• Landscapes of China Part 2 – Pingyao to Nanning

    The new China...

    The new China…

    Following Part 1, here are some remaining photo highlights of my journey through China.  The second half of my trip things got easier to navigate but also arguably a little less interesting and adventurous.  Metro systems abounded, high-speed rail linked the cities and the level of English rose. There are no photos after Shanghai as frankly the weather came in so I could take little more than photos of fog. Oh, and of giant penis statues in the Wuhan Sex Museum.  But this is a family friendly blog, so they aren’t going up. (no pun intended…)

    Pingyao city walls

    Pingyao was in my opinion, over-hyped in the guidebook. Touted as the “China you imagine” inside its walls it seem a bit too polished and Disneyfied to me…

    Abandoned building

    The highlight for me at Pingyao was instead its Photo Exhibition which took place in some abandoned industrial buildings.

    Abandoned building

    To be honest, whilst some of the photography was quite good I had more fun trying to take my own

    Abandoned building

    And in honour of it being a photo exhibition I decided to go all artsy and use black and white

    Gate to Forbidden City. Mao portrait

    You can’t go to Beijing and not try to take a photo of this – interestingly under the Republican period a portrait of Chiang Kai-shek hung in its place …(see here for proof)

    Red flags

    They are fans of flags at Tiananmen Sq

    Flags and security cameras

    People of China – Love your country! (It’s watching you…)

     

    Forbidden City from Jingshan Park

    The best way to see the Forbidden City is to avoid it and the crowds of tourists and head instead to the hill behind it in Jingshan Park. Unfortunately the light was rubbish so I had to resort to B&W again.

    Beijing Summer Palace bridge

    Beijing’s Summer Palace, burned by the French and the British and now a site for “patriotic education”

    Although given that the Chinese Empress decided to build a marble boat with money earmarked for the navy does make you think the Chinese elites didn't really help  themselves much

    Although given that the Chinese Empress decided to build a marble boat with money earmarked for the navy does make you think the Chinese elites didn’t really help themselves much

    After Beijing I had to run down to Hong Kong as my Visa expired. I ended up spending a fortnight there as well as visiting Macau before taking the train all the way back to Beijing again.  Not the most time effective way of travelling I will admit.

    Hong Kong at night

    Welcome to Hong Kong

    Fishermen

    Fishermen by one ofthe typhoon shelters on HK island

    Hiking in Hong Kong

    Hong Kong’s greener side

    In HK a day trip to Macau is well worth doing, interesting architecture!

    In HK a day trip to Macau is well worth doing, interesting architecture!

    St Paul's frontage

    Possibly the most famous image of Macau – St Pauls cathedral ruins

    Canon faces casino

    Some buildings are less modern. A colonial fort now faces out across a frankly hideous casino

    Meanwhile, back on the mainland…

    Statue of Dr Sun in the mausoleum

    Nanjing is well worth a visit. It was the seat of government for the Nationalist forces in China and is the site of Dr Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleom, considered the father of modern China by both the Nationalists and Communists

    Flag design on the roof of the mausoleum

    The flag of the Republic

    View from the mausoleum

    View from the mausoleum

    Portait of Dr Sun and Nationalist flags

    The old govt. buildings are now a museum

    Nanjing Memorial

    I’ll be honest, before I visited Nanjing I only knew of it as the site of the infamous “Rape of Nanking” there is another site of “patriotic education” commemorating the event.

    Another must see city in China is Shanghai, if nothing else because it gives me an opportunity to mess around with night photography.  There is also a Monorail, I’ll probably put a separate post up on that.

    The Bund from across the sea

    The historic Shanghai Bund. Chinese flags now fly from every building

    Skyscrapers at day

    The new financial heart of Shanghai

    shanghai towesr flags (Large)

    And by night

    And by night

    DSC00285 (Large)

     

    So there we go, 2 months and lots of experiences later its time for the next leg of my journey. I look forward to coming back to China in 2015!

     

     

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