walk either after breakfast or instead of breakfast, and the first day we came upon this friendly vegetable seller preparing his produce for the day. |
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Just a few blocks away from the vegetable seller were these women who were doing their graceful Tai Chi exercises with red flags. We were staying at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Shanghai, away from the business district, and in a regular Chinese neighborhood, called the Old French district. |
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This photo is a very futuristic part of Shanghai, right across from the Bund. There are many buildings like this in Shanghai, expecailly hotels near the business district. |
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This photo, of course, is of the well known "Squat Toilet". This picture was taken in the modern Shanghai Fine Arts Museum, one of the finest museums in Asia. In the ladies room they had about 6 Western toilets on one wall, and facing it the same number of "Squat Toilets". This was definitely the Rolls Royce of Squats that we saw on our trip. Most of them are not tiled, do not flush, and you had better be prepared with some tissues. All the hotels had beautiful Western style bathrooms. |
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To visit a very interesting site about a young man's trip to China with his father check out this site. Click here My Asian Odyssey.
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