Luang Namtha, Laos

 Luang Namtha, Laos

We had left China and crossed into Laos. We had a couple of days to elax after the frentic pace in China.

In town there is a small museum to visit, a short walk up a hill to see a stupa and the night market. Top of thr list of things to do for me was going for a paddle in a kayak. We booked and paid that evening.

We set off in the morning for a kayak down the Namtha river.

We stopped at thr morning market to pick up some lunch.

A picture of me walking through the market...wearing the New Zealand hat.

Me, hat in the bottom of the picture.

A view down the river, showing high water and some of the trees growing out of the water, hazards to be avoided.

Our two guides, and me, hiding behind th guides upraised hand.

Lunch time respite from paddling down the river.

A glimpse of the scenery and a view just before the kayak turned turtle and was pinned against a rock.

After the even at the end of the day, standing in the shelter of a local house out of the monsoon rain.

Kunming

 Kunming

We left Chengdu on a fast train headed for Kunming.The first part of the journeywas through unchanging countryside but th last section was through mountains. Unfortunately, th etrack has been straightened and it runs through  long series of tunnels. All we saw were glimpses of deep valleys cutting through muntains as the track left the portal of one tunnel to cross a valley and dive into another tunnel.

Kunming was a pleasue after the stifling heat and humidity of Beijing just a couple of days before. Kunming its at an elevation of 1,900 metres so is cooler. Chinese tourists come here for the weather as it is mild, annual average temperature is 14C. It is known for its flowers and exports flowers across China and the neighbouring countries.

During the Second World War, Kunming was a Chinese military centre and the location of Headquarters American Army Forces, China, Burma, and India (HQ AAF CBI). The airbase served as the home of the First American Volunteer Group of th Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers and was the transport terminus for the Burma Road.

Although Japan was focusing on ending the war in China at the Battles of Chongqing and Chengdu, Junming was not out of the reach of Japanese air raids, and faced attacks by Japanese bombers. The city of Kunming was prepared as an alternate National Redoubt in case the temporary capital in Chongqing fell, with an elaborate system of caves to serve as offices, barracks and factories, but never utilised. Kunming was to have served again in this role during the ensuing civil war, but the Nationalist garrison there switched sides and joined the Communists. Instead, Taiwan become the last redoubt and home of the Republic of China government, a role it fulfills to this day.

But there were no military assets promoted to the tourist. I anted to see the Stone Forest, an area of karst formations some 90 kilometres out of the city but there was insufficient time to travel there by bus to see it. Instead, I went to visit the Yunnan Nationalities Village. It shows details of the traditional way of lfe of 26 of the minor ethnic communities in the province. It is part ethnographic museum and part theme park.

The former entrance to the site...

...now replaced with an arch and shopping arcade full of restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops before you even get to the ticket office.

A pagoa, and like most of the buildings in the park, they are built to look old and none are original.

A lamaestery in the Tibetan village.

A peacock in the peacock garden.

A stupa.

I can't remember the ethnic group but these figures adorn the entrance to the souvenir shop cum cafe in their village.

Inside one of the Mongolian houses.

And so each ethnic group have a village featuring their way of life, culture and archetecture.

One of the games set up in a village to throw balls through a hoop.

A pretty bridge across one of the many lakes around the site.

More buildings.

Surprise.

Chengdu

 Chengdu  

After Beijing, I took the bullet train to get back to Chengdu. It travels on dedicated track for most of the way. It cruised at an average speed of 350 kpm. The countryside just whizzed past as we left the country's busiest station handling more than 50 million passengers a year, through the second most busiest station of Zhangzhou, handling 35 million passengers via Xian to our final destination and the end of the line at Chengdu, a 7.5 hour journey. 

We stopped in Xian but after here we never travelled faster than 250 kph tp reach Chengdu.

We reached Chengdu 15 minutes late due to having to wait for late running trains running in the opposite direction. 

I had been here before and most recently just a few days before. The weather was due to to be poor as in cool and raining but ideal for seeing pandas for which the city is famous. I had seen them before so I gave it a miss. 

I waked arond the city with my camera that was now working to see some of the sights. I had to stop at the bridge over the river. It is the same bridges that Marco Polo desceibed in his journals as he travelled along the Silk Road.  

This is not the original bridge but it is a replica. The original and several repalcements that have been built since have been washed away by floods. It is now an up market restaurant and is spectacularly lit up at night and well worth seeing twice, once during the day and once at night to see it brightly lit up. 

Nothing special is immediately obvious but this is my hotel. We were all located on the fifth floor. This floor also includes a roof top garden created where the pedestral segment of the building shrinks to the base of the central tower. 

It also houses two domed towers at either end. These created some unusual spaces internally and from the outside. It was a great opportunity for some quirky usage that had been missed by the current owners. The unusual space was furnished but it seemed that no one used it. It would have made some great high priced alterntive accomadation, a querky bar area or exercise area. It had just been missed as an opportunity and lay gathering dust.

Beijing and the Forbidden City

 Beijing and the Forbidden City 

We had timed tickets at the beginning of the day. We were on the coach for a 7am departure from the hotel.

We were dropped in Tiananmen Square, the largest square in the city and where the creation of the People's Republic of China wasa anounced in October 1949. In the distance is Mao's Mausoleum.

On another side is the National Museum, the largest in the country.

On the opposite side is the Great Hall of the People, the congress building.

On the fourth side is the entrance into the Forbidden City. The pictures seem to make it appear spacious with room to move but it was early in the morning. Just hours later when we emerged, it was so crowded that we couldn't see the pavement for people. 

It is a huge complex and visitors can easily get lost. One of just several buildings inside the complex.

After going through one entrance, there is a courtyard and another entrance.

Some of the flanking buildings along one side of the first square. 

Queueing to get through the ticket check to the next section. 

There were several more buildings and quare to negotiate...

...and another building to one side...

...and a view of the corner of the square.

The main building. It was getting more crowded and the heat and humdity was climbing so we were happy to get back to the air conditioned coach.

Xian city walls

 Xian city walls  

I had got my camera to work after a fashion. I can take photos but I can't see what  I have taken until I download it onto the computer. I returne to the city walls for a second time.

Inside the east gate.

The city side of the east gate from on top of the walls. The walls are arranged in a rectangle with the long sides orientated east - west. 

Looking back at the same pagoda building on half of the short eastern wall orientated north - souty.

Jusy for comparison, this is looking along the top of the south facing wall from a corner to the South Gate half way along the wall in the far distance. The walls cover more than 12 kiometres and being so long, despite the numbers of tourists and being school holidays, the tops of the walls are quite.

One of several ramps from the city up to the top of the walls to aid movement of troops in a time of siege.

A detail of the decoration under the eaves of the pagodas. They are pretty during the day but the whole wall and gates are lit up at night.

Looking out from the wall towards the South Gate that protrudes out from the main city wall.

The main fort of the South Gate overlooking the killing ground...

...a view of the killing ground...surriunded by four walls and two towers.

Looking north from the South Gate towards the Bell Tower within the city.

A close up of the Bell Tower.

Just 300 metres away is the Drum Tower and museum and behind it is the muslim quarter and night narket. 

Xian and the Terracotta Warriors

 Xian

Xian is famous for its terracotta army, and being the ancient Chinese capital for over a thousand years until circa 909AD, and the traditional end of the Silk Road. We were going to see the terracota army but first I had a tour of the city. My camera had decided to go on holiday and didn't take potos...the noises were there, but there was nothing to see. It took a while to reset all the functions inbetween sights.

Hence there are no photos of the city walls, which surround an incredibily big area for a city more than a thousand years old, the bell tower, the drum tower, both iconic buildings in the centre, the Muslim quarter, the shops, the temples and all the other sights.

Only after a lot of pushing buttons I did get it to work...for a while. 

I took a few pictures but it was the same as before and everyone knows or has heard of thr terracota warriors and why or how they were created more than a thousand years ago.

It was built by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China who united many of the prreviously warring kingdoms of China. It was to be his mausoleum and construction started when he ascended the throne in 246BC. 

It took more then eleven years to build and was incomplete at the time of his death and was never completed. There are three exposed pits, an empty fourth pit.

The main buried army to defend the emperor in the after life.

There are more than 600 other (much smaller) pits that have been discovered but have been left unexcavated. We do not yet have the technology to preserve all the items and the original colours. Some parts are heavily contaminated with mercury and cannot yet be effectively conserved. There is also a lot of superstition that it is unlucky to dig into a mausoleum. 

Superstitions still run high but it didn't stop earlier tomb raiders. Out of more than seventy known tombs, only two have been found intact.

After the terracota army we drove back to the city. We were going to see the playing fountains, set to music and a colourful light display next to the Wild Goose Pagoda. Initially, I was not intersteed in going as I had seen the pagoda before. But I was not aware then of any musical fountain as this was a new feature. 

It didn't last long but it was interesting to see the interaction of the sound of music and the visual displays of the lights and the spurts of water. We were soon back on the coach and heading back to our hotel.

As we turned the corner near to our hotel, we passed the provincial government offices. Unknown to us or our guide, they too had a musical fountain set to music. It was a free show and the novelty was noy yet lost on us. We alked over and watched the end of the display. Every show is different but his unexpected and free show was a bonus. We went to bed satisfied that we had seen a lot of both abcient and modern culture with a few surprises.