Will Davies
Tell us a bit about yourself... this information will appear on your page.WillonAsia
Travel Blog Posts
February 24th 2006
Ａ ｆｅｗ ｏｆ ｏｕｒ Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ ｐｈｏｔｏｓ ｕｎｔｉｌ ｉ ｇｅｔ ｔｉｍｅ ｔｏ ｗｒｉｔｅ ｔｈｉｓ ｐｒｏｐｅｒｌｙ．．．... read more
February 14th 2006
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.... read more
February 14th 2006
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 keep his underground army a secret; which it was, until twenty years ago when a serendipitous peasant sinking a well discovered the wonder. Xian itslef was mildly interesting. The thirty kilometres of restored city wall with intermitent guard ... read more
Song Shan: Birthplace of Kung Fu, and Longmen Caves
Published: February 11th 2006Asia » China » Henan » Song Shan
February 11th 2006
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 the World. Not far from here we went to see the Longmen Caves; a ravine side grotto of over two kilometres of continous buddhist sculpture dating from between 200-400 AD. Absolutely every available space has ... read more
February 8th 2006
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: all in one day and two nights! With the little time leftover from our eating weve visited the tourist sights. Longting park, including dragon pavilion, turned out to be the worlds naffest attraction: Gaudy luminously technicolour banners and floats, and an awful ... read more
February 7th 2006
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 13 metres thick and 33 kilometres long reiterated ancient Chinas love of a good wall. We saw the Western gate which with its four garrisons provided nice chinese architecture and a glimps into the world ... read more
February 5th 2006
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, and surrounded by Shanghaiese skyscrapers has a captivating atmosphere which has stuck with me. We spent many enjoyable hours just sitting here (some recovering from hangovers) chatting and watching the Chinese. Chinese New Year (29th ... read more
February 1st 2006
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).... read more
January 31st 2006
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.... read more
January 29th 2006
This place was awesome! We trekked for a few days and had a great time, it was exceptionally beautiful... read more
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 14; qc: 89; dbt: 0.0563s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
