China - The Great Wall & Forbidden City (Beijing)

Finally after another gruesome night train we reached our final destination Beijing. After quickly checking in to our hotel we left for an excursion to Tienanmen and the Forbidden City. Tienanmen was kind of a disappointment. Having heard so much about it (not only about the student uprising) it is basically nothing else but a huge open space covered in concrete, surrounded by the Mao Mausoleum, the National Museum, the "parliament" and the entrance gate to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City

The entrance gate to the Forbidden City. Mao is supervising who is entering.

There were lots and lots of people walking towards the entrance, almost as many if not more than in Angkor Wat. I had a hunch that it would not be a peaceful strolling through the Forbidden City.

Bummer ..... most of the important buildings were covered in scaffolding to give them a new polish before the Olympics.

View through a partially open gate of the Forbidden City into the outside world? Or just a different part of the city?

Inside the city .....

Loved this sign ... no flowers to be seen, but you are not allowed to pick them.

"Mode of transportation" ... a bike rickshaw comes handy when you need a nap.

"Mode of transportation 2" - Oisin (from Ireland) and myself tucked into a small bike rickshaw on our way through the narrow alleys of an older part of Beijing, close to Tienanmen and the Forbidden City.

The Great Wall

The Great Wall, one of the wonders of the world, was enlisted in the World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. The Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus stretching approximately 6,700 kilometers (4,163 miles ) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the section of the great wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared.

We did a 10 km hike on the wall from Jinshanling towards Simatai, it was quite strenuous up and down many steps. We saw several well preserved areas of the wall (usually close to tourist areas), but also many stretches of wall in complete disrepair and crumbled to pieces. This photo was taken on a section where the wall and watch towers were not in the best condition.

Sometimes it was quite dangerous to hike along the wall. The steps and sidewalls were sometimes crumbling or had disintegrated completely..... and when you are afraid of height like me it is a little more difficult.

Unfortunately the weather was not too great, but I hope that some of the shots look good and will give you some impression how magnificent this structure still is.

The wall in this area was basically built along the ridge of the mountains. It must have been an interesting logistical task to make this happen. I assume the wall was started in several different locations and the building materials transported on the finished parts of the wall.

Unfortunately it was not a clear day, but I hope you can make out the wall on the far horizon on top of the mountain range.

Our last task was to climb down several flights of stairs and then walk across a rope bridge to the other side of the canyon.

China - Xi'an - The Walled City & Terracotta Warriors

From the BaoGuo Monastery we took a bus back to Chengdu and then board another night train of 16 hours to Xi'an. I volunteered to stay with the smaller group and got rewarded with a bunk in the "soft sleep" carriage. These compartments only have 4 beds and a door. I actually was able to sleep for the first time on a night train. We arrived in Xi'an and I spend some time exploring the city.

"Mode of transportation" .... I caught this guy repairing his tuk tuk by just flipping it on its back. Could you do this with your car?

The "Muslim Quarter" was my favorite part of town. Small and narrow streets lined by shops, restaurants and food stands. It simply had a "real" feel to it, not the artificial fast erected buildings you see everywhere else.

This lady was selling steamed sweets. Honestly I still do not know exactly what it was, but it tasted awesome and was just RMB 1 (approximately 15 cents). She mixed some (white) powder (flour?) in a little form and added spices and raisins and other things and then simply steamed it for a little while.

This guy was welding big pots just on the street.

The Terracotta Warriors

The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are one of the most significant archaeological excavations of the 20th century. Work is still ongoing (very slowly) at this site, you might wonder why only 20 archaeologists are employed. For my untrained eye it seemed that the larger part of the site still remains to be excavated. The warriors are to"protect" the remains of emperor Qin in afterlife. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974.

Pit 1 probably is the most impressive of the current excavation sites. Large numbers of soldiers and horses are lined up in formation.

It was hard to find a good position top photograph and the lighting was a little challenging, but I hope you can get a feel for it.

The warriors from a different view point. Unfortunately many figures have been destroyed and none of the original weapons and decoration is displayed.

It must have been an amazing sight in its original condition.

Warrior figures still partially buried.

These figures are from Pit 2, where a lot of excavation work is needed. The official explanation was that the government waited for new technologies to makes sure the colourful painting / coating of the figures can be saved.

China - The Giant Buddha of Leshan

We left Chengdu on a bus to Leshan, where we boarded a river boat to view the Giant Buddha from the Min river.

Me posing in front of the Giant Buddha.

The "Giant Buddha", work on the project in 713 and it was not completed until 90 years later. The statue is 71 meters tall (and that is seated) and is supposedly the biggest of its kind in the world. There is a walkway around the statue and in high season you have to wait for several hours to do the round trip. Quite impressive, but erosion is taking its toll all ready. Interesting that the statue originally was covered by a roof.

Small doors in China ..... I can not count anymore how many times I banged my head and almost knocked me unconscious.

Ma buddy the Buddha .....

Just in case you have not had enough of the Buddha statue ....

I do not know how they got a portrait of me into this temple .... just kidding, the fast in Thailand helped me to somehow stay in shape. According to the legend, this guy was once rich and beautiful with long curly hair. However because of that people always approached him and made it difficult to mediate and search for enlightenment. So he decided to get fat and cut his hair that the women would leave him alone .... so the story goes. I would love to give you more detail, but unfortunately Wikipedia is censored in China, so that has to wait.

I just love the "Chenglish" signs they have everywhere.

China - Mount Emei (Sichuan Province)

Upon our return from the Giant Buddha we went to BaoGuo, where we stayed at the BaoGuo Monastery. At 6:00 am we took a bus to Mount Emei. It was freezing cold, foggy and the visibility was pretty much zero. There was still some snow and the trail was icy in some spots which made it quite treacherous to hike. Of course some creative shop keepers where already at work selling socks and bamboo shoes to help with the ice.

Just before we entered the gondola for the final ascent up to Mount Emei. We took this photo with some snow in the background.

Some more "Chinglish" signs for a little chuckle.



Really? Quite frankly the sign could not be more true, but I do not want to start ranting about the bathrooms now.

When we returned with the Gondola back to the valley we took another bus and then hiked up a small creek valley towards the HangChungPing Monastery. These workers were carrying slabs of rock up the mountain for a construction project.

Somehow this hike up this creek valley reminded me of the Black Forrest. It felt good to be in the nature, very few people around.

Well, we do not have monkeys in the Black Forrest, but there were plenty here. At some point they blocked the trail completely waiting to be fed by the tourists.

Once up the mountain we saw some more monkeys around the monastery. Some of them actually were carrying around their little babies at all times.

The HangChunPing Monastery were we stayed for the night. The last ascend was 1200 steps to reach the monastery gate.

The next morning on our hike back to the valley we encountered the workers again, carrying construction material up the hill. These rock slabs must weigh around 30 to 40 kilos.

A construction or better demolition site along the trail. No machines or power tools were used, these guys demolish the concrete structure with chisel and hammer only.

Somehow after all the busy cities we have been visiting it felt unreal to be in nature. It was beautiful, so please forgive if I have to show it once more ....

On our hike we encountered another construction site. It was interesting to watch these guys unloading these heavy concrete slabs without the help of a crane.

Trash and pollution .... it is really a big problem in China. Even in this remote mountain village people just dump there trash. In the past that was probably OK since everything was somehow organic, but now with all the plastic packaging it doesn't work anymore. Unfortunately old habits are hard to get rid of.

More "mode of transportation". I saw this guy transporting this huge piece of plywood on his bike.

And one more mode of transportation .... taken in the train by Kata, with Kieran and Katarina in our "soft" sleeper compartment, the first night train I actually was able to sleep a little.

China - Pandas and more .... Chengdu (Sichuan Province)

After the trip up the Yangtze River we spent one night in Chongqing, a gigantic, fast growing Moloch of 30.000.000 people. I would say in the entire city you could not find a building older than 50 years. All boring but functional apartment and office high rises, lots of construction everywhere. There was not really much worth taking photos. In the morning we boarded a train to Chengdu in the Sichuan province.

Impressions from the train ride. Rice fields and the "rapps" (need to research the English word) everywhere. I loved the yellow fields rushing by the train window.

Did I say I loved the yellow fields ..... ?

On our first night in Chengdu we visited a "culture show" in which local artists performed. I liked this artist, she was juggling with anything you can imagine, one of the items was this table.

Another group of artists performed a dance with "changing faces". I do not know exactly how it works, but they were multiple face masks and change them frequently at such high speed that it is almost impossible to notice how they do that. Of course the photo does not to the spectacle enough credit, but at least it gives you some impression. In the background you see a big puppet. It was interesting to see that they made the puppet change the face mask as well and even spitting fire.

Pandas, pandas and more pandas .... boy these creatures are cute. We visited a breeding and research center, which is also kind of a Zoo.

This little guy was playing with a piece of bamboo. I took a full series of photos until he almost fell into the moat.

They call the "Red Pandas", but they are actually not Pandas. They below to the family of "Raccoons".

Of course I had to have a shot taken with the Pandas in the background.

More Pandas ... they were just happily eating up their bamboo.

Chengdu was actually one of my favorite cities in China. Although it is growing rapidly as well, it seems that they are trying to make the city look nice.

We visited the "Wenshu Temple" in Chengdu, probably I have seen too many temples by now since I was not too impressed.

Selling candles can be very tiring. This monk was overwhelmed and just fell asleep at his desk.

Another smaller Pagoda in the garden of the Wenshu Temple.

There were many quite modern and attractive buildings in downtown Chengdu. I liked the futuristic look of this one.


The city square is "controlled" by a huge statue of Mao.

The bicycle is still the major means of transportation. They even have parking lots for bikes ... and of course you have to pay.

I watched these construction workers for a little while. All the labor was performed manually, these guys are digging through a slab of concrete just with hammer and chisel.

The Chinese love to sing ... Karaoke is huge! Here we have a street musician performing close to our hotel.