When I arrived in Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province, the first thing that I noticed was the amount of construction that was occurring on the roads throughout the entire city. The traffic was bumper to bumper all the way from the airport to the hotel where I was staying, but the taxi driver assured me that it was just temporary and that the bridges that were being built would make Kunming one of the most navigable cities in all of China. After getting checked in and finding my room, I quickly fell asleep to prepare for a big day of sightseeing the following day at Shilin, more commonly known as the Stone Forest.

After a quick stop in the market outside of the Stone Forest for a midmorning snack of fresh lychees, my guide and I headed into the main gate of the Stone Forest. The huge stone pillars were as tall as California redwoods, and were created by erosion of the rocky soil over hundreds of millions of years.

There were many Chinese characters on the...

After a 13-hour flight, I was happy to get into China without any snags. Arriving at my hotel in Beijing, I headed straight to my room, threw my bags on the ground and went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The 7:30 a.m. wakeup call told me it was time to get up for breakfast, and to my surprise the time change hadn't really affected me at all.

As I walked into the continental breakfast at Rosedale Hotel, I noticed some very different stations at the breakfast buffet, but some that I was familiar with as well. There were many different kinds of soups, both hot and cold, some sushi, and congee, which is rice porridge with a consistency similar to oatmeal.

Not yet brave enough to try these authentic Chinese dishes, I headed for the fresh fruit, breads and cereal. None of the cereal had any refined sugar because the Chinese prefer to sweeten their cereal with dried bananas, raisins or honey. As I sat down to eat, I couldn’t help but notice that there...

After going through my usual morning routine, it was off to see more of what Beijing had to offer. My first stop brought back memories of the 2008 Summer Olympics, as I visited the Beijing National Stadium and the Beijing National Aquatic Center, more commonly known as the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, respectively.

The Bird’s Nest was home to a spectacular and wildly expensive opening ceremony for the Olympics, as well as events in athletics and the soccer final. The Water Cube was where Michael Phelps made Olympic history by winning an unprecedented eight gold medals at a single Olympics. Both of these buildings boast one of a kind architecture, and will be admired for years to come.

After my stop at Olympic Green, I headed to the outskirts of Beijing to see one of the many wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall was a huge advantage for the Chinese at the time because of the unique beacon system. By collecting animal...