Of a trip to China;

One month ago I left on my trip to China. Since the Husky Marching Band was heading to Shanghai for a week to perform in an international music festival, I decided to head to China a few days early, meet the band in Shanghai, and travel around China after everyone else in the band has gone back home.

Me and my bags

I got back home last week and now I can start sharing my photos and stories of traveling China on my blog. Because of the Chinese censorship of the internet, I was not able to post on here while actually in China. You can't even get on facebook, twitter, or youtube because of the restrictions of the Great Firewall of China.

The Forbidden City

Over my three weeks in China I saw only a little bit of the gigantic country. It took forever for me to make a travel itinerary because I kept finding out about amazing spots all around the country that I wanted to go to. Even the week before I left I wasn't even sure where I'd go in China. I knew I wanted to see the Terracotta Warriors and climb one of the incredible mountains of China. Other than that my only plans were fly into Beijing and meet the band a week later down in Shanghai.

My sax and I in front of the Bund in Shanghai

In the end, I saw a number of cities in a 2,500 mile loop I made by train around Central-Eastern China. I met many great people: Chinese who took the time to show me around their city, and other amazing travelers. All of the places I visited in China were so incredible different from anywhere I have ever seen. The cities are gigantic, the history goes back thousands of years, the skies are choked with smog, and the culture is so different from what I'm used to in America. It was an amazing trip and I can't wait to share some of my photos and stories.

Climbing Huashan (Mt. Hua)

A terracotta archer

It isn't the great wall, but it was still alright

The West Lake UNESCO heritage site

Busy downtown Shanghai streets

Click for a map of my journey around China