Dream of China

“ An open-ended adventure by Vic

Vic Rempel

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Vic Rempel
- Apr 7, 2018, 10:19am · ⛅ 6 °C Altitude: 63 m
  Beijing Dongheyan 39.868212, 116.18957539°52’6” N 116°11’22” E
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Day14
Leaving Beijing
April 7, 2018 in China ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C
Almost 10:30am and ready to leave for the Beijing Airport. Some last pictures from our hotel area.
Mary Penner
Safe travels!
4/7/18Reply
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 7, 2018, 12:18am · 🌙 4 °C Altitude: 28 m
  Beijing Longshancun 40.070634, 116.60700340°4’14” N 116°36’25” E
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Day14
Flight home
April 7, 2018 in China ⋅ 🌙 4 °C
Started to load the plane at 3:10 with scheduled departure at 3:25. Then once on the plane they advised there will be a further delay as they had not finished fueling the plane. Finally started to taxi at 4:00pm 35 minutes late so we are hoping that our shortened connecting time of 1.5 hours is enough to clear customs and catch our flight to Winnipeg. Got to Vancouver and they have already rebooked us on a later flight to Winnipeg. It will be a long travel day arriving around 10 pm.Read more
Mary Penner
Thanks for the update. Take care. From your all your pictures it looks like you had a wonderful holiday!!
4/7/18Reply
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 6, 2018, 7:17pm · 🌙 6 °C Altitude: 63 m
  Beijing Dongheyan 39.868453, 116.18982239°52’6” N 116°11’23” E
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Day13
Last Night in Beijing
April 6, 2018 in China ⋅ 🌙 6 °C
Arrived in Beijing train station at 9:30pm. Another 45 minute bus ride to the hotel. Departing tomorrow at 10:30 am for the airport to go home. Had a great vacation but looking forward to returning to a slower pace.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 6, 2018, 2:37pm · 🌬 14 °C Altitude: 199 m
  Henan Guoxiaozhai 34.650416, 113.55045434°39’1” N 113°33’2” E
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Day13
Zhengzheu to Beijing
April 6, 2018 in China ⋅ 🌬 14 °C
Traveled by coach to Zhengzheu to catch a bullet train to Beijing. This is a 3 hour trip traveling at approximately 300 km per hour. Great way to travel with lots of room and comfortable ride. Although they have security and X-ray scans of luggage at the train station entrance the staff are very young and quite inexperienced creating a lot of confusion and unnecessary searches of our luggage.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 6, 2018, 7:02am · 🌬 11 °C Altitude: 148 m
  Henan Niewan 34.667908, 112.4200434°40’4” N 112°25’12” E
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Day13
Temple Shaolin
April 6, 2018 in China ⋅ 🌬 11 °C
The Shaolin Monastery also known as the Shaolin Temple, is a Chan ("Zen") Buddhist temple in Dengfeng County, Henan Province, China. Dating back 1,500 years when founded by Fang Lu-Hao, Shaolin Temple is the main temple of the Shaolin school of Buddhism to this day.

Watched Kung Fu demonstrations. There are 35,000 students learning the art of Kung Fu at this location. Again there were hundreds of thousands of visitors here today giving a new perspective of crowded spaces. Interestingly the crowd was quite orderly.

We were often asked to pose for pictures with local visitors and exchange a few words of English.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 5, 2018, 9:26pm · ⛅ 18 °C Altitude: 161 m
  Henan Niewan 34.668869, 112.42030334°40’8” N 112°25’13” E
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Day12
Nightlife in Luoyang
April 5, 2018 in China ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Ate supper then booked into our hotel and went for a walk. Drivers and pedestrians have a total disregard for traffic lights, rules and each other. I’m amazed that there are not more accidents that we have seen.

It is not unusual to see families with their children on one scoter as shown in the picture. Even infants are tucked away on the floor in front of the driver. Forget about baby car seats.

Came across a group of seniors exercising on the sidewalk and were very friendly.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 5, 2018, 5:02pm · ⛅ 15 °C Altitude: 145 m
  Henan Guanlin 34.595078, 112.46929534°35’42” N 112°28’9” E
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Day12
Longmen Grotto
April 5, 2018 in China ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Toured the Longmen grotto. Because today was a national holiday they estimated there were approximately 500,000 visitors alongside us today.

The Longmen Grottoes are some of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of present-day Luoyang in Henan province, China. The images, many once painted, were carved as outside rock reliefs and inside artificial caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of the Xiangshan and Longmenshan mountains, running east and west.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 5, 2018, 11:20am · ☁️ 8 °C Altitude: 144 m
  Henan Litun 34.596639, 112.45162534°35’48” N 112°27’6” E
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Day12
Luoyong
April 5, 2018 in China ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
Arrived from Xi’an by bullet train. Very comfortable and quite. We were a little worried about getting off the train with all our baggage because it only stops for 2 minutes at each stop but good planning and coordination by our tour guide made it quite easy

Population of Luoyang is 6.8 million, small by China standards.

Yellow River tributary shown in the picture.

Low profile toilets are standard in most public washrooms but hotels have western style toilets.

English translations for the lavatory sink are google translations so that would explain why they don’t make much sense.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 5, 2018, 6:54am · 🌫 8 °C Altitude: 415 m
  Shaanxi Yanta 34.231107, 108.95157434°13’52” N 108°57’6” E
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Day12
Leaving Xi'an to Luoyang
April 5, 2018 in China ⋅ 🌫 8 °C
Leaving for the train station to catch a high speed bullet train to Luoyang.

When we ask how long the bus trip will be to the various locations the standard answer often is about one and a half hours depending on traffic. LOL.

Streets and highways are beautifully manicured with shrubs, flowers and trees everywhere.

Lots of farm land between Xi’an and Luoyang. 70% of China’s population are farmers.Read more
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Vic Rempel
- Apr 4, 2018, 10:18pm · ☁️ 8 °C Altitude: 416 m
  Shaanxi Yanta 34.231614, 108.95228634°13’54” N 108°57’8” E
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Day11
Dumpling Dinner and Cultural Show
April 4, 2018 in China ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
Lovely dinner of 18 dumpling varieties. Some had interesting flavours but most were eaten and enjoyed. On to Louyang early tomorrow morning by high speed train.

The Chinese are celebrating tomb sweeping festival during the next 3 days which is a traditional Chinese festival on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4 or 5 April in a given year. People will burn pretend money on street intersections in a circle to show respect for family members who have died. We saw a number of these fires while traveling around today and now know what it represents. Traffic is expected to be quite congested over the next couple of days as a result.Read more
Mary Penner
Beautiful photos!
4/4/18Reply
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