China - Passports Overloaded

Hong Kong, China

March 21, 2014 – Hong Kong, China – Open Top Bus & Temple Street Night Tour

Tonight we boarded an open top double decker bus for our night tour. We drove through the heart and soul of Kowloon. We drove past the Peninsula Hotel and modern Hong Kong Space Museum. We then drove to the animated Golden Mile of Nathan Road, the longest street in Hong Kong. On Nathan Road we were dazzled by all the bright neon lit up buildings. We also had the chance to go shopping at the Temple Street Night Market. This was a long street filled with vendors selling clothing, knock-off watches, posters all sorts of souvenirs.

Maria & John with elementary school kids

March 22, 2014 – Hong Kong, China – Lantau Island & Po Lin Monastery

Lantau Island is the largest of the 235 islands. The full day tour began with a drive to Tsing Yi Lookout where we had a panoramic view of the Tsing Ma Bridge. After a brief photo stop, we drove to Tung Chung Terminal to change bus’ to drive on Lantau Island. We drove along the winding roads to Tai O Village which is known as “Hong Kong’s Venice” because of its many crisscrossing waterways.

Upon arrival on Lantau Island, we began our walking tour of Tai O and the Po Lin Monastery. The monastery is located at an altitude of 1,700 feet on the Ngong Ping Plateau. We then walked to see the main attraction which is the 250 ton, 102 foot high Bronze Buddha statue called Tian Tan Buddha. This is largest seated Buddha statue in Asia. The pedestal of the statue is a three-story exhibition hall embellished with Buddhist figures and scriptures.

After taking a bunch of photos, we walked to have a vegetarian lunch prepared by the resident monks which was delicious.

The last stop on this tour was a cable ride by Ngong Ping Skyrail. This is a spectacular 5.7km (3.54 miles) cable car journey, traveling between Tung Chung Town Centre and Ngong Ping on Lantau Island the floor of the cable car was glass which was scary at first but after a few minutes we got used to it and were able to enjoy the panoramic views. We went to the South China Sea and the North Lantau Country Park. We saw the best views of Hong Kong on this complete glass Skyrail.

Maria & John – with our friends Mark & Dennis from Miami

Shanghai, China – Day & Night Tours

March 14th & 15th, 2014 – Shanghai by Day

Our tour began with seeing the Shanghai Museum located in People’s Square. This museum was huge it had 110,000 historical objects and 430,000 reference pieces. It had bronze, ceramics, calligraphy, painting, sculptures, jade, furniture, coins and artwork.

After the museum, we visited the Yu Garden. This garden was built between 1559-1577 A.D by the Pan family from the Ming Dynasty. I loved the garden the buildings, the bridges, and ponds were so lovely.

March 14, 2014 – Shanghai, China – Shanghai by Night

This was the first time we were taking a tour at night which was different and kind of cool. As we started our drive around Shanghai, the buildings were very pretty and brightly lit up. Unfortunately, there was a bug traveling through the cruise ship, and I was unlucky and was one of the passengers who got sick. The bad part was that it started while I was 15 minutes into this tour. I ended up getting sick at our first stop which was the Jinmao Building, the 2nd tallest building in China and among the top 10 in the world.

At this point, I had to make the best of it since we had two hours to go. We went up to the Observation Lounge on the 88th floor. From this vantage point, we saw the skyline of Shanghai all lit up on both sides of the river. After about an hour at this hotel, we then drove to our last stop which was People’s Square where we had some free time on our own which I didn’t even get off the bus. I thought I was going to die at this point of the evening.

March 15, 2014 – Private Day Tour

We are still in Shanghai and unfortunately, I stayed on the cruise ship because I was still sick. John had a private tour set up for the city. He did some sightseeing and some shopping.

Dalian, China – Walking Tour of Dalian with Kite Flying

March 11, 2014

We began our tour driving to Zhongshan Square which was constructed by Russians in 1899; it is also the oldest square in Dalian. From this square we started walking through the city we passed through Friendship Square, Victory Square and the Qingniwapiao Shopping area luckily they didn’t give us anytime to shop because I always find something to buy. From the shopping area, we continued walking to People Square whose name was changed from Stalin Square. It was built to commemorate the liberation of Northeast China in 1945 by the Soviet Union’s Red Army.

From here our walking tour continued to our last stop which was Labor Park to fly our kite. The tradition of kite flying dates back more than 2,000 years in China. This park was cool it had big statues of the Chinese zodiac animals.

Beijing, China

March 8th – 10th, 2013

March 8, 2013

Today we embarked on our long journey to Asia. We decided to fly into Beijing two days earlier so that we can take an extensive tour of the city and take our time to visit the magnificent Great Wall of China and The Forbidden City.

March 09, 2013

Our tour guides name was Tony he spoke perfect English and was informative which was great. We walked through Tiananmen Square. We saw this guy tearing up paper and causing a scene Tony told us to make sure not to take any pictures because the police might confiscate your camera and maybe you with it. Tony also told us as we were walking through Tiananmen Square not to ask where the tank was when they had the protests there back in 1989 he said he wasn’t allowed to tell us. The next stop was the Forbidden City.

One thing that I found funny was that some of the Asians started taking pictures of me. Tony said that they lived in the mountains and had never seen Caucasian people before.

March 10, 2013

The next day we drove to The Great Wall of China. It is amazing in person. Pictures don’t do it justice. We walked the wall about one mile and couldn’t believe how tired we got. We didn’t realize some parts were steeper than others and how quickly you get tired.

After the visit to the Great Wall, we went to Fanghua, and I had a necklace of pearls strung right in front of me. We then went to eat a late lunch with Tony and our driver. What do you eat while in China you guessed it Peking Duck.

We rested at the hotel and then got ready to go to dinner. We had a great dinner at TRB Forbidden City. The dinner was great, and the desserts were fabulous.

One thing I found surprising was that every day when we got back to the hotel after walking around the city I would wipe my face with a white washcloth and it would be black from all the smog.

My pearl necklace & bracelet getting strung

Alphabetic Links of Where We’ve Been