Mark and Chuck’s adventures in China included eating incredible food, meeting local people, seeing how they live, and learning about their traditions. From climbing the Great Wall to seeing the Terracotta Warriors and giant pandas, it was the trip of a lifetime.
Mark and Chuck are a gay couple who have traveled together for nearly 25 years. Retired and living in Merida, Mexico, they travel the world, enjoying local food, meeting incredible people, and learning about local customs.
Lost Plate Food Tours is an absolute MUST DO when visiting China. Several years ago, when we were visiting Amsterdam, we did another food tour and now look for them everywhere we travel. I found Lost Plate Food Tours online and literally stalked them on Instagram, Facebook, their website, and YouTube! The owner is from…
Xi’an is known for its amazing dumplings, and it’s Dumplings Girls. During the Tang Dynasty beautiful women were curvy and voluptuous and their civilization was prosperous. The images of these dumpling girls are everywhere. Even as a modern day marketing symbol. On our first night in Xi’an we enjoyed the optional Dumpling Dinner. We looked…
After a very busy morning and another Over Abundance of food at lunch, we headed out to the Lintong District of Shaanxi China. The warriors were buried with the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Quang in 210 – 209 BC and were buried with him to protect him in the afterlife. They were discovered…
If it’s true that an army travels on its stomach, our tour group is a mighty army. I’m going to look at our food from a bunch of different angles … for any of you reading this who might take offense, sorry / not sorry. First off, this is China, if you’re coming here for…
The Buddhist pagoda was built between 649 and 683 for the Emperor Gaozong during the Tang Dynasty and stood 177ft tall. Empress Wu Zetian had the pagoda rebuilt and added 5 new stories by 704. In 1556 it was damaged by an earthquake and 3 stories were lost. It has not been rebuilt since then….
Before going any further, I would be remiss in not talking about the driving in Beijing and Xi’an. We think drivers in the US are crazy, here there seem to be no rules. Staying in your lane does not happen, they literally drive right on top of each other. Crossing the street you have to…
After we returned from a full day of sightseeing we went for a walk just a few blocks from the hotel to the Wangfujing Market. The market is actually a huge pedestrian walkway that looks much like Time Square in New York. It’s filled with very polished high-end stores, huge indoor shopping malls, and lots…
After a very busy morning and another awesome lunch we headed to the Summer Palace. We were fortunate that the drizzle stopped and we just ended up with a cloudy day. The crowds were very heavy today and it is still hard to get used to how the Chinese culture is so different from ours…
We started the day at 7:45 and were at Tiananmen Square by 8AM. We had a light drizzle to contend with but we were fortunate that it never got worse, just very gray. Between the drizzle and the cloud cover pictures seem a little dull. Smog was not bad today, they say the rain helps…
After our visit to the Temple of Heaven, we stopped at a local eatery and had an awesome lunch. Mark is posting about all the food. The next stop was the Great Wall; we were so looking forward to checking off another item from our bucket list to see all of the modern-day Great Wonders….