Ａ　ｆｅｗ　ｏｆ　ｏｕｒ　Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ　ｐｈｏｔｏｓ　ｕｎｔｉｌ　ｉ　ｇｅｔ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｔｏ　ｗｒｉｔｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｐｒｏｐｅｒｌｙ．．． [View Full Entry]

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With not long left in China we started our bounty hunt. Instead of seeing the sights of Pingyao; a small chinese town of old, we spent a couple of days perusing the 'antiques' stalls. With all of them selling the same wares and hawkers haggling for prices five times of real value, we had to search well to find decent goods, after some perserverence and hard bargaining we came away with a decorative screen and a set of dragon dishes for a decent price. [View Full Entry]

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We made a quick pit stop in Xian to see the famous terracota warriors, touted by the Chinese as the eighth wonder of the world, they were indeed very impressive; the pictures do not do them justice. Commissioned two thousand years ago by the first chinese emporer to protect himself in his afterlife, the six thousand life size warriors stand in battle formation each with unique physique, dress, and weapons ready to fend off evil spirits. With an interesting humanist philosophy the benevolent emperor had all contributing artisans (there must have been thousands) silenced permanently in order to [View Full Entry]

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Arduously rising at dawn we caught the Kung Fu spectacle given by the acolytes at the Song Shan Shaoling Temple, the birthplace of Kung Fu. It was awesome, these guys moved faster than anyone ive seen (much to fast to get a decent photo) and showed off stunts of strength and speed like piercing a glass sheet with a needle, breaking metal bars on foreheads, and generally anything that gave the impression that they could kick anybody's ass at will. The place itself was set amongst the impressive Song Shan mountain range which according to the Daoists is the centre of [View Full Entry]

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Kaifeng is good, unlike all other Chinese cities weve been to town planners have restricted the hight of buildings to three stories, resulting in an atmospheric humanist enviroment. Charm is especially abundant at 6.15 each evening as a night market opens in the town centre creating a bustling gastronomic extravaganza with speciality foods from all over the country. Weve enjoying some delicious Uighur kebabs, spiced lamb roti, baozi (as opposed to jaozi), hand pulled noodles, and an unidentified strange looking but tasty desert of fruits, seeds, nuts and herbs swimming in a milky ectoplasm: al [View Full Entry]

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We only had a few days in Nanjing but managed to see some nice things (inluding England destroying Wales at rugby!) The nearby mountain Zijin Shan is home to some great parks and cultural sights. We saw the botanical gardens; which were made stunning by the twenty four hours of snow we had on our first day, and the Mausoleum in honour of Sun Yatsen who created Chinese democracy (didnt realise there was such a thing) back in the 1920's. As a precursor to the imminent great wall we caught the impressive remains of the city's Qing dynasty walls, which at [View Full Entry]

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We had a great time in Shanghai. Like any large city, with only seven days one can only catch a glimpse of local life and see the mainstay of the tourist attractions, which is what we did. It was very easy to spend our days zenning around and taking things in. We saw the Bund, Pudong area, people square, Yuyan gardens, the impressive Shanghai Museum, the Art Gallery and the very kitsch sightseeing tunnel to name a few, some photos are below. My favourate was peoples square, a large open central park which containing the grand theatre, art gallery and museum, [View Full Entry]

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The site of the legendary west lake, again very pituresque, very chinese, lots of walking but not so many photos this time (we were only there for a day). [View Full Entry]

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Putuoshan is a buddhist island off the coast not far south of Shanghai. It has nice examples of Chinese architecture and the island is peaceful and pretty. A couple of day walking were enough to see all and get some decent photos. [View Full Entry]

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This place was awesome! We trekked for a few days and had a great time, it was exceptionally beautiful [View Full Entry]

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