Fellow Virtual Travelers,

Here we are in Beijing! It took a total of sixteen hours of airline travel with some layover time to get to our first China destination.

So far… Pre-trip packing until 2 am (Sat Oct 13th). Who has the duct tape and bailing wire in case repairs are needed? Who has cold medicine, flu medicine, Advil, aspirin, mole skin, bandaids, hand wipes, alcohol swabs, camera filters, lens cleaners, usb drives, camera cards, Chinese surge protectors, transformer, American power strips, pigtails, etc. Where we're going these items are not readily available, if at all!

Then to DIA for a 2 pm flight on Oct 13th to Detroit and a direct flight to Beijing leaving Detroit at 10 pm. We flew over the North Pole and even though it was dark outside the whole way, knowing that we were that far north, felt strange! Arrived at the Dongfang Hotel about 1 am and caught some sleep before we head out to tour today on Monday October 15th (it's about 8 am local time).

There are three of us traveling: Dennis, Anita and Karl (a fellow Kung Fu student also involved in our prior Shaolin Expedition in 2002). Our travels now are a follow up to the 2002 and 2003 trips, gathering more photos and stories!

For those who weren't involved in our original expeditions, check out the pages we're in the process of re-building:

shaolinexpedition.info

Now that we're in China, we are planning on only sending email updates (no googlegroups website access). If you reply to our emails, it looks like we can pick them up just fine in China, so thank you to all who have been sending well-wishes!

Let the adventure begin and we are honored that you're traveling with us!

Dennis and Anita Lunt