We spent the afternoon trekking a 10k portion of the Great Wall located 110km northeast of Beijing. The trek took approximately 3 hours.
August 06, 2005
Great Wall of China – Beijing, China
We spent the afternoon trekking a 10k portion of the Great Wall located 110km northeast of Beijing. The trek took approximately 3 hours.
August 05, 2005
Tiananmen or “Gate of Heavenly Peace” - Beijing, China
The quintessential picture backdrop for anyone visiting China. The gate pictured is the gate that Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic on 1 October 1949, hence his gigantic portrait.
While in Beijing, a group of us rented bikes and spent the day cycling around the city on a self-guided tour. A great way to view the city, and great exercise. The city is geared toward cyclist. There wide cyclists lanes along all roads. Even the freeway and the cars are very conscience of the cyclist and tend to look out for them.
Tiananmen Square - Beijing, China
My fellow cyclist, Kath and Alex, are in the foreground of Tiananmen Square, vast desert of pavement created by Mao in the heart of Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao, wearing a Red Guard armband, reviewed parades of up to a million people here. In 1976 another million people jammed the square to pay their last respects to Mao. The square became a household name in the West in 1989, when army tanks and soldiers cut down pro-democratic demonstrators.
August 04, 2005
Summer Palace - Beijing, China
This dominion of palace temples, gardens, pavilions, lakes and corridors was once a playground for the imperial court. Royalty came here to elude the insufferable summer heat that roasted the Forbidden City. It was a cool place to just hang out for the day. We rented a small electric boat and cruised around the lake. Such a stressful life.
Kim Trying to Retrieve her Ticket – Beijing, China
Kim, the rock climber in our group, dropped her entrance ticket over the edge of the lake at the summer palace. She tried, using her rock climbing skills, to retrieve it. Unfortunately, after Kim several unsuccessful attempts the ticket sunk.
August 01, 2005
Terracotta Warriors – Xi’an, China
Ranking up there with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City as one of China's top historical sights, the 2200 year-old Amy of Terracotta Warriors remains stunningly well preserved: a perpetually vigilant force standing guard over an ancient imperial necropolis. In 1974, peasants digging a well uncovered what turned out to be perhaps the major archaeological discovery of the 20th century: and underground a vault of earthed and timber that eventually yielded thousands of life size terracotta soldiers and their horses in battle formation.
Terracotta Warriors (Collage) – Xi’an, China
It was difficult to photo a true perspective of the clay warriors. I've combined a few photos to form this collage. What I found most amazing about the warriors is the fact that they weren't discovered until 1974. Farmers have been farming the land over these warriors for almost 2200 years, unbeknownst to them the artifacts below. It makes you wonder what other historical artifacts have yet to be uncovered from ancient civilizations. What is also astonishing, at least to me, is that this civilization (more or less) existed during the time of Abraham, Christ and Mohammad. I haven't done any detailed research, but my guess is that these guys didn't even know this civilization existed and they were able to create the three great monotheistic religions without acknowlegding these other civilization, such as this one in China. Why did God only speak to these guys in the Middle East and not China?
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