Welcome to our picture gallery from our trip to China. For 21 days, we joined Intrepid Travel's Essence of China trip, one of their Small Group Adventure tours, and had an additional four days on our own. This was only enough time to get a taste of some of the country's more popular attractions, and to participate in some truly unique experiences off the beaten track. Our stellar tourleader Kath made our trip easy and worry-free, while our great tourmates became good friends in hardly any time at all.

Brief impressions of what we saw in China included a slight sense of paradox--in many ways the cities were so similar to what we see in North America, yet there were just as many differences both obvious and subtle. The tremendous sense of history and timelessness was evident everywhere, from modern city buildings inside the towering traditional city walls of Xi'an to the relatively untouched countryside and karsts of quiet Yangshou.

But never again would we consider China to be underdeveloped or bereft of modern technology; the evident superiority of the cellular phone network, the awesome immensity of the dam project, and the constant building of bridges, roads, and towns were all more than enough to convince us that this country was anything but underdeveloped.

Some of the highlights included seeing Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing, The Great Wall at Simatai, the Terracotta Warriors tour in Xi'an, the Panda Bear Sanctuary in Chengdu, the Giant Buddha at Leshan, the hike down from the summit of Emei Mountain, the Three Gorges boat trip, the tributary excursion at the Shenlong stream, exploring the beautiful Yangshuo region on bicycle and cruising down the scenic Li River.

We travelled between cities primarily by rail, and were often in busses for transfers. On water, the first class cabins on the Chinese cruise boat far exceeded our expectations, as did the wooden boats on the Shenlong stream and the Li River. Pedicab, tram, double-decker bus, taxis, and bicycles rounded out the other ways we moved about the country.

This was as much an adventure as it was a vacation; special thanks to Kath for providing us with just the right sense of balance between direction and independence, and to catering to all our whims! To all our tourmates, stay in touch and let us know where all your subsequent travel adventures take you. Enjoy this travelogue, it's only a taste of what we were able to taste in an amazing country.

Special thanks to Sue Kern, Gail Goldberg, and Dan Goldberg for the use of some of their photos. Do not use any of the photos on this site for commercial use without permission.

For those who wish, a CD is available with these pictures plus an 11-minute MPEG video documenting our visit to China. Please contact winston@yeungstuff.com for information.