There are many reasons to visit the city of Xi’an and environs. But if those given, and exhibited by way of photos in my previous two posts (Terracotta Army and the old city walls) haven’t convinced you yet, just keep reading…

Between 10 and 15 kilometers from the city there’s a totally ace place called 华清池, aka Huaqing Pool, aka Huaqing Hot Springs. This is a real pretty spot, but at night… more about that in a bit…

Straight away at the entrance you’re knocked off your feet by the sight of some Victoria amazonica – a native plant from, as the name suggests, the Amazon River basin; yep – that Amazon: the one that runs through South America. So what they doing here? I never did get to find out, but it doesn’t really matter… in fact it adds to the mysteriously pioneering spirit of this perfectly peerless plant!

Read on…

Nihao folks!

The Chinese city of Xi’an is 100%, mandatorily, necessarily, must-visit. Why am I being so emphatic? Because of just one of its tourist attractions…

The most awesome tourist attraction of the city, to me, has to be the city’s fortifications, which are kind of like Xi’an’s Kremlin. The bonus for us was that we got to ride some cool bikes there. These were just perfect for tourists already pretty tired of all the walking before we even got there. Before the bikes appeared though, we got in some of the regular ‘walk and snapping’ first. Just as well – snapping ain’t easy on a bicycle; and there was plenty to snap:

Read on: Ancient walls, funky bikes, and remarkable contrasts…

Nihao folks!

Onwards we fly on our China-2017 tour… Next stop: the city of Xi’an – pronounced Si-an – meaning ‘western peace’.

It was a nice day, which is just as well, as there’s plenty to do and see in and near the city. Our itinerary went so: city walls and the old town; ancient pagodas; and (not far from the city) Mount Hua – one of the Sacred Mountains of China. Anyway, more on those later. For now, the Terracotta Army, no less!

You may have heard of this UNESCO World Heritage Site of funerary art; yes, it is quite famous. But the unexpectedly fine detail and massive scale of the mausoleum are only really grasped when you see it in the flesh. A truly grandiose historical site.

Read on…

Onwards we travel around China. Next up: grottos…

Specifically, the Huashan Mysterious Grottos, officially called ‘Flower Mountain’ (花山), here.

Nothing grotty about these underground wonders:

There’s practically zero info about these here caverns. They were discovered accidentally only in the year 2000 by a farmer who for some reason was digging there with a shovel. (He was lucky – what if he’d have fallen in?) Anyway, a while later the authorities cleaned them all up, signposted them up, and added multicolored lights to make them nice and touristy.

Read on…

The Li River basin provides that much extraordinarily exquisite scenery to behold that just one ‘few words, many photos’ post is far from sufficient. Therefore, logically, herewith – Lijiang, part 2…

For example, check out this natural AAAArch (an AAAA rating is a particularly high one in the Chinese national rankings of places of interest for tourists). I mean, it looks AAAAmazing from down here; but the views from atop it are arguably even more AAAAwesome, so we were told. So that was that: we had to get up it. And it’s not so daunting a climb as it seems at first: a mere 15 to 30 minutes depending on how sporty or lazy you are.

Read on…

Hi folks!

A photo’s worth a thousand words. Well here the photos – lots of them – do the talking. I’ll just say where we are: here, not far from Guilin. And as you’ll see we’re taking a boat ride along a river, that river being the Lijiang, aka the Li River.

Read on: Boating on the Li – these pics are must-see…

Elephant Trunk Hill – it fits the bill.

It’s been nearly two years since I’ve written about elephants. No, not those red, white and blue ones with the three stars. And this time – not real ones either. This time – a stone one!

Elephant? What elephant, where? – I thought at first; then I saw the resemblance: the trunk to the left, body to the right, face, I guess, hidden behind those trees up top :).

More stone elephants than you can shake a bamboo stick at…

Hi folks!

Herewith, more tales from the Danxia side. One more key mountain needed checking out – Bazhai. Here she is:

And up there – marked with the red arrow – is where we’re headed today:

Read on: Teapot…

Hi folks!

Ok. After yesterday’s brief female topic, today, logically… yes – you’ve read the title of this post.

No, this isn’t locker room talk. Nor is it about football, or fishing, or fast cars… Not even about beer or (computer) gaming. Nope, it’s about a particularly curiously shaped Danxia rock formation. Yes – it’s about 阳元石, or Male Rock!

Oh my Guangdong! So this will be another 18+ rated blogpost!

Read on: Keep your sniggering to yourself, children…

The Danxia Range of rocky outcrops in Goangdong, China, is so insanely beautiful that it for sure deserves inclusion in my Top–100 Must-See Places in the World. Massive lumps of red rock with vertical sides some several hundred meters high, scattered over a territory stretching some 10×15 kilometers.

Our first glimpse of Danxia came early morning, when none of the redness is visible; actually, there was redness, but only of the sensational skies as the sun came up. Then the redness gets bizarrely transferred to the rocks, which we set off to get closer to…

If ever you fancy getting here yourself, be warned: checking out all the beautifulness here entails a lot of walking – and that includes a lot of ups and downs on steep steps. In a day you could be looking at some 15 to 20 kilometers. Then you need to take into account the extreme climatic conditions too. Not only can it be 28-35 degrees Centigrade, it also gets horrendously humid. But what else do you expect in the tropics?! Just make sure to wear breathable sporty kit for your trekking; regular cotton shorts and t-shirts just get soaked through (even breathable kit gets soaked too, but it’s much more bearable somehow).

Read on…