Yangste river cruise and 3 Gorges Dam

photos from the Yangste river cruise and then at the 3 gorges dam

apparently this was a "clear" day at the Dam, sometimes you cant even see the first red structure behind us with all the mist in the area.

Yangshuo

After a 3 day cruise down the Yangste river, ending at the Three Gorges Dam (a massive project to save the people from the flooding of the river (or so they say - there seems to be pros and cons of the dam building) which was started in 1991 and completed in 2009) we disembarked and headed for the countryside - to a beautiful town called Yangshuo. Quite a mission getting there - 5 hour bus, overnight train and then a 2 hour public bus transfer! But it was definitely worth it. I have never seen scenery like that before. Was a great way to spend 3 days relaxing.

I cant get the photos to upload so will try again in the next few days.

hope you all are well and enjoying your December holidays and the run up to Christmas
Take care
Carol

Leshan and Chengdu

After a short flight to Chengdu, we spent our first day visiting the largest Buddha statue in the city of Leshan (about 2.5 hours outside of Chengdu). Its pretty impressive standing at 71m high, incredible how they carved this out of the sandstone mountain.

And the next day, one of my highlights of China was visiting the Panda reserve. With more than 50 pandas, we spent 3 hours wandering around the reserve. I was very impressed with how well they are looked after here. We could get really close to them too, luckily due to the time of the year (being colder now) the pandas were a lot more active than usual. Very cute!

Xi'an - city of the Terracota Warriors

After Shanghai we took our second overnight train to Xián - home of the famous terracota warriors. They are truly amazing to see, although i was slightly disappointed in that they are not fully excavated yet. i know it must take ages restoring the 2000 year old statues (mostly of warriors but also chariots, horses and weapons) but after 30 years i was expecting to see it all restored. However really unbelievable to think the emperor requested the people to build these warriors to protect him when he was dead, and there are approximately 8,000 warriors there. All life size warriors and fully prepared as if going to battle. A lot of it is still "underground" including the tomb of the emperor which they havent even tried to excavate as they believe they dont have the technology to do it and the tomb is protected by mercury (how they know that i dont know)

While in Xi'an we cycled around the city wall (its the oldest preserved city wall in China) which was good fun for 14 km around the city. good to be back on the bike again, although was done at quite a leisurely pace!

Shanghai

After Beijing we took the first of four overnight trains to Shanghai. Much warmer and more cosmopolitan we loved our time there, spent mainly walking around, shopping and going up the tall sky scrapers that surround the city

Shanghai by night

Walking along the renowned 'Bund' street along the river, you can see all the sky scrapers on the East side of the city. We went up the tallest building in Shanghai (3rd tallest in the world) which is the one in the below picture which looks like a bottle opener on the right hand side (3rd from the right)

We went up to the world's highest observatory point, pretty scary 474m up and walking over the glass floors!

Goodbye India Hello China

3 weeks ago our time in India (although only 1 week) was up. It was a gruelling week, where we struggled a lot with the dust, rubbish and dirt that was always around. But without sounding too negative, i enjoyed India for what it is and would recommend everyone to get there. |The colours are so vibrant and the people are so happy with what they have. I wont be going back to seeing any of the places we visited but may at some stage try Mumbai / Goa.

This was our last night in Jaipur, knowing we were flying to Delhi the next day and then off to China (see the smiles!)

Arriving in Beijing, I was pleasantly surprised. Its a very modern city in some parts but contains so much history dating back more than 2000 years - unbelievable. The 'order' that was all around was a welcome change but the FREEZING winter was not expected after hot India.

Our first visit was the Great Wall. I cant explain how amazing this structure is, which stretches more than 6000kms all the way from the Gobi desert in the West to the coast in the East of China. And built 2000 years ago. Mind boggling. Here are some pics from the wall. Definitely one of my highlights of China.

Next day we visited the famous Tianeman Square, its massive. 40 football pitches can fit in the square. You cant comprehend the size of it.

Forbidden City was the next stop, it was strange to think how the emperors over 24 dynasties stayed in this palace. Very beautiful though and a real landmark of Beijing

Beijing and China wouldnt be complete without one of its whacky "meals" - hungry anyone??

So all in all a great start to the next instalment of the trip ...

BACK ONLINE

HELLO!

Sorry for the lack of news and photos over the last 3 weeks ... China doesnt allow any access to blogs or facebook and many other foreign websites. Quite frustrating when you are used to having the internet at your fingertips!

Will try start updating news and photos over the next week. Lots to catch up on but China was amazing. Unfortunately both my ear drums have burst (think from a middle ear infection - thanks Dr Lewis) so going to try get to a doctor in Auckland as i am struggling to hear - very frustrating! (now i am real Helen)

In Hong Kong now, and loving it. Off to see my birthday in ... :)

Hope you all are well
Miss you
Carol