Dot and Stew's China Adventure

[sbwhart]

We've just got back from a three week holiday in China,

It was a bit of an eye opener:- the whole country seems to be one huge construction site, they are building 40 story apartment towers a dozen at a time, roads, bridges and high speed railway links are going up all over the place, they are catching up the west fast. Before I get onto the touristy bits her are a city pics so you can see what I mean.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

The Great Wall

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Teracota Army

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure


This is the General he looks full of authority

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Pandas

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Enjoying a chew with a mate

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

A group of three year old enjoying some carrots.

I love how they like to lie on their backs to eat.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

We  went down the Yangsie river through the Three gorges and saw the Three Gorges Dame and Visited a Gulin and went down the lee river and saw then fish with Cormorants:- I,ll  post those pics of in a few days time.

Hope you enjoy

Stew

[sbwhart]

Ok Her's a few more

The Yangsie three river cruse

One of the cruse ships

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Lots of frate is moved down the river.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

We must have past a 20 or 30 ship yards like this.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Another bridge goes up.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

When they built the three gorges dam it raised the water level by 175M so they had to move whole towns like these.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Entering one of the gorges it must have been really spectacular before the dam went up.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Hydrofoils quicken the journey.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Model of three Gorges dam the model gives you some idea of the scale of the project.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

And the real thing

Dot and Stew's China Adventure


One of the locks empty

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

And with six ships in it, Our ship went through at 2 in the morning everyone got up to see it except one person who slept through it, yes I was that person.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

A few Chinglish Signs I was amused to find out that the Chines refer to them selves as speaking Chinglish.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Some of the best examples were in the gents urinals :- Aim carefully for better hygiene, and:- A step closer is cleaner.


Stew

[Trion]

Nice pictures, looks to have been an interesting holiday! It sure is amazing how quickly China is growing, not to mention the size of the projects.

[dsquire]

Stew

Those are great pictures. Nothing like getting a sight seeing tour without leaving home.  Glad you had a good holiday.
 

Cheers 

Don

[PTsideshow]

Great photo's, always nice when you get to see the stuff that has been on the tube for years in person.

Glad you had a nice time. 

[John Stevenson]

The national bird of China is the Tower Crane 

John S.

[sbwhart]

It sure is John

A few more pics this time Guline

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Water Bufalo

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

They still use woman musle power

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Wash day

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Fishing with Cormorants, they losly tie a bit of string arround their necks so that they cant swollow the biger fish.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

We had a demonstration of them doing at night they have a couple of lamps in the bow of the boat to attract the fish.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

When the fisherman indicates to them they dive in and start fishing.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

The small ones they eat themselves, but when they catch one they can't swollow they jump back on the boat.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

The Fisherman gets hold of them.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

And shakes the fish out.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure


Cool

Stew

[Brass_Machine]

Very cool pictures Stew! Love to see the landscape of the east.

The signs are funny!

Eric

[Powder Keg]

thanks for sharing Stew! Those places are amazing to look at. It would be neat to see in person one day.

[raynerd]

Nice one, always some where I have wanted to go. Would you go again or would you recommend?

[Rob.Wilson]

  looks like you had a great trip Stew 


We have a wall just like that up here , some Roman bloke built   


Rob

[Bogstandard]

Welcome to the 21st century China and the tourist trade.

What looks like a poly tube raft for fishing, they used to be bamboo, and it also looks like they are running the lamps off batteries as well, plus modern day dressware. Are you sure the fish weren't plastic? 


John

[Bernd]

Nice pictures, looks to have been an interesting holiday! It sure is amazing how quickly China is growing, not to mention the size of the projects.

Thanks to American dollars. 

Bernd

[cidrontmg]

2,7 trillion U.S. $ in hand, and more on the way, will change a lot of things.

[Stilldrillin]

Great holiday snaps Stew!  

Very pleased you had a great time......  

Some 20yrs ago. We were starting to sell our rock drilling equipment out there.
The average Chinese mechanic/ toolpusher couldn't understand Western allen keys, spanners etc which didn't bend, or snap.

The comment from our guys was "if they ever learn to heat treat steel, properly, we're all done for"!

Guess they've got there. With a vengeance......  

David D

[andreas]

Wonderful photos Stew!!!! thanks for sharing

[sbwhart]

 

Thanks for your interest Chaps

Here's a few more pics of the caves at Gulin

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

One of the things that fascinated me was the transport system, traffic seemed to flow like a stream flowing around a bolder, traffic lights were optional green, amber, red all mean go, their was no lane discipline, and as for the bicycles the majority of which were battery driven they were just like a herd of stampeding cattle that didn't give way for anything.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

This pic was taken early in the morning before the traffic really got going you can see the bicycle lane has been stopped by a man with a red flag, they just wont obey the lights, when the traffic really pics up they just overwhelm him and keep going. At the bottom right you can just see a new subway under construction, (not a sandwich shop a mass transport system)  .

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

This is the fast train we did a journey of about the equivalent of Manchester to London about 2 hrs:- 1st class one way for £12.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

It hit a top speed of 200 km/hr, they are building a faster high speed track that will have speed of over 300 km/hr

A goods train

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

We passed a train loaded with military vehicles I didn't think it wise to take a pic, but what interested me was that each vehicle had a driver sitting in it even though they were loaded on a railway wagon 

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

They call these strange things "local Mercedes"

A up dated version.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure


Most of the bikes and scooter look like Japanese clones.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

I've never seen cars transported like this.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Came across this in a museum its how they use to cast bronze pots with a clay pattern and mold.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

We  flew out their in an Airbus A380 its got three camera one above the cockpit, one on the tail plane and one pointing to the ground, each passenger seat has a TV for watching videos etc, you can also access these cameras and watch the plane taking off and landing etc, I took this pic of the screen as the plane was making a course correction at 40,000ft, you can see the curvature of the earth.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

I've tried not to be political with this thread, but one of the most disturbing thing that happened was when it was announced that the Nobel Piece Prize had been awarded to a Chinese dissident, we were watching the BBC world news channel the presenter got as far as saying "The Nobel Piece Prize has been awarded to the Chinese dissident" and the signal was cut off, we swapped over to CNN they did the same thing, and they kept doing it every time it came on.

I think the next pics demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Chines system.

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

Dot and Stew's China Adventure

I just wonder what would happen to any one who printed a t shirt taking the piss out of a Chinese leader.

Stew

[Bernd]

Stew,

Thanks for taking all those pictures. Some very nice pics there.

Sure gives you a different persepctive of a once thought of third world country.

Looks like you had some good weather too. Did you go around by yourself or did you have a guide?

Bernd

[andyf]

Fascinating, Stew.

I've only been to China proper once, back in 1981 on a day trip from Hong Kong via Macao.  Conducted bus tour, taking in house of revered Sun Yat Sen etc. Hardly saw another motor vehicle except for tiny 3-wheeled tractors pulling little trailers in the countryside, where labour in the fields seemed mainly manual, and ducks were everywhere. In the towns, hundreds of pushbikes proceeding six abreast, all tinkling their bells at one another. Other abiding memories were of the way folk stopped and stared at our mainly European party, especially the tall redheaded one, two guys by the roadside skinning a dog, the strangeness of seeing Christmas decorations in the canteen-like place where we stopped for lunch (it was between Xmas and New Year) and the embarrassment of a couple in the party from LA but of Chinese extraction, when they had to ask for a fork for their young son, who couldn't manage chopsticks. That taught me how to say the Cantonese for "fork", which has come in useful in the UK on the odd occasion when my coordination has suffered from spending too long in the pub before going for a Chinese meal.

  It looks like the place has changed a bit during the last 30 years....

Andy

[sbwhart]

Bernd

The weather was very good it sort of wrong footed us our research suggested that it would be around 15 C or colder so we packed warmer clothes, in reality it was 20 plus and very humid hence the heat haze in some of the pics. When we arrived in Baygine it was a public holiday, every ware was packed with people visiting the city, the odd ones would stare at you or stop and listen to you speaking English with the guide. We met a Norwegian family who were traveling with their blond haired children who kept getting pestered by people who wanted to take pictures of the kids. When we first arrived in Baygine the air was nice and clear because of the public holiday,  but the day we left everyone was at work and you could eat the air with a spoon.

We went on a private tour with a Guide and a Driver, but we did have about 30% of the time unguided, our daughter who works for the travel company "Travel Bag" arranged it all including the Hotels, Internal flights, and the personal Guides, who met us at and took us to the airports/railway stations and saw us safely aboard, they also took us around the sites, they were all official guides who spoke good English, and they had considerable clout at the attractions, and take us to the front of any queues, something I felt a bit embarrassed about.

They also gave good advice on how to deal with the traders and would tell us what a fair price was to haggle for. One trader tried to cheat me when we first got their, it was at the Great Wall I'd agreed a price of 75 Yuan (£7.50) for an item, I took my wallet out handed him 100 Yuan which he stuffed in his pocket, but he had spotted I got US $ in my wallet, and promptly started shouting that he wanted $75  (£75) their was no way the cheating bastard was going to get $75 out of me, and he wasn't going to hand back the 100 Yan he had in is pocket, he was getting very in your face but I was standing my ground giving as much as I took, the guide who was some way away with my wife came running back, I explained to her over this guys shouting what was going on, she turned round and gave him a right mouth full in Chines he went very quite and meekly handed me the 100 Yuan, the guide explained that she told him he was a dishonest trader and a shame on the Chines people and if he didn't hand back the money she would report him. From then on we were very carful not to let anyone see our money.


A bit of a plug for my Daughter:-

She works at the Travel Bag Nutsford office if any of you wanting a tailor made holiday just give them a call and ask for Kirstin Hart and mention me and she will arrange a holiday to your own requirements any ware in the world.

If you PM me I'll pass on her telephone number and email address.

Stew

[Bernd]

Lucky you Stew and thanks for that update. I always wonder how people get around in a country like that.

If I ever want to go there I'll make sure I'll get hold of you. Thanks.

Bernd

[PTsideshow]

  great stuff, Love the Tee shirts. Was in Hong Kong in the early 70's and Kowloon got lost in a multi story shopping mall looking for the wax museum. And ended up in the chi comm export trade ministry, they had some very detailed, and beautiful scale models of locomotives and other machinery in cases on display. Two of the red guard found me and asked me a bunch of questions in very clear English. Then took me to the wax museum, they said they would deal with the trader, that had given me directions to that location. As it had become his habit to misdirect tourists, don't know what happened to him but he wasn't in the location when I came out of the museum