China

 – By Kishan Sonpal

Have you ever wondered about China – its beautiful landscape, culture and artifacts?  Let me tell you all about it. 

China is the fourth largest country in the world but it has the highest population of the world.  It is located in Central Asia.  Its neighbors are Kazakhstan, India, Russia, Mongolia, Nepal and many more.

This past summer, I was fortunate to visit China.  We started our trip from Shanghai.  It is famous for the Bund Riverside and Nanjing Street.  The Bund Riverside is a place where people go to enjoy the beautiful view of downtown Shanghai.  At night the water view is absolutely gorgeous.  All the buildings are lit up and thousands of locals and tourists come to the riverside to enjoy the view.  Some of the famous buildings are the Oriental Pearl TV tower and bottle opener Financial Tower.  Nanjing Street is must see because it is a one-stop shopping alley.  It is just fun to see people shopping and vendors selling.  The best part of Shanghai was flying kites on Bund Riverside in the morning.

From Shanghai we took a cruise on Yangtze River.  Yangtze River is the third longest river in the world and we experienced beautiful gorges along the way.

Next stop – Xian is just mind blowing.  It is most famous for the Terra Cotta Army museum.   Did you know that it has over two thousand life size clay soldiers that all have different expression on their faces?  These soldiers were built for Emperor Qin.  His wish was that when he dies he wanted to be surrounded by clay soldiers.  We were lucky to meet one of the farmers who discovered the site and get his autograph on the book.  We went to a local restaurant for eighteen course dumpling dinner.  One of my favorite parts was the Tang Dynasty Show. 

Our last stop was Beijing.  Beijing is the best combination of old and new.  On one side, it has the famous Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Winter and Summer Palaces and on the other side, it has the modern buildings such as the Bird’s Nest and the Ice Cube in Olympic Village.  Bird’s Nest is the building where all the gymnastics took place and all the swimming competitions took place in Ice Cube building.  The Great Wall of China is one of the wonders of the world.  Did you know that it is about four thousand miles long?  We did climb to the second base, it was exhausting but worth the climb.

The history, architecture, landscape and most of the people were so beautiful that they will have a special place in my heart.