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Mausoleum of Mao ZedongPeople in Beijing, China 26/12/1893 – 09/09/1976 Chinese communist leader. Like Lenin, Chairman Mao's corpse has been embalmed and is on display in a vast purpose built mausoleum which visitors can enter daily. At the time of Mao's death the Chinese didn't have the technology to preserve his body indefinitely, however they copied the soviet technology.
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Review by Photo by flickr user Gene Zhang |
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Great Wall of ChinaForts and Fortifications in Beijing, China I had seen photos of the cable car leading up to sections of the Great Wall of China but I hadn't seen any photos of the tobogganing slide going down. From that opening sentence you may think that I visited Great Wall: Tour Group Central, but I didn't; Mutianyu is one of the best preserved sections of the wall but it's not the most heavily touristed. Fair play about the cable car, it's a very steep trip up to the wall in this section, the mountains rise straight up, stepping out of the flat plain Beijing sits on, and a lot of people would have been unable to walk on the wall if they hadn't been able to get up in the cable car, but when I got up to the first landing there was a television production crew filming some kind of song and dance spectacular, a stage had been set up and there were red lanterns everywhere as well as kids singing and dancing and men flying kites. I have no idea what the occasion was but it can't happen every day – neither can the wave after wave of kids playing chasings around the first few guard towers and families sat on the wall having picnics, but then the views of the surrounding hills are impossible for me to put into words – you'll have to look at the photos and watch the video when I finish it, so it is a great spot for a picnic. A few hundred meters on as the arrow flies the people start to thin out and the going gets a little steeper, the final open section to the left has really steep stairs to climb and there was a nice sense of international camaraderie as people gee'd each other on to get to the top section, where, as well as an even more indescribable view there was a fellow wall walker singing songs from the Peking Opera? Strange and probably an impossibly unlikely one off but I'm sure it will be one of my enduring memories of this trip to Beijing. Also enjoying the entertainment were a group of people working on repairing the next section of wall, with a horse who was looking precariously over the edge at us. Older people had stalls along the wall selling cold drinks, including beer which they kept offering all the men speaking English, they bring their wares up every day on mules, you can see the mules on the tracks beside the wall. The toboggan slide was a long stretch in the other direction. And it was a regular toboggan track, like a big slide. Yep, it is a logical way to get down the mountain, but it kinda jars with the kinds of things I was thinking about while I was walking along the wall, namely how brilliant it is that such a huge undertaking could actually exist, but it brings in the money which supports the local economy, and it looked really fun, so I went on it. Around the base of the wall are the souvenir stalls, but once you get up onto the wall there are sections where you're at least out of hearing distance of any other walkers and you can sit and have a ponder and take some breathtaking photos. If you can get further out and walk on the ruined sections it may be more the experience you're looking for but if you're short on time, M is only about an hour and forty minutes out of Beijing and you're still able to appreciate how huge an accomplishment it wall is and why it definitely deserves the title 'Great'. And did I mention the view, and that you can see the wall dwindle off into the distance, linked by towers which stand out on the top of mountain ridges?
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Review by Photo by flickr user exfordy |
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The Terracotta ArmyArchaeological Sites in Xi'an, China Terra-Cotta Army of Qin Shihuangdi, one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world and awesome!! The Grand Mausoleum of Qin Emperor, the first emperor of China, is protected by more than 6000 life size Terra-Cotta Warriors and horses. The exhibit contains multiple exhibition halls, the largest of which is 180 meters by sixty meters in size. The entire site houses the continuing excavation of an army of 6,000 Terra-Cotta soldiers and horses that guard the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of a unified China whose geographical region approached the country’s modern area. It is a stunning exhibition of ancient artifacts that is well laid out and easy to view and much bigger when you are there to appreciate it!
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Review by Photo by Donna Dawson |
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Laoxiancheng Panda ReserveWildlife in North Central China, China Furry, friendly faced and huggable looking, Giant Pandas are the poster children of the endangered animal lists, but very difficult to meet in the wild. Their remaining high altitude bamboo forests are heavily protected and their dwindling numbers monitored closely by scientists with baited breath and the birth of every new panda cub is greeted with cheers the world over. There are a few areas, run by conservation organisations being opened up to limited visitors, one of these is in the misty, green Qinling Mountains. Panda trackers escort hopefull visitors into the mountains, looking for tracks, droppings and panda sized disturbed vegetation. The region is untouched bamboo forests so visitors will have to be prepared to trek through difficult and wooded terrain and survive off a diet of packet noodles while staying quiet and still and waiting for the elusive flash of black and white. But many people would consider the opportunity well worth the inconvenience.
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Review by Photo by flickr user tinyfroglet |
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Shangri-La ExpressTrain Journeys in Tibet, China This state-of-the-art and comfortable train's elegant carriages are the latest entrant into the luxury train scene - opened in 2007, the route begins in Golmud, China, following what soon becomes the highest railway line in the world - using pressurised cabins to pass through the 17,000 feet peaks.
After passing herds of surprised yaks and a few resigned monks, who have had to put up with Chinese innovations - not to mention interventions - for years, the train glides its way into Lhasa, the roof of the world. Whatever your political views, this is one of the most spectacular train trips you can take today.
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Review by Photo by flickr user Henry Chen |
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