Final Thoughts
This was the longest trip we have ever taken, both in terms of time (27 days) and distance (about 24,000 miles, nearly the circumference of the earth at the equator). Besides innumerable cars and busses, we went on eleven planes, one train, eight boats, two cable cars and two pedicabs.
Although we had Chinese food day-after-day, we never tired of it because of both its variety and its quality. We found the Chinese people to be overwhelmingly friendly and desirous of the American tourist business.
The country is modernizing very rapidly and the economy is growing annually by rates approximating double digits. While the future is never certain, there are many reasons to think the Chinese economy will be the dominant world economy by the end of this century.
It is a very different world from what we are accustomed to in the West but we heartily recommend that you put the country on your tourism calendar if you have the chance.
Note on the photographs: Almost all of the photographs on these pages were taken with an Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom (10x optical) digital camera. Virtually all photos were digitally enhanced for color correction, brightness and sharpness using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 software.