China

What a fascinating and huge country. Being so large there are an amazing array of experiences plus there are a multitude of UNESCO sites across the country. When I travelled to China in 2010, it was to a Conference held in Beijing including a trip to the Great Wall of China to walk along a very small part of it, followed by travels to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors and then to Chengdu to visit the Panda Research station. With huge distances to travel rail and flights are the best way to get around.

While in Beijing there is the former Olympic site (and the iconic Birdcage), the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We also enjoyed a rickshaw ride around the river area and old part of the city finishing with a sumptuous Chinese feast with Peking Duck. Walking on the Great Wall of China was a wonderful experience and you really get the sense of what a huge undertaking this construction was. In Xian, walking into the first Terracotta Soldiers Hall was breathtaking and to see over 6000 statues in an area of about 14,000m2 leaves a lifelong memory. This was only one of the halls and the scale of the site (98 km2), with much of it yet to be dug left me in awe.

This is an active archaeology dig site and it was great to be able to watch the archaeologists working. At Chengdu we visited the Panda Research Station and along with the iconic black and white pandas we also saw red pandas that look completely different. My recommendation is to travel here with assistance – personal tour guide or with a tour group rather than independently. Apart from Shanghai, in most places people speak no/very little English. From my own experience, while travels are going well this isn’t a problem, but if there are any problems, the situation is compounded by the language barrier.