We woke up Thursday morning overlooking the old city wall (circa 1420) from our hotel room. We headed to Tiananmen Square where we met up with Dillon. Unlike my last visit when the square was blocked off due to the biennial Communist Party Congress we were able to roam freely past Mao's mausoleum, the China National Museum, the Great Hall of the People (think US Congress but not open to the public) and the Monument to the People's Heroes. At the north end of t...

We managed to buy our own tickets and get on the correct train to Nanjing. We took one of the new bullet trains that went over 300 km/hr but capable of going even faster. However, due to a serious accident in 2010, the speeds have been limited to about 300. We wee looking forward to Nanjing as we would meet up with two families. We were greeted by both the Chen Family - cousins of my mentor Amos Lu- who had visited us at The Shack last summer where we took th...

After arriving on the overnight train, we checked into the Marriott City Centre and immediately set off to explore the city. We started at the Jewish Refugee Museum which is housed in a former synagogue that was established by Jewish refugees from Russia at the turn of the century. We also discovered that over 20,000 Jewish refugees escaped to Shanghai from Germany in the late 1930s including former US Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal who arrived in 1936 a...

We pulled out of HK station at 15:15 for our 18 hour overnight train to Shanghai. Skipping the comforts of a private cabin, we booked in the "hard sleeper" car which is comprised of 20 rows of beds stacked 3 high. Since we booked a little late, we all had top bunks which have a little extra space for luggage but still about the same size as the bunk I had for 2 nights on the USS Florida several years ago. As we had top bunks we also had access to some flip down ...

We arrived in HK late Wednesday night where we met up with Kathy at the JW Marriott who arrived from DC just a few hours earlier. We were excited to catch up but also looking forward to starting our 10 day visit through China. We stayed on Hong Kong island and enjoyed a breakfast overlooking Kowloon. On our way to the Peak we met the GM of the JW Marriott who offered to take us to on a personal tour of the opposite side of HK island. To reach The Peak (1800 f...