Autumn in Beijing

Re-discovering Beijing again.



Mask show. As for most of the people in modern days Beijing opera would be something way too much, original operas used to be 4+ hours long. Nowadays it is possible to catch the best of all of it during the dinner - Beijing opera, mask changing show, acrobatic show - and at the same time fill yourself with roast duck. This is part of the re-discovering Beijing, had already been in that restaurant and had already seen the show...








... this time got one step further by participating in the show. The same barrel was one moment later spinning around on the legs of this lady, me "happily" sitting inside. Better no photo of it!









Lamp art. Re-discovering 798 Art District, one of the best places to wonder around if not into silk market shopping.











Crystal Chandelier Don't mess with Russia












798 District is an old factory district, some of the old buildings themselves are pieces of art. A workshop shark-fin roof inspired by German Bauhaus style.











The little red book, compulsory reading at one moment of time.











2 men











Modern architecture in Soho. There are at least 3 areas in Beijing where the houses have Soho written on. Seems this is the cool way of calling artistic house complexes. Beijing modern architecture is not always aiming for extreme heights, often keeps it little lower, but the structures and spaces seem to be worked out in more interesting and unique ways.










Re-discovering Sanlitun. Sanlitun is one of the bar areas in Beijing, from previous trips, I had labelled it as a place-not-to-go. The places-not-to-go are actually on the main street, but there are amazing places to be discovered in back corners of Sanlitun. A book cafe called Bookworm.











Re-discovering the Great Wall. The first visit of the Great Wall was to the official sightseeing spots with tickets and cable cars to the wall. This time tested the theory, that the best places to see have no tickets, the theory got proved once again.









There is a small team of people going for a hike on the wall every week, I had the opportunity to join them this time, thank you K>.











In some places it was hand-to-the-dirt climbing










Hiker









and hikers







Hike finished in a very small village, by the road a mill for making corn flour









Villager not believing his eyes.

Mount Tai (TaiShan)

This year we have been joking that some of the trips could be divided under 2 kinds of themes:

1. The AAAAA Trips. China National Tourism Administration has selected the best tourist destinations in China, the absolute best of them have received AAAAA (5A) ranking. Read more about it from here. Over the almost 2 year time I have finished up in quite some of them.

2. Other trip can be called the Chinese Yuan Trips. On the front side of every Chinese Yuan is always smiley Mao, but on the back side there are different landscape or important building views.
100 Yuan has the congress building in Beijing
20 Yuan comes with Yangshuo karst hills motives.
5 Yuan has the top of mount Tai

So by visiting mount Tai would give a good advancement in both theme trips :). If visiting China for first time and there are only 2 weeks to see all of it, this place for sure shouldn't make it to the list of places to visit, but as currently my home is just 3-7h bus trip from Tai, then it is definitely a must.


Mount Tai is one of the 5 holy hill tops in China. In past the emperors were making their pilgrim to this mountain, the saying goes that if mountain didn't let the emperor on top of it, then he is not the man for the job.
Today Mount Tai is 5A tourist location with about 10 million people visiting each year. The main front stairway is full of different famous rocks with wise sayings engraved in them. On the way there are different gates to pass: Midway Gate to Heaven, South Gate to Heaven, Archway to Immortality, etc. On top are the spots for watching sunrise, restaurants and some mountain hotels.




Sunrise, the reason for millions to climb the mountain.







Passage gate on the back side of the mountain








Same passage







On the way up. We had decided to climb the whole way up and down. Each direction took 4 hours of hard core stair climbing. For the people not in their pilgrimage, cable cars can make the whole trip, including sightseeing at the top, in 2 hours.











Sunset on top of the mountain










Waiting for the sunrise 1










Waiting for the sunrise 2











Waiting for the sunrise 3








Rabbit waiting for the sunrise. On this morning the sun rose unfortunately into the clouds









Gate keeper preparing his tea








In the cloud one pancake is being made, we can say that this is made by using the cloud technology.








Temple walls

Rizhao - street life investigation

Child terror in one of the compounds.













Actually Rizhao is also one of these new cities in China with all the high rises (though 50% empty). But for capturing the real life the old streets with market life are the places to stroll around. Man after shopping.









Some barbecued meat maybe? Dog paws

Guilin - Walk in the Park

When September is about to end, almost all the China goes on holiday mode. Starting from 28 September with continuous holiday events. The big celebration starts on 1st of October, when China celebrates its National Day. The following week goes with firecrackers waking you at 6 in the morning, masses travelling, big dinners, etc.

In 2009 October holiday (to be precise, actually 1 week earlier) was for legendary horse trekking in Langmusi

2010 the plan was to trick the holiday masses once again by going for holiday just at the moment when most people were returning from their holidays.
Just a short (2,5h) Rizhao-Qingdao bus trip and a short (~2h) flight Qingdao-Hangzhou and another short flight (~2h) Hangzhou-Guilin. Total door-to-door traveling time ~11h and the holiday could start.

Guilin (Guangxi province) somewhere far South in China is the midpoint for 2 places to visit:
Longsheng rice terraces - fields engineered on the sides of mountains
Yangshuo karst hills




Local lady from the minority group sharing a bus with us, later on we actually stayed our first night in her house.







Longsheng terraces in fog.








Life is still very traditional, no high rising houses, many houses near village can be reached only by foot on small tracks.







Food, not served yet







Soon to be harvested






Morning fog







Not for everybody! Dog being prepared, burning of the last fur. Other dogs waiting their destiny in cages.
Market in Yangshuo town







Karst hills and rice fields








Lady walking her watercows








... or more like swimming them








One-eye, this model is still in production and very popular. With a nicely noisy and polluting 2-stroke engine.








Bamboo rafting. Most Chinese tourist groups come only for this attraction, not bothering to get to know the actual country life in this gorgeous corner of China.
This gave us actually an opportunity to get to see the place very undisturbed.







River scene with karst hills







Infrastructure scene with karst hills


Cannot wait to get exploring again....

Confucius rise and fall

Now it is the time to get to know everything in and around Rizhao. Qufu town (3h by bus) is the place where the thinker and philosopher Confucius lived few thousand years ago.
Most of Confucius wisdom is nowadays an important part of Chinese people' daily life (or at least it is good to refer to it), also most of Mao's doctrine was built on the same principles, even though Mao was against Confucius philosophy and tried to wipe it out during the Cultural Revolution.












Qufu is a rather small town, with its main tourist attractions - Confucius tomb, Confucius mansion, Confucius temple and the square shape city wall - freshly re-built /renovated. The other places inside the city wall still enjoy traditional lifestyle.











The graveyard, though the Confucius tomb itself is a busy place, all the rest of it is quiet with no hordes of tourist.
For some reason Chinese burial procedure tradition has been hidden - till now I have seen only Tibetan sky burial and some big tombs of emperors (Terracotta warriors) - but no real overview of Han Chinese traditions. This cemetery, still in use for Confucius family members, brings some light.












Small roof statues in cemetery













Big trees, something not that usual.













Street life, brothels










... and crickets sold right next to human flesh










West wall of Qufu, the brothels area









Some wise words on the wall in Confucius mansion, or maybe just "Littering prohibited"