“At the Top of the World”

A fragile cover down below

Day 1 A 747 “bottle rocket”

4:00 A.M always comes sooner than you like. Off to the airport with minimal luggage 1 bag and a carry-on each -plus an extra bag of camera and electronic equipment. Albany airport was busy with lines at security backed up with so many twists it makes us dizzy. A cup of “Joe”and a slice of nut-bread clears the cobwebs and we are off to Washington Dulles for a connecting flight to Beijing. We stock up on sandwiches and snacks for the 14+ hours of economy section bliss stationed in the next to last row of seats on the plane. At least we are together.

Our 747- 400 is an old one. No flat panels TV’s just those funky CRT’s that dangle from the ceiling and the projection screen that has a color rendition that would make Andy Warhol jealous. As we lumber down the runway I can’t keep my mind off oxygen bottles and how happy I am to be sitting in the back of the plane away from the recently defined “Qantas debris zone”.

Up and away and before you know it we have dug into the emergency snacks and read all the airline magazines. Time to meet our fellow travelers; a large high school group from China is going home after several weeks of camping and touring around the U.S.. Their take-away impression “…the U.S. is very clean.

We talk our way across the north pole and marvel at the polar ice cap. It’s still there but lots of cracks are forming. Jostling for a turn at the rear windows in the door for photo opportunities passes the hours except for the occasional “please return to your seats as we test the structural integrity of this plane with rapid accelerations directed along successive axes of orientation.” It still amazes me how fast a 747 can “wiggle” in the air. No casualties except for a few cups of water sprinkled about.

As Beijing appears on the map, the movie watchers eyes are red and bleary. Sleep has finally come to the dedicated travelers but they must interrupt their fitful rest with the arrival of “the landing form ceremony”. Whispers of flight numbers and the rustle of passport pages fill the air and lead to a keen sense of anticipation. Touchdown at the new Beijing airport is imminent!

Guilin-”A Step Back in Time”

The meandering river Li winds through the ancient karst formations that have inspired poets and scholars for thousands of years. Bamboo forests line the river banks where village fisherman ply the waters on flat bamboo rafts. Specially trained cormorants retrieve small fish for their owner in a partnership as old as any history.

Guilin-”Down the River”

On the river Li