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Tag: Ancient Town

Dali-2

Dali-2

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.

Dali-3

Dali-3

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.

Dali-4

Dali-4

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.

Dunhuang~ At Mogao Ku (Caves)

Dunhuang~ At Mogao Ku (Caves)

This area was carved out of the riverside between the 4th century and on for a millennium or so by resident Buddhists. Um, yea, Awesome~
Dunhuang~ In the Desert

Dunhuang~ In the Desert

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.
Dunhuang~ Around Town

Dunhuang~ Around Town

This is a small collection of images that are of Dunhuang, walking around the city, and also where we stayed, at our hostel. The other two sets are far more extensive, but I thought these deserved their own category. Enjoy~
Anyang, for starters…

Anyang, for starters…

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~