Chengdu's Wenshu Temple In 2006 when I went to Chengdu I had to make a stop at the Wenshu Temple. I know, I know most people think ugh, another temple. I really love Chinese temples. I think the reason most people do not find them interesting is that they don't understand them. It helps to know a bit about the layout of temples, and the symbolism involved. Of course, it also helps to understand Buddhism as well. I think the beauty of a temple is in the details. No two temples are even remotely similar. Since most Chinese temples are ancient, [View Full Entry]

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Chengdu's Zigong Dinosaur Museum You may not know this about me, but I was an archaeology major in college. Before any archaeologists, or palentologsts get bent out of shape, I know that dinosaurs are not archaeology. I only wanted to say, that I love history, and especially dig sites. When I went to Chengdu in 2006 I wanted to stop at the Zigong Dinosaur museum. It's one of the three largest dinosaur museums in the world. Located at the Da Shanpu dinosaur fossils dig site, this area has the largest collection of dinosaur fossils from the mid-Jurassic period ever discover [View Full Entry]

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Guilin's 7 Star Park 7 Star Park located near downtown Guilin is the largest park in Guilin City. It covers over 900 acres. It is named for the seven mountain peaks that are in the park and are placed in a similar formation to the big dipper, hence the name 7 Star Park. This park has just about everything for everybody. When me and my wife have some time off and want to go out, we inevitably end up here and luckily because I work at China Odyssey Tours, I get in free. The mountains in the park have pavilions and [View Full Entry]

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Guilin's Jing Jiang Prince's Tomb The Jing Jiang Prince's Tomb located in Guilin, Guangxi near Yao Mountain, the largest mountain in Guilin, is the resting place of an imperial prince of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The area around Yao Mountain was considered to have good fengshui, so many imperial princes are buried in the area. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Guilin was home to one of the governing centers of China, and was considered an imperial city. Guilin has a palace complex, that predates the Forbidden City in Beijing. Built by the founder of the Ming Dynasty [View Full Entry]

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Guilin's Daxu Ancient Village The Daxu Ancient Village located Southwest of Guilin city in Guangxi Province was built during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and is my second home. Since I am lucky enough to actually live in Guilin, I get to visit Daxu often. I have many old friends there, and every time I return to this beautiful village, the word that I am back in town spreads quickly, and soon a lot of people come out to say hi. The children in Daxu love me and within ten minutes I usually have a group of ten or so following me [View Full Entry]

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San Jiang (Three Rivers) Villages I was digging through some photos and came acoss photos of a trip I took to Chengyang Village north of San Jiang a couple of years ago. I forgot how amazing the place really is. I think the hardest part about writing this particular blog, is picking out just a few photographs to use because I have so many I really love. It's not that I am a great photographer, it is just the place is so beautiful that it is almost impossible to take a bad one. San Jiang is located near Liuzhou in Guangxi [View Full Entry]

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