EnjoyingEnglish®

Around China

Link to: www.enjoyingenglish.info

Girl catching mages under Cherry Blossom Tree. Photo: ULTRA.F

i * Interactive Map of China from World Atlas.com * Lhasa & Tibet * Xian & The North West * Across The North * Yunnan Province * Guilin Travl Guide * Yunnan Travel Guide * Video: Explore the Yangze *

Interactive Map of China

Interactive Map of China

"Guide to Beijing"

The Great Wall
- still under construction. Ha! Ha!

It's the symbol of China , and not to climb it at some point in your China trip would be a pity. It's not until you get up onto its fortified ramparts and watch it snaking away over the pale green hills into the horizon, that you realize, 'this is a great wall.'

My first visit to China was one of the worst flights I have ever encountered. Very bad turbulance, with thunder, lightning and hail stones on a KLM flight from Amsterdam . As we flew over Mngolia the weather suddenly changed as dawn broke. The plane tilted slightly from first the port side*, then to the starboard. There it was, a golden ribbon of stone in the early morning sunshine. trailing westwards. A surge of emotion and puzzled thoughts raced through my mind. How far does it go? Who were the people who built it. I had to visit The Wall.

Like any compelling historical attraction the Great Wall yields up its secrets reluctantly. The Qin dynasty original of 2,000 years ago, was probably a much more modest undertaking than the monster that is supposedly visible from the moon today. What about its length? Nearly every reference will give you a conflicting answer. The Chinese themselves call it 'Wanli Changcheng', or the 10,000 li - long wall, a li being a Chinese measurement of length that equals around half a kilometer, making the wall 5,000 km (3,100 miles) long; but discoveries farther westwards. have added another 1,500 km.

For that matter, how 'great' was it, anyway? As far as Genghis Khan was concerned, only as great as 'the courage of those who defended it.' Marco Polo didn't even bother mentioning it. And to top it off, it didn't fulfill its purpose: invaders swept across it, and Europeans and Japanese approached from the wrong side.

It's here that the greatness of this wall forces itself upon you. Imagine soldiers patrolling it, one eye nervously on the barbaric wastes to the west and north, the other longingly on a distant homeland and loved ones to the east. The soldiers were conscripts more likely than not, as were the wall's builders.

Witness the Re-awakening of a Great City

Shanghai

Huangpu park is a good place to start your Shanghai. Ahead is The Bund.

When travelers arrived by boat in the past, this was their first glimpse of the city. As for the park, formerly the British Public Gardens , it is remembered as the site of that notorious sign: 'No dogs or Chinese!'

A geriatric jazz band at the Peace Hotel (formerly The Cathay) that played pedestrian hits from the 1930s was all that was left of Shanghai 's once infamous nightlife. The city was like a museum that had been invaded by listlessly unimaginative squatters: Colonial villas had been converted into Kindergartens, banks into obscure government ministries, the once famous Wing On Department Store had become the drab NO.10 Department Store.

What a difference a decade or so can make. Shanghai has been busy dusting off the cobwebs, tunneling subways, erecting expressways and re-learning the art of window dressing. There are vacationing crowds on the Bund - Chinese families dressed to the nines, munching on snacks, squinting at maps and pointing out historical sites. The shoppers on Nanjing Road bustle in and out of refurbished department stores, boutiques and restaurants. Skyscrapers pop up almost before your very eyes on the other side of the river. The NO.10 Department Store been once again re-christened as the HuaLien Department Store.

Shanghai , China 's definitively modern city, is reclaiming its style too. You can see it on The Bund. The Peace Hotel is a wonderful piece of f'in de siecle' elegance. When it was The Cathay, Noel Coward wrote 'Private Lives' ensconced in a suite here. The Long Bar in the Tung Feng Hotel, once home to the most exclusive club in the Far East, is now ironically home to a branch of an American fast food outlet, but the bar has been recreated in Shanghai style up in the Shanghai Centre on Nanjing Road.

While that thirties retro look is popular (there's money in it), Shanghai has a sharp eye to the future. The pace of change tempts you to reach for words such as 'dizzying.' Even locals despair of keeping up with it. Someone guides you around the corner to a renowned restaurant only to find a fastfood centre or a boutique specializing in Yves Saint Laroche. 'That's funny,' they say, rubbing their chin with a look of troubled dislocation. 'It was here last week, I'm sure of it.'

Not that you will hear Shanghainese complaining . This sudden invasion of the twenty-first century is nothing more than their birthright. The city may have nodded off for a few decades, but it was always the brashest, brightest, biggest city in China , one of the biggest in the world (16 million people at last count).

You can spend US$300 or more on a bottle of XO brandy in one of these places if you like; many customers do. The Rolexes and the suits come from the massive department store complexes that Japanese investment has brought to town ¨C Isetan and Yaohan to name two. There are late-night queues and eagle-eyed door staff at dance Clubs such as New York New York and LA Caf¨¦. Just north of Suzhou Creek is a crackling neon entertainment enclave that looks for all the world like it¡¯s been plucked from downtown Tokyo.

New Shanghai is in a hurry to catch up. As you stroll around town there is an infectious sense of urgency about the place. Head off down a quiet side street. Washing hangs from poles in the windows, old men sit on collapsible stools playing chess, a woman wobbles past on a bicycle laden with groceries. And there, up ahead, is a narrow building where the first National Congress of the Communist Party was held. Not far away, on what was once the Rue Moliere, is a former residence of Sun yatsen, China 's Quixotic revolutionary father. In the northwest of town is the Jade Buddha Temple , home of a 1,000kg (2,200Ib) jewel-encrusted Buddha statue brought from Myanmar .

It's a relief to find these historical sites still standing. Others are long gone : The Shanghai Racecourse is now the People's Park and People's Square. Other have been transformed: The Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar, on the northern edge of the old Chinese Quarter, may date from sixteenth century Ming China, but today it's more theme park than monument. Beijing is the city with the sights. The population in Shanghai are too busy making money, eating, getting on with things, to worry much about tourist attractions: You go to Shanghai because it is Shanghai ; and if that's where you come from, nowhere else really counts.

Into the Sea of Clouds

China's sacred peaks are scattered the length and breadth of the country ; pilgrims have toiled up their slopes and artists sought inspiration in their views for centuries. Most peaks are either Buddhist or Daoist: Mt Emeishan in Sichuan , for example, is Buddhist, while Taishan in Shandong province is Daoist; but a few peaks - such as Huangshan in Anhui province ¨C have been sanctified by their beauty alone.Whether Buddhist, Daoist or simply beautiful, climbing one of China's sacred mountains is like slipping through some magical backdoor into the world of the Chinese watercolor. Those fluted rocks surmounted by a lone pine, roiling clouds lapping at gnarled roots really do exist. The catch is that getting up to the elevations required for such views invariably demands serious exertions.

At Anhui province's Huangshan, perhaps the most gorgeous of all China's sacred mountains, the path up into the clouds is long and arduous, and - as the song goes -'with many a winding turn.' The scenic western approach, which includes precipitous steps hewn out of rock faces, and a vertiginous approach up to the Heavenly Capital Peak , is a full 15km (10 miles) of climbing. Even if you're in good shape, you can be sure you'll have some aches and pains the next day. I could barely walk for two days after visiting Huangshan, and all I'd done was the western descent. Don't underestimate the effort involved in going down.

Of course, and there are those who will resent such modern encroachments ¨C the inevitable has happened, and at the most popular sacred mountains a cable car will be waiting to whisk you to the summit. In the case of Huangshan, the cable car does the trip in just eight minutes. Contrast this with the quickest walking route- the eastern approach - which takes a minimum of three grueling hours, and the temptation to do the ascent sitting down becomes difficult to resist. Unless you're in Olympic condition or have of time on your hands, I recommend the cable car one way, and a foot slog the other. Up or down, take your pick; it's hard either way, but at least you have momentum and gravity on your side on the descent. If you find yourself regretting the endeavor half way up or down, spare a thought for the famed Chinese artist Liu Haisu, who climbed Huangshan for the tenth time in 1988¡ at the age of 93! He stayed on the mountain for two months and knocked off 46 paintings.

For the true pilgrim experience, Buddhist Emeishan, in Sichuan province, is the most accessible. Even here there's a short cut, by way of a minibus service that takes you to the Jieyin Hall, where there is now a cable car that whisks latter-day pilgrims to the summit in minutes. The real attraction of Emeishan is the opportunity to slowly scale the heights, stopping at Buddhist monasteries and temples with the Chinese pilgrims (armed with staves that double as walking sticks and money-deterrents) overnight. One night is enough to get up the mountain and down again, but if you can afford the time, give it two nights. Some of the temple and monastery hotels, such as the one at Wannian Temple , are eight centuries or more old. A night spent in circumstances of such antiquity is a rare privilege indeed in the new China

Cormorants, caves and Limestone Peaks

If you tire of being bussed from one five-star hotel to another and start getting the feeling that you're missing out on the real China , escape to Yangshou, Guilin' s small - town rival. The cruise boats from Guilin glide downriver past the hulking limestone monoliths that the region is famous for and stop in Yangshou, where tourists are taken back to Guilin in tour buses. Skip the bus and spend a night in Yangshou instead.

Strike off into the backstreets and you'll find feisty traders presiding over piles of cabbages and fruit, clumps of talkative retirees squatting on wicker stools, and noisy mahjong games in progress. Head out of town on a bicycle and within 10 minutes you'll have paddy fields on either side.

You can while away a week in Yangshou doing very little but taking in the scenery. The bicycle ride to nearby Moon Hill is a veritable rite of passage. From a huge natural arch in one of the limestone peaks you can gaze out across the patchwork of paddy fields, the karst monsters marching away into the horizon. Bring some lunch and make a picnic of it. In the afternoon you might take a trip down into the recently discovered Black Buddha and Black Dragon caves. These cave systems are still being explored, but in the meantime enterprising locals will guide you on tried and tested routes into the caves. Don't wear your best clothes, and expect to get wet.

If caves are not your thing, an afternoon splash in the river might be. Hiring inner tubes and lazily drifting with the current has become a surprisingly popular pastime in Yangshou, and it is a good way to get a closeup look at the local village life. If you get a hankering to jump on one of those boats that putter past every now and again crowded with locals going home from market or from work, don't forget to take your bicycle. A boat journey to the rural village of Xingping takes a couple of hours, and about the same to return by bicycle, a popular round trip.

Just as evening is looming and you think you've run out of things to do, you see a sign in the village advertising cormorant fishing. Don't pass it up. For a small fee, locals will take you out onto the river at dusk where you can see the fishermen plying an age-old trade with the help of trained cormorants. A halter around the cormorant's neck prevents the bird from swallowing the fish, but the fisherman allows the bird to guzzle one down every now and again. It's an atmospheric scene: the birds lined up on the prow of a small punt in the flickering light of an oil lantern, the last light of the day etched in searing red into the western sky.

Don't worry about missing dinner. The village main street is packed with restaurants, many of them open until late. Order an inexpensive bottle of the local brew, Guilin beer, as you contemplate your meal- fish perhaps.

Silk dreams.

The most intriguing of the ancient trade routes is without a doubt the Silk Road , that artery of trade, ideas and culture between the East and the West that survived from around 100BC until the thirteenth century AD. It's difficult for us now to comprehend how valuable silk was, or why it so captivated the Romans when they first encountered it in the banners of their enemies in Central Asia . Nobody in Europe knew how the material was produced and the Chinese guarded the secrets of its production under the pain of death. Such was the popularity of silk in Rome that massive imports built up an imbalance of trade and threatened the Roman economy.

The route started in Chang'an, the ancient Tang dynasty capital now known as Xi'an , and it's perfectly possible nowadays to follow part of the old Silk Road and witness scenes that have changed very little in the centuries that have passed since the route fell into disuse. Shipping and the discovery of seri-culture in Europe brought about the road's demise. For today's China travelers, the ultimate Silk Road destination is Kashgar, but in times past this five-month journey was just the first stage of the long road west.

The five-month journey can be done in a couple of weeks now, though it is an arduous trip. From Xi'an travel by train to Lanzhou , and from there take an Urumqi bound train to Liuyuan. Liuyuan is a 130-km(80-mile) bus journey from the first of the great Silk Road oasis towns, Dunhuang, where you can see some of China's most impressive Buddhist cave art and stay in a town surrounded by rolling sand dunes.

From Dunhuang you can either carry on by bus to Hami, another oasis town, famed for its melons, or return to Liuyuan and continue to Turpan by train. Turpan lies at the edge of the feared Taklamakan Desert , and for Silk Road traders marked the start of one of the most arduous sections of the entire route. A series of Buddhist cities once lay between Turpan and faraway Kashgar, but today they are ruins. Some of the ruins can be visited from Turpan. In the summer months they simmer under a ferocious sun, so hot that your guides will undoubtedly claim proudly that you can cook an egg on the broken doorstops and tumbledown walls. Even if the heat seems unbearable, try and linger a couple of days in Turpan. The local markets are fascinating and the grapes delicious.

The old towns of Kuqa and Aqsu, once important stops on the Silk Road , are now mere shadows of their former status; but whatever you do, try not to miss Kashgar, said to be the farthest town from the sea in the world, this city of mosques and kebabs and Middle Eastern fabrics is the quintessential Silk Road destination.

A Night at the Opera.

A night at the opera is not to be missed in China. It's noisy-ear-piercingly so at times- you won't have a clue as to what's going on. The stage is more often a bewildering blur of leaping figures clothed in impractical suits and fitted with hats that on close inspection are bordering on plain silly, but what a spectacle it all is. Like Japanese Kabuki and Thai Lakhon, Beijing opera and the various regional operas found across China are a stylized dance drama re-telling ancient legend.

The makeup can take a long time to apply; essentially, the performer is creating a mask of his or her face with greasepaint and a startling array of different sized brushes.

Backstage is a hive of activity, the performers hunched over mirrors, busily dusting and brushing away at their faces, while the stars of the show are hustled through their make-up routines by teams of fussing helpers, the people who take care of the elaborate costumes and the hairstyles. The result of all this work is that performers emerge god-like, reminiscent of the mythological figures who adorn Chinese temples, which is indeed the intention.

When it comes time to watch the performance, resist the impulse to make too much sense of the proceedings. Instead watch the way the actors interact with each other, and let a plot of sorts emerge in your imagination. Betrayal and revenge, mistaken identities and unrequited love, the great dramatic themes, all make an appearance. Because there are no props at all on an opera stage, every gesture and action must speak its object loudly, much in the way that mime does. An actor with a whip in his hand galloping around the stage is obviously riding a horse, the young beauty bashfully simpering behind a sleeve, is obviously embarrassed.

There's little fear of boredom. Performances are usually a medley of high points from the best of the opera tradition. Moments of high drama collide with swashbuckling action, where the stage comes alive with whirling, leaping fighters armed with spears and swords. There's something joyous about these noisy, acrobatic, dazzling events, so that even those who came prepared for the worst end up thundering their applause as the performance draws to a close.

An Army in Stone.

With several thousand years of history behind it, today's China must be a treasure trove of yet undiscovered archeological digs. The most famous discovery this century came about in 1974, when some Shaanxi peasants digging a hole for a well to provide much-needed water, uncovered a huge underground vault was found to contain over 1, 000 life-size terracotta figures, with an estimated further 7,000 figures still awaiting excavation.

Unwittingly the well-digging peasants had stumbled upon a vast stone army grouped in defense of the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang who, in 221BC, became the first leader of a unified China . Qin Shihuang achieved much, standardizing the written language and weights and measures, but the stone army you can see today near Xi'an says everything about his methods.

China's first emperor, the man who started work on the Great Wall, has passed into history as a tyrant, and is remembered more for his decrees that all books not written to the glory of the Qin dynasty be destroyed, than for his success in bringing the squabbling states of the time under a unified leadership.

The terracotta warriors, as Qin Shihuang's army has come to be known, is at its most impressive in Vault 1. The warriors are in situ and in battle formation, protected from the elements by a huge hangar. The only pity is that their hands ¨Cwhich once held real weapons-are now empty, most of the wooden sections of spears and bows having long ago rotted away.

As you stroll along the elevated walkways that take you through the military ranks, you'll be struck by the expressions and features of the faces. Some scholars have theorized that the faces may have been modeled on actual members of the imperial guard, an astounding thought when you consider that there are believed to be a total of 10,000 soldiers (including the groups in two other vaults). Each soldier's rank is displayed and the uniforms of knee-length protective tunics and armored tunics were once brightly colored. Note the soldier's hair, which is tied up in buns.

It's worth making several swoops around the Vault 1 hangar, picking up more details as you go. The other two vaults are smaller. Vault 2 comprises archers and charioteers, some of which are superbly executed. Vault 3 is speculated to have been the guard of honor, perhaps the leadership core of Qin Shihuang's army, leading the 10,000 into battle. Nowadays they are witness to daily skirmishes between the army staff and visiting tourists determined to surreptitiously break the no-photographs rule. The army in stone seem oblivious; their job is to defend an empire, after all.

Across the Water to the Peak.

Hong Kong: tourists viewing the Business District at night. Photo. Martin Harvey

The Chinese word for scenery is 'mountain water'. 'Do you like mountains or water?' A Chinese will ask. If you happen to like both, nowhere in China do the two meet so spectacularly as in Hong Kong.

On July 1, 1997, 156 years of British colonial rule came to an end, and the tiny enclave of diehard capitalism, known as Hong Kong, rejoined the communist 'Motherland.' It rained through much of the lead-up to the handover, and, despite celebrity concerts, processions, parades and an extravagant fireworks show over Victoria Harbour , when the clock struck midnight, the crowds seemed puzzled about what to do next. Only one thing was certain, an era had come to an end.

Background

The Chinese - who have a slogan for everything - say that Hong Kong and China equal 'one country, two systems.' The former colony is now the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and has been promised a high degree of autonomy and the freedom to continue its capitalist lifestyle for 50 years after 1997.

It's easy to forget that historically Hong Kong was part of China . When the British annexed it in 1841, it was famously nothing but a 'barren rock.' Since then the colonial status of the island has reduced it in popular Western imagination, to a kind of 'Chinatown' writ large. If China is the Great wall, then Hong Kong is altogether more homey: junks in the harbor, joss smoldering in backstreet temp les, tiffin on the peak. If for 'British expats' Hong Kong was a home away from home, China was that place 'over the border.'

Nevertheless, Hong Kong is Chinese. The British got it as spoils of the first Opium War with China , an insult that has never been forgotten. From the beginning Chinese flooded in. They came first from Guangzhou ( Canton ) and the southern provinces fleeing famine and the harsh rule of the Manchu Qing dynasty; most of them with nothing to lose and thus, with thrift and hard toil, everything to gain.

The colony's second major attribute, its nineteenth century British and European venture capitalists, were always a small minority. But what a combination those armies of opportunity-grabbing Chinese and dour, ledger-worshipping inheritors of an empire made.

Hong Kong couldn't help but make money.

It has never stopped making money. It probably does it better than anywhere else in the world. When the communist revolutionaries marched into Shanghai , the textile barons took their money and even their manufacturing equipment to Hong Kong , and the colony re-tooled, fattened and diversified. By 1966, Hong Kong was not only the main Southeast Asian trans-shipment point for Vietnam war materials - its harbor packed with freighters - but it was also one of the most popular R&R (rest and recreation) venues for the American troops.

By the mid-1970s Hong Kong was moving from trade, textiles and toys to trade, Internal Banking and Finance and electronics, and vastly improving its housing and public transport infrastructure. By the early 1980s it was obvious that a new China was emerging, a more pragmatic China that was prepared to leave ideology simmering on the back burner while it got its economy back in order.

In 1982, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Hong Kong for the first talks on the handover of the New Territories, whose lease was due to expire in 1997. In the event, Britain agreed to hand the whole lot back. The merchants of gloom have had a field day ever since.

Although it's still early days, one thing is obvious: The much-feared Anglo-Chinese agreement didn't sink the territory at all. If anything, Hong Kong gets more prosperous by the day. It is the jewel in the crown of the Pearl River delta - which includes Macau and southern Guangdong - one of the front-runners of the new wave of Asian economic tigers. It welcomes more than 11 million visitors a year, including over two million business travellers and package tourists from mainland China .

The 'barren rock' of 150 years ago is now one the world's great cities. with photographs. They will be presented over a period of time, building a comprehensive record of a country which has experienced phenomenal periods of civilisation and development. Alan Cooper.

Lhasa and Tibet

To pay a visit to Tibet is to step through a portal from the materialism of the modern age, to a society which is still, to a large extent, ruled by deep medieval spiritual impulses. Tibet is transcendental - even the main route to Lhasa by air from Chengdu is a journey toward the heavens, soaring upward over the vast and awesome snow-tipped ranges of the Tibet -Qinghai Plateau to touch down in a dusty valley two miles above sea level.

Tibet is also vividly hued compared with the far more mundane revolutionary character of the Chinese lowlands – a sudden blaze of tribal costume, coral and turquoise beadwork, gilded temple roofs, garish gods and demons, fluttering prayer-flags, spinning prayer-drums, silver and brass, and rich golden yak butter. Priests in flowing crimson robes, lamas in deep maroon, saffron and yellow - and through the seemingly incessant whirl of color, the mournful squeal and rumbling bellow of temple pipes and horns.

For centuries, Tibet was isolated, almost inaccessible, a forbidden citadel hidden in the eaves of the very roof of the world. Today it is the most coveted of all the tourist destinations in China , the place where just about every China traveller wants to go.

The Land and the People

Nyingchi: Rivers & Mountains The Hymalayas

There is a striking contrast in Tibet - that it’s people are so warm and welcoming, and yet its geography so inhospitable. It covers an area of close to 750,000 sq km (290,000sq miles), bordered by China , India , Nepal , Burma , Sikkim and Bhutan , and it is mostly mountainous, very sparely inhabited, has few serviceable roads and had no railway until 2005,when the awe-inspiring Qinghai - Tibet railway opened.

It has a climate in which the temperature can fall to freezing point on mountainsides even at the height of summer and plunge to minus 40C in winter

, bringing heavy snowfalls that block the mountain passes and make many areas more isolated than ever.

Its main travel artery, before the arrival of the railroad, is the bumpy high-way that runs west from Lhasa to Shigatse and then cuts south to the border with Nepal . Another key mountain road carries on from Shigatse and skirts the Himalayas, following the western border, skirting the holy mountain of Kailash , before pausing in Ali and heading north to Yecheng and Kashgarin the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Lhasa is also linked with the lowland by a road that runs to Golmud in Qinghai province.

The Tibetan people are believed to be of mixed Mongoloid -Turkic lineage. Before the arrival of Buddhism, Tibetan armies rampaged through Turkestan , Pakistan , Nepal and even China , at one time over-running the Tang dynasty capital of Chang’an,(Xi'an) but when Buddhism arrived, the religion or way of life, took hold with a vengeance, so that by the tenth century the Tibetans had gone from being a warlike, much-feared race to being a nation of monasteries, a people ruled by monks.

The evolution of the various Buddhist sects that contend (mostly peacefully) in Tibet is very complex. It’s enough to say that by the Gelugpa order had become the most revered incarnate lamas in all Tibet . Today’s Dalai Lama is the fourteenth, and he is adored by his people as a God King. He fled Tibet in 1959, during an unsuccessful uprising by the Tibetan people in protest at the Chinese had occupation of their country. The Chinese had marched into Tibet and liberated it in October 1950, shortly after the Communist Party came to power.

, most of the country’s 4,000 monasteries were shut down and the monls disbanded. Today, monasteries are re-opening the length and breadth of the land. The Beijing government would even like to see the Dalai Lama return, and have in fact renovated his private apartments in the Palace in Lhasa , but there appears to be little chance of this former religious monarch regaining any real measure of power.

Night view of the 1,000 year old, 13 floor, Patola Palace, the world's highest.
Buddhism and Bon

Tibetan Buddhism, or Lamaism, was bonded onto a form of animism called Bon, which ruled Tibetan spiritual life in ancient times. Some of its imagery and ritual have been absorbed quite comfortably into the Buddhist practices - spirit and demon worship, prayer-flags and offerings to the guardian spirits of mountain passes, for instance, adding colour, reverence and mystique that distinguish its ceremony and monastic life, as well as spiritual rites in death, from all other Buddhist schools of thought.

For more than two decades after the Chinese takeover, the Tibetan religion was virtually driven underground. In the current liberalization it is beginning to flourish again, and starting from early 1986 the regular “summonses” of the various sects and temple festivals have been restored in Lhasa, and throughout the mountain domain.

A river's bend -- Trip to Yarlung Zangpo Canyon 2010-01-29

The Yarlung Zangpo's dramatic course creates the world's longest and deepest canyon in Tibet.

The snow-capped peak of Namjagbarwa

I had read a lot about the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in Nyingchi prefecture - regarded as the world's longest and deepest, stretching 496 km and averaging more than 5,000 m in depth - and longed for a chance to see it. I got to fulfill my dream last September, while assigned to work in the Tibet autonomous region's tourism bureau.

Rapeseed flowers in Bayi, capital of Nyingchi prefecture.

Rapeseed flowers in Bayi, capital of Nyingcha prefecture

The Yarlung Zangbo River runs eastwards along the northern foothills of the Himalayas. The lower reaches of the river cut through the mountain range before making a sharp U-turn around Namjagbarwa Peak in Pai, Namling county, in eastern Tibet - the starting point of the Grand Canyon.

My friends and I head for Nyingchi, which lies 400 km to the east of Lhasa. From there, we climb Mt Serkyimla, at an altitude of 4,702 m and reach the town of Pailong.

Tibetan Minority, simple and honest native group

The Tibetans with a population of 5,416,021 mostly live in the Tibet Autonomous Region. There are also Tibetan communities in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Xian and the North West

Xi’an is one of China ’s oldest and most illustrious cities - the capital of Shanxi province, Xi'an, cultural hub of north-central China and the principal gateway to the remarkable oasis towns and cities, Islamic minorities and Buddhist treasures of the arid northwest.

The city has played a strategic role in Chinese history for more than 3,000 years. Known as Chang’an, it served as the capital of 11 dynasties covering a period of 1,100 years up to the reign of the Tang (618 - 907). It was also the eastern terminus of the Silk Road , lying in the path of the main Central Asian conduit into the heart of China , was a heavily fortified frontier post for several centuries.

In 1374, engineers of the Ming rule, already strengthening the Great Wall, bolstered Xi’an ’s defenses by tearing down and reconstructing the wall that had encircled the city since ancient times. The massive structure, 12m ( 39ft ) high and 14 to 18m (46to 59ft ) thick, running for about 122km (7.4 miles) around the city, still stands today and is the first vivid impression of Xi’an’s historic importance that visitors get as they arrive.

Its historic prominence has endowed modern Xi’an with one of the greatest treasure troves of ancient culture to be found anywhere in China, and it’s given the city a new strategic role as the nation’s number one tourist mecca. In the high summer season it is packed with tour groups and, unfortunately, it is also a clamoring beehive of frantically persistent souvenir hawkers, especially at the most renowned and astonishing of all its cultural at tractions - the life-size 'terracotta army' of the iron man of Chinese history, Qin Shi Huangdi.

Across the North

If you are entering China along the friendship Highway, Urumqi is the railhead for the the north of the country, through the boundless grasslands of Inner Mongolia to Beijing .

There are, in fact, two rail routes to the north from Lanzhou. One direct service heads to Beijing via Baotou and Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, then to Datong , the third of the four greatest centers of Buddhist cave art in China . The other cuts back southest to Xi’an, then across the heartland of China through Luoyang, the site of the Longmen Grottoes, and Zhengzhou, the the access point for the Shaolin Monastery, about 70km tothe south-west, after which it heads north to Beijing throough Shijiazhuang in Hebei province.

Luoyang and Zhengzhou can be approached just as easily from the east; Shanghai and Guangzhou , leaving the trip across the northern plateau the most exciting route from Lanzhou .

The Grasslands

The grasslands route takes you through the panoramic flat green seas of Gobi scrubland and lush pasturelands that stretch from horizon to horizon across Nei Menggu (Inner Mongolia).It is broken only by occasional settlements of yurts, the animal skin tents of the nomadic sheep and cattle herders. Until the railway line was pushed across the plains, the Dahingan Range , a thickly wooded stretch of hills running northeast to southwest across the plateau, effectively isolated the Mongolian tribes, or 'banners,' from the rest of the world, and for the most part, kept the world out of Mongolia .

As for the Mongolians, themselves, they were a warring, fragmented and greatly feared barbarian race ruled by 'Khans', or tribal chiefs, until one man turned their solitary,

idyllic existence upside down for them - that man was Genghis Khan.

In one of the most incredible, explosive events of history, these sheep and cattle herders, - brilliant horsemen and cavalry tacticians, – suddenly banded together under this savage warlord’s command and thundered out of the wilderness to conquer China and carve an empire that stretched beyond the western borders of Russia and Persia. Just as swiftly as they pillaged and subjugated much of the vast Eurasian landmass, so their terrible adventure ended: Within less than a century they had been crushed in China by the Mings, pushed back out of the territories to the west and were straggling and limping back into the grassy wilds far beyond the Great Wall. It was largely due the fact that the third Ming Emperor, Zhu Di, was immensely powerful during the early part of his reign, and that after several decades of peace, the Mongols had become become complacent, and had settled into a period of contentment.

From that time of retreat and withdrawal, during the late 13th and early 14th century, the Mongolian nation was divided between the tribes of the north and the remnants of the China expedition in the south – a division that the Manchu Qing dynasty was happy to maintain for its own sake when it brought the entire region under Chinese control in the sevent

Yunnan Province

Yunnan, which translates into 'South of the Clouds', is a mountainous sub-tropical province and a kind of Chinese Golden Triangle, bordering Myanmar ( Burma ), Laos and Vietnam . It shares four main rivers with these neighboring states, including the mighty Mekong , and has a certain cultural links through its minority hill tribes. The most prominent of these, the Dai, have their own tribal homeland, the Xishuang-banna autonomous district to the south of the province, which was opened up in 1986 to foreign travel without special permits.

There are also Lisu, Lahuand Yao clans whose tribal domains spread as far as the northern border region of Thailand .

Originally part of a southern Kingdom called Nanzhou , Yunnan was conquered by the Yuan Mongols in the thirteenth century and brought under imperial rule. It was the scene of a violent Moslem rebellion and an equally bloody government reprisal in the nineteenth century and then became a foot-hold for French incursions into China from their colonial bases in Laos and Vietnam . A legacy of the French presence is a narrow-gauge railway linking Kunming with Hanoi , which is now back in operation and is a popular overland route with tourists.

In World War II Kunming because one of the bases of Chiang Kaishek’s beleaguered nationalist government and swelled with refugees from the east, who were fleeing Japanese forces. The British and Americans kept the city alive with vast shipments of supplies from Burma , bringing them in along the famous Burma Road and by airlift from India . eenth century.

By the turn of the twentieth century the Russians were competing for control of the region, and in 1924 the Soviet Red Army moved in and promoted the establishment of the autonomous People’s Republic of (Outer) Mongolia in the north, leaving the southern Nei Mongol to Beijing . The region is now heavily settled with Han Chinese, who vastly outnumber the estimated two million Mongols, many of whom have returned to their greener but far less ambitious pastures, with little to show for their historic glory but two spiritual legacies – Tibetan - style Buddhism and Islam,and legends of Ghengis and Kublai Kahn.

Guilin Travel Guide

Just as Xian is a must when you travel to China, so is Guilin. The stunning landscape in which the city is situated has a kind of magic that is all its own. The strangely shaped hills, or karsts, with the verdant vegetation ranging from bamboo to conifers together with wonderful caves make Guilin such an attraction for tourists.

Located in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guilin is considered to be the pearl of China's thriving tourist industry on account of the natural beauty and historic treasures. Covering an area of about 27,800 square kilometers (10,734 square miles), the city is rather compact when compared with other leading cities in the country. However, situated within this area one may find green mountains, crystal clear waters, unique caves and beautiful stones. Major attractions include Elephant Trunk Hill, Li River, Reed Flute Cave and Seven-Star Park that boasts a Stone Museum where amazing geological finds are displayed. Believe that each of these places and many other attractions will leave you the lasting memories.

Guilin is also an important cultural city with a history encompassing more than 2000 years. The city has been the political, economic and cultural center of Guangxi since the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). Solitary Beauty Peak is considered to be the oldest place of interest and has been so since the far off days of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). The prosperity enjoyed by the city during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is epitomized by the Tomb of Prince Jingjiang.

Guilin City The many ethnic minorities represented here that include the Zhuang, Yao, Hui, Miao, Mulao, Maonan and Dong enrich the cultural life of the city. Each minority has its own unique customs and festivals and this means that they are much more abundant here than in many other places elsewhere in China. Travelers can enjoy these pageants at the Li River Folk Customs Center.

Guilin is a well-developed tourist center with convenient transportation, communication and accommodation facilities. You can enter Guilin by air, by train or by bus and get around on free buses. From luxury hotels to hostels, from splendid restaurants to local snacks, you are sure to find that your needs will be met beyond your expectations.

Yunnan Travel Guide

Yunnan (Beautiful Clouds in the South) Province is the most southwest region of China bordering the countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. Yunnan Province borders Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhang Autonomous Region to the east, Chongqing and Sichuan to the north, and Tibet Autonomous Region to the northwest. Yunnan encompasses 394,000 square kilometers (152,084 square miles) and has a population of more than 42 million people.

Within these borders, Yunnan has a diverse topography that ranges from alpine mountain ranges to tropical rainforests and the greatest number of plant species in China (more than 18,000) as well as an incredible array of animals, including the Asian elephant and the protected Yunnan golden monkey. There is even a rainforest in the area known as Xishuangbanna where you will find many rare and endangered species of plants and animals.

Ethnic Minority Groups

Yunnan Province is endlessly fascinating. There are 25 different ethnic minorities in Yunnan, making it the most culturally diverse province in China. This multiplicity of cultures has endowed the province with a rich heritage that it shares with all who come to visit. There is always something wonderful to see and do here. Whether you are visiting a Dongba village, the Dai Water Splashing Festival, the Third Month Fair of the Bai Nationality, or the Torch Festival of the Yi people, you will find that Yunnan is a place that celebrates life.

Stone Forest (Shi Lin), located outside of the capital city of Kunming, is one of the world's natural wonders. Here, massive pillars of gray rock have formed a gigantic forest of stone. Some of these natural stone formations have the appearance of animals such as snakes, elephants, birds, and dragons. Kunming has many interesting temples and parks such as Daguan Park, Black Dragon Pool, Zheng He Park, Bamboo Temple, Golden Temple, and the Western Hills, to name only a few. Each of these places has unique features that capture the imagination. For example, the Bamboo Temple has 500 life-size luohans that were sculpted in the 1800's. The Western Hills contains three temples: Huating Temple (from the 11th century), Taihua Temple, and the Sanqing Temple. At the top of the path, which takes about two hours to reach, is Longmen (Dragon Gate). Dragon Gate is comprised of sculptures, grottos, and pathways that were built by a Taoist monk in the late 1700's. The view from Dragon Gate overlooking DianChi Lake and the city of Kunming is spectacular. Moreover, you can always be certain of fabulous spring weather in Kunming regardless of the time of year!

At the southern end of Yunnan Province bordering on Laos and Myanmar is Xishuangbanna, a tropical rainforest that is the home of the Dai people. The Dai have many festivals that span across the year. The Water Splashing Festival occurs officially in mid-April but has become such a famous event that it is enacted regularly. In the northwest section of Yunnan, on a plateau amidst the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Mountain), is its most beautiful pearl, the city of Lijiang. Lijiang Old Town, rebuilt because of a devastating earthquake in 1996, is a traveler's oasis. Three small rivers course through Old Town's cobbles-stoned streets that are lined with trees, wonderful restaurants and cafes, shops, residences and a theatre where you can attend a performance of music played on original period instruments that date back to the Han dynasty. Lijiang has been designated by UNESCO as one of the world's major cultural heritages, and is the center of the Lijiang Naxi Ethnic Minority Autonomous County. The Naxi (one of 25 ethnic minorities of Yunnan Province) are the predominate population of Lijiang and its surrounding area. There are also a variety of beautiful parks and temples around Lijiang.

The natural beauty of Yunnan Province defies description. It has mountain ranges and glaciers that are snow-capped all year round, deep virgin forests, lakes and hot springs, alpine landscapes, precipitous valleys, beautiful farmlands, mountain rivers and valley streams, floral splendor that blooms throughout the year, and vast skies with amazing clouds.

Until recent times most of Yunnan was not easily reachable as it was cut off from communication with the outside world by precipitous mountains. Many believe that the Shangri-La referred to in James Milton's Lost Horizons, was here in Yunnan. It now may be the last virgin land where one can observe cultures whose layers go back for thousands of years into the past. Visit Yunnan and be prepared to be enchanted. She welcomes you!

Explore The Yangze

Video Link: 26 minutes http://www.cctv.com/program/travelogue/20090516/100790.shtml

ee®