About 1-1/2 years ago my oldest son Nate started a new business, a non-profit run, eco-tours in China, Dragon’s Village, http://www.dragonsvillage.org/. We had talks about the tours he would offer and as one would expect I gave my opinion. My ideas included tours I’d like to take: a Great Wall trek and exploring the Silk Road is a couple of them.
Last spring my brother Mike had been talking with my Mom and she was telling him about the trip to China I took them on. My mom was telling me about her conversation later and I offered to go with him to China in order to visit the places that my parents had visited. We were able to get our tickets departing this May 15.
On Friday I had promised my niece Sara (Mike’s youngest daughter) that I’d visit her shop in Lancaster, so it worked out well to fit in a visit to Mike. Three of us needed to sit down for an initial meeting to start running thru ideas for our trip.
Because I’ve visited China and this is Mike’s first trip I gave ideas for places I’ve really enjoyed but I want for him to see things that he would like too. I’ll go back someday for the trekking. For myself I plan to take my big camera and tripod for a mega photo tour.
By the time we got to Lancaster it was 8:30pm. Sara wasn’t at her shop, turns out she was sleeping. But we grabbed some dinner, met with Sara at her shop and then were off to Mike’s house.
Nate and Ryan, (his brother-in-law who is also involved in Dragon’s Village) sat down with Mike and me to discuss our upcoming trip. I’d already suggested The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Terra Cotta Warriors, Longmans Grotto in Luoyang and Youngshou. Mike had found an art area and would like to see the Yangtze River and Dam.
Nate was great when he asked what kind of tour we’d like to have, a tour of sites or maybe visiting some villages too. We discussed the type of trip we’d like and Nate laid out some options for us. He suggested that we look at some other places as well that would be new to me: Inner Mongolia, Xiahe Village & Jinziagou, Chengdu & Chongging, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, Nanjing, Hangzhou & Suzhou. These are places that we can look up on-line.
12 days in China but so little time. So many decisions to make so quickly.
Sounds like a fascinating trip. All this preparation will pay off and even the decisions that aren't made will lead to other kinds of adventures. I'm looking forward to tagging along.
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard!
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