Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.
July 23rd 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
Quite a hilly ride today, but quite cool and cloudy. We climbed to a tunnel, which we went through in groups with vehicle escort. We had our picnic at the tunnel exit, then descended to moderately ... 12 photos[full story]
July 19th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
A wonderful evening and day touring the sights of Xi'an. It's a much bigger city than I ever imagined... 8 million people in the city, 34 million in the provinces around the city.
It was a hot su ... 12 photos[full story]
July 19th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
A horrible day. It rained in the morning, not hard but enough to put a rain jacket on. The countryside was mostly desert, the road was good and flat. We arrived at the outskirts of the town and w ... 8 photos[full story]
July 19th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an Thursday 26 June - Dunhuang to Anxi, 122 km
We had good road all the way today. I somehow managed to leave last in the morning, but Claude and Christian stayed behind with me, which was nice of them ... [full story]
July 19th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
We had good road all the way today. I somehow managed to leave last in the morning, but Claude and Christian stayed behind with me, which was nice of them. My back tyre was soft and I pumped it up ... 6 photos[full story]
July 19th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
A long day, but fortunately on good smooth motorway all the way, not a lot of wind, and it was cloudy so not too hot. The group I was with stopped every 25 km and that worked well. Picnic after 11 ... 6 photos[full story]
July 18th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
Didn’t eat much breakfast. Collected a camelback and filled it with water as we will not have the blue drinks van after the border. Collected my passport from Brigitte. We stopped twice on ... 3 photos[full story]
July 9th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an On to Xi'an, which served as China's capital to 11 dynasties over a period of 4,000 years. Best know for the Terracotta warriors, it's position at the very Eastern end of the Silk Road turned it into ... 5 photos[full story]
July 2nd 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an Hello again everybody! Sorry for the late entries....just been having too much fun!
So from Beijing, we hit Xi'an on 27th June! We caught an overnight train in a hard sleeper, which sleeps six i ... [full story]
July 4th 2008Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an The mighty army of terracotta warriors and horses, found in three vaults 40km east of Xian, is probably the most popular tourist attraction of Xian.
This army is really huge an somewhat impress ... 3 photos[full story]
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