China or Bust
Beijing, Shanghai, Yangtze River and Xian
April, 2013
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Midnight Check-in at LAX
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Maggie and Elsa
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10 Minutes to Go, after an All Night 12 hour Flight
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Our Arrival at 5:00 AM
The First of many High-Rise Apartment Buildings
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Catching the Train to Airport Baggage Claim
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The Weary Travelers gather their luggage in Beijing
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Heading toward the city
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Dreaming of Breakfast
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Dazed Travelers Emerge from Breakfast, Survive First Meal
Now, on to Touring for the rest of the Day
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It's not a Car, It's a Motorcycle with a Body
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Checking Out her New Ride
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Close the Door, and I'm Outa Here
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Entrance to Beijing Olympic Park
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Our Honorable Leader in Beijing
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The "Bird's Nest" Stadium
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Rub the Shiny Paw for Good Luck
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Palace of Verano
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Cherry Blossom Time
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Entrance to Long Corridor
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Chinese liked to have photo with Blondina
The first of many pictures
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Dragon Boat
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Boarding Dragon Boat
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Will you ever figure it out?
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Maggie's Room Mate
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Even Chinese People are taller than Elsita
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You Can't Go to China and Not See:
The Jade Factory
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Left: Jade Eagle. Right: Elsita
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This Jade Boat is For Sale
If you Have to Ask the Price, You Can't Afford It
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You can shine Light through this Jade Bowl
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Acres of Jade
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Honorable Guide tells us who is buried in the Ming Tombs
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Accidental Tourists visit the main Ming Tomb
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Buddha is Offering Cash to the Masses
Just Scoop some Up
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Spring is in the Air
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Lest Lightning Strike thy Smartphone
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One of the Thirteen Ming Tombs
The Main Sacred Way
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Of Course you need a Ticket
The Construction Loan is 1000 Years Delinquent
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This is the first of many Steps
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Princess Elsa Visits The Great Wall of China
Now We can Go Home
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From the Start at Station 7
You can see Stations 8 , 9 and 10
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On the way to Station 8
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Station 8, ahead, with 9, following, and 10 at the top of the Hill
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You Have Been Warned
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The High Point of My Trip, Station 9
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It's all Downhill from Here
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The Wall is more than 2000 miles long
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There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers along the Great Wall
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On the Road back to Beijing
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Tiananmen Square
with a million of our close friends
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Mao overlooks The Tiananmen, or Gate of Heavenly Peace
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The Forbidden City is also known as the Forbidden Palace
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The inner courtyards are endless
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There are 980 buildings in the Palace
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It's a 3 Km walk inside the Palace
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The higher your status, the more Gargoyles you have on your Temple
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Leaving the Forbidden City at the Shenwumen Gate
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Here you can get Homely Style Food
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Buddha Welcomes you to Lunch
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Typical Lunch Service
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You can always Buy Something after Lunch
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The Medicinal Slices in these drawers will cure anything
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It's either the Liver or the Pancreas or the Spleen
They're all in there, duking it out
Who would like a free diagnosis ?
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Really, Doc, Is it that Bad?
No, $300.00 of our Medicinal Slices will fix her up, good as new.
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Preparing Peking Duck in Peking
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Cheating at Cards, outside the Temple of Heaven
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Twenty Yuan gets you into the Temple of Heaven
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A little Slice of Heaven
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Last shot of Beijing, the Tiananmen at Night
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Arriving Shanghai, construction is endless
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Well, almost endless
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The Grump and Elsita board the Golf Cart to TongLi
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Entering Tongli, a 1000 year old Village
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The Grand Metro Park Hotel, Suzhou
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Pretty Comfy
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Nice digs
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So modern, we couldn't figure out the phone
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Western Guests get a Western Toilet
Public Places have one of these.
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Tea Ceremony in the Hotel Lobby
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Even Sunny days aren't Sunny in China
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Karen, our new guide in Shanghai
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Going for a boat ride
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Boat Ride, Suzhou
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Boat Ride, Suzhou
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Boat Ride, Suzhou
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Boat Ride, Suzhou
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You Can't Go to China and Not See:
The Silk Factory
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Silk Worms, Slaving Away in the Silk Factory
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Out with the Bad Cocoons
On with the Good Cocoons
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Cocoons floating in water, ready to be unwound
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The silk strands are woven into a fabric
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The fabric is stretched to make silk comforters
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The Lingering Gardens
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Arranging Rocks is a Big Deal
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We Omnivorously Obliged
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Taking Wife for a Shopping Trip
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Prayer Candles ouside Buddhist Temple
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Into Every Life, a little Rain Must Fall
View from our Hotel Room
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Rain or Shine, the Shopping Must Go On
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The Great Mall of China
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Huge Garden inside the Mall
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Dragons bring Good Luck to All Who Enter Here
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Entrance to the Art Museum
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Inner Courtyard, Art Museum
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Patrons of the Arts
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Flying Dragon
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You Can't Go to China and Not See:
The Carpet Factory
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An Intricate Design, taking Months to Complete
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Those Damn Tourists...
Now I've Lost the Count
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This Silk Carpet can be yours for US $10,000
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The Facts Finally Come Out
All those years you thought it was a Mongolian BBQ
It was really a Monogolian BBQ
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Shanghai at Night
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Mercedes Dealer, Shanghai
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The Bund at Night
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Shanghai at Night
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Shanghai at Night
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Shanghai at Night
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OK, Boys and Girls
This is what we call a traffic jam...
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And now we can read the reason why traffic is slow
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Here's the real reason traffic is slow...
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Too many people live here
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Approaching the Shanghai Bund
The word "bund" means "embankment"
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The towers are across the river
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The Accidental Tourists in Shanghai
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Our Newport Beach Neighbors
Fred and Claudene
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We don't know any of these people
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On a clear day, you can see
across the river
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Some parts of Shanghai are very Modern
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Some are Not
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You Can't Go to China and Not See:
The Pearl Factory
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Stealing Pearl from an Oyster
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On the Road, Again, to the Airport
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Are we in America or China?
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Departing Shanghai Airport for the Yangtze River Cruise
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Our Ship for the Yangtze River Cruise
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Assemble in the Dining Room for Room Keys at Midnight
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An Early Morning Departure on the Yangtze River
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Another Sunny Day in China
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A typical River Cruise Ship
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Fresh Fish
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Elsa admiring the Locks at the Three Gorges Dam
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Escalator to the Dam and Locks Viewing Area
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Which One Should I Adopt?
Observation Area, Three Gorges Dam
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Aerial View of the 5 Locks in each Direction
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Upper Locks at the Three Gorges Dam
Five Locks stretch over 6.4 Km
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Lower Locks at the Three Gorges Dam
The Water Level Difference is 133 Meters
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A Model of the Dam, left, and the Locks, right
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Our ship is on the outside.
One walks through the inside ship to get to shore
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Welcome to the Captain's Party
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Where a Good Time was had by All
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Evening Entertainment on Ship
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Couple from Laguna Beach
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Waiting for Our Turn to go Upstream through the Locks
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Entering the First Lock
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After We're In, the Door on the Left Closes behind Us
And the water level is raised about 25 meters
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Inside the Lock
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The Accidental Tourists at Work
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Another Ship, Waiting Behind US
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The Lock is Full and the Doors are Closing
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The Boats ahead are both close to the wall
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And so are we
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Up Early in the Morning
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The Happy Crew
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Docking the next morning
Our Neighbors, Diane and Maggie
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Never a shortage of Construction
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A side trip on a smaller boat
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The boat had two engines like this
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With a neatly organized set of spares
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End of the line for motoring
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Now we need even smaller boats
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Up a Lazy River
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Can I Steer for a While?
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Boat Races
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Bridge to Somewhere
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Hanging Coffins, wedged into cracks in the rocks
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Back on the Yangtze River
Another Sunny Day
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Inspiration for the 10 Yuan Note
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The 10 Yuan Note
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Now 400 miles upstream, the river is getting more shallow
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Ready to do battle at another shopping mall
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Would you like a pig's nose for dinner?
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Where we are walking up to next...
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Now far above the river
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Temples in the Sky
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If you rub the bowl properly, the water will be thrown out
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The temple at the top
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Elsa sat this one out
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Back at the ship
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Time for a shine, 5 Yuan or 75 Cents
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Another sunny day...
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Maybe 200 pounds?
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Porters taking luggage off the ship in the rain
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Where's the Beef ?
Under the Pickle !
On the Flight to Xian...
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Welcome to Xian... and more construction
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On the City Wall, Xian
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Temple, Xian
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"Dear Buddha, I Need more Shoes"
"Dear Elsa, Your Wish Has Been Granted"
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Morning Traffic, Xian
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You Can't Go to China and Not See:
The Terra Cotta Warriors Factory
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The Terra Cotta Factory
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The Terra Cotta Factory
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A Warrior for a Minute
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Entrance to Terra Cotta Warrior Museum
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The Main Museum Building covering Pit 1
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Acres of Warriors
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Acres of Warriors
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These wariiors have been reconstructed
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An American Warrior visits the Chinese Warriors
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Partially reassembled warriors
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Last Evening Dinner Show
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Last Evening Dinner Show
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Last Evening Dinner Show
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Heading for the Airport ... and home
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Changing Planes in Beijing
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Almost Home
17 Minutes to Go
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Over Malibu
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The 405 Freeway never looked so good
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Los Angeles International Airport, at last