15 Days to China…

Great Wall of China

First, let me say I apologize for the lack of posting. I’ve been busy trying to get ready for my trip to China in between working, biking, and seeing family. I’ve spent the last few weeks determining the type of travel gear, buying the gear, and waiting for it to arrive. I know I could pack the night before the trip and probably be OK, but I want to be able to just pick up my bag and head to the airport on August 29th. I’m excited to report that the last of the things has arrived today. I know I am a few posts behind in the credit card points and travel gear subjects. I do want to put together a post regarding all the travel related things I am taking with me to China and provide updates on my points earnings with the U.S. Mint coins. What I want to write about right now is…my trip to China. I wanted to share my thoughts and perspective on this trip now that it’s so close to actually happening. I have had a serious interest in visiting China for quite sometime.

Terra Cotta Warrior in Xi'an

One of the things that helped make that made me say, “China is my next destination” was the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Seeing the “Water Cube” and “Bird’s Nest” on television made me thing to myself that I should get over there and see them in person. Adding to that was my interest in walking the Great Wall. I would say that seeing and walking on the Great Wall is something that I can cross of my “Life List of Things to Do”. Seeing, touching, and walking something as old as the Great Wall will be an amazing experience in its own right. Recently, I’ve been searching Google Images for photos of things I should see and while  I am in China. I can only hope my photos turn out half as good as images below.

Water Cube aka National Aquatics Center

I am looking forward to seeing how the travel gear works out. I have spent a significant amount of time and money gearing up for this trip because I view this trip as a test run for the longer round the world trip sometime in the next 2-3 years. In my past trips, I’ve always felt like I’ve over packed or taken the wrong things. For this trip to China, I’m limiting myself to a carry on legal duffel bag that converts to a backpack and a daypack that can also fit inside the duffel bag. All of the gear that I bought for this trip, I envision using on the longer round the world trip. By using the gear now on this 2 week trip, I hope to learn what works and doesn’t work very well for me and my travel style. I’ll report on what worked and what didn’t after the trip to China

Some of the links that influenced my gears decisions for this trip include:

OneBag.com: This site shows how to travel using just one bag and how to pack light. The site also makes recommendations for buying high quality travel gear and provides an in-depth packing list. I’m glad I found this site.

OneBag OneWorld: This site provided me with many reviews of travel backpacks and luggage. The reviews of the MEI and Tom Bihn bags were extremely influential in my purchasing decisions.
Vagabondish’s How to Pack for a Month Long Trip: The best tip found here was – “Don’t take six pairs of shoes!”
WanderingSean and WanderingDawn’s Packing List: Sean and Dawn spent 18 months traveling around the world. I figured  I could get some ideas from Sean’s packing list.

I’ve spent a considerable effort researching my gear decisions and am confident with the decisions I’ve made. I’m most looking forward to using my Nikon D90 and taking some really high quality photos in China.

The Birds Nest

I am looking forward to speaking Mandarin. I have been learning Mandarin for the last 8 months. I can say this – learning a language with 4 different tones is not an easy feat. I am hoping people will be impressed with my ability to speak and understand some Mandarin. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not fluent to the point where I won’t be using English, but I definitely have the ability to say things like “I want to buy a train ticket” (wo yao mai yi zhan ho che piao). I’ve learned so much about the Chinese culture from my teacher and tutor. I am looking forward to experiencing the culture first hand, trying the food of China, and meeting friends of my teach and tutor.

I am both nervous and excited to be on my first trip where I’m traveling by myself. In my previous trips, I’ve always had someone or a group to travel with. On this trip, I will be completely by myself.   I’m looking forward to meeting other travelers and setting my own schedule.  I have my hostels booked, but will be booking tours when I arrive in China.

Overall, I’m really glad I’m taking this trip.

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Tags: China, chinese, perspective, Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.