China – Kasnick Photography

China This is by far the largest page, divided into sections depending on where we were. Each is very different, so I encourage you to go all the way to the end for a full experience of what China is!

Shanghai This was the first major city and the landing spot. We could see China is on a building campaign as the airport had hundreds of plane parking spots, so far unused.

Shanghai. Click on any photo and it will expand. Hit Esc to go back to gallery, or hit the X in upper corner to close expanded photo. While the photo is expanded, other control options are available in the upper right corner.

Shanghai is a city of 24mm and 25 years ago was only 1 million. The river photo was of the Grand Canal, the Red Dress was a wedding photo shoot, and the small artifacts were in the Main Museum. I tried to give a impression of the vast size of everything, and yet the people are everyday people with the same aspirations as we have. Mix in some 4,000 year old culture and Violia, China.

Wuhan This was the start of the river part of the tour. We took tours from the river before we got to the dam.

From Shanghai, we took a river cruise up the Yangtze River, thru the 3 Gorges dam and ended at Xian.

We stopped first at some villages, saw a school presentation. Viking supports this school. Amazing that with few tools a really decent education is given. And the children are PROUD of their acheivements.

Xian Here we saw the majestic terra cotta warriors. There are over 10,000 so far discovered, and they think there are many more to find.

I gave it away in the previous section, and now we get to Xian, the home of the Terra Cotta Warriors, and their horses!

This is the home of the terra cotta warriors. This section will focus on that! Awesome, over 10,000 different faces. All of them had to be reconstructed as during a turbulent period, the peasants got mad and broke all of them in retaliation to the rulers. Hmmm.

The colorful displays were in anticipation of an upcoming festival. Who knows what, but they were spread over about a mile of a boulevard.

I liked the mother with two children on the motorbike, and the girl facing backwards to read her book. And lastly, you can see the red suitcase, that is Cathy’s. The porter had them stacked 10 high and they went over, as we watched…

Beijing We flew into Beijing from Xian. The main sites here were the Pandas, and the Great Wall.

Beijing is the capitol City of China. We toured the Great Wall, the Hidden City, and the zoo with the Pandas. First comes the Hidden City.

The Hidden City is on one side of Tieneman Square. The other sides are Mao’s tomb, the great hall of the people, the seat of the Communist Party. and another hall of the people. You can see that there is a lot of activity in the square.

We entered the Hidden City thru a private entrance (note bribes to get in without standing in line) and entered a tree garden full of trees over a thousand years old. Then we went into a large outer courtyard, then another large courtyard. Then into the City. At that point there were people that would dress in traditional garb and get pictures taken on the chair of the King or Emperor I guess. There was an internal museum that I show some of the artifacts. Many of the artifacts were taken in 1947 when Chaing Kai Scheck started a new China in Taiwan. They are still in Taiwan to the consternation of the old country Chinese Communist Party.

Well, enough here. Next section the Pandas and a really funny story.

Beijing Pandas at zoo. On a very hot day we along with thousands of Chinese people went to the zoo!

Beijing is a very populus city. It is reasonable that many Chinese people see the zoo on any given day, as it is a pretty inexpensive way to get outside. Here we see some of the hoards moving into the zoo, all watched by the White Cat. We headed for the Panda Exhibit, and saw some inside, then went outside. As they only eat bamboo, what else would be in their cages, Bamboo! The zoo is a great place to people watch too.

The Chinese are people watchers too! A young couple came up to us, and in very good English asked Cathy if they could have a picture taken with her. We agreed, and I took the picture. That was the second time on the trip that happened. The Chinese young people revere older people with white hair! Ha, what a thing to be known for… Anyway, then I took their picture with Cathy. A really cute couple. Last scenes are leaving the zoo. See how families travel. Just pile all the kids on your electric scooter. Keeps pollution down and with the hydro generated power, electric is cheap to recharge. Last is street scenes. Scooters outnumber cars by a wide margin!

The Great Wall, breached by Ghengis Khan!

The Great Wall. This required a bus trip out of Beijing. First shown is a typical estate in China. A walled house and outbuildings. Many families, all related could live here as it is typical for children, parents, grandparents and even great grandparents to live in the same house. The we have the first view of the Wall. Wow. what a job to build this on top of the peaks of really steep mountains. There are guard view towers every so often, so no part of the wall is unobserved. The photos show just how steep it was in many places. Remember, it was over 20 solid feet thick and 30 feet high. I like to show pictures of the people too.

After the wall, we visited a jade factory. This was an opportunity for us to buy something and Viking Cruises to get a commission. This was almost daily that we got an opportunity to buy something.

After the jade factory, we visited a gateway to heaven. Well, that was for the ruler anyway. There was a very long pathway, lined by huge figures of animals. Symbolically guarding the path to the tomb. The red things were prayers left by the people. Lastly, we get back into Beijing, from the historic old to the new and modern. Wow, what a trip and diversity of culture. One last thing was the people were just great! Friendly and warm…

River Li. The scenery here is so beautiful that some of it is on the money printed in China. I tried to get the local color as well as the epic views.

River Li. This is the last section. It is the most beautiful. We start by leaving Beijing and some of the new buildings. I think their building design is very advanced. And they are building A LOT!

From there we check into a 5 star hotel in a city of which I can not remember the name. Its’ claim to fame is the starting spot of the river cruise. At the hotel, we did have a great Peking Duck dinner and you can see the roasted ducks all hanging up.

The first shot of the karst mounds gives some of the picture of what this will look like. I shot some of the city streets, crowds and crowds of electric scooters. Passing thru the city, we get to the River Li, and the boat. The other boats on the river are very interesting. Many of them are poly tubes tied together into rafts, and with a propeller shaft motor. Very primitive in our standards. The river was very scenic. Water buffalo, boats, and the karsts. When we arrived at the terminus, of course we were let out into a shopping area. I looked at a luggage store (my obsession) and for a giant suitcase, the first price was $250. As I edged toward the door, pulled by Cathy, the price kept dropping, all the way to $50.00. Haha, Cathy won, no suitcase for me.

And that was the end of China, off to Hong Kong next on a new page. Hope you enjoyed it.