Andy, We did the hike from Jingshangling to Simatai,most of the Wall photos are from this section. The night shots were taken at our "Gala" Dinner on the wall at Juyong pass.

I think a penalty is in order...

Have a fabulous trip and chomp on lots of tasty bamboo!

Let's see:

1. Definitely not skyping the POB.

2. I promise not to take a year to complete my report. It will be timely, but it may not be contemporaneous (Bob, that means that I may not be writing it at the same time I'm actually on the trip).

3. ShaneK-Beth has already planned out our wall expedition. I'm merely the carrier of heavy objects.

4. Craig-I can assure you that if a penalty is in order, I will not shirk my self-appointed duties and I will assess one.

5. Shanghainese-I can assure you that there will be lots of chomping on various food substances. The exact nature of which I am not currently aware. I do note that pandas are omniverous (sp?). We are not limited to bamboo. Of course, they are too slow to actually catch any animals that move more quickly than bamboo. Therefore, the diet of slow moving plant life.

Thanks to almost everyone for their good wishes.

Best wishes to you and Mrs Panda for a wonderful trip and plenty of munching on whatever pleases pandas!


You are from Boston and you are going to miss Suzhou? Kind of unbelievable when we were counting on you to report as a Bostonian on I. M. Pei's new museum in Suzhou:

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/I_M_...ou_Museum.html

His ancestral home is the very famous Lion Forest Garden in Suzhou. Maybe Bob's the one to blame for such faulty planning?

he has done not one thing to plan....he couldn't even buy a new notebook computer to take without running afoul of the authroities...

no one wants to hear his useless travel drivl anyways, we want to hear the real story from beth...

Our planning is always based on the assumption that we should do what we want and not worry about doing everything. If we like some place, we'll return some day. It's very freeing. Suzhou may have to wait for a panda appearance.

Is #2 supposed to be some sort of jab at someone here? I really cannot understand, after all the bandersnatch about MY tome, why you are not planning to file dispatches from the road.

Beware of tourist-targeting scallywags, as PeterNH admonishes in another thread.

EKS-up 'til now, scallywags have steered clear of large furry tourists. Hopefully, this will continue. Also, do I detect some guilt on the timeliness of reports? If possible, reports from the field will appear.

The Panda will be on the prowl for a free place to post, I am sure. He is addicted to all of you and thrives on your responces. They are bamboo to his soul. Have a great trip, listen to the Mrs, and have some dumplings for all of us.

That will be my goal, i.e., to have one dumpling for every poster on Fodors. It's ambitious, but pandas are persistent.

Gpanda, if you are eating one dumpling for every poster, I'll take the pork and crab dumpling at Ding Tai Fang, please. :)

i'll take the fish head dumpling

DTF is already on our schedule. Crab and pork sounds wonderful.

a schedule??

no one has schedules

Have a great trip, Andy. I expect to see pictures and hear details at the GTG in BOS.

Carol-of course there will be stories. Pictures? Can't ever be sure.

For the non-Needhamites, Bob was trying to be funny. Failed again. He always does a minute-by-minute schedule, including the smallest detail. the pandas do a "grid", generally outlining our activities. When we travel with the Needhamites, there is a clash between schedules and grids.

carol---if he had a notebook we could hear things as they were happening

I'm wondering how you will actually survive with out Bob and Karen. Maybe the title of your first "live" trip report will be: "Lost in China, the Panda and Beth miss RHKKMK".

Meanwhile you will be missing crucial RS games (well maybe not). What was Beth thinking when she planned this?