|
First
day proper at Tiananmen Square. L-R, Mary, Gemma, Dus, Jon.
|
 |
|
"Goodness,
gracious, Great Wall of China!" as Jerry Lee Lewis might have
sung
|
 |
|
Guess
whose camera has a "panorama" facility?
|
 |
|
Jon
at the Great Wall, not long before a failed attempt to toboggan
down it.
|
 |
|
Mary,
Dus and Gemma at the Great Wall.
|
 |
|
Great
Wall, from top, Mary, Gemma, Dus. Too many gawping locals prevented
a perfectly posed shot.
|
 |
|
Beijing
Opera. Taken after Jon had been asked to whack the big kung fu bloke
and after he had fallen asleep.
|
 |
| Beijing
Opera - Janet with the Monkey King. |
 |
| Dus
at the Summer Palace, attempt at a good photo ruined by inept cameraman. |
 |
| Jon
at the Summer Palace, hiding his disappointment at not being able
to go out on the boat. |
 |
| Group
at the Summer Palace; L-R Dus, Mary, Jon, Gemma. I think this was
the first tme we had multiple group shots while being gawped at by
the locals. |
 |
| Xi'an
- Great Mosque; L-R Dus, Mary, Janet's mother, Gemma, Janet, Jon.
We all liked Xi'an, Dus sharpened her haggling skills for later on
and we bravely ventured to the local dumpling restaurant, twice! |
 |
| Jon
and the Terracotta Warriors. What can you say other then "bleeding
'ell". |
 |
| Jon
at the Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang. Not our favourite city, but an interesting
line in restaurants offering a variety of diseases. |
 |
| Night
market at Kaifeng. Taken just before Dus got chatted up by the local
midget and about an hour before she used her mastery of Mandarin to
order dinner blind from the menu. |
 |
| Wuxi
boat trip; Mary, Gemma, Janet and Dus. IT should have been a longer
trip but one of the disadvantages of SARS was that the original trip
down to Suzhou was cancelled and we had to take the train. |
 |
| Wuxi
boat trip - Jon. Documentary proof of a tan. |
 |
| Suzhou
- Humble Administrator's Garden. Don't we all look relaxed? So we
should, this was one of the most beautiful places we visited. Jon
celebrated by smashing his head against the minibus whilst trying
to avoid a beggar. |
 |
| Shangers,
baby, Shangers! Photo taken by Mary's daughter, Becky. Shopping frenzy
followed, but for now we just boiled in the 90º Shanghai heat.
|
 |
| Shangers
- Dus haggles in the market. "I bought one over there for 20
YTuan!". Would you argue with her? |
 |
| Shangers
- Yu Yuan statues. In a field in the middle of nowhere, all of these
amazing statues. |
 |
| Soft
sleeper waiting room. Except...... the beds weren't that soft and
nobody slept that much. Was this the journey where the waitress in
the restaurant car moved that man's dinner to try and get him away
from a table? It wasn't the journey where Gemma and Janet tried to
bounce a suitcase off some poor bloke's head. |
 |
| Hangzhou
- Jon and Gemma at Lingyin Temple. Another beautiful day at a beautiful
place. |
 |
| Longshen
- Dus, Mary, Gemma and Jon with the cut-throat saleswomen of the Yao
tribe. It was wetter than it looked. They all belonged to the same
family but were competing for our custom. As Joe the local guide said
"Communism is dead in China now". |
 |
| Yangshuo
- Jon takes a break from sweating at the top of Moon Hill. Great view. |
 |
| View
from top of Moon Hill, panorama mode again. |
 |
| View
from top of Moon Hill, with someone's shoulder in the way. |
 |
| THIS
WAY TO PINK HAT MAN!! |
| Please
feel free to email me |