China

Our exiting trip to the Land of the Dragon

Exactly one year ago, Clare and I finally decided to go to China. We discovered a website where a photo tour to Guilin was promoted. I was surprised that we ended up with an English based travel company called Gatsby where the Owner, Mia helped us to organize the whole trip away from the tourists, wherever possible. We would like to thank Mia again here, for her patience and excellent service. We can highly recommend this travel agency because they are truly experts for such tailor-made trips.

Beijing

Our trip started in Beijing – a massive city with crazy traffic. Since we are not really city people we limited our excursion to the area around the Forbidden City and the modern Central Business District. The area around the Forbidden City is where some fine examples of old Beijing are still visible. Try to get there early since this area is of course very popular with Chinese and international tourists.

While the old Beijing is more and more disappearing it makes room for amazing modern architecture. The CCTV building or the Olympic Stadium are beautiful examples. Take the underground in Beijing and you can feel how modern China has become.

The Great Wall

On the next day, our target destination was the famous Great Wall. Our drive to Jiankou took us 2.5 hrs from where we started hiking on the wall. Some sections were unrestored and the trek was sometimes quite exposed. But the experience and the views were really great especially because there were almost no other people on the wall and you have the feeling of really being out there, in nature and on a wild amazing piece of "history"!

I had the idea to sleep on the wall in a tent but we regretted this decision. We stayed next to a village not far away from a road and the experience was just uncomfortable and not adventurous at all. We got up early and had the chance to get to Mutianyu early in the morning before the buses from Beijing arrived. On top, it was a rainy day which gave the whole scenery a special atmosphere.

Back in Beijing we tried a very yummy hotpot. In general food in China was very tasty and diverse across the different regions we visited.

Guilin

Our next destination was Guilin – an unique place on earth and definitely well worth a visit. Our photo guide picked us up at the airport and we were driven to the Banyan Tree Resort in Yangshuo which served as our base. Our days always started very early in the morning and ended after sunset to capture the best light for the photography. The first morning, we drove to a beautiful spot where I had the chance to take picture of a cormorant fisherman.

Later, we did a little touristy bamboo raft float down the Yulong River which is certainly more tranquil and enjoyable than the more famous river cruise on the Li River. For sunset, our guide picked another beautiful unknown location. There was a 30 minute hard climb but the view was well worth it!

Very early next morning, we drove to the mountains and hiked up for over an hour in the dark. It was a very remote place without any tourists. It was a fantastic experience even though this time we were a bit unlucky with the weather and the valley was mostly covered in fog. Although the fog gave us this mysterious and magical feeling of being in a very special place! Same procedure the next day: we drove to a place called Xianggong Hill but this time the place was very popular by local people and therefore gets crowded. But the view and weather was perfect.

Longji Rice Terraces

It was time to change the location and we drove 4 hours to the beautiful Longji Rice Terraces. We really liked the atmosphere here and the scenery was spectacular. You can stroll through the lovely village, hike to view points or walk 'through' the rice fields. The most beautiful spot was certainly the Dragon's Back lookout where the fields seem to form the spine of a dragon.

Our guide loved to take portrait photos and organized three occasions to get in contact with local people. Next to the fisherman, we then the chance to portrait a girl in the rice fields and on our way back to the airport we stopped at an ancient Dazu Village and had the opportunity to visit a very old local home.

Then soon it was time to say goodbye to this amazing region - but with Yunnan - another amazing highlight was awaiting us.

Yunnan

We really loved Yunnan. We started in Lijiang (altitude of 2'410m!) with the UNESCO heritage site - the old town - which was built in the late 13th century. A beautifully preserved place and well worth a trip - if you can avoid the Chinese holidays.

From here we started our tour with a driver and our guide, John, who was absolutely brilliant Here we thank you again, John, for your being and your wisdom and our days with you! We drove from one highlight to the next starting in an old town called Shaxi. We had the opportunity to visit an old house and strolled around this (still) peaceful place.

The next stretch was the drive along two of the most famous Asian rivers - both of which have their origin not far away from each other: the Mekong and the Yangtze River. It's a very tranquil region - there are more and more dam projects that use the water for electricity production so the area is definitely growing.

We went on to search for the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey who is endangered due to habitat loss. They find most of their food in trees but unfortunately these trees are harvested, thus reducing the availability of food.

From the Mekong valley we started to get higher in altitude and reached the Feilai Temple close to Deqin at 3'300m. In front of us were the magic Meili Snow Mountains with Kawagebo as the highest peak (6'740m). We were extremely lucky to see the top of the holy mountains in the morning, which is very often covered in clouds. None of major peaks have ever been summited until today.

Finally we ended our Yunnan trip with a visit of the beautiful Tibetian monastery of Shangri-La. This is not a simple tourist spot but it's where the Tibetian culture is very much alive.

Giant Pandas

Our trip ended in Chengdu to see the Giant Panda. We have to admit that we expected a more natural experience: this is simply a well visited zoo in the middle of Chengdu - a city of about 8 million people. Yes there are great photo opportunities but you won't get a wildlife in nature feeling. However, this is a very important place for the panda’s survival and there are probably only less then 2'000 pandas left in the wild and about 550 in captive. The Chengdu Research Base is the world’s largest artificial breeding center for Giant Pandas and about 200 are living here.

The Chinese People

Thank you China for the lovely trip! We met so many friendly people and big smiles along our way which was certainly an additional highlight.

The crown of the experiences was definitely when we were spontaneously invited to a traditional local wedding. It was a combination of Tibetian and Shaxi culture and food. For us this was a beautiful, and truly amazing and unforgettable experience - one that cannot be pre-planned - and one, where the connections to the locals was very intense and touching.

© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

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