My wife and I recently completed a day-long tour of the Great Wall with Jessie. In addition to being very knowledgeable about the history of the areas that we toured, she spoke excellent English and was able to answer all of our questions. Her driver was very experienced and polite, and we really enjoyed being able to have a customized tour that avoided the tourist traps and forced shopping that seem to be a part of the larger group tours.

The attractions themselves were fantastic. I was a little worried that the snowy weather might impact our trip to the Great Wall, but everything went fine, and there weren’t many people out at all that day. I suggest wearing strong shoes—the Great Wall is really a hike. And in snowy or rainy days, the surfaces are pretty slippery (滑的)! Seeing this area in winter was really unique, and the snow made for great pictures. Jessie kept us entertained with stories and facts about the construction of the Wall, and always pointed out great spots for taking pictures. Even though she’s in fantastic shape, she cared about our level of fitness and often stopped to let us catch our breath.

When we got back to our hotel, Jessie gave us a great recommendation for dinner and some tips for our planned stops the next day. If I find myself in Beijing in the future, I will certainly be contacting Jessie for more tour opportunities, and I’ve already recommended her to some friends who are visiting the area later in the year. I can’t say enough about how kind and knowledgeable she was, and she really gave us a great tour experience.

On the evening of June 21, 1992, a tall man with brown hair and blue eyes entered the beautiful hall of the Bell Tower Hotel in Xi’an with his bicycle. The hotel workers received him and telephoned the manager, for they had never seen a bicycle in the hotel hall before though they lived in “the kingdom of bicycles.”

Robert Friedlander, an American, arrived in Xi’an on his bicycle trip across Asia which started last December in New Delhi, India.

When he was 11, he read the book Marco Polo and made up his mind to visit the Silk Road. Now, after 44 years , he was on the Silk Road in Xi’an and his early dreams were coming true.

Robert Friedlander’s next destinations (目的地) were Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Urumqi, etc. He will complete his trip in Pakistan.

Ne Zha, the most successful film in the summer of 2019, has become the all-time highest-grossing (票房之冠) animation (动画) film in China. After the box-office success of Ne Zha, Yang Yu, the director of the film has risen to fame overnight.

Yang, who has himself struggled for more than 10 years in his career is somewhat of a real-life model for the main role in the film. Yang was born in a doctor’s family. As his parents thought a hospital job would be stable, Yang studied medicine in college. But his interest in animation changed his life. When most of his classmates chose to work as medical professionals after graduation, Yang stayed at home for three and a half years to make a short animation film. Yang recalls that period was like “living in a space station”, as his routine activities were limited in their small family apartment.

A turning point came in 2009, when Yang’s directorial debut (处女作), See Through, was quite a hit after it was released. The film got more than 30 awards at home and abroad.

The success inspired him to establish an animation studio in Chengdu, but in the following six years. Yang struggled to get help to fund an animation film. In 2014, Coloroom Pictures reached out to him for a film on the mythological (神话的) figure Ne Zha.

Hiring around 1,600 members from over 20 animation companies, the film took five years for production, with Ne Zha’s new screen image—a boy with ugly teeth and dark circles around his eyes. It was a big change because over the past 40 years, Ne Zha had been played by handsome actors in TV dramas and movies. “We wanted a breakthrough and wished to convey a message that it’s the inside personality that decides who you are.” Yang explains.