Happy day there! Welcome to the first set of photographs from my trip to Dali, Yunnan, China in the month of December, 2014. While there, I saw many wonderful things, visited with super keen people, and enjoyed myself immensely. Dali was once a kingdom, on the road between Tibet and what might be considered the Thai/Khemer regions, on down to the Champa kingdoms in what is now Vietnam. It was eventually sacked by the Mongols and has been Chinese ever since. These days, the people there are impressively creative with their wares and homes, and I hope to visit again someday. Truly an amazing place. Welcome to the first 61 of the 244 photo that made it through the gauntlet of review, to you.
Here you will find another set of photos from a trip to Dali, Yunnan, China. It was truly a fascinating trip. Featured is a gal I met at a hostel I was staying at over coffee one morning who was planning on seeing many of the things I was planning on seeing, so we decided to see them together. Also featured are three towers that have stood where they are since the 9th and 10th centuries. Absolute high-points of any visit out this way. As well, we ran across a man with a giant lathe, who was making stone art. We had a fun time checking out his shop, and yes, I bought a piece from him (not pictured) It was a very fun day.
Alright! So, here’s another 61 photos of Dali~ Again, wandering the area with the other happy tourist through some of these photos, we eventually went different directions because she’d already been to Xizhou, and I hadn’t. Wow, what a neat place! To the north of Dali just a bit. It had architecture that absolutely blew my mind. I rented a motorbike and rode up the coastline of Erhai Lake to get there. Look for the random image of a man using a blowtorch on the head of a goat… Ran into him on the street, just cookin’ some brain… Nothing to see here. . . By the way, Xizhou is also home to the Linden Center, pictured within. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Enjoy.
Yay! This is both the first and fourth installation of the Dali set. It is first, because I’m posting it so that when you experience the posts in order, this one will be last, due to how posts cycle in a blog.
This set contains a favored portrait of an old couple I saw as I was driving along the lakeside road between Dali and Xizhou. They were selling wares on the road and I stopped to buy some from them. Beautiful old couple. Also, I went to a park on a peninsula, and a tea-village. A fine day, indeed.
So, here it is. The first, fourth, and final (while initial) installation of the Dali set~ What I like to call Dali-4.
These photos are from the outskirts of the city, where the towers aren’t. I lived in the Guangzhou area for about three years, so there’s certainly plenty to work with that is in the city, but this isn’t that. This was some other, different fun. Enjoy.
Two days riding through the desert, to get to Mogao Caves~
My friend Sara and I traveled far west, into the Gobi Desert for a visit to ancient stone carvings that stretched perhaps a few miles and at times a few hundred feet into the air. Carved from the 4th century on for about a thousand years, this set of carvings is one of the largest in the world, even from before people were trying to do such things on purpose. It was truly amazing. . . and there was sledding. so… yea, good times were had.
This is a small collection of images that are of Dunhuang, walking around the city, and also where we stayed, at our hostel. The othertwo sets are far more extensive, but I thought these deserved their own category. Enjoy~
This is the first page of the Show Us China website ~ Let’s see how it goes… Edit: Here, you’ll find a collection of images from a day out in a small town called Anyang, in Henan, eastern China (not to be confused with Hunan, in Central China). Here, I took photos around the city gate for a while. These photos are of that stroll. It should be noted though that Anyang is also home to an amazing museum dedicated to the history of language, with a special focus on Chinese. Here, many thousands of years ago shamans would carve the first Chinese characters onto the scapula of animals like sheep and into turtle shells, then throw them into fires as a method of divining a notion. . . This is also the area where the Duke of Zhou was imprisoned. Around a fire one night he was scratching the ground with a stick, as is done, it was then and there he first wrote the lines that would become the images of the trigrams that surround a full image of the classical Yin-Yang. That was peaceful and interesting place to visit as well. Perhaps I’ll get some photos up of the park that is now in the place where that happened… Until the next edit, enjoy these~
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As sunset rolled in, at the ancient city watchtower.
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Was amused by this old man, spinning a top for a really long time. I've included multiple shots for the lighting effects to be seen.
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Was amused by this old man, spinning a top for a really long time. I've included multiple shots for the lighting effects to be seen.
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Was amused by this old man, spinning a top for a really long time. I've included multiple shots for the lighting effects to be seen.
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Was amused by this old man, spinning a top for a really long time. I've included multiple shots for the lighting effects to be seen.
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View from the old city wall, out into the city, rising up beyond it.
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View from the old city wall, out into the city, rising up beyond it.
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This fella was climbing the wall as we arrived.
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View of the steps, rising to the city gate's watchtower.
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Up the ancient steps, the little child scampered~
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Up the ancient steps, the little child scampered~
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View of the city gate.
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View of the city gate.
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View from the old city wall, out into the city, rising up beyond it.
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View of a resting place on a city lake.
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Children feeding the fish in an old city watering hole.
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Good time for a bit of music, eh?
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In the middle of town, this came rising out of the roadway.
