As a good tourist, we visited the Chinese wall in Shanhaiguan which used to be a very strategic and now is a very touristy spot where the wall enters the sea. Luckily for us it is mostly popular with Chinese tourists who do not have identical interests to ours. We were thus alone on our quest to find and climb the remnants of the original (read: not restored) wall.

During previous trips in China the food was often ok and rarely very good. This time, we really enjoyed delicious food … street food such as noodle soup, baozi, jiaozi and a sort of pancakes, Peking duck and also international dishes such as salad, pizza and sushi. I’m not sure if it is just by chance but I prefer to think that we finally got the hang of it.

We travelled by train. China’s high speed trains being very modern, comfortable and on time it makes for very efficient travelling… if it were not for the purchase of the ticket prior to the train ride. Although ticket machines are available foreigners cannot use them as a Chinese identity card is required. We were thus left with no option but to queue to buy our tickets… and in contrast to the train ride, I can tell that queuing is neither efficient nor comfortable (just imagine hundreds of people in one big room with no aircon or fan and outside temperatures of +35 degrees). As if queuing once was not enough in Qinhuangdao we repeated this  exercise three times. First, we bought tickets at the high-speed counter only to realise later in the day that the tickets were for a train ride which would take us 11 hours! We then returned to queue early next day to return these tickets and finally to buy new tickets for the high-speed train which would eventually only take a bit more than 3 hours. We didn’t mind that the only category left was  standing room… at least it was in an aircon train and did not take the whole day ;-).

As a consequence, I often opted for black and white photography which was – in my opinion – a great choice as fortunately both Tianjin and Dalian offer very interesting and distinctive architecture with lots of contrasts. In comparison with other Chinese cities, they seem very European.

Tianjin is China’s third biggest city and has a rich history, impacted by foreign trade in the late 1800s. You find plenty of buildings with British, German, French, Italian or Japanese influence and it seems that the Italian concession houses the biggest cluster of old Italian architecture outside of Italy.

Dalian is China’s northernmost sea port and due to its ice-free location has ever since been a very strategic harbour town. For long, Russian or Japanese occupied the city and it was only in 1955 that it was returned to China. Still today, you see the influence of both countries and I was surprised to find that many Russian still spend their holidays there. The architecture with its old buildings and numerous squares, restaurants and even souvenirs stalls clearly show this influence.

Tianjin

Dalian

There, I limited my activities to relaxing at the beach, swimming, strolling through the resort and sipping a cool drink or having a nice meal. In between, I took a few pictures trying to capture the beautiful sky and the marks that the receding water left in the sand at low tide.

Nothing exciting but a great way to relax body and mind and to regain energy!

We took our time to join a cooking class, to wander the narrow streets and lanes, to roam local markets, to stop at street stalls and enjoy the little delights of Old Town Bangkok.

We also included a day trip to Kanchanaburi, a small and historic-rich town where we visited the famous bridge over the River Kwai, the impressive WWII cemetery and an excellent museum before we walked the short but beautiful heritage street, still intact with houses dating back more than 100 years and showcasing the diverse influences that the town witnessed over the past century (Chinese, Indian, Portuguese, Japanese).

At the end of each day, delicious, fresh and spicy Thai food and replenishing Thai massages helped us gain back our much needed energy!

We visited historic-rich Taipei (and nearby Tamsui), roamed the streets and monuments and filled our stomach with delicious snacks from the night markets. On the search of nature and landscapes, we then took the train to Hualien and continued by rental car heading south along the East Rift Valley and back up north along the Coastal highway.

Our days were filled with such wonderful holiday activities as
– visiting an abandoned sugar factory and buying ice cream from the souvenir shop,
– hiking the Walami trail (which includes the crossing of two impressive suspension bridges) and practising our Chinese with a Taiwanese family we met a the picnic pit,
– getting cold while being outdoor most of the day and then soaking our bodies in a natural hot spring to warm up
– driving the winding roads in the Taroko Gorge and up on Sixty Stone Mountain (liushidanshan), marvelling at these nature’s wonders and playing catch with the sunrays

At the end of our week in Taiwan, there was still so much unseen and undone… we are left with no choice but to come back!

Our trip to Hong Kong in February 2015 was thus very much a walk down memory lane. Comparing our experience with how it has been the first time, I realised how many new things I have learned over the past years and how much I got accustomed to and fond of Asia. While five years ago I was overwhelmed and fascinated with all new things, now it is different. It feels a bit less exciting for sure, but it still feels very good.

Last but not least, I rounded off the weekend with a super interesting and funny one day photo workshop with A Day of Photography in Chiang Mai. The workshop focused on street portraiture and allowed me to get up close to the local people and their daily life and experience very precious moments with and without my camera.

Actually, we only came back to get ready for the next adventure. Together with our driver, a tent and some more bottles of water we now set out to cross the desert. Luckily (for both the camels and for us), we chose the car to attack the 500km long desert highway. Halfway through we stopped to set up the tent for the night. The location in the middle of sand dunes was magic and to know that the very same landscape spreads for hundreds of kilometres in all directions just added to this feeling. So did as well the sandstorm which made for a rough (but still beautiful) night and left us and the tent windswept and covered with a thick layer of sand.

To change the scenery we headed to Bayanbulak, a highland which consists of gorgeously vast and green pastures, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and inhabited by Kazhak nomad people and their sheep and cattle.

Back down to the heat and back in time. We spent some last days in and around Turpan, located at 50m below sea level where we discovered some fantastic sites such as the ruins of Jiaohe, the ancient capital and now utterly impressive remains of a city life 1600 years ago.

Taklamakan Desert

Bayanbulak

Ancient City Ruins

Pamir Mountains

Kashgar Life Stock Market

Our starting point was the city of Kashgar. It tells you a great deal on what to expect if you read that it is geographically closer to Teheran or Moscow than to Beijing; and even more if I add that I feel it is not only geographically! The largest ethnic group are the Uighurs, very friendly people who love to wear colourful silk dresses and hats in different shapes, who eat lamb – or rather sheep – as often as possible (as kebab, with noodles, with rice, with nan, as soup, the knuckles, the head, the liver and what other part you may think of…) and who as devoted Muslims have built mosques at almost every corner of a street.

All these characteristics are not normally associated with China and made this trip very special and so different from my previous adventures in China. Get a first impression (“it’s all about people”) with below pictures and then let’s go “wild west” in the second part.

Muslim Life

Yurt – Kyrgyz Style

Street Life

Bazaar

Langkawi is a beautiful island which offers so much more than plain beach life (and thus caters perfectly to us ;-)). With our rental car we enjoyed the freedom to drive wherever we wanted and discovered the island from north to south, east to west. It is small enough to drive around in 1-2 hours, but offers plenty of activities, insights into rural life and – thanks to its hilly landscape – gorgeous lookouts.

Adding in some good food, stunning sunsets over the sea and mostly sunny weather…. the surprise was a huge success!!