The Petersen Oriental Express!

 We're off to China on the 15/4/11 for an adventure and will spend the following 2 weeks whizzing around trying to speak our limited Mandarin, soaking up the culture and enjoying the food on our
Oriental Express!

We are doing a family tour to cover the major destinations, which will take out all the stress of organising for us.  IndoChina does a small group family tour with a handful of  other Aussie families and they make it really kid friendly so Hollander and Oren will hopefully get alot out of it and have some great memories and experiences to take home with them.  The tour starts in Beijing and ends in Shanghai where we will catch up with our family who live there and do a bit more exploring of the near by water towns on the Grand Canal before flying home.

The itinery includes:
Beijing where we explore hutongs (old alley ways & traditional housing compounds) by rickshaw, visit the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Drum Tower, fly a kite at the Temple of Heaven, visit giant Pandas, toboggan down the Great Wall at Mutianyu, and watch a Kung Fu Show.

Xian we take an over night train to Xian, home of the 2000 year old Terracotta Warrior's and the Chinese Muslim community, we cycle the ancient city walls and explore the Muslim Quarter.

Guilin & Yangshuo: we cruise down the Li River past the limestone mountains to Yangshuo, where the locals will teach us to pain traditional landscapes and perform Tai Chi, visit the Reed Flute Caves. Cycle through the rice paddies.

Shanghai  explore the old colonial architecture of the Bund, and the new Pudong district and see an acrobatic performance.

And hopefully with Auncle Victor as our guide visit Zhujiajiao, Wuzhen & Suzhou canal towns along the famous Grand Canal.

We're trying to pack light almost impossible, feeling excited and apprehensive at the same time but Im sure we'll have a great experience.

Keep you posted!

Zaijian
(goodbye)

Early easter egg hunt at Nanna's