So, many of you readers will know that Ross and I had planned to teach in China before life threw us a curveball and we ended up spending 2011 going through surgery, chemo and radiation. Our dream of visiting China has now come true. We did not come to teach, but to learn, so we joined an Avalon/Globus tour and couldn't have been more pleased with the results. We began in Beijing on Oct. 4, then went to Xi'an, Chongqing, on the Yangtze for three days through the Three Gorges, then to Shanghai and finally Hong Kong. It has been a glorious three weeks, and I have had to pinch myself several times to convince myself that I am actually here. This is a trip of a lifetime, one I will never forget, and I am so lucky to be here.
The first time I pinched myself, on the Great Wall of China. It was also one of the few days the sun shone.
The terra cotta warriors in Xi'an were as magnificent as I had imagined they would be.
99 steps to the top!
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Our colourful tour guide at a stop on the Yangtze.
Shanghai night on the Bund.
Making a silk duvet.
Vicki Qin was our terrific tour director. She became a daughter to all 19 of us.
Seeing Hong Kong in a typhoon. This was a level three, and we were told not to worry until it got to level eight.
So tomorrow we go home, well satisfied that we have experienced the best China has to offer. A dream has been realized.
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