What do I make of my visit to China? I am glad that I made this trip and given the opportunity, I will visit China again. I only saw a little of China and it will be foolish to make some grand pronouncements about China. What I can share are a few observations based on […]
Final Thoughts on my Visit to China Read More »
Guangzhou represented a shift from my experiences in Beijing and Shanghai. Located in the southern part of China, close to sea ports, it is noted for its export businesses. Upon arriving Guanzhou, one of the first things I observed was the presence of more people from the Middle East and Africa. These are traders who
Visit to Guanzhou, China Read More »
One of the beauties of traveling in China is the presence of speed trains (bullet trains). Some of these trains run at over 200MPH. In deciding to make the trip to Shanghai, I had a choice of flying or going by train. Prices are comparative. The plane is of course faster but when you factor
A Two-day Visit to Shanghai Read More »
Today is my last tour day in Beijing and I had two important places I wanted to see: the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. A friend sent me a Whatsapp message to ask if I have made it to the Tomb of Matteo Ricci. We have talked about Fr. Ricci in the past
Visits to Fr. Matteo Ricci’s Tomb and the Forbidden City in Beijing Read More »
The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) is an attraction that one should not miss to see on a visit to Beijing. This was where the Emperor Qianlong and his successors resided and governed. I had planned on spending the whole day in this park and I did. The park is about 743 acres. Accessing it on the
Visit to Beijing’s Summer Palace Read More »
Climbing the Great Wall yesterday was great but my body wasn’t feeling too great this morning. I spent the morning hours resting and reading in Bed. At around 1:00PM, I decided to check out Jingshan park which is only about a five minute walk from my hotel. Like many of these places in Beijing, it
Visits to Jingshan and Beihai Parks Read More »
The Great Wall is absolutely one of the places to see on a visit to Beijing. It is one of the wonders of the ancient world and it has been in my list of places to visit for a long time. The wall was built by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang between
Visit to the Great Wall at Badaling Read More »
Being a Sunday, the only thing in my agenda today was finding a church to worship. Finding a Catholic church to attend Mass was easier than I had thought. Keep in mind that the Communist government in China upholds an atheistic ideology. Working Communist Party officials are prohibited from belonging to a religious organization. Recently,
Worshipping at a Catholic Church Read More »
I mentioned in my last post that I was just going to follow the flow. Today was time for me to check out the Hutongs. If you are not familiar with these, they are narrow streets in Beijing and other northern Chinese cities. On each side of the street are courtyard (compound-like) residences where the
Visit to Tiananmen Square Read More »
It is always fun when I get to fly for free. In the last year, I have accumulated over 150,000 frequent flyer miles on American Airlines and I have been wondering how to use them. I tried using them to book trips to Africa or Europe, but the airline taxes have always been prohibitive. It
Welcome to Beijing Read More »