The red pandas were so cute and we actually saw them. At Ocean Parck in Hong Kong you see them very very rarely.
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The Great Wall of China 🇨🇳
⛅The pandas and a Buddha⛅
The baby pandas were the cutest things ever !!!!!!!!! There were so many pandas and so many people from all over the world. Did you know pandas spend around 12 hours eating. There is not a lot of nutrients in bamboo so pandas reduce their activities and have a shorter pregnancy then most mammals their size. Something like 12 weeks or so. The panda has evolved a pseudothumbs in their forepaws to help them hold bamboo. Pandas are very intelligent. It shows in how it choses it’s bamboo, it will take the bamboo with the most nutrients in it and …
🇨🇳The Great Wall of China 🇨🇳
The great wall of China was great. It was not to hot and not to cold. On the way up we went on the cable cars. We hiked for around 3 hours. On the way down, we went on the coolest slide. Willow had to go with me because she was too small to go by her self. I hate going on rollercoasters and I thought that the slide would bit like a rollercoaster. I knew that once I had done it that I would love it…it’s just stage fright in a way.
Leshan Giant Buddha
Since I was a little boy I have wanted to see the Leshan Giant Buddha. My brother gave me a lovely book about some of the worlds most sacred places and this place had always been something I had hoped to see. So after the morning with the pandas our bus then took us to the town of Leshan, population 6.5 million! It was carved into the cliff between the years 713 and 803. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshan_Giant_Buddha The Giant Buddha – almost. By the time we got there and had a big Sichuan lunch (yum), …
Chengdu – Giant Pandas and Giant Buddhas
Chengdu in Sichuan is famous for giant pandas, Giant buddhas and hot food. Everyone was more than happy to say goodbye to Beijing but as we were flying Air China, there was no guarantee that we would ever leave on time, or even leave the same day, During the night Skye vomited and then again in the morning upon wake up…which triggered Willow to follow suit. Good start…. We knew we had to walk about a kilometre to the subway then a good 40-60minutes by subway to the airport. Both were troopers and we made it but poor Skye hurled …
Mutianyu – The Great Wall
Always a tough decision is where on the Great Wall to visit. The closer to town, the more of a zoo. The farther away then the more expensive and the longer transit time. At the end of the day we chose Mutianyu because it had a slide for the descent! It was a medium distance from town and we left early so got there at a reasonable time to avoid massive crowds and heat. Last time I was at the Wall was winter 2003 and we met some farmers who took us …
Beijing – Forbidden City and Tianamen Square
None of us were super excited that China (and Beijing in particular) was on our itinerary. However, at the end of this tour if we do not return to Asia, we thought it important that kids who were born in HK (part of China now) should see some iconic sights – Forbidden City, Tianamen Square and the Great Wall. It was a rainy morning as we set out for the Palace Museum (aka Forbidden City) and Tianamen Square, in the hopes the rain would reduce the crowds. To people born after 1989 in China the term Tianamen Square …
Goodbye Mongolia, Hello Beijing
After desert living the thought of a city with many food options, toilets and hot showers was enticing to all. We had planned to stay at a hostel near the Firbidden City and Tianamen Square tomreduce costs in transport. We took the subway across Beijing from the airport as it was cheap and efficient. Then it hit us – the massive crowds, the pushing and shoving, the heat and humidity, and the lack of language skills. Kaia is good at Mandarin but it was not enough. We found some nice folks along our way, trekking thru a very …
Ulaan Baatar Tour – Last Day in Mongolia
Mongolia is a big vast country of only 3 million people, 1 million of which live in sprawling Ulaan Baatar and our last day was a city tour. UB is the coldest capital city in the world…care to guess who is number 2? Hint – I was born there. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulaanbaatar UB is a weird mix of old and traditional ( the ger district which is quite poor) and new and up ‘n coming. The traffic can suck as some roads are big boulevards 4lanes wide and others are single track. One can see nuclear …