China

When most people decide to go on a vacation they pick locations that are popular, like Paris, London or some Caribbean island. When I decide to go on vacation I want to go somewhere that most people do not think of as a vacation spot. Early this year me and a good friend of mine decided to go to Beijing and explore.

Here are a few pictures of me in the Forbidden City and also at Tiananmen Square. Beijing in China is cold in January, but not any worse than home in NYC, but unlike in NYC there isn't a lot of wind whipping between the buildings.

Anybody that goes to Beijing has to visit the Great Wall. Here are a few pics from that. The best thing about visiting places in the off season is that there are a lot less tourists that normal. We went to the Mutainyu section of the wall and we were the only people around for a long time. It's great being able to explore something and not have a lot of people crowding you.

We brought our mini Dug the Dog with us, he had a blast. Ha.

We made a side trip to a city called Xi'an. This is the area where the Terra-cotta Warriors were found. One amazing collection of artifacts from history. Its quite amazing seeing artifacts so greatly preserved from 2200 years ago.