The Hill Family

After X'ian we hopped on a plane to Guilin.  All of us had recovered from sickness but Simon.  Poor guy really had the worst of it.  We took the first day in Guilin to rest and recover.  The second day we did a little venturing out and Simon finally regained his strength.   Sun and Moon Towers This is outside one of the hills that we climbed for a view of Guilin.              Reed Flute Cave                                        From Guilin we headed to the small city of Yangshuo.  I love these backpacker towns that we visit.  This area is famous for the karst topgraphy, and looks like nothing else we have ever seen.  The pictures don't really do it justice, but just help remind us of how beautiful the place is. Moon Hill We climbed to the top of the hill with the kids o...

We took a night train from Datong to X'ian.  When we woke up in X'ian it was my birthday!  We decided to head straight to the Terracotta Warriors and it was a great choice for many reasons.  First, because it was my birthday, and I think that is a pretty awesome way to spend it and second, because the next day Simon, Auburn and I got the flu. The Terracotta Warriors This is one of the main attractions that we wanted to see in China and we were not disappointed.  The Terracotta Warriors were built to protect Emperor in his afterlife.  There are three pits with an current estimate of 8,000 soliders and 520 horses. All of the faces of the warriors are different.  They were originally all holding spears or swords and were painted different colors. A happy little traveller This is the first and biggest pit.  These pits were discovered by farmers in 1974 while they were digging a well for water.  These guys were buried for over 2,00...

Chengde After Beijing we headed to Chengde for a couple days.  It is about a four-five hour train ride outside of Beijing.  Chengde was the summer getaway for the royal family.  There is a huge mountain resort and then the Eight Outer Temples around it that are all considered part of this resort.   Putuo Zongcheng Palace This was built to resemble the Potala Palce in Tibet which was the home of the Dalai Lama until he fled to India.  It was built for the Emperor's birthday, what a gift. Sledgehammer Peak The taxi driver dropped us off and pointed to the ticket office.  When we got there we thought we were paying for entrance to a temple.  Apparently we bought tickets for the funicular that takes you up to Sledgehammer Peak.  We were thinking about hiking up to it anyway.  We took the funicular up and hiked down.  We eventually found the temple that we wanted to go to after a couple hour detour.  M...