Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Author: Brynn

  • Day 11: Nanjing First Impressions

    We arrived safe and sound with very little trouble in Nanjing. We got ourselves booked into our hotel (woohoo!) and unpacked our bags for the first time. The hotel is a little more than we budgeted for but we couldn’t find a decent hostel and it sure is nice to…

  • Day 10: Going East

    I’m writing this post as a way to pass time during our 16 hour train journey east across China. We left Xian this afternoon and should arrive in Hefei tomorrow morning around 6. Then we have to get another train (fingers crossed) to Nanjing. This train is considerably nicer than…

  • Day 9: Buddha’s Finger

    Yesterday we made the two hour journey outside Xian to see the temple that houses one of Buddhas fingers. We had originally planned to go on a tour while in Xian to visit a nearby panda research base not realizing that it was closed until after we had arrived and…

  • Day 8: The Terracotta Warriors

    We headed out on our own yesterday opting out of the many tours to see what we came to Xian to see – The Terracotta Warriors. The clay army was built around 200 BC at the request of the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang. The massive army was…

  • Day 7: The Great Wal-Mart

    Well we survived both our massage and the first overnight train experience. The foot massage ended up being quite enjoyable but the neck and back massage almost had me in tears and I’m pretty sure I have bruises. I actually squealed at one point. The overnight train was much the…

  • Pictures

    Looks like we won’t be able to get any pictures up until we leave mainland China. Maybe Hong Kong will let us upload but we seem to be blocked. Sorry!

  • Day 5&6: Ni Hao Pingyao

    Jacob and I had the absolute pleasure of staying in Pingyao last night and today. It’s a small town about halfway between Beijing and Xi’an that is stuck in the late eighteenth early nineteenth century. Pingyao was one of the first banking centres in China and so had city walls…

  • Day 4: Saving the Best for Last

    Well I think I can safely say that today was one of the highlights of my life. We spent the day hiking along the Great Wall at Jinshaling (about 3 hours outside of Beijing). I don’t think it’s even possible to describe just how incredible it actually is. This was…