Meeting a Yeoman and Learning about the Tower of London on Valentine's Day

After breakfast we went to the Tower of London and were in time for a tour of the buildings. Not a good student in history, I didn't know much about the Tower until we went through the tour and exhibitions at the castle.

The tour was free with our admission to the Tower of London and it was conducted by a Yeoman who gave us a lot of interesting information. We also learned a lot about the role of the Yeoman serving at this historical place. The Tower of London is almost 1000 years old and it is named after its oldest building, the White Tower. Visitors to the Tower can explore the ancient walls and towers built to protect the White Tower.

William the Conqueror built the White Tower after he invaded England from northern France in 1066. He built the Tower within the existing Roman city walls to help defend it from attack. Kings and queens added to the castle over many centuries. This famous landmark dominated London and its people and showed the power of the new king. It served three different functions:

1. A secure fortress and palace where the English kings and queens used to reside. 2. A prison where some famous prisoners were held and executed - From the 1100, the Tower of London became an infamous prison. Between 1483 and 1941, 22 prisoners were executed insdie the wall, including Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry V111, in 1536.

3. A place where the royal jewels, records, weaponry and firearms were kept and protected

Today the Tower of London protects the Crown Jewels. In the 1660's Charles II was the first king to display them to the public at the Tower. A new king or queen uses the crowns and other ceremonial objects when they are crowned.

There was some entertainment during the tour with half a dozen of costumed actors reenacting the life at the Tower in the ancient times. The London Tower is a historical place with magnificent buildings; it is full of interesting and some bloody history of the British kings, queens and its people. I was gald we had the opportunity to visit this famous landmark.

What made our visit to the London Tower even more special was we were there on Valentine's day! After the tour, we visited the Tower gift shop and my hubby bought me a ring as my Valentine's Day gift! I will always remember our visit to the Tower of London everytime I wear this nice ring.

We spent our evening enjoying a special Valentine dinner at our hotel's restaurant. It was a marvellous day and I love my Valentine gift from my husband!

RT Tower of London London, UK

Our Second Day in London

Our second day in London, UK, our first full day. We started the day with a buffet breakfast at our hotel. Glad we did as the hotel provided quite a spread of hot and cold breakfast items for its guests.

We enjoyed a full English breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, hash brown, ham, beans, with 3 different kinds of crossaints, fruit and veggie salad, yoyourt with dry fruits, pancakes and toasts etc; it was very good.

After breakfast, we walked from our hotel to the tower bridge, a 20 minute walk. Since it was my first time being in UK, we took our time taking in everything we saw during our walk to the bridge and made numerous stops on the way poking into various stores and shops.

We were in London in February and it was a cold wintry day. I was glad that we were wearing our Canadian winter jackets with hoods and scarves which protected us from the chilly wind and kept us warm. By the time we arrived to the London Tower, it was well after 2pm. Since the London tower closed at 5pm, it wasn’t worth paying for the admission to enter. So we decided to come back the next day.

We explored the vicinity in the area, discovered and visited the All Hallows by the Tower, the oldest church in the city of Londonn, and the Crypt Museum.

The thing that impressed us the most was a small Penn Memorial plaque where the church's attached a note acknowledging its imvolvement with slavery. People and insitutions do make mistakes from time to time. It takes a lot of courage to admit one's wrongdoing rather than covering it up. We applaud the church's action.

We took a coffee break at the Wetherspoon restaurant where I saw an interesting poster in the women's washroom offering support to ladies on a date not working out well in their bar. Glad to see support and a way out offered to women in public places! Time flew by and we enjoyed a dinner at an Indian restaurant close by our hotel and retired to a nice evening at our hotel ready for the next day! RT London Tower Area London. UK 022025

Our First Experience in a London Hotel

We had a brief stop over in HK before catching our flight to London, UK. Though we were in Europe a number of times, I had never visited UK until this time. I was very excited! Day 1 – We arrived at the Gatewick Airport around 7 pm and went through custom without any problem or delay. Using our newly downloaded app., we ordered an Uber ride from the airport to our hotel.

However, it was not an easy process as the destination for Uber drivers picking up their passengers was not the same as for the taxi cabs though the airport sign said so. It was a frustrating experience for us as the Uber driver and we were trying to find each other at the right location. Locating each other at the right place is the thing I disliked most about using an Uber. We bought some take away food from the airport with us and checked into our first hotel in London. Being used to staying in spacious hotel rooms while travelling in North American and China, our hotel room was disappointing as it was quite small without a chair/ table or even a sidetable by the side of our bed. We booked our room through the internet and fully expected that there would be at least a small table and couple of chairs in the room like all the hotels we had stayed previously. But I guessed London was different. Though we had ready to eat food with us, we didn’t have a place to consume it properly in our room. After complaining to the night manager and refusing to eat our meal on our bed as suggested by him, he finally relented and moved us to a room with a table and chairs where we could enjoy our first meal in London.

We were exhausted from our travel and went to sleep right after dinner. Looking forward to exploring London in the next few days! RT London, UK 022025

A Brief Stopover in Hong Kong

After spending a couple of days in Macau,we headed to Hong Kong to continue our travel. Taking a bus from Macau, we crossed the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB). It's a 55-kilometer (34 mi) long bridge-tunnel system including sections of bridge, undersea tunnel, and artificial islands, an engineering marvel! For lovers of architecture, this is a must see experience if you happen to be in the Hong Kong/Macau area. The crossing took about an hour.

J. met up with us in Macau and spent a couple of nights with us in Hong Kong. We had a brief stopover in this busy city and explored a few areas. We passed by the city a few times but never spent much time there. This time we were able to visit a few places.

"The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is generally ranked in the top 100 globally by major university rankings. In the 2025 QS World University Rankings, HKU is ranked 17th. In the 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, it is ranked 35th." Source - Google .

A famous university in Asia, HKU was every HK student's dream to be admitted there during the 60's/ 70's era. We took the opportunity and visited this famous university in Asia. It was a very smart idea for the HK government to have built a subway station going right into the univeristy campus. HKU apparently is a hot spot for tourists. There was a long lineup into the campus area and the place was humming. Getting there late in the afternoon, we were asked if we had reservations and were almost turned down. We were the last visitors admitted onto the campus.

Besides visiting HKU, we also went to a couple of old neighbourhood. We were there years ago and old memories kept flooding back. Many of the buildings in the neighbourhood looked their age while some had been renovated nicely.

The upgraded shops reflect the economic prosperity of the locals residing in the area.

It was a brief but memorable stopover in Honk Kong.

RT Hong Kong 022025

Macau - A Tiny Chinese City but Claimed the Second Wealthiest City in the World

There are a number of ways of going from China to Macau. We chose the fast train, our favourite mode of transportation in China, taking us from Guangzhou to Zuhai and from there crossed over to Macau. If travellers are watching their budget like we are, your travel dollars will go much further in Chinese cities than in Hong Kong and Macau.

Macau is a small city with about 680,000 people, an autonomous region on the south coast of China. A Portuguese territory until 1999, the city reflects a mix of cultural influences.

We saw a lot of beautiful buildings, modern and traditional and with street names both in Chinese and Portugese as well. With numerous huge casinos and malls dominating the downtown core.

Macau has earned its nickname as the Las Vegas of Asia.

We walked up to the hilltop park giving us a sweeping view of the city down below. Macau offers a vibrant busy night life to residents and tourists alike but it also has its tranquil peaceful side that appeals to nature lovers.

There were a lot to see in Macau. We enjoyed our visit there as the city is much smaller in population than Hong Kong, therefore much quieter. The things we enjoyed most were exploring the less known neigbourhood, visiting its nice parks, hiking on park trails away from the busy downtown core.

We also enjoyed watching the free shows and exhibitions within the different casino buildings. Another interesting fact we learned about Macau - It claimed the second spot on Forbes' 2024 wealthiest jurisdictions list!

No wonder people we met in Macau appeared much more relaxed and happy to talk to strangers.

We had a coffee break at an old neighborhood and patrons and serving staff were more than happy chatting with us telling us how much they love living in Macau. Very helpful and friendly people indeed! It was pleasant experiences like this - interacting positively with locals and leanring about their life and culutre that keep us travelling to different places and parts of the world! RT Macau, China 022025

Staying at a Nice Hotel In Zhengzhou, China

This was our last day in Anyang and we took the 5 p.m. train from Anyang arriving at Zhengzhou in the early evening around 6:30 p.m. J. booked us a nice hotel a stonethrow away from the train station. With our lugguage in tow, we walked for few minutes to our hotel but we felt the biting cold and my hands felt as if they were frozen as I lost my gloves earlier.

J. did a great job booking our hotels and fast trains. This hotel was the nicest we have stayed so far. Our room was on the 17th floor with a commanding view of Zhengzhou and it was a two level spacious room with a double bed on the main floor, a bathroom plus another double bed with a private bath on the loft floor.

Beautiful modern design and deco! We always marvelled at the quality and designs of the hotels we stayed in China. I took pictures of the hotel for future reference when making renovations to our bathrooms.

The next day was our last day in the Henan Province of China. We had breakfast on the 27th floor of the hotel building, an elegant place and a great view of the city of Zhengzhou which is known for the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu. China is a huge country with lots to see. But our time was limited on this journey therefore not able to visit the Shaolin Temple.

We took the fast train back to GZ. The train left at 316 pm and we just made it with 5 minutes to spare. J. was good at keeping us on our toes, always hurrying us to catch the train. We never missed one train during our numerous trips in China, prasie God!

We arrived in GZ at 830pm, a comfortable ride on the fast train. We recalled and laughed at our aweful experience last year when we couldn’t get the fast train tickets but had to travel on the bus for 36 hours from Fung Huang. Both my husband and J. were busy booking our hotels and train tickets for our next destination to HK and Macau! RT Zhengzhou, China 022025

Learning About Oracle Bones at the Anyang Museum & National Archaeological Site Park, China

For our last day in Anyang, an ancient capital city in China, we went to visit the National Archeological Site Park the tomb of a famous female warrior and the Archaeological Museum. Thank goodness, we were able to visit all there of these important sites in Anyang!

Of the three, I liked the Archaeological Museum the best as I like architecture.

The Archaeological Museum is a beautiful building with a green colour exterior symbolizing the ancient relics uncovered from the sites nearby. It is a massive building built with white marbel stones from floor to ceiling, absolutely magnificent!

The main reason we were in Anyang was to view and learn about the Oracle bones and the inscriptions written on them. There were various comprehensive exhibitions with detail explanations.

Therefore we learned a lot about the oracle bone inscriptions, and how these symbols had evolved and developed into the traditional Chinese characters. It was enlightening and educational indeed. We had lunch at the museum restaurant didn't make it to the 4D show too bad. But we could only fit a limited number of activities in a half day.

For dinner, we had a Hunan food at a very nice restaurant. We were blessed to have J. finding and booking us the nice hotels and restaurants while we were in China. We odered lemon butterfly shrimps, lamb stew with vermicelli, garlic green veggies and roasted chicken, all were cooked in Hunan style. The food was excellent!

More than food, what we enjoyed the most was the conversation with our loved ones. J. told us about his desire and his future plan and the decisions he would need to make etc. We really treasured these times of sincere and deep level sharing and conversations. After we got back to the hotel. J. went out with his new friends he made on this trip. When I awoke at 5 am, I didn’t see him in bed downstairs therefore I was worried. I texted him twice but with no reply. I kept praying hard for his safety.

Without us knowing, he was already home earlier and sitting downstairs working on his computer. Thank God for him being back at the hotel and was safe, also we were grateful that China was quite safe during our travel there. RT, Anyang/ Zhengzhou China 022025

The Grand Canyon of China - Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon - the most spectacular and unforgettable excursion on Our China Trip

As we travelled around in China, we discovered many fantastic beautiful places to visit. The Taihang Grand Canyon was one of these stunning places. Travelling during the Chinese New Year, we couldn’t get the fast train tickets, therefore we took the regular train which was slower but much cheaper. At merely 16 yuans, we were able to travel from Zhengzhou to Anyang. We spent our first full day in Anyang. There were quite a few places to see in this important city as it was an old capital. But being limited by how short our stay was in this ancient city, we had to pick and choose what we really wanted to visit. Both my husband and J. wanted to see the grand canyon but I was reluctant at first. I was glad that I went along with their decision as it turned out to be the most breathtaking site we have visited on this trip in China!

We went to the bus station in Anyang trying to take a bus to Linzhou about a 30 minute ride. But we were met by a taxi driver who was willing to take us there for 50 yuans. Once when we got to Linzhou, we decided to hire him for the whole day for 180 yuans. He took us to the canyon and dropped us off at the main gate. From there we had to purchase a 80 yuan transportation ticket each, plus an entrance fee for J. Our admission was free!

The shuttle bus dropped us to the closest train and we hiked the entire trail at our own time. We paused, took pictures and were awed every step of the way as we went higher and higher up into the mountain. Wow, wow, wow! It was an incredible sight! We went to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and experienced the grandour of the Grand Canyon but this canyon was different. Not only were we surrounded by high mountains all around, there were springs of water everywhere we turned. The trails we hiked on the Taihang Grand Canyon could rival the Grand Cayon in the United States.

As we were there during the winter, there were not too many tourists and we experienced another side of the Taihang Canyon which few tourists would have. The temperature that day was hovering around -5,and the numerous springs had been turned into gigantic ice popsicles or balls of snow forming clusters clinging to the edges of the mountains. It was a marvelous sight and we were speechless at mother nature’s beauty!

With icecles overhanging from the edges of the cliffs and the cave, frozen ponds etc. The scenery was spectacular! At every turn of the trail there was something different to discover- a cave, a half frozen pond, a frozen fall with icicles, falls with water still cascading down the cliffs,

trees draped with snow formed into different shapes, a lookout place, stone benches for hikers to rest their tired feet and to admire the pictureque scenery, special and fun sculptures, floral archways and scenic spots for people to take pictures to their hearts' content.

Off course, there were small booths with vendors selling hot teas, nestle coffee, snacks and souvenirs to satisfy the hikers' thirst, hunger and needs. We arrived to the canyon shortly after 230 pm and by the time we arrived at the finishing point where the shuttle bus was waiting for us, it was about 530pm.

The 3 hour hike flew by in no time because we enjoyed the breathtaking sight so much. We forgot our tiredness and our sore muscles as we were overwhelmed by this out of the world natural beauty.

It was an unforgettable excursion, a trip of a lifetime! We were glad that we came on our own to explore this amazing canyon! If we had come with a tour group we would not have been able to take our time and explore this manificent natural wonder which Mother Nature has gifted to China.

We went to a vegetarian restaurant to try out some veggie dishes. It was interesting to observe some senior folks started coming in and lining up for some free dinners as the restaurant was closing. What a good idea to give out free dinners near the closing time so that all the leftover buffet food would not go to waste!

We had a fantastic day and a memorable dinner with our loved ones, thanks to God’s provision and to Y’S planning. We thank God that we were able to enjoy this place fully by giving us the health, strength and time! We were so blessed to have experienced the beauty of God's handiwork on this trip! This is one place one must visit if you are in the Anyang / Linzhou area. RT - Taihang Grand Canyon Linzhou, China 022025