• Mark Holmes
  • Mark Holmes

China March 2019

14 day tour of China with 4 day Yangztze River Cruise - Gate1 Travel Leer más
  • Three Gorges Dam

    30 de marzo de 2019, China ⋅ 🌧 54 °F

    Heading on a rainy day to the Dam. On a bus where I can’t hear the local Guide. Not good. Talking about his relatives selling oranges through WeChat and online. Oranges are big in this area

    This Dam is 6x the size of the Hoover Dam, the largest hydroelectric project ever attempted by man Many people were relocated to make room for this. Well over a 1.4 million people had to be relocated all over China. For a whole lot more info on the Dam check out this link - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2006…

    This was definitely a day for muckers rained solid all day which made it hard for pics. Enormous number of people. On an avg day - 10,000. Highest number - 43000. I can’t imagine.

    Pics are going to be very hard to upload. Connection speeds for uploads are abysmal
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  • Wu Gorge

    31 de marzo de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 54 °F

    Continuing our voyage up the Gorges

  • Jade Emperor Scenic Area - Fengdu

    1 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Per Gate 1 , a slight change in our itinerary today

    “Based on customer feedback, the Shibaozhai excursion has been replaced with an excursion to the Jade Emperor Scenic Area in Fengdu in order to improve your overall experience. The Jade Emperor is a prominent deity in Chinese Taoism, and this site features the largest statue of the Jade Emperor in the world, as well as views of the valley below.”

    Peaceful morning - rather foggy along the river banks. Lots of construction going on. China is all about construction - making huge strides but so many people! Huge challenges to say the least. Going to a lecture in a few moments about harvesting fresh water pearls.
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  • Jade Emperor Temple

    1 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    A rather kitschy representation of the Buddha and an actual little town built up around this area which reminds me of Gatlinburg or something. Would have preferred what they originally had on the itinerary. A bit more info on Fengdu and how it survived the rising flood waters caused by the Three Gorges Dam can be found here. Actually the city had to be relocated to the other side of the river. http://discovery.cathaypacific.com/a-chinese-gh…Leer más

  • Last night on Victoria Anna

    1 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    After a nice stroll along a city park where we were greeted with great curiosity and lots of stares and a few friendly hellos, Janet and I returned to the ship where we chilled till dinner time, just talking with new friends (a very nice group of people- one of the things I really enjoy about Gate 1 trips).

    Had the Captains dinner tonight. Our servers are two of the nicest young ladies with fantastic smiles, that make dinner an enjoyable experience.
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  • Exploring old town Chongquin

    2 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Fantastic market place with tons of people. Tom led us to a nice place for lunch where we all shared about 6 different dishes. Good thing he was there as no one spoke English. Used my google translate app to ask a girl in the restaurant if I could take a picture of the back of her T-shirt. It actually worked! She was all excited about it. Later on the street had different young Chinese girls come up to me to take a selfie with me. Too funny. Used it again with an old man who came up to me trying to figure out who I was. Put in “ I’m an American” and he got all excited and went back to tell his buddies. Huge smiles all around!!Leer más

  • Excelsior International Hotel - Xian

    2 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Jessica is our tour guide for Xian. She talked non stop on the way from the airport. Hotel is awesome. Gate1 is knocking it out of the park with these hotels. We checked in and then we went out for a bit to explore street vendors. Great time. Ended up in a noodle shop slurping big bowls of noodles and drinking local beer. A stop at the pharmacy to pick up drugs as many folks are coming down with colds.Leer más

  • Lunch at hotel

    3 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    Stopped at fancy hotel for lunch. For some reason they decided we needed an American meal. No we didn’t and it was only fair at best, so hopefully they scratch that one off the itinerary in the future. I would have rather had Chinese food on a stickLeer más

  • At the Terracotta Warriors

    3 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    Now this is a huge operation. Visited by some 3.5 million yearly. Fascinating exhibit. Spent about 3 hrs here. Tons of pics here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army…https://maps.apple.com/?ll=34.385000,109.273056…Leer más

  • to Xian airport - flight to Beijing

    4 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

    Had to have luggage out last night at 10:30 after we got back from the dinner theater. Breakfast at 5:45. Flight at 9 am

    Arrived airport at 7:40am. Onboard at 8:36. Landed at 11:05 am. Had some yogurt onboard The Chinese have the most delicious tasting yogurt. Sweeter than ours back home. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nai_lao?wprov=s…

    3 nights in Beijing coming up. Looking pretty smoggy at the airport as we land around 11am
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  • Beijing airport

    4 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    21 million people live in Beijing -4x the size of NYC. Some of the pollution coming from the sand of the Gobi Desert that blows through in the form of sandstorms. They’re planting more and more trees to help block some of that. Every person is responsible for contributing to the planting of 5 trees each yearLeer más

  • Novotel Hotel

    4 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    Arrived here at 5:30 pm. Going for a city walk with Tom in 30 minutes long day. Beautiful hotel - central location. After a 1 hr rest, we went out to explore the main shopping area. Lot of high find stuff here - Prada, Cartier, etc. also a lot of food vendors on side streets. Check out my wiggling scorpions video that are then fried and eaten on a stick! I couldn’t get enough of them!! Other shots from our city walks (Hutong area, drum tower)Leer más

  • On way to the Great Wall

    5 de abril de 2019, China ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    Beautiful day out. Air quality 67 vs 176 yesterday - actual blue skies!! Note of interest - the bricks in the Great Wall would circle the world twice. Also the one thing visible from space or so the astronauts claim

    Today is a Memorial Day in China where people pay respect to the lives of loved ones who have passed away

    Kids are off school today. No tolls charged on the roads

    Next year for the first time Chinese visitors to the US will surpass US. Visitors to China. A visa for the Chinese to come to the US costs the same as our visa to China
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