China: 19th September - 1st November
Click here for a list of some of the Chinglish I encountered in China.
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| Lijiang is one of those places I wish I could have visited thirty years ago - before the hordes of domestic Chinese tourists discovered it! |
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| Yulong Xue Shan, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, pokes its head through the clouds above Lijiang. |
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| Local women in Lijiang, wearing the traditional costume of their Naxi culture. |
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| Amazing limestone karst scenery in the Yangshuo area. |
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| Sunset from the top of Moon Hill. |
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| I visited a fishing village on the Li Jiang river near Yangshuo. From the photos on everybody's walls, it was clear that Bill Clinton's visit in 1990-something was the highlight of these people's lives. My visit won't perhaps have made such a lasting impression, but I recorded it on Kodak anyway. |
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| Yet another 8th Wonder of the World: this time, the rice terraces of Ping An, near Guilin. |
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| Ami makes the fatal mistake of expressing an interest in the wares of one of these Ping An hawker ladies. Soon he is surrounded; there is no escape... |
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| I arrived in Hong Kong on 1st October - Chinese National Day. It was marked by a spectacular HK$7million firework display over the harbour. |
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| A picture of me on Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. |
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| The air pollution in Hong Kong makes for wonderfully colourful and atmospheric sunsets. |
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| The bright lights of Hong Kong shine out at twilight. |
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| The Star Ferry plies its route from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island as the sun sets across the bay. |
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| Shopping is big business in Shanghai. |
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| The Great Wall of China winds its way into the distance near Jinshanling. |
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| Tiananmen, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, Beijing. Check out the big portrait of Chairman Mao, one of few that are on public display in China. |
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| Another nice sunset, this time over the Forbidden City which lies beyond Tiananmen. |
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| Pingyao is a historic walled city with impressive, erm, walls. |
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| Trying on some very silly Chinese glasses in Pingyao. |
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| The largest of the three excated halls of Terracotta Warriors, near Xi'an. |
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| A close up of some of the warriors. |
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| Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu province. This area was part of Greater Tibet before the Communist 'liberation' that began in 1950; Labrang is one of the five largest Tibetan monasteries in Tibet. Indeed, it's one of the five largest Tibetan monasteries anywhere... |
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| Buddhist pilgrims travel from all over the Tibetan world to offer prayers at Labrang. |
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| A little Tibetan fella having lots of fun with his balloon in Labrang. |
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| Peter tries to make friends with the locals in Langmusi. |
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| This woman, Leisha, is the best chef in China. Her yak burgers are quite simply the best food I have ever had, anywhere. They alone made the excrutiating trip to Langmusi seem worthwhile, and made life worth living when Peter & I were stuck and couldn't get out of town. |
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| With no sign of any transport south from Langmusi, and fed up of waiting, I bailed out and headed back north to Lanzhou. Peter stuck it out and reached Chengdu two days before me :-) But at least I got this cool photo on the bus north. |
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| Chairman Mao statues are all the rage in China, even though the official party line is that he was '30% right, 70% wrong'. This monstrosity is in Chengdu. |
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| Pandas at the breeding centre in Chengdu, doing what they do best... eating bamboo. |
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| The Potala palace in Lhasa, former seat of the Tibetan government and winter home of the Dalai Lama. Extraordinarily expensive to get in to. |
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| Tibetan lady outside the Potala in Lhasa. |
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| Friendly girls in Tingri, on the road from Lhasa to the Nepali border at Zhangmu. |
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| Distant view of Everest (that'll be the big one in the middle then) from near Tingri on the Lhasa-Nepal road. |
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