Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Planes, Trains and Busses

Our plans for getting out of Kunming and exploring a little bit of China is fast approaching. On January 17, we're headed to Sichuan Province (the province just to the north of Yunnan). First stop is Chongqing (less than 90 minutes by plane). It's a big city with plenty to do and see, but our primary reason for visiting is to see Serena and her family. Serena is an English teacher we hosted for six weeks during the summer of 2006. She and her husband now have a baby and it'll be wonderful to see her again and meet her family. On January 21 we will take a 5 hour bus ride west to Chengdu. Chengdu is home to the famous giant pandas. Carlos especially (major panda fan) can't wait for that part of the trip. Then on the 25th, we will board a train for the 18 hour trip back to Kunming. This will be the first train ride for the kids. And we are anxious to see some of western China's landscape.

When we return, we will have a month more of vacation time (classes resume February 25). There are several sights near Kunming that take a full day to do, so in February, we plan to see as much of those as possible. The Chinese New Year is a two week holiday starting Febraury 7. Travel is difficult and expensive during this time and that's why we opted to stay local. On February 8, a fellow CCC colleague from Shanghai will be traveling through the area and it'll be nice to catch up with Helene. Maybe other people we know might be coming through, as Kunming is the gateway for very scenic Yunnan province.

Because of my schedule (classes ended December 28, but have a final exam to administer on January 10), we have a three day trip planned for January 6-8 to nearby Dali. We will see snow where it belongs - on mountain tops!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Say hi to Serena for us...and send us a picture of her baby! She was so delicate that it is hard for us to think of her being pregnant.

Keep those blog missiles coming. We enjoy them all.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous comment was posted by Katie and Jim in TC