Views of the Summer Palace

Beijing and Xi'an

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June 11th 2011
Arriving into Beijing at lunchtime on 3 June we had no firm plans for China, except to the extent that we knew that we had to be in Hong Kong by 28 June. That's not to say that we didn't have a rough idea of where we wanted to go. We knew that we wanted to visit the  major cities of Beijing and Shanghai, to go to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors, Hangzhou for West Lake and to trav ... read more

Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an

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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. A... ... read more