I finally made a slide show of SOME of my pictures. Have over 4,300 pictures... I kept the slide show to 42. Because you know, 42 is the answer to everything. ;) Plus I figured that's about as many pictures as most people want to look through. I tried to cover as much ground as possible with the selection of pictures. I used slide.com - not the best program ever, but incredibly easy to use and makes it into a nice, neat, tidy Flash thingy I could imbed directly in my blog.

NOTE: To actually see the pictures at a larger capacity and to be able to pause to inspect any you like (and to read the captions), click "View All Images" at the bottom right of the box.






Pictures ©2007 Meryddian

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1. Intro page - Calligraphy seen in the Shanghai Museum

2. Shanghai skyline, 8:30am. Nice n' smoggy.

3. Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai. Originally built in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father's old age. Today, Yuyuan is filled with tea shops, restaurants and stores.

4. Painted carving on the prow of a boat, Shanghai Museum.

5. The Shanghai Post Office, main branch, lit up at night.

6. Shanghai Acrobats show. Although very touristy, of course, still quite a lot of amazing feats of strength and agility to watch!

7. Suzhou, as seen from the Grand Canal, which is the longest ancient canal or artificial river in the world. It passes through the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BC, although the various sections were finally combined into one during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 AD). The total length of the Grand Canal is roughly 1,770 km (1,100 miles).

8. The Humble Administrator's Gardens, Suzhou. The Humble Administrator's Garden was originally built in 1509 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was initially a private garden of a former government servant named Wang Xianchen.² At nearly 13 acres, it is one of the largest gardens in Suzhou. Like Yuyuan in Shanghai, this is considered one of "China's four famous gardens", although this one is the most honored one in the country.

9. We went to an evening music show at the petite Master-of-the-Nets Garden. This garden was first laid out during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) and abadoned for many years before being restored in the 18th century.

10. Young Shaolin students go through their morning routines. Shaolin Temple is seperate from the town, where many wushu (martial arts) schools are located. Information about Shaolin wushu¹:

"The Shaolin monastery is the only temple in China that combines martial arts and Zen Buddhism. As such, monks at the monastery may be martial monks, scholarly or clerical monks, or both. However, even the martial monks also practice Zen Buddhism. It is held that Zen Buddhism allows you to store and build up chi, while martial arts is the act of releasing chi; therefore, the two complement and complete each other.

"Long misunderstood in both China and the rest of the world, there are real practicing monks inside the Shaolin Temple who are little seen and known outside of inner Shaolin martial circles, and there are Shaolin performing "monks" who are actually not monks, but students from local schools trained and hired by the Shaolin Temple, to travel the world and perform in shows.

"While these students are trained by Shaolin monks in some martial arts, and do shave their heads, and wear monks robes, they are not real ordained monks. These students do not live in the temple, do not take Shaolin vows, and are not trained in Zen Buddhism, Shaolin Medicine, or classical kung fu forms; also, they do not have the most important aspect of being a real Shaolin monk - a master in the temple who calls them a disciple. These students are primarily trained in Shaolin wushu which is a competitive form of the martial art 'sport' of kung fu, and a cousin of the classical kung fu forms parcticed by the temple monks. Jet Li is the most famous example of a Shaolin wushu trained student who never trained in the temple."

11. Details under a roof, Shaolin Monastery.

12. Monk at prayer, Shaolin Monastery. The Shaolin Monastery was built by Emperor Hsiao-Wen (Xiaowen) in 496, on the north side of Shaoshi, which is the western peak of one of the sacred mountains of China, Song Shan. In its 1,500+ years of existance, the monastery has been destroyed - usually by fire - and rebuilt many times. It was most recently destroyed in 1928 when warlord Shi Yousan spent 40 days burning the complex, destroying 90% of the buildings and many manuscripts in the temple library. During the Cultural Revolution, the few remaining monks at the time were publicly humiliated and then the buildings were left empty for many years. Martial arts groups from around the world help make donations for the upkeep of the temple, and you can see stone tablets honoring them as you enter the complex.

13. Xi'an Bell Tower, center of town. If you peer really closely, just to the bottom right of the flag, you can see McD's arches. The original tower was built in 1384 at a more western location; but when the city went through an expansion period in the 16th century, the tower was moved to the center of the city (its present location) in 1582. The bell tower used to be the way for local citizens to tell time. During the past century, it served a variety of different purposes, including telephone bureau, cinema, planetarium, and prison, among other things. Today it is preserved as a cultural relic.

14. We went to something called the "Dumpling Banquet with Tang Dynasty Show", in Xi'an. First, we had a pretty awesome dinner, with lots of local specialty dumplings, usually shaped to resemble what they contained; then it was...

15. .... on to the music and dancing of a recreated Tang Dynasty opera. Great show, marvellous costumes.

16. The Xi'an fruit market, which runs all day and much of the night, just north of the city Drum Tower. It is at the entrance to the Muslim Quarter of the city and the area is bustling, day and night.

17. The Terracotta warriors collection. This building is HUGE, but it's only one of three where visitors can get a peek at the famous statuary. So far, approximately 8,100 terra cotta figures of warriors and horses have been found. The first Qin (pronounced /chin/ - whom the country was named for) emporer had this mausoleum built for himself between 247-221 BC. The higher the rank, the taller the statue. Each soldier has a different face - it is thought each statue was built to resemble one of his living army. Qin Shi died in 210 BC and was interred within the tomb complex with great amounts of treasure, art and jewels. His actual tomb is located close to, but not immediately adjacent, to the terra cotta necropolis, and has not yet been unsealed. General Xiang Yu, a prominent general during the fall of the Qin dynasty, looted and burned the tombs less than five years after Qin Shi died; which is why all the statues were shattered when the tombs were first unearthed.

18. A typical courtyard home in Pingyao.

19. Longman Grottoes - more Buddhas than you can shake a chakra at. The grottoes and niches of Longmen contain the largest and most impressive collection of Chinese art of the late Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties (316-907). These works, entirely devoted to the Buddhist religion, represent the high point of Chinese stone carving.

20. The Shanxi Hanging Monastery located in the Jinxia Gorge. It doesn't really hang, but it looks like it does. The monastery was built in 491; the extant monastery was largely rebuilt and maintained in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). With narrow passages and its height off the ground, it is not for the faint of heart. :)

21. The Great Wall, as seen at Mutianyu. Here there are two cable cars to take you up the hillsides to the Wall, and a toboggan run for a fun alternative way down.

22. The "bird's nest" Olympic stadium, under construction on the north side of Beijing.

23. The entrance to the Forbidden City, as seen from Tiannamen Square, Beijing. The Forbidden City was built between 1406-1420 and is said to contain 9,999½ rooms. Current counts put it at 980 surviving buildings and 8,707 bays of rooms.

24. The Dong Hua Men night food market, west of the Wangfujing shopping street, serves up a variety of freshly-prepared foods, ranging from the mundane (sugared fruit on sticks) to the exotic (fried scorpions and starfish). Great place for inexpensive dumplings.

25. Temple of Heaven, Beijing. Originally called 'the Temple of Heaven and Earth', this, too, was constructed between 1406-1420 by the Yongle Emperor, who is considered one of China's greatest emperors. The Temple grounds cover almost 3 km² of parkland including three main groupings of buildings, and many lovely gardens including one dedicated to rose-growing. In the mornings and especially on the weekends, you will find many Beijing locals in the park, practicing anything from tai'chi to singing to dance.

26. Short stop at the highest manned train station on the trans-Tibet rail line. We had enough time to get out, snap a few pictures, and marvel at how cold it was there compared to Beijing, our starting point. There are not many stops on this train, and the train covers 4,064 km (2,500 miles) from Beijing to Lhasa in just over 48 hours. The Qinghai–Tibet railway was inaugurated on July 1, 2006. It spends most of its journey over 4,267 meters (14,000 feet), with its highest pass (at Tanggula) reaching 5,231 meters (17,162 ft - higher than Everest Base Camp!).

27. Somewhere on the Tibetan plateau. It was so incredibly beautiful there, a very dreamy landscape.

28. The fervent prostrating themselves in prayer before the Jokhang in Lhasa, the holiest building in Tibet. Located on the east end of the Barkhor Square in the old section of Lhasa, it was originally built around 642. Although it was damaged during the Cultural Revolution, it has since been restored.

29. The Potala Palace in Lhasa was started in 637 by King Songtsen Gampo. It is built at an altitude of 3,700m (12,100 feet and rises majestically above the Chinese-modernized half of Lhasa. It is the historical home of the Dalai Lama, but the current Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, in 1959, under fear of his life. Today, the buildings have been converted to a museum by the Chinese, but Tibetans still come here on pilgrimage.

30. The Seru Monastery, located on the northern side of Lhasa, is best known for its afternoon sessions when the monks debate. It is a really fun thing to watch.

31. The Tibetan buffet dinner and floor show. Great fun and good food.

32. When you go to Yamdrok Tso (the lake in the background), if you stop at this pass, you will be immediately surrounded by a few men and a lot of women, making a living by selling you jewelry or asking if you want to take a picture with their yak or their Himalayan mastiff (dog) or them, only 5 yuan (about 68 cents). This is the only person who didn't pester me, so I paid to take a picture of her and her yak. :)

33. On the "short cut" between Lhasa and Gyantse, we frolicked on these sand dunes. Big huge sand dunes. Not what you'd expect in the middle of Tibet.

34. Gyantse is one of Tibet's major cities, located at an elevation of 3,977 metres (13,050 feet) and situated at a historically highly strategic location, as evidenced by its impressive fort which rises high above the city. The Tibetans turned back the British Younghusband expedition here in 1904, although they had less superior equiment. Despite its history, the city was nearly obliterated during the Cultural Revolution, and the Palcho Monastery and its beautiful Kumbum chorton (pictured) were nearly destroyed. Today the city feels more like a sleepy backwater.

35. Rush hour, Tibet - this flock of sheeps and goats simply flowed around us before their shepherd got them out of the way.

36. It was harvest time in Tibet, and everywhere we saw them threshing barley by hand.

37. All the Tibetan temples have lamps full of yak butter, which is burnt as an offering. The smell is pervasive and distinctive; the closest I can describe the smell would be similar to bleu cheese. (Yak butter has a faint bleu cheese flavor to it as well, as does yak's milk, which certainly gave me quite a suprise the first - and only - time I put it in my coffee.)

38. One of the great Buddha statuary at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. Tashilhunpo is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, who is second in the hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. The monastery was founded in 1447 by the first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drup. It was sacked in 1791, but its treasures were eventually returned. Two-thirds of its buildings were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution - but fortunately, it was mostly residences destroyed, and not many of the sacred temples.

39. Painting details, Tashilhunpo Monastery.

40. Prayer flags on one of the higher mountain passes. It was really something to stand there in the quiet and hear nothing except the flapping of thousands of these flags. They are printed or inscribed with prayers, and hung in sets of five in a specific order with each color representing the Five Buddha Families and the five elements: blue (water), white (sky/space), red (fire), green (wind/air), and yellow (earth). The flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom; the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras written upon them will be borne upon the winds as offerings to their dieties and blessings to the land, and that the wind itself is purified by those mantras. Tibetans feel if they are hung on inauspicious astrological dates, they will bring negative results for as long as they fly.

41. Rombuk Guest House - run by the monks of the Rombuk monastery across the road, this bare-bones-basic/dorm-style guest house actually had one of the most comfortable beds I slept in my entire month in China. And every room has a view of Everest.

42. Mt. Everest, Qomolangma, Mother Goddess of the Universe. As seen from Base Camp (5,200m/17,060 ft).



¹ source: Wikipedia