Mountain Villa Chengde

After the pair of days spent sightseeing in the city, I had expected a bit of a relief day to come before the end of the vacation and the return to Tianjin. As usual, my expectations were poorly founded, and early on the morning of the 6th, before I knew what hit me, I was on a bike with my gal and a friend of hers from school heading towards a mountain village.<br><br>Biking in itself was an adventure for me, I didn't even like biking when I was a kid ...

... exactly what you'd expect, and we opted to take the side path (far down, far up again, but not far as the bird flies) to a nearby 'frog' rock. Here I climbed to the top and got some fun pictures, and we climbed through a small hole in the backside of the rock (apparently that allows you to have good knees for the rest of your life).<br><br> Here also, there was an old man selling little red straw ...

... useful route for transporting troops across such mountainous terrain. Whatever its historical successes or failures, today it is an awe-inspiring sight, perched on high and rising up and down slopesfor miles, off into the distant horizon.<br><br><br><br> Whole sections of it have crumbled in the centuries since it was re-fortified during the 1600s Ming Dynasty, but the Chinese authorities are keen to promote it for tourism ...

... town of which I took some great photos.<br><br> The following day, and day after we took the bus to Chengde city for some sightseeing and adventure. At our return in the night in between, I had my first taste of Mahjong and had to read up on how to play. I love board games, and this and Go seem to be all that's played here, so I better learn and get a board, just need to avoid playing for money.

Bonjour, j'espere que ca va bien chez vous, on me dit que la meteo est repugnante au Quebec... Ici il fait trop chaud et on reve qu'il fasse 18 hehe.<br><br>Ca fait plus d'une semaine que Facebook est bloque. On suppose que c'est du aux tueries qui ont eu lieu dans l'ouset du pays. En esperant que ca se reglera bientot.<br><br>Nous voici a Chengde, une ville a peu pres a 4h de route au nord est de Beijing meme si c'est a moins de 200km. Desormais nos ...

... noticing the small crowds that often gather around us when we disembark. The Chinese have quite a different notion of personal space (1.2 billion people here, go figure) and think nothing of approaching right up close and then leaning in to get a really good look, groping the truck, opening the door, peering inside. In shops one is immediately pounced upon and tailed by a 'helpful' assistant that would be standing on your feet if they got any closer ...

... kak majhen kuza in si prisluzil malo pozornosti, ki je sicer tukajsnji psi niso delezni. Verjetno najbolj impresivna zgradba v Chengde pa je zagotovo budisticen tempelj, ki povzema obliko najvecjega taksnega templja v Tibetu in sicer palace Potala v Lhasi. Majhno Potalo si je omislil eden iz med cesarjev iz dinastije Qing, ki je tukaj praznoval svoj 60. rojstni dan. Takrat Kitajska se ni zasedala Tibeta in je s to dezelo ...

... journey too , one time to avoid a cow in the road!! Anyway, we reached a small village called Jinsanglin at the foot of a mountain. The wall was up on top. We had to walk 10k to Simatai along the wall. This is the least commercial part of the wall, and the one with the best views. When we got onto the wall my first impression was WOW!!! It really is magnificent. For as far as you can see in either direction the wall just goes on and on. The walk was easy at ...