North China, Introduction (May, 2007)

 
If anyone were to ask me where China fell on my list of “countries I’d like to visit” list I’d have to say it would be on the bottom third. But this being my first trip off the North American continent I was very excited about the chance to spend 9 days in somewhere far from home.

I will have to say it was quite an experience. I’d heard friends and co-workers talk about what is happening in China, but until I was able to see it first hand in Beijing, Dalian and Zhengzhou, I wasn’t fully able to comprehend how interesting and unique China and its people are. It is a civilization with a long history that causes it to be set in its ways, but it is also a developing country with plenty of modernization.  Bottom line: I’d go back in a heartbeat.

 
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