Sihai International Hotel Chengde

... only upon arriving, was a waterfall from a small creek passing into the river we had been following. The amazing part of the waterfall was the way it came out of the cliff-side far above and fell over a series of ledges before settling.<br><br>I took the stone-steps to swaying metal-steps to rickety-half-missing wood-steps, path to the top alone. Halfway up, I stopped and a small pagoda and took pictures of the wonderful views of the rural valley in ...

... all dynasty period buildings lining the north end of the city, the one we visited being the largest of the 7. <br><br> The temple we visited is named Putuo Zongcheng. The temple itself was a rising hill of small, gilded buildings and artistic carvings leading up to a massive red temple that reminded me of the castle at Lhasa. Inside the building we spent some time viewing presentations put on by ...

... surrounding countryside, the wall's strategic positioning became evident and it's incredible to think that anyone actually managed to breach this defense. Approaching via the steep, overgrown slopes would be almost impossible and the closely-spaced vantage points above, coupled with the row of arrow slits, should have prevented any attack. But that was Chinggis for you - it's not for nothing that the Mongolian national beer ...

... 20+ story apartment buildings and busy market streets and department stores. Even small towns in China have a way of becoming quite busy and prosperous compared to my quite 'villages' back home in Oregon.<br><br> The many family lunches and dinners aside, I'll just list off some of the most memorable experiences and let the soon to be posted pictures do more talking.<br><br> The day after ...

... en malade. <br><br>D'apres mes observations, pour obtenir un permis de conduire en chine, il ne faut suivre qu'ue seule regle tres simple: respecter les feux rouges. Tout le reste, on a le droit de le faire. Meme pour traverser une rue a pied c'est intense. Les autos ne s'arretent pas pour les pietons, et inexplicablement les pietons eux non plus ne s'arretent pas pour les autos. Comment ca marche pour pas qu'il y ait de mort? Eh bien c'est comme ...

... high golden statue of Guanyin (the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy). It is the tallest statue of this Goddess in the world. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the statue (I snagged this one from the internet) , but it was one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever seen. It takes you buy surprise because it's in a building, which is literally built up around the statue. It has 42 arms, each holding ...

... was spectacular. <br><br>It is possible to walk from Putuozongcheng Temple to some of the other temples. It is 1 km to Xumi Puzhou temple, another massive temple or around 7km to Puning temple. Just be wary of the passing car and bicycle. Or you could just catch a bus to the junction of Puning lu and Huangcheng Beilu and catch bus no 6 to the north of Puning Lu.<br><br>Puning temple of the home of the massive statue ot Guanyin, the Goddess of ...

... emperors. It is a pretty obscure attraction which was fine for us as it seemed we were only two of a handful of Western visitors (there were, however, the usual Chinese tour buses that seem to be rampant everywhere). We arrived in darkness and were trying to find the bus station to buy our return tickets to Beijing when we came across a couple of guys who were obviously not from around here. We stopped to ask them directions, and before ...

Grande muraille de Chine. Elle peut se visiter a plein d'endroits differents, plus ou moins sauvages ou renoves, et plus ou moins touristique. On a choisi de relier 2 sites assez sauvages et typiques(Jinshanling et Sumatai, a 120 km au nord-est de Pekin) en l'empruntant sur 10 km. Long pour y aller (3h30 de bus), mais vraiment beau, et a notre grande surprise, avec assez ...

... we had our first week of class which wasnt too bad considering we used this book last semester at UF. but this time we have to change writing styles from traditional to simplified. today we are going to go out to the lake and rent some paddle boats and tool around for awhile, then prolly study for the next lesson. i'll have some more exciting stories hopefully once we move out of the yurt. till next time.