china, 2007/2008

Thursday, July 05, 2012

mum, dad and i fly back to beijing fairly frequently to visit family, but rarely do we have the time to explore and play the role of the chinese tourist in china. this a collection of very old photos from my trip in 2007-2008, documenting some of the glorious sights i came across whose editing was induced by 2am nostalgia.

our first touristy stop was mount hua in shaanxi province. with its five peaks, it is one of china's five great mountains. and let me tell you, it is steep. it really makes australia's mount kosciuszko look utterly pathetic, hahaha.

despite it being the middle of winter and bitterly cold (cold enough to freeze entire waterfalls), there were many fellow hikers and the air was beautifully crisp. i've seen photos of the scenery in spring, when everything is green and glorious, but there's something spectacular about the stark beauty of grey stone and snow.

there are many temples scattered across the various levels of the mountain, the most notable of which are located on each of the five peaks. at each, you may purchase a lock on which to engrave the name of you and your lover. you then clasp the lock onto a chain bordering the walkway and throw the key into the abyss. tradition states that if you do so, you and your lover will never be separated.

we then visited xi'an, the home of the ten thousand terracotta warriors. the sight of them is truly incredible, especially after knowing that initially when uncovered, almost all of the soldiers were in pieces, which needed to be reconstructed by hand. every one has removable and interchangeable heads, and are organised into strict regiments of foot and mounted.

this is a photo of the top of xi'an city wall, which encircles the entirety of the boundaries of the old xi'an. built in 582ad, it's amazing how well this wall has survived. it is 12-14m wide across the top, and 16-18m wide along the bottom.

distant mountains seen from the train window, en route back to beijing from xi'an.

the grand mausoleum of sun yatsen in nanjing, jiangsuprovince. sun is regarded as the father of the republic of china. again, despite it being the middle of winter, there are always many people there to pay their respects.

suzhou is one of the most beautiful cities in china, known for its classical oriental gardens. much of the city is also built along canals, which made me think of it as china's venice.

china's ventures into green energy, seen on the way to zhangjiakou to visit more family.

and of course, what trip is complete without a visit to tiananmen square? beijing is my hometown and i have seen this square many many times, but it never ceases to be less impressive, especially when seen alight late at night.