Let me begin by introducing my would-be travel mates, who also happen to be the most important people in the world to me – my family. My wife Julia and I have three amazing children: Alina (14 years old); Anastasia (10) and Artem (6). We all hail from the beautiful city of Moscow, Russia, and moved to China to work and educate our children. We have always been fascinated by China and hope that this trip will further our fascination and bring us closer together as a family.

In a nutshell, here is an overview of our plan: We have allotted 30 days for this trip, and will travel as far south as possible along the East coast, then travel to the West returning along the Western then Northern borders. We plan to visit 18 cities during the marathon tour, and I’ve packed my diary with the plan to update it on a daily basis to keep the facts and memories fresh and vivid.

Our car is Chinese analog of Honda Odyssey with hatchback; second and third rows of seats are foldable, tons of pockets and drawers. By folding second row we created one adult, two full child sleeping spots and one second row seat. Our entire luggage somehow disappeared into the corners. We brought one big brand new tent and accessories that we used to make beds. To stay connected during this trip we have purchased 3G service and GPS navigator, so let’s see if we can rely on modern technology. We have one DVD player in the car, so we had to make sure shopping for movies and games is carefully done. In short: we ended up with a rather comfortable traveling environment.

January 31, leaving from Dalian overnight to Yantai. In order to save ourselves some time we decided to cross the Yellow Sea on a boat. Tickets for the car cost 600RMB; adult seat is 140 RMB per person. Children below 130 cm travel for free.

Being responsible travelers, we arrived at the sea port two hours ahead of time but went through check-in in 10 minutes, then waited for the rest of time in the car watching movies. It is always like this in China: everything is fast and simple, no extra complexities. The boat was very nice and comfortable: soft seats, several wide screen TVs, small restaurant: the beginning was very smooth. We hope the rest of the trip will be as pleasant.