March - August 2008

March - August 2008
Route: London --- Delhi (see Rajastan and the Golden Triangle before flying to Amritsar and Chandigar). Delhi --- Hong Kong (a short stay). Hong Kong --- Tokyo (catch the shinkansen north to Sapporo and back - with a few stops on the way). Tokyo --- Beijing (travel overland via Xi'an and the Yellow River to Shanghai). Shanghai --- Hong Kong and then hop on the ferry to Macau for a flight to Bangkok. Then travel overland to Chiang Mai, through Laos and then back down to Bangkok (to catch a flight to London for a wedding). From Bangok travel down to Singapore via Malysia, before flying to Oceania.

1 June 2008

Chengde Photos



Gary meets a 'wild' deer in Chengde! We've never seen them so tame (most likely due to over feeding from the hoards of Chinese tourists that flock here) . The park which used to be the hunting ground of the Emporers is full of lakes and pagodas as you can see in the photo below. It's also completely surrounded by miles and miles of a large wall to keep the pesky peasants away from the game...
One of the magnificant temples in Chengde. It's difficult to convey the size of them - but to give you an idea the main hall in this one (the tall building at the back of the photo) houses the largest wooden statue in the world - a Buddist Goddess of mercy called Guanyin. She's huge (23 meters high), but beautifully carved and has 42 arms - each with an eye in its palm. Apparently there's an eye in her belly button too.

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