Arriving in China
The Shanghai Maglev goes fast, really fast.
Shanghai at night
Stereotypical China picture
Nick molesting a Buddha
Shanghai skyline
Traditional Chinese furniture
I thought the stone turtle in the floor was amusing.
Fun with mirrors
Model of a traditional Chinese house.
Cool rock formations that were used to carve the gardens
This was the coolest furniture ever. They're carved out of tree root-systems.
Tree-root chairs
They even carved a phoenix into this one
Random dragons
The Temple of the Jade Buddha was quite the busy place
Everyone was folding up little pieces of paper, to then be placed in large bags and burned.
Gold Buddha statue
Other gods
The Chinese seem to have a thing for giant bells
You can't really see it, but there are a bunch more statues behind these curtains
These red prayer ribbons were tied everywhere.
A close-up of the wall of the Thousands Buddhas Room
The full room.
We were really tempted to try to play Plinko on this statue
People weren't kidding when they talk about Chinese air quality being poor. This is the middle of the afternoon in Shanghai.
Lotus pond
Welcome to beautiful Datong.
More scenic views of the city.
"Don't meet people that you don't know!"
The drive out to the Great Wall.
Rural China.
Datong produces 1/3 of China's coal. People were hauling it in any vehicle they could find.
The Great Wall.
Watchtower along the Great Wall.
Countryside near the Great Wall.
It goes a really long way...
Joey + Great Wall.
Jill and Nick walking on the Great Wall.
Apparently Nick stole my camera at this point.
We stopped into a random temple on the way back
Walking around Datong
On our way to the Hanging Monastery
The Hanging Monastery
Jill + Hanging Monastery
One of the rooms where the monks lived.
View into the river gorge
It really is built into the side of the mountain
Another view of the gorge
Long way down...
The roofs had some really neat detail.
We couldn't resist taking pictures of bad English...
The Yungang caves
Look closely to see the enormous Buddhas carved out of each cave.
The workers began carving out the caves using the top hole, and worked their way down.
In the 1700s, a Chinese emperor ordered the Buddas covered in clay to preserve them. The holes are where wooden posts were drilled to help the clay stay in place.
The outer cave wall has fallen away from the Buddha
Arriving in Xi'an, view along the city wall.
The Bell on top of the aptly named Bell Tower.
View down one of the main streets, from the Bell Tower.
Cool ceilings
A musical bell performance
Distant view of the Bell Tower.
A few blocks from the Bell Tower is the Drum Tower, with, you guessed it, a giant drum.
The Muslim Quarter of Xi'an
Not exactly the safest arrangement of powerlines....
The park outside of the terra cotta warriors
Officers' chamber in the terra cotta warriors. All of these soldiers are high-ranking officials.
In Site #2, the roofs were still preserved. There are hundreds of soldiers beneath these roofs.
View of one of the rows, without a roof.
Close-up of an archer.
This is the main chamber, with thousands of warriors. And, yes, each one is life-sized.
Joey+warriors.
These warriors had been removed from the original site.
Along with paper and fireworks, the ancient Chinese apparently also invented smelody?
Small Goose Pagoda
Quiet park around the pagoda
This sign cracks me up.
The next day, we went biking atop the Xi'an city wall. It's about 15km around.
Watchtower along the wall.
View from one of the corners of the wall.
Of course, you can't have a wall without a moat too.
The River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo
Apparently my camera was having a "blue" moment.
This was one of my favorite parts of the trip, so be prepared for lots of pictures...
These bamboo boats would pull alongside and the people would sell us whatever they had in the boats.
The return of normal color...
Yangshuo.
Yep, Nick got ahold of the camera again. :-)
Amusing shopping center name
We decided to climb this hill.
About 1/2 way up...
The view of Yangshuo from the top.
The view when we finally made it to the top
Failed attempt at a group portrait
Part of the view down
Jill and Joey at the top
Jill and Joey, take 2
Nick doing his camera thing
Nick and Alison at the top
Another view down
Lots of scenic views from the top...
Failed attempt at taking a picture of the top part that we climbed
Another failed attempt
Moderately successful attempt
Distant view of Moon Hill
Moon Hill, round 2
Uhh... what they said.
I don't even know what they were trying to say here...
Chinese world map. Notice that they split the world in the Atlantic ocean, so that China is in the middle.
