From Shanghai, we flew down to Yangshuo for three days to explore the beautiful karst mountains. A spectacular spot, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate to give us the views we were hoping for, such a bummer. On from there to Chengdu, primarily to see the pandas, which did not disappoint! So fun to be able to feed them and help to care for them, as well as to watch the babies romp around. They really couldn’t have been any cuter, we ended up doing a second visit as we couldn’t get enough of them.
From there it was on to the town of Xizhou, outside of the city of Dali, for a stay at the Linden Centre. The Linden Centre is a wonderfully restored heritage hotel that is run by two Americans. The hotel is beautiful – the location and the traditional architecture / design – but also they do a great job of helping their guests engage in the local community and culture. We loved our stay here and would go again for sure – hiking, cooking classes, local markets, hot springs visit, and just meeting some very warm and interesting people.
From there we went to Xi’an for a far-too-short visit to see the Terracotta Warriors. Amazing to see, both the age of the site (2,220+ years) as well as the tremendous work and detail that went into it. Wish we’d had more time to explore the city itself as there is much history here.
From there we went on to Beijing for our final stop!
Chengdu – pandas and local historical sites:
Xizhou (Dali) – Linden Centre:
Yangshuo
Xi’an / Terracotta Warriors:
Fosters on the Fly 