Pictures from China

This is a picture of Ash and Ash (yes, there were two Ash's on the trip) at the Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant were we had dinner on the first day of the trip in Beijing.

The following are a couple pictures from the Great Wall:

One difference between China and the U.S. are the toilets. Needless to say, some people didn't feel quite as comfortable using these facilities.

These are soldiers marching outside of the Forbidden City.



Here is an interesting advertisement for KFC in Zhu Jia Jiao (a water town an hour dirve from Shanghai)--chicken is very popular in China! Over half of the menu at McDonalds is chicken sandwiches as well.



This is a picture of the TV tower in Shanghai. The next picture is from the Urban Planning Museum--they have planned out all the construction through 2010.

The following is a picture from the silk "factory" that we visited. This was the only machine in the room, and I'm pretty sure they stopped after we left the room. This was by far the most expensive place we visited!

Here is an example from the Yu Garden of some of the translation issues you run into all the time.

On our trip from Shanghai to Hong Kong we rode on the fastest commercial train in the world. It cost $1.2 billion dollars to build an 18mile track. The train travels a top speed of 268 mph and the ride is about seven minutes long. Interestingly, a train from L.A. to Las Vegas using maglev technology has been recently proposed.

Because gambling is illegal in China, Macau has become a huge tourist spot and many people believe it will be the world's next Vegas within 10 years. The Wynn opened up just three months ago, and the whole city is under construction (The Venetian and the MGM, among others, are expected to be finished this year). The gambling revenues in Macau have already surpassed Las Vegas, but one important thing that hasn't is the ambiance. There is nothing resembling The Strip in Macau, which makes it almost impossible to travel from casino to casino.

The last few days of our trip we spent in Hong Kong. This city is absolutely amazing--it is a combination of New York, San Francisco and Miami and I would definitely consider living there.