walking on travels

There are little things in my life that I look back on that make me think, “wow!” Sometimes that “wow” ends with “what were we thinking,” while other times it goes something like “how cool was that!” and “can we do it again?” Our trip to China in late 2010 would fall under the latter [...]

Ha ha! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.  I had been looking forward to seeing the Great Wall of China for months. I knew that if I could only see two things while in Beijing, it would be the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. We found many other surprises along the way and gorgeous sights [...]

The Lee Garden Service Apartment was a great little find I came across on Tripadvisor.com. I really wanted an apartment in Beijing, but having never been to China before, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go the Craigslist or VRBO route. I wanted something easy. I was already obsessing over every detail and penny with [...]

On the same day that we went to the Great Wall, we were first taken to the Main Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs. I knew nothing about the Sacred Way, it wasn’t on my radar at all. It was just part of the tour package we had signed up for at our hotel. According [...]

Holy smokes was it cold on the water. Of course most of the best views were on the water, so we couldn’t stay away. It was windy and cold, but we were so happy to finally be at the Summer Palace. After about a 30 minute taxi ride that cost around US$12, we had arrived. [...]

On a hazy Tuesday morning, after we had seen the Forbidden City, we decided to check out a shrine we had seen from the Forbidden City. We had done a little guidebook research and found that Jingshan Park (Coal Hill) was the best place to get panoramic views of the Forbidden City. This man-made hill, [...]

I did not have a good track record in China so far. We had wasted time in Hong Kong, and I was tied up in Shenzhen with work. I did not want to make the same mistakes in Beijing. I was officially on vacation, and I was going to make the most of it. Before [...]

Our hotel in Beijing was only a few blocks from Wangfujing Dajie. It you are unfamiliar with this street, a section of it is a pedestrian-only shopping mecca. I would guess it could cover about 10-12 city blocks. It was fairly quiet during the day but really got hopping at night. The weekend was especially [...]

I am very protective of my son. I have a back up plan if I ever see someone try to snatch him. I assume adrenaline will kick in, I will sprint to the kidnapper and take him/her down at the knees. I’m not a violent person, and yes I may be slight, but if you [...]