Dad and the Chairman

Here's my Dad with Chairman Mao and a couple of local officials visiting the Ming Tombs...

And if you believe this, I've got some excellent land down in Florida that I'd like to sell you.

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Flying to China

We left from the Windy City... Chicago... That toddlin' town. The Wife hails from that neck of the woods, and to me it has always been one of my favorite Very Big Cities.



See you later, Chi-town!


We settled in for the 13 hour flight, which gave me plenty of time to consider the route we were taking. We flew East and then North, up over the North Pole. Our flight path meant we stayed pretty much suspended between the Earth and the Sun, and we had daylight for the entire flight. It was a little trippy travelling into the future by a day. If you were looking at our flight path from the sun's point of view, it would look like one of those support ribbons. Sort of hard to get your head around, so don't try if you don't want to!




Hi Santa!

Then we dropped in over Russia, another country I've never seen until now.





This is Sarah Palin's view too.

To get us into the China Mood, they first served us glorified Ramen noodles. The Lemon Cookie was good though.



There were weird lakes dotting the Russian landscape, and I could only wonder what mineral or pollutant was causing such delightful variations in the lakes.





We crossed over this river, which was unbelieveably wide and did not even warrant a name on the little moving map in the seatback in front of me.

normal river from 36,000 feet


Gigantor Russian River from 36,000 feet


We flew over Mongolia, both inner and outer, and had a MUCH better meal of yummy beef and noodles.



Then began descending into Beijing from the North West. This was rather fortuitous as it gave us a great view of the famous Great Wall of China. It is a myth that you can see it from space, but it is very cool to see between 20 and 30,000 feet!



Snaking Dragon Wall



Excellent welcome to China view.

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China Adventure

In the coming days, I'll be posting a journal of sorts about my recent adventure to China. While I travelled, I kept an audio journal that I'll be transcribing here. Along with that, I'll have to sort through the nearly 1700 pictures I took along the way. Yes, that's right. 1663 to be precise. Thank God for digital photography. Otherwise the developing costs would equal the price of the trip!

Here's a few photos to get you started...


Our first Chinese food! Although there they just call it food.


My postcard shot of the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian


Thy Shaffer Men at the Forbidden City...


And the Temple of Heaven


The Temple of Heaven was my favorite.

More Later