China

Shanghai, China. The New China. I'd say Shanghai joins Singapore as one of the most futuristic cities on the planet. There's so much amazing architecture here. And this photo was taken in 2008! It's come a long way even since then.

Beijing, China. ...And then there's the "Old China". There's still plenty of it left among the modern parts. This is a traditional Chinese garden complex right next to the Forbidden City, in the middle of Beijing.

Beijing, China. Graffiti, Chinese style. It's so cool to go on an early morning walk here; you never know what you'll see. Using only a brush dipped in water, this guy is writing poetry on the sidewalk. And very artistically I might add. In 10 minutes it evaporates away to nothing. There's a Chinese lesson in there, I suspect, about impermanence.

Longmen Caves, Luoyang, China. Luoyang is an area of limestone cliffs that run along both sides of the Yi River in central China. Over the centuries thousands of caves have been carved into these cliffs, with most caves containing hundreds of statues and religious inscriptions chiseled right into the rock walls. Here are the biggest carvings of them all, a row of Buddha statues almost 60 feet tall.

Hua Shan, China. These are the real Rocky Mountains. As in, each mountain is just one massive near-vertical granite rock. Hua Shan is a sacred Taoist mountain, with several temples perched in the most unlikely places along its peaks and ridges. This area contained some of the most amazing scenery we found in China. It's reminiscent of Yosemite National Park in the US, but much more exotic. And remote.

Hua Shan, China. The background may look a lot like Yosemite, but the U.S. doesn't do trails like this one. And that's a shame, if you ask me. This is called the "Plank Trail", for obvious reasons. It is every bit as steep and as high as it looks. In fact it proved impossible to get a true picture of the mountain from the planks to the valley floor because my wide-angle lens wasn't wide enough. The harnesses were a new thing in 2008, because several people had fallen off. It's a good 2,000 feet or so straight down so if you fall, that is it for you.

I first saw photos of this amazing place on the internet several years prior to this trip. Those pics were accompanied by some BS story about how this was the only trail up the mountain (false), that the mountain was full of enlightened religious hermits (false), that many people had died on this trail (true), and that if you get to the top you achieve automatic spiritual salvation /enlightenment (false). I mean, who would have thought there would be outright lies on the internet?! In reality you can take a ski lift to near the top of Hua Shan (a recent addition), or hike up a regular trail that runs along steep rock and ground, but not along these planks. This Plank Trail is just a dead-end side trail that drops down from the main route up the mountain, and serves mainly as an adrenaline rush for tourists. It runs about 150 yards or so along this cliff, then dead-ends at an old hermit's cave (hermit not included). There are a few carvings in the cave though. A memorable walk for sure..

Left photo: My best photo of this very scenic walk. Not sure what the sign says. Watch your step? Don't look down?

Upper right: A small resting-spot along the way. You have a choice of 2 things to clip the harness to: the thin clothesline or the old rusty chain.

Lower right: Vertigo! Looking straight down to the valley floor far below. You'll notice that the chain link on the far left is bent open!

Yingbeigoucun, China. One of ancient China's greatest achievements - the Great Wall. It's still pretty impressive today. We hiked along this 10-kilometer stretch of it one afternoon. What a blast - and what a workout. Especially along this section there were a lot of steep ups and downs. I guess the US is not the first country to build a border-wall after all!

China is a people-watcher's paradise. There is so much diversity of peoples and cultures in this huge country that it leads to a wide range of dress, customs, foods, music, dances, mannerisms, etc. There's endless variety here.

Left: While hiking along the Great Wall on a hot day we started getting pretty thirsty; luckily this gent was up on the wall, out in the middle of nowhere, selling cold beverages. He didn't have any water but he did have beer!

Right: We noticed that Chinese like to dress up in historic attire a lot. Whether at street fairs, parties, or tourist sites, the businesses that rent these clothes and take the photos always do well. This guy was in a big wedding in a city park.

Man did we ever terrorize some kids on this trip! But not intentionally. Parents, especially out in the rural areas, always seemed to want to have their kids pose with one of us westerners because (compared to them) we were big, we were different looking, and we talked funny. The kids usually wanted no part of it. Their reactions ranged from shyness (above) to sheer screaming terror. The parents always thought it was funny. The city kids (right) were more worldly and had seen it all before; they were not even fazed.

I don't even know what this instrument is called - I think a Chinese lute or something - but the sound was so peaceful and soothing. Just like you'd think it would sound.