Trip to China July 2007

[jziegler]

This is my first post in the Journeys forum, so bear with me if it's too long. I'll try to not run on too much.

First, a little background. My sister-in-law spend about 10 months working in China teaching english (mostly, she covered a few other classes too) in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China and the Changzhou International School. Wikipedia entry on Changzhou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changzhou). My mother- and father- in-law had visited her back in March, and at that time she requested that my wife and my mother-in-law visit again when she was done teaching. Since my wife was going this time, I figured I should go as well. I can't imagine getting another chance to visit China and have a personal guide who speaks the language. So, on the last day of June, off we go, flying to China. 14 hours is too long to sit in coach on a plane.

We finally land in China, and after completing about 3 or 4 different customs forms, get through and meet my mother-in-law (she left two days earlier) and sister-in-law at the Shanghai airport. We took the maglev train into Shanghai proper, and the subway to the hotel. The hotel was just off Nanjing road, a major shopping street. That evening, we went to see some Chinses acrobats (sorry, no pictures, it was too dark). There was some kind of temple near the theater, which had some nice lions outside of it

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Here's a picture of some Shanghai lights at night from my hotel balcony

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In the monring, I took some more photos from the balcony

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We spend the day walking along the bund and then going to the Shanghai History Museum (I think that was the name)

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We got on a nightime train heading for Xi'an to see the Terracotta army. That was a long train ride, but we had sleepers, so it wasn't too bad. We were in a "hard" sleeper, which is a car with about 60 bunks in 10 areas, 3 bunks on each side in each area. No privacy at all, but the bunks weren't bad.

The first day there, we walked around the city a good bit. Too much, probably. And took a couple really scary taxi rides. Some of those drivers shoiuld NOT be driving. After dinner, we walked along a section of the old city wall

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The next monring, we took a bus to the Terracotta Army site. The excavations are in big airplane hanger type buildings, and are dark and dusty. I did get some decent shots anyway. Interesting, but it didn't make it worth the long trip to Xi'an for my wife and I. You can see the warriers much better on TV documentaries.

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It was raining that day, which made it even darker.

The next day, it was still raining, and our train didn't leave until that evening. We spend part of the day shopping, and also went to the bell tower.

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Then, an overnight train to Beijing. This time, in a soft speeler (4 person compartments, we were all together). Once in Beijing, we went to see the Forbidden city

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The next day was a tour to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall through a tour group reccommend by the Hotel. We went to the Badaling Wall, which is the most touristy section, and one of the easiest to reach.

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The tour dropped us off at the train station and it was off to Changzhou where we would stay at the house where my sister-in-law lived for half of the year. The most interesting sight we saw in Changzhou was Red Plum Park, a large park in the center of the city.

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Overall, it was not a trip I would want to repeat, but it was quite an experience. The weather was poor, lots of rain some days, and it was hazy, hot, and humid all of the time. I've never been somewhere quite as grimy as Xi'an was, but other parts of China we visited were not far behind. I was scared for my life just to cross the streets in some places. The mass of humanity at places (train stations, as a good example) were overwhelming, and I'm somewhat used to New York City. Overall, I'm glad I got to experience this very different culture.

Thanks for taking the time to look. There are lots more picture to view in my Smugmug galleries, the link is in my signature. I still haven't captioned most of them, sorry.

[Cuong]

Here's a picture of some Shanghai lights at night from my hotel balcony

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The Shanghai night lights remind me of Vegas. I've never seen a building with the tree growing out of the wall. You went during the hottest and wettest time of the year. It's amazing how people deal with it everyday with a lot less convenience than what you and I have here. Thanks for sharing your interesting experience.

Cuong

[sandeep_aggarwal]

The Shanghai night lights remind me of Vegas. I've never seen a building with the tree growing out of the wall. You went during the hottest and wettest time of the year. It's amazing how people deal with it everyday with a lot less convenience than what you and I have here. Thanks for sharing your interesting experience.

Cuong

Nice pix James. You have an eye for patterns. Happy journeys buddy.

[jziegler]

The Shanghai night lights remind me of Vegas. I've never seen a building with the tree growing out of the wall. You went during the hottest and wettest time of the year. It's amazing how people deal with it everyday with a lot less convenience than what you and I have here. Thanks for sharing your interesting experience.

Cuong

Thanks for the comments. I've never been to Vegas (other than a short layover in the airport once) so I'll just have to take your word for that. But parts of Shanghai are li up very brightly at night.

As for the tree growing out of the building, it was a row of houses that looked like perhaps they weren't occupied by anyone other than squatters anymore. Maybe they were going to be torn down an replace with something bigger (very common in the cities of China, from what I saw) or maybe not. Very hard to tell.

It's a very different culture, the level of culture shock is high, and yes, many of them make do with a lot less convience than we have. I certalnly was happy to get home after the trip.

[jziegler]

Nice pix James. You have an eye for patterns. Happy journeys buddy.

Thanks Sandeep. Unfortunately no big journeys are likely this year. Two big trips last year (China and Paris and Vienna) leave me with little left in the travel budget this year. But I will be going through photos from older trips and posting them eventually.

[photocat]

A lot of old parts of Bejing are tore down for the new city for the Olympic games. Lots of people have forced moves, not very pleasant...
I am still not sure if I would like to travel to China, I think I would love to photograph it, but I would feel somewhat unsure... They are so very different from us... Not to mention the language alone.
Nice photographs, I would like to see them with a bit more contrast though!
Great patterns and nice sights, but a bit dull - lacking contrast!
I am sure that you will have time enough now, grin, since your budget is gone.
Learn to handle the contrast/pop slider! Swing it brother!

[jziegler]

A lot of old parts of Bejing are tore down for the new city for the Olympic games. Lots of people have forced moves, not very pleasant...
I am still not sure if I would like to travel to China, I think I would love to photograph it, but I would feel somewhat unsure... They are so very different from us... Not to mention the language alone.
Nice photographs, I would like to see them with a bit more contrast though!
Great patterns and nice sights, but a bit dull - lacking contrast!
I am sure that you will have time enough now, grin, since your budget is gone.
Learn to handle the contrast/pop slider! Swing it brother!

Some good thoughts about China there. The culture and language barriers are huge, I never would have gone if I hadn't been meeting someone that I know there who had already spent time there and speaks Mandarin. With the weather so hot and humid, and the general grittyness of many places, I did not enjoy the trip very much, didn't even want to look at the pictures for a while. Then I took a look and liked some off what I saw. It's a tough trip, but probably worth it in the end.

I'm glad you liked the pictures. I'm starting to learn more about post processing, and trying out different things. We shall see where it takes me.

[photocat]

It does not take much... You can do really simple things but make them pop just with the brightness and contract slider under the image adjustments in photoshop or photoshop elements. As you get more at ease with it, get yourself some Scott Kelby books and start playing...

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There are always people here willing to help, it is one of the best forums I know... I have learned a lot here!