Blogs from China, Asia - page 14

THE VICTORIA JENNA - YANGTZE 3 NIGHT RIVER CRUISE It didn’t stop raining and we had a long walk to get to our ship, the Victoria Jenna docked in Chongquing on the Yangtze River. Launched in 2009 the Victoria Jenna is one of the largest, most technologically advanced ships on the Yangtze River. The 10,000-ton, 418 passenger vessel is almost 440 feet long, spans six decks and is roughly 50 percent larger than other Victoria cruise ships. Due to scheduled maintenance at the Three Gorges Dam our ship was not permitted through the ship locks there and we would be going to finish our journey, just west of the dam at Maoping. On arrival absolutely soaking wet we decided to upgrade our Standard Cabin to an Executive Suite and we were glad we did it was ... read more

Jingsghan Park had been on my to visit list for quite a while. It is in a great location in central Beijing, just behind the Forbidden City. I was a bit gutted when I turned up, as there were quite a lot of tours groups outside of the park. I hoped they wouldn't all be heading in there. I went to the ticket office and was happily surprised that the entrance fee was only 1 or 2 RMB. A very cheap outing! Jingshan Park was opened to the public in 1928 and is popular with locals and visitors. There are quite a few things to see in Jingshan Park, the most famous being the view of the Forbidden City. I decided to look around some of the lesser known sights first. The first point of interest ... read more

GUILIN Our flight from Xian was quick and as we drove from the airport we noticed a slightly slower pace of life, although a lot busier than we had anticipated and probably not only due to the fact that we were in the middle of their national holiday and its special year. We were looking forward to seeing this scenic area and hiking up into the rice terraces. Guilin is renowned as one of China’s most beautiful spots and I must say our first glimpse was impressive but we had only seen large cities so far on this journey. Our guide Helen said that this was her home town and she was really enthusiastic about everything we could do here. It was hot though in the mid 30s so you had to take things at a ... read more

Most people that come to Beijing know of the Summer Palace, which was an imperial garden during the Qing Dynasty. It is a vast and beautiful place. The Old Summer Palace (圆明园/Yuanmingyuan), which is close to the Summer Palace, in contrast is not that well known. A co-worker had been and had enjoyed the place so I decided to give it a visit. It has its own subway station, Yuanmingyuan Park on line 4, so it is really easy to get to. When I arrived at there were quite a few people about, but no where near the hordes of people I saw when I visited the Summer Palace. Tickets are needed to enter and are pretty cheap compared to a ticket to the regular Summer Palace as it was only about 30 RMB. In front ... read more

Days 65 to 69 of 80 Hangzhou - what an utterly, lovely, delightful place that no one outside of China will have heard of..... possibly. In fact it was on the world stage in 2016 when it hosted that year's G20 Summit of world leaders. More locally, Hangzhou has been designated 'the happiest city in China' for the past 12 years. It shows. There seems to be some feel of joyous infection around in this place, though that might be because of the lead in to the 70th Anniversary celebrations. Hangzhou, population 9-10m, is built to the east, mostly, of West Lake, one of China's most scenic and most trip-visited spots. The other three sides are backed by small hills/mountains giving picture perfect vistas all around its circumference. It is a gentle, flat, 15 km amble ... read more