Trip to China, June 22-July 5, 2006

Our trip to China had 9 parts:

1) We flew to Beijing from Seattle, arriving the afternoon of Thursday June 22. The next day we visited the Great Wall.

2) Saturday we flew to Luoyang (a 2 hour flight south of Beijing) and then visited the Shaolin Temple, about an hour drive east.

3) Sunday through Wednesday of the next week we stayed in Luoyang, while Kevin attended a conference.

4) Thursday we visited the Longman Grottoes near Luoyang (Tammy also went there on Monday) before taking a 5 hour train ride to Xi’an.

5) On Friday morning in Xi’an our host gave us a tour of the city; in the afternoon Kevin gave lectures at three schools and Tammy shopped with one of our host’s students.

6) Saturday morning we visited the Terra Cotta Warriors with our host and his family; in the afternoon we did some more sightseeing around Xi’an.

7) Sunday we flew to Beijing and took a city tour, seeing Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the old city.

8) Monday was a full day of lecturing for Kevin.

9) Tuesday we visited the Summer Palace.

The reason we went to China is that Kevin was invited to be a Plenary Speaker at a conference

(see http://www.ieee-icma.org/ICMA2006/Program/PlenaryTalks.aspx).

Kevin will also be going back to Beijing in October, when he will also be an invited speaker at another meeting

(see http://www2.acae.cuhk.edu.hk/~armi06/speakers.html).

While in China, most of our arrangements were handled by our hosts at the conference and the various schools we visited. However, for the air travel within China, and our visits to the Great Wall, the Shaolin Temple, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Beijing old town, and the Summer Palace, we used services provided by China Connection Tours http://www.china-tour.cn .They are based in Xi’an, but make arrangements all over China. We thought they were great. They seem to understand the needs of western tourists. You can contact them via Michael at info@chinaconnectiontours.com .