Moving on, we passed through the Tiananmen Gate to reach the Forbidden City. There are five massive doors to the gate and seven bridges spanning moats or streams. It was from this Gate on October 1, 1949 that Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic China. The dominating portrait of Mao is a must photo background opportunity […]
B E I J I N G! Over twenty-one million people, plus or minus a few thousand tourists. We had completed our second goal of driving from the Atlantic to the Pacific, wheels on the ground, and now our first goal to follow the Silk Road and on to its final end in Beijing. Formerly […]
We had seen the Great Wall of China twice now, and our China “bucket list” was getting short. We headed east toward the fog-draped Pacific Ocean and its polluted Bay of Bo Hai, where Tanggu, the nearest port to Beijing is located. Green, our trusted guide and constant companion, had no idea of how to […]
We had seen the Western Terminus of the Great Wall of China back on our China Blog # 8, but being one of the main tourist attractions in the country, we wanted to see more of it. Hey, we drove all this way, why not? We had seen the photos of the hordes of tourists […]
So, if you were driving into London to see the fabulous Saint Paul’s Cathedral, you might be shocked to realize that it had been completely carved out of a sandstone cliff. Well, welcome to China and Buddhism. As we walked toward the entrance of the Yungang Grottoes, an ancient Chinese Buddhist temple near the city of Datong, […]
After a wonderful quiet night in our “private” parking lot, we walked up to the entrance of the Hunyan Hanging Monastery. We had seen many religious sites as we traveled across Europe and Central Asia, but never one hanging from a cliff. It was amazing to see Hunyan hanging 246 ft, (75-metre), above the ground. The […]
Certainly one of the amazing pleasures of traveling across a country like China is discovering the “amazing”. The Terra-Cotta Warriors, amazing. The Great Wall of China, amazing. Driving out of Pingyáo and smiling at the angry looking turtles straining under the lamp posts, we were prepared for something else amazing, the Sakyamuni Pagoda of the […]
OK, Pingyáo was not on our list of “must see” places as we traveled across China. At the time, our primary Lonely Planet China guide book did not even mention it, but once again our personal guide, Green, knew better. To our pleasure and amazement, Pingyáo is China’s best-preserved ancient walled city. Moreover, it is […]
Xi’an today is the capital of Shaanxi Province and was the first ancient imperial capital of China, having been the seat of more than 13 feudal dynasties, including the Western Zhou, Qin, Western Han, and Tang. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, and the founder of the Qin Dynasty, conceived and built […]
The Terracotta Warrior Army in the ancient city of Xi’an, China is sometimes called the Eighth Wonder of the World. We have all heard about it, maybe have seen pictures or read about it, but in fact, standing in front of it is totally astounding and amazing and nearly beyond imagination. We were looking down […]
