visit the Far East

China may be the best place to go. Roundtrip tickets from Chicago go for less than $1,000 and even lower but expect to sit in a fairly cramped seat. Once you get there food and transportation are fairly cheap. Hotels are decent but the mattresses are hard. Don’t drink the water. Look for bottled. Forget about ice in your drinks and they drink their soda pop warm. Shanghai is the most Western-like city of them all. Avoid Beijing this year and next because of the Olympics. Xi’an is a wonderland as is Guilin. 4 years ago

I have been fortunate to travel many places but have not yet traveled to the far east. I want to enjoy watching the people, learning more about their cultures, and see the evidence of such a long history. As an American with such limited history here (a few hundred years), I always enjoy growing from the experience of travel. 5 years ago