M
y
love affair with the United Kingdom and all things British has lasted most of
my life. I couldn’t tell you when it first started, when my upbringing was that
of any Chinese child raised in China. I couldn’t tell you the moment when I
realised that almost without exception, everything I loved – history, King
Arthur, Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes – had its roots in England. Nevertheless,
this sense of anglophilia has been one of the defining features of my identity.
As such, there was never any doubt in my mind that my first overseas trip (discounting the move to Sydney) would be to Europe. A Eurotrip is a fairly standard rite of passage these days, and certainly for those consumed by wanderlust like me. But time and monetary constraints meant that my friends and I could, as of last year, only go for three weeks. We wanted to immerse ourselves in a country as much as possible with such a limited time, and thus sacrificed most of what was on our still inconclusive list of places to visit. Not going to the UK was not, however, ever a possibility.
We started our journey with a week in Paris, and I will be blogging about that soon. But for all that I loved about the city, it was when I set foot on English soil at St. Pancras International Station that I truly felt at home.
As such, there was never any doubt in my mind that my first overseas trip (discounting the move to Sydney) would be to Europe. A Eurotrip is a fairly standard rite of passage these days, and certainly for those consumed by wanderlust like me. But time and monetary constraints meant that my friends and I could, as of last year, only go for three weeks. We wanted to immerse ourselves in a country as much as possible with such a limited time, and thus sacrificed most of what was on our still inconclusive list of places to visit. Not going to the UK was not, however, ever a possibility.
We started our journey with a week in Paris, and I will be blogging about that soon. But for all that I loved about the city, it was when I set foot on English soil at St. Pancras International Station that I truly felt at home.
These are the photos from my day trip out to Windsor. Unfortunately photography was not permitted inside the actual rooms, but I can say that it was everything you could ever imagine about a proper castle. There were plush carpets and grand staircases upon which royalty and some of the most brilliant minds have walked. Grand suits of armour and arms adorned the walls, as did priceless treasures from parts of the empire and the most exquisite royal china and silverware. It was all breathtakingly grand. As to the outside, well, let the photos speak for themselves.
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.
the sunrise over sydney
