"Yan's Travel Center" meteorologist1's Profile

Welcome to my travel web site!

Greetings! My name is Yan and I'm a world traveler currently living in the United States. After discovering VirtualTourist.com and joining this wonderful online community in 2003, my family and I have benefited greatly from this web site, checking out travel tips and photos every time before we take a trip. I'm impressed by all the changes that VirtualTourist.com has gone through these past few years. I would like to thank everyone for making this site a great place to visit online. The photos and videos that everyone shares are always very fascinating and capture the excitement and enthusiasm of one's travels. Go out there and see the world, and keep on contributing to this great community.

Happy traveling!

My Travel Page Highlights

Chicago, Illinois... my favorite city in the United States.
Los Angeles, California... including Orange County and Hollywood.
Xuzhou, China... my birthplace and a historic city in Jiangsu Province.
Munich, Germany... one of the best cities in Germany.
Victoria, British Columbia... the most beautiful city in Canada.
Freising, Germany... small, quiet city near Munich.
Trento, Italy... small, quiet city located in northern Italy.
Dalian, China... a wonderful, clean city in northern China.

A brief introduction...

I was born in Xuzhou, China but have lived in many parts of the world when I was young. Obviously, not many kids can have the opportunity and privilege to experience life in other countries and be exposed to other cultures so early in life. This is why I am very grateful to my parents who have shown me so many places in the world. I currently work as a research scientist in a company in the Chicago area in the United States. I speak English, Chinese, and some German. Because of the influence I received when I was young, I have a strong passion for traveling. Here at VirtualTourist.com, I would like to share with you photos and videos from my family's travels and also provide you with concise travel tips which I hope will be useful to you in your travel adventures. We are frequently traveling, so keep checking back to my travel site for more exciting photos and descriptions from new places we visit. As always, please feel free to contact me and provide me with feedback. Enjoy my travel pages, exclusively here on VirtualTourist.com!

Overview of my travel pages

Since 2003, I have continuously posted travel tips and photos for numerous cities and towns around the world. Most of my recent travels have been concentrated in North America, so you will find more of my posts about places in the United States and Canada. However, I would like to apologize in advance that I have not updated many of the posts since they were first published, so the information contained in them may not be entirely up-to-date. Details such as ticket prices to museums and business hours may not be fully accurate, and links may not be fully functional. Please check directly with museum and attraction web sites via a quick search on the web for the most up-to-date information. My travel tips and photos are usually located within individual city travel guides and not in state/province or country travel guides. Also, I try to minimize the number of travel pages I create. For example, you will find all my tips for the Chicago city and surrounding suburbs consolidated in my Chicago page. The reasons for this are that 1) one may not readily recognize the name of a small suburban town and navigate to its travel page unless he or she is a local, and 2) it should be more convenient for the visitor to a particular area like Chicagoland to see all the information contained in one travel guide. I always appreciate any comments and corrections to my pages.

Eating my way around the world...

Beginning in 2011, look for more travelogues focused on my culinary travels. That means that you can expect to see more photos of delicious foods and dishes that I have taken from all around the world. I have always been capturing close-ups of new foods that I try, and now it is time for me to share my love for food with you. I will consolidate food pictures that I have been collecting for years and develop pages devoted to culinary specialties that you do not want to miss during your trips to other countries. Travel and eat! Bon appetit!

Please do not download or distribute any of the photographs that I have taken without my knowledge or consent. Thank you. Copyright (c) 2003-2013 by meteorologist1.

  • Intro Updated Mar 30, 2013
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Comments (58)

  • Parisforless's Profile Photo
    Dec 31, 2012 at 4:56 PM

    Thank you for accepting my friendship. Wishing you a Happy New Year!

  • hopang's Profile Photo
    Sep 29, 2012 at 10:51 AM

    Hi Yan, We wish you a very happy birthday. Hope you have a great day. Greetings from Sweden. ~ho & pang

  • DaHongHua's Profile Photo
    Sep 29, 2012 at 2:12 AM

    Thru VT, I send you a happy birthday greeting from Malaysia. Wish you all the best, keep travellings and more VT sharing. I have great experience reading your pages. Thanks and Cheers.

    • DaHongHua's Profile Photo
      Sep 29, 2012 at 2:17 AM

      I plan to do a family ( 4 persons ) free and easy trip to Beijing with a must do to the Great Wall for may be 6D5N. Hope you can spare some time to advise me what are those must do things and what to avoid. Thanks.

  • TrendsetterME's Profile Photo
    Sep 29, 2012 at 12:32 AM

    Hey Yan, "Happy Birthday", with all my best wishes ... :)

  • Apr 20, 2012 at 7:25 PM

    Hi Yan.
    I saw your expertise on Xuzhou East Railway Station. Therefore, I would like to ask you about it:
    We want to Travel by train from Beijing to Huangshan.
    There is only one connection and this is passing through old "Xuzhou Railway Station". The problem is that this train takes a long time so we thought going by high speed train from Beijing to "Xuzhou East Railway Station" and change trains in Xuzhou. However, I don't have an idea about the distance of these two stations. Can you help and inform me about how long it takes to go from the one station to the other? Maybe also by which means?
    Thanks for any information!
    Jan

  • hopang's Profile Photo
    Dec 25, 2011 at 1:46 AM

    Hi Yan, Wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012. Hope you have a wonderful time! ~ho & pang

  • AsiaBarney's Profile Photo
    Nov 26, 2011 at 3:06 PM

    Hi Yan and Family, Happy Belated Thanksgiving and greetings from AsiaBarney :X

  • riorich55's Profile Photo
    Mar 13, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    Yan, If you are interested we are having a VT Event in Chicago the weekend of June 17 to June 19. Check out the VT meeting page for information.

  • ellyse's Profile Photo
    Jan 10, 2010 at 9:17 AM

    Thanks for replying! However IIRC the soup is called "x x tang". The 1st character is the radical for "to eat", the 2nd is the word for "it". Is this called "shi2 ta1 tang1"? BTW have a look at my new Xuzhou page and help me comment/rate the tips?

  • Donna_in_India's Profile Photo
    Sep 28, 2009 at 8:22 PM

    Hi Yan - wishing you a very happy birthday!

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meteorologist1

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Real Name
Yan
Location
Chicago, Illinois
Member Since
Jul 19, 2003

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