Yangshuo in Pictures

I came to Yangshuo via a lovely 5 hour cruise down the Li River from Guilin. Yangshuo is probably one of the most beautiful places on earth. I’ve probably taken 193,848,402,934,023,948 pictures of mountains and trees and nature since I’ve been here. Most of them look pretty similar, but it’s just so pretty I can’t help myself. These pictures are some of my favorites from the past week.

Xi’an in Pictures.

Xi’an was a pretty cool place. Why? The Terracotta Warriors. I’ve wanted to see them for ages and I finally got to! Yay!

The Terracotta Warriors were discovered in 1974 by a farmer digging around in his field.

Side note: The farmer that discovered the soldiers now sits in a building next to the Terracotta museum and signs books. I saw the dude. He looked bored as hell. Some of the others on my tour thought that he must be pissed he’s forced to sit there day in and day out…

Personally, I think that they have 3 or 4 guys who look alike to play “The Farmer” so the original guy doesn’t have to sit there 10 hrs a day, 7 days a week.

Anyways…In case you have no interest in history or cool things to see in other parts of the world and haven’t heard of the warriors here’s a brief summary:

The Terracotta Army is a collection of clay statues of warriors and horses that were built to protect the Emperor after his death around 210 B.C. 

Current estimates suggest that there are over 8,000 soldiers. The coolest thing? Each soldier has a different face. No two ‘people’ are the same.  Over 97% of the army remains buried underground, so you can only see the small portion that has been excavated. I could really go on and on about them, so if you’re interested, look them up. It’s pretty cool.

But it was still very cool. It brought me right back to my childhood dreams of being an archaeologist.

1, 2, 3, Chairman Mao!!

So, Beijing was large. And by large, I mean freaking enormous.

Of course I did all the requisite sightseeing – Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Wangfujing, Sanlitun… It was pretty cool, but also quite exhausting. The entire city was FLOODED with tourists and everywhere you go, you have to fight your way through 83,847,784,949 people.

 

I woke up early to see Tiananmen Square and was astounded by the sheer number of people there. The line to see Mao’s mausoleum was truly more than one mile long. No exaggeration. 

Maybe it’s just one of those things that I’ll never understand because I’m not Chinese, but there is nothing on Earth that I want to see that badly. The only thing that I’d get in a line that long for would be if they were handing out money at the end. At least $1,000. And I still might hesitate at that price. It was really hot outside. $5,000, sure…

But my favorite part of Beijing was the trip to the Great Wall. It was absolutely beautiful. I visited a lesser-known segment called Mutianyu, which is famous for its guard towers. It also has really steep stairs. You know when people say, “I climbed the Great Wall!” but the really mean that they walked up and down a few rebuilt stairs with a handrail at Badaling… Yeah, I climbed the Great Wall. Well, kind of. I took a cable car up to the wall and then did some climbing. There were segments where you had to use your hands to climb… It was an excellent workout. The view wasn’t bad either.

On the way down, there was the option to take the toboggan – basically a plastic seat with four wheels and a hand break that you ride down a narrow metal slide. This was, of course, up to the usual Chinese safety standards, aka, completely dangerous, but promising to be really fun. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, if you’re my mother) I got stuck behind an older woman who was terrified of the toboggan and insisted on driving slowly and responsibly. Thus, my adrenaline rush was cut short, but I made it to the bottom in one piece.

 

To sum up Beijing, it’s one of those places that you HAVE to visit when you’re in China… but not necessarily somewhere that you want to visit often.

Tongli in Pictures

Yesterday I spend the day wandering around Tongli, a ancient water village complete with canals, bridges, winding alleyways, and crumbling building with ancient white washed walls.  It is a very small town, so it is possible to walk all around the village in a day, which was a nice change of pace from sprawling Suzhou. 

 

It is absolutely adorable and a great place to experience traditional Chinese culture. This is the most “Chinese” city I’ve visited. There are only about 30,000 people here so I got a fair bit of attention as the token white girl.

 

It is also a fantastic place for photographers. There were people all over with their Nikkon 1093949 SLR Super Cameras… and then there was me walking around snapping pics with my iPhone. 

But hey, thanks to technology, anyone with an iPhone and the Instagram app is an instant pro. I think my pictures are pretty legit looking.

Suzhou in Photos

The past few days, I've been exploring Suzhou. Before I cam here, I heard mixed reviews about the city. Every single Chinese person I know thinks Suzhou is amazing. The majority of the foreigners were not impressed. 

My conclusion; it's worth a visit, but not a long one.

The gardens were beautiful, but if you've seen one garden, you've pretty much seen them all.  I enjoyed the Garden of the Master of the Nets, but by the time I got to the Humble Administrator's Garden, I'd seen enough foliage, and was beginning to regret the 50 RNB admission cost. 

The Suzhou Museum was also nice; designed by I.M. Pei (the dude who did the glass pyramid thingys at the Louvre), free to visit, and air-conditioned!

My favorite thing in Suzhou was Pingjiang Lu, the street that my hostel was situated on. It's an idyllic stone road, surrounded by canals, bridges, and crumbling old world China architecture. Oh and cute cafés.

I've included a few pics so you can see what I saw!

Hangzhou in Pictures

 School’s out for the summer and I’ve started my travels in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a major Chinese tourist destination, a couple hours south west of Shanghai. It is famed for the beautiful “West Lake” and its stunning scenery. Here are a few pictures from my time in Hangzhou.