China 09, the illustrated version
Jul. 15th, 2009 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fishpatrolMy last entry made my trip sound like a disaster (well, it kind of ended in disaster...), but I actually did manage to have fun, especially in Yunnan. I have over, idk, 500 photos and I picked about twenty of them to post:
Moar point-form \o/ (and links instead of images so I don't break anyone's internet connection)
All photos are un-Photoshopped and scaled down.
Beijing:
-Cranes, birds of the Orient. (I think this dude said it first) This is the view on the right side of Tienanmen Square. Tienanmen Square is one of those places that's really only worth going once, imo -- nothing to see except people, people, more people (though this time, when we went, it was pretty empty...for Chinese standards), and Mao's mug.
Kunming:
-The biggest and brightest rainbow I'd ever seen. I had to take the photo from a moving vehicle, so it's a bit shaky, which is a pity. At one point, you could actually see two distinct rainbows arching over the highway.
From Kunming to Lijiang, in the sky:
-A sea of clouds. I had never been on so many plane rides in the span of so few days. We flew from Toronto to Beijing, Beijing to Kunming, Kunming to Lijiang, Lijiang to Kunming, and then Kunming to Beijing. And this was under one week. I'm not terribly keen on flying, but the view from the window is always spectacular.
On the way to Shangri-La:
-5 hours of bumpy roads and hairpin turns with sheer cliffs and no railings. Wish I took some pictures, but I thought taking an anti-nausea pill would be helpful -- instead, it made me drowsy and dizzy. We made a few sight-seeing stops though.
-Yangtze River's First Bend. I don't really remember what the tour guide said about this place. ;;; It's near the beginning of the Yangtze River, I think? The river water was murky from sand and gold dust -- but obvs not enough gold for anyone to bother panning for it.
-Tiger Jumping Gorge. It was quite a bit of a climb down to stand almost level to the water. The railing was thin and the path was made of old wooden boards and you could feel the splash of the rapids. I admit it, I was feeling a bit weak in the legs once I climbed down to the level where the rapids were just 2 metres away (one wrong step and I could've taken a nasty tumble!).
Putaso National Park, Shangri-La:
-Mountains, lakes, forest, the usual. More than 3000 metres above sea level and halfway across the world, this photo looks almost identical to a photo I took in British Columbia many summers ago. But hey, the 6 km hike was fun and the types of plants around definitely indicated that I wasn't inKansas Canada anymore.
-The park tour bus took us even higher up in elevation, and we came to this huge pasture where the natives of the area herded cows and yaks and horses. They're mostly nomadic and live in these little cottages during the summer months and take their herd to lower - and warmer - feeding grounds in fall and winter.
My mom was like, "It's like in that movie. Broke...Broke Mountain?"
"Um, Brokeback Mountain?"
"Yeah, with the cowboys. It's kind of like that."
My mom sure liked that movie a heck lot more than I did, huh.
-Tibetans are one of the minority groups that reside in Yunnan Province (there are a heck lot of minority groups in Yunnan). We visited the house of a Tibetan family (and it was terribly commercialized -- they took photos of you as you watch what ever show they've got going and then try to sell them to you). The interior was very pretty though, with the intricately painted walls. I really wish I could've gotten a picture of the exterior as well, but it was at night and raining. Also: yak tastes like cow, only tougher, which is probably entirely unsurprising.
On the bus ride between Shangri-La and Lijiang:
-Although the bus ride was long, the scenery was beautiful.
Lijiang:
-All the hotels we stayed in were great (four-star, no complaints here), but the prettiest one - at least on the exterior - has to be the one in the old city of Lijiang.
~*Yu Long Xue Shan*~ (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), Lijiang:
-First, we took the cable car up and up and up.
-The view from up there? Pretty fucking awesome.
-Have I mentioned that the view was really quite awesome?
-There was too much oxygen at 4506 metres, so I decided to climb higher.
-From the top observatory platform, this is the view if you look down and this is the view if you look straight up.
[I'm running out of steam here, so I'm going to try to finish up.]
Kunming:
-Shi Ling (Rock Forest), where there are lots and lots of big, towering rocks.
-An old man smoking a water pipe outside of the Shi Ling park. I tried to be all covert and ninja-like, but I think he noticed. ;;;
-Flourescent cacti! Awesome: y/y??
Wuhan:
-Water lily exhibit at a local park. It's a huge ass park and I almost got half bitten to death within the first five minutes of entering a wooded trail. We stayed out of the wooded areas after that.
-So, yeah. Water lilies. Lots and lots. Really pretty.
[Okay, almost done!]
That village I was talking about (the one with the cloned!houses), Jiangyin:
-The whole village/city is like this! Rows and rows of Monopoly houses! Creepy: y/y? I think this is their downtown area. Oh, and the dragon and the chicken at the bottom left corner of the picture? Those are suppose to represent the mayor (? leader, more like) of the village and his wife, based on their Chinese zodiac animals. The chicken was made to somewhat resemble a phoenix, but a chicken by any other name is still a chicken.
There, done, whew.
Moar point-form \o/ (and links instead of images so I don't break anyone's internet connection)
All photos are un-Photoshopped and scaled down.
Beijing:
-Cranes, birds of the Orient. (I think this dude said it first) This is the view on the right side of Tienanmen Square. Tienanmen Square is one of those places that's really only worth going once, imo -- nothing to see except people, people, more people (though this time, when we went, it was pretty empty...for Chinese standards), and Mao's mug.
Kunming:
-The biggest and brightest rainbow I'd ever seen. I had to take the photo from a moving vehicle, so it's a bit shaky, which is a pity. At one point, you could actually see two distinct rainbows arching over the highway.
From Kunming to Lijiang, in the sky:
-A sea of clouds. I had never been on so many plane rides in the span of so few days. We flew from Toronto to Beijing, Beijing to Kunming, Kunming to Lijiang, Lijiang to Kunming, and then Kunming to Beijing. And this was under one week. I'm not terribly keen on flying, but the view from the window is always spectacular.
On the way to Shangri-La:
-5 hours of bumpy roads and hairpin turns with sheer cliffs and no railings. Wish I took some pictures, but I thought taking an anti-nausea pill would be helpful -- instead, it made me drowsy and dizzy. We made a few sight-seeing stops though.
-Yangtze River's First Bend. I don't really remember what the tour guide said about this place. ;;; It's near the beginning of the Yangtze River, I think? The river water was murky from sand and gold dust -- but obvs not enough gold for anyone to bother panning for it.
-Tiger Jumping Gorge. It was quite a bit of a climb down to stand almost level to the water. The railing was thin and the path was made of old wooden boards and you could feel the splash of the rapids. I admit it, I was feeling a bit weak in the legs once I climbed down to the level where the rapids were just 2 metres away (one wrong step and I could've taken a nasty tumble!).
Putaso National Park, Shangri-La:
-Mountains, lakes, forest, the usual. More than 3000 metres above sea level and halfway across the world, this photo looks almost identical to a photo I took in British Columbia many summers ago. But hey, the 6 km hike was fun and the types of plants around definitely indicated that I wasn't in
-The park tour bus took us even higher up in elevation, and we came to this huge pasture where the natives of the area herded cows and yaks and horses. They're mostly nomadic and live in these little cottages during the summer months and take their herd to lower - and warmer - feeding grounds in fall and winter.
My mom was like, "It's like in that movie. Broke...Broke Mountain?"
"Um, Brokeback Mountain?"
"Yeah, with the cowboys. It's kind of like that."
My mom sure liked that movie a heck lot more than I did, huh.
-Tibetans are one of the minority groups that reside in Yunnan Province (there are a heck lot of minority groups in Yunnan). We visited the house of a Tibetan family (and it was terribly commercialized -- they took photos of you as you watch what ever show they've got going and then try to sell them to you). The interior was very pretty though, with the intricately painted walls. I really wish I could've gotten a picture of the exterior as well, but it was at night and raining. Also: yak tastes like cow, only tougher, which is probably entirely unsurprising.
On the bus ride between Shangri-La and Lijiang:
-Although the bus ride was long, the scenery was beautiful.
Lijiang:
-All the hotels we stayed in were great (four-star, no complaints here), but the prettiest one - at least on the exterior - has to be the one in the old city of Lijiang.
~*Yu Long Xue Shan*~ (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain), Lijiang:
-First, we took the cable car up and up and up.
-The view from up there? Pretty fucking awesome.
-Have I mentioned that the view was really quite awesome?
-There was too much oxygen at 4506 metres, so I decided to climb higher.
-From the top observatory platform, this is the view if you look down and this is the view if you look straight up.
[I'm running out of steam here, so I'm going to try to finish up.]
Kunming:
-Shi Ling (Rock Forest), where there are lots and lots of big, towering rocks.
-An old man smoking a water pipe outside of the Shi Ling park. I tried to be all covert and ninja-like, but I think he noticed. ;;;
-Flourescent cacti! Awesome: y/y??
Wuhan:
-Water lily exhibit at a local park. It's a huge ass park and I almost got half bitten to death within the first five minutes of entering a wooded trail. We stayed out of the wooded areas after that.
-So, yeah. Water lilies. Lots and lots. Really pretty.
[Okay, almost done!]
That village I was talking about (the one with the cloned!houses), Jiangyin:
-The whole village/city is like this! Rows and rows of Monopoly houses! Creepy: y/y? I think this is their downtown area. Oh, and the dragon and the chicken at the bottom left corner of the picture? Those are suppose to represent the mayor (? leader, more like) of the village and his wife, based on their Chinese zodiac animals. The chicken was made to somewhat resemble a phoenix, but a chicken by any other name is still a chicken.
There, done, whew.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 04:59 am (UTC)Also crying that scene is like Brokeback, but really pretty. And yes the Monopoly village is creepy. D: D: D: Jesus.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 08:21 pm (UTC)Brokeback Mountain was filmed in Alberta, right? I swear, the scenery in Yunnan is like, idk, an Asianized (aka more populated) version of an amalgamation of Alberta and BC.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-22 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 03:20 pm (UTC)But now that I caught up on your last entry. OTL that you were sick so much. ): That had to put a damper on it. Though I'm glad you're feeling better now.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 08:25 pm (UTC)Thanks for the well wishes~ <3 I normally don't get sick in China, regardless of what unknown junk I eat -- I can't believe a fancy restaurant screwed me over (and the four other people at dinner, including my parents, were 100% fine) D:
no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 06:00 pm (UTC)Your pictures are always so gorgeous. I still remember the ones you took in Cuba (?). These are even more fantastic.
The Monopoly houses are awesome. Is it less noticeable when you're not taking an aerial perspective?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 08:36 pm (UTC)We didn't actually get a chance to drive through the village -- just got a look from the top of a...I think it was a really tall hotel, with a viewing platform on top. We got a 360 degrees (aerial) view of the village and the neatness and the sameness of all the buildings was just so creepy.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 06:49 pm (UTC)judging from the pictures though, i'm glad that your adventure spirit was still strong (i would have sulked in a hotel room the entire time so i have to give you your well deserved kudos). some of those places are absolutely beautiful! minus the town of identical houses. it makes me uneasy.
but now i really want to go to china~~~
no subject
Date: 2009-07-16 08:42 pm (UTC)You should go one day if you have the chance! It's definitely worth the trip.