Yes, I admit it, we’re both of the age where we remember the big orange roofs. I vaguely remember milkshakes and floats but not more than that. I went to college in Hyde Park New York in 1981 and remember seeing one up the road from the school. I think my parents stayed there when…
The name should have been enough… We REALLY like spicy food, we have a jar of Thai hot peppers in fish sauce in the refrigerator at home, we ate our way through Thailand… but this took us to a new level. We arrived in Chengdu by the new high-speed bullet train, it just opened a…
One of the ONLY things we didn’t really enjoy out of the entire trip was a stop for lunch on the way to see the Xi’an Terracotta Warriors. Most of our meals had been served family style and were Chinese food. This is was actually at a beautiful 5 Star hotel with immaculate western style…
After our visit to the Leshan Stone Buddha we stopped at this village on our way to Chengdu. It is an historic village dating back 1700 years. The village has been restored to its original charm but most of the original buildings have been turned into stores for souvenirs or food. We really enjoyed experiencing…
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…
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…
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…
So, as you probably noticed Chuck is tackling all of the touring and I’ll be working on the hotel and food posts… Our first experience with Gate 1 Travel was our trip to Thailand a few years back and we found that the hotels and meals were very good. We were actually REALLY surprised when…
We started the day at 7:45 and were at Tiananmen Square by 8AM. Â We had a light drizzle to contend with but we were fortunate that it never got worse, just very gray. Â Between the drizzle and the cloud cover pictures seem a little dull. Smog was not bad today, they say the rain helps…