57. The great marvels of China

The great marvels of China - By Pierre with Franzi
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- Franzi, my German friend, was a little reluctant at the idea of coming in China but after she did some researches on the Internet, her craze was real. I suggest you to discover in this article the wonders of China:
The great wall
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- How not to speak about it? Scattered on thousands of kilometers in the North of China, the pieces of wall suffered enough from their abandon.
- Partially reconstructed, the wall can be visited in multiple places as Mutianyu, close to Beijing. We almost have the impression to walk as the former Chinese guards lie in wait for the Mongols.
The City where the loneliness is Forbidden
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- The Forbidden City takes place In front of the notorious place Tian An Men. This palace with a yellow roof as the color of the emperor, includes 980 buildings. The Forbidden City is divided between the outside court for ceremonies and the inner court where the emperor and his family lived.
- With 72 hectares of surface, this palace is really immense, but also immensely crowded of amateur photographers with wrinkled eyes and hollow laugh... Let us say that it makes a more authentic photography...
Beijing as tourist as needed
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- In immense Beijing, that we did not find so polluted, you can take advantage of the huge infrastructure of transportation to discover the other marvels near the city: the Lama temple dedicated to the Tibetan Buddhism, Confucius temple, the Summer Palace, Beihai Park or the Bird Nest.
Terracotta warriors
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- Tourists come to Xi'An for more than thirty years, to take photograph the indestructible army of Qin emperor. This army is buried under several pits among which three can be visited. Five thousands of soldiers are estimated to be still buried under the site. Impressive!
Delicious mixture of civilization to Xi'an
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- The city of Xi'an is not only known for terracotta warriors. This former Chinese capital has a very influential Muslim community. Go to see the Mosque or make a tour in the Muslim District to vary with the Chinese food.
A small piece of heaven to Guilin
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- This city gathers so many wonders of nature: immense caves, calm down river where people go cormorant fishing and a maze of hills sometimes supplanted by pagoda, sometimes in the shape of elephant, sometimes simply so green as we forget all our concerns.
Take a breath of fresh air with Yang Shuo
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- In this village full of backpackers, we recommend you to take a mountain bike, a tandem or an electric bike and to leave for a reinvigorating tour in rice and lotus flower fields.
- By following the river Yuang, we met our Chinese tourists friends blocked in a traffic of their boat, in full romantic cruise or not.
Rice fields in espalier at Long sheng
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- We remember our unforgettable walking between the villages: four hours in the heart of rice fields, far from the Chinese tourists and from the entrance too much crowded in Longji (equivalent to Disneyland). Upon the arrival, here are the magnificent terraces of Ping An.
The national park of Jiuzhaigou
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- The park is a major appointment of the tourists, looking for admiring lakes in the colors of pastel, blue and green.
- For us, there is no way to fit in the tourists’ path: Franzi and I left for a walk of one hour. We didn't expect the rain to catch us up. All wet, we have been invited in a very beautiful house in the park, to have to snack and take a hot drink to warm us.
- Do not miss either the Tibetan temple after the entrance, not served by buses transportation but very colorful.
Song Pan, one of the capitals of yak
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- On the road between Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu, this city is a good stop point for whom wants to taste everything made with yak. There is everything in town: meats, yoghurts, cheeses, milk, and candies with yak. For the lovers of the hiking: just go climbing until the grass of the long hair cattle.
- We recommend the small steep climb to the top of the city and the stroll in the antique city center, completely redone to get crowds of tourists, but still nice.
The big Buddha of Leshan
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- A monster of rock sits in the hill. Down from his 71m, it reminds to the traveler the spiritual greatness of "the awake" Buddha. Chinese men put near one century to sculpture this monument. It was more than one millennium ago.
- The statue is impressive to see but it was necessary for us to wait one hour and a half, under the sun in a queue of Chinese tourists. Not easy!
- Advise for backpackers: use the stopover Leshan (or Lijiang) to apply for a new visa of thirty days (obtained in 24 hours)
The pandas of Sichuan
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- This black and white bears has a red and white cousins named curiously "red pandas". They live lazily, eating their bamboo at the bottom of their cage.
- The city of Chengdu has other attractions which we recommend as the monastery Wenshu and the "People's park" where the Ear-cleaners are going to polish you the hearing organ.
The Hanging Temple
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- This temple is notable for its location on a sheer precipice (75 m above the ground). Its building started more than 1,500 years ago by only one man Liao Ran. This is the only existing temple with the combination of three Chinese traditional religions: Buddhism, Taoism and Confusianism.
The city of Ping Yao
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- The immense city center is enclosed by a square great wall of the Ming period (1360). It is also here that the paycheck was invented and that made of Ping Yao the first banking city of the East and a center of finances in China.
- The center is forbidden for vehicles and filled with houses and with museums describing the life of the centuries crossed: we find ourselves in Former China.
- Not far also, the temple Shuanglin contains two thousand colored wooden figurines, representing the divinities of three religions. This temple, built before VI ° century was reorganized during the reign of the big Chinese dynasties.
Let's live Avatar movie in Zhangjiajie
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- Peter Cameron wanted an exceptional place to make his dragons flying, China provided him a perfect spot!
- Pillars of rocks stick their nose in an incredible way, we wonder how these rocks holds on. Come up and down between every rock is not an easy walk, but it is good for health, isn't it Franzi?
- The most attraction is to tap with your map of Zhangjiajie the head of the Chinese children which deafen you with their toy-whistle. Tested and approved!
The Tibetan monastery of Kumbun in Xining
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- But the wonders are sometimes situated in simple meetings in less explored places. So in the monastery of Kumbun, not far from Xining, we met the monk Jin Ba Jian Cou, who invited us at his home. We learnt about the life of the monks and the realization of thangkas, these paintings with many multicolored forms, representing divinities and decorating the Tibetan temples.
The Chinese country is full of wonders
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- Having appreciated the photos of this article, you will understand why China is the third country the most visited to the world (and France is first, cock-a-doodle-do!).
- However this tourism, modelled for disciplined and superficial Chinese, is too much for our eyes of European in search of authenticity.
- The journey being a sum of episodes varying from the biggest galleys to the most beautiful discoveries, we stand out from it with a lot of anecdotes to be told!

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