Terra-cotta Warriors

Like the Eiffel tower in Paris, and Big Ben in London the Terra-cotta warriors are something that can't be missed whenever you travel to China.


Where they a highlight on the trip? I would say not. To be honest I was actually a little disappointed without the whole experience.


The most exciting thing that I got to see was a pair of handmade marionettes sponsored be Johnson and Johnson



Way creeper in person. The little girl was about five meters tall if memory serves me right.

Xian

Due to some timing issues I ended up staying in this city for five days, which was about two days longer then originally planned, but ended up being just the right amount of time to spend their.


Xian is one of the last cities to have a Ming wall still in tact and standing, so for about five hours one day I spent my time walking around the whole top of it. At a certain point on the wall there where cloth and metal figures placed along the sides for about a kilometer in length.
The rest of my time was spent walking around the Muslim district, and visiting the sights around the city.

Harbin

Located in the northern most part of the country, Harbin was a place of vas differences to the rest of China that I had been to beforehand. It is a relatively new city compared to the rest of China only really beginning to grow and expend in the beginning of the twentieth century. Through the course of it's hundred years it has seen a lot of changes over greater China as well as itself. In the thirties it was taken over by Japan until the end of the WWII. Before that there where huge immigrations of Russian Jews into the city, eventually becoming the largest immigrant population in China. Even though these two events don't hold true today you can still see he heavy influences of both, but mostly from the Russian Jews. A lot of the architecture has a very distinct Russian look about it, with the use of domes on buildings, and stones in the streets.

Dancing on the streets at night

In a lot of the major cities and towns in china they would at certainties during the day have group dancing sessions, and lessons for the, and out in the public. Some a small with only a few people participating in it, but once you get to the major cities you will a lot of time see huge groups sometimes a hundred strong. This group was ballroom dancing, another smaller one a little ways away was learning how to tango.

Naive Bear Paradise

While in China I have gotten used to seeing the English language used in interesting ways. But when I came upon a sign labeled naive bear paradise I had no idea of what to make of it.


So I decided that the only thing to do was follow were it lead me and figure it out for myself.

My original thought was it had something to do with beer. But then that doesn't make sense either. Why would the beer be naive.

After following a little longer, it came to me that it could have been "native" bear paradise. I was in northern China, only about a five hour ride from the Russian border. So having an exhibition of bear native to the area made absolute sense.

But I was wrong still the same. Naive Bear Paradise was in fact an...





Amusement park.

Beijing

The country capital, and one of the haziest and smoggiest cities I have ever been in. Was all in all a lot of fun! Great wall, tian mien square, the forbidden city, summer palace, and miles of maze like hutongs to explore. Being pulled around scenic ponds in bike power carts.


Like all of the cities that I have been to in china, the food was amazing and very distinct to the region. On the suggestion of a girl I meet who is a budding travel food journalist, the Aussies and I went to a place that was a little bit more on the beaten path then I normally head to.


Granted you cant see any of the food that we had, belief me when I say it was good. Not the best in China nut still good all of the same. The most peculiar thing we has was a pitted bitter melon, with a ball of pork stuffed into the middle of it.

On my last full day in Beijing I went to see the 2008 Olympic stadium and park.


You can see the characteristic grayness that is Beijing, it was a sunny day then too.


The building housing the swimming pool in which Michel Phelps owned every event he was in.