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March - October 2005

Intrepid Season 2005 - China, Tibet, & Nepal (part I)

Brett Voegele
2005-11-19 14:15:37

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a Kung Fu show one evening, eating Peking Duck another, and visiting a few of the watering holes and clubs. It was great to finally see what Beijing has to offer, and I think I'll enjoy exploring even more on subsequent trips.

We next took a bus for the 3 1/2 hour trip to the Great Wall, where we climbed up at a place called Jingshanling. We walked the roller-coaster wall for 10 kms to Simatai, and it was excellent - even better than I'd expected. We were able to see renovated sections, as well as many original sections. The best part was that we had the wall completely to ourselves - except for our shadows...locals who were attempting to sell us postcards, books, t-shirts, etc. It was an excellent day on the wall, and it's always rewarding when something lives up to, or even exceeds, expectations. Hopefully next time I lead the Wall I'll have my camera, and so will be able to pass along some photos to you.

After catching the bus back to Beijing we simply grabbed some food for the train trip here to Xian. Today was a free day, as is tomorrow. The following day we'll head out to see the Terracotta Warriors, before coming back to Xian and boarding an overnight train for Shanghai.

My schedule has recently changed, which is going to keep me hopping. I'll be leading three back-to-back trips starting on April 16, but I guess that's why I took this job, so I better learn it and get after it. Should be good.

Well, I'm going to head out and explore, so I'll end this here.

March 23, 2005

Me again - this time coming to you from Shanghai, though I'll first back-track a bit and fill you in on my last days in Xian.

I did a lot of walking to check out the various sites - pagodas, museum, drum and bell tower, to name a few. I also found myself wandering around the Muslim ...