Travels

timgoos on February 7th, 2012

   Not a great shot but suffice to say the main street of Shanghai could be practically any major city on earth.  All the big brands including the most expensive are along this street – along with local firms like The Silk King. The street is a pedestrian mall for maybe a mile and was [...]

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timgoos on February 7th, 2012

   The green and orange or green and grey taxi …. The most fearsome predator on the streets of Xi’an! As pedestrians, you have the least rights to any hard surfaces in China – you must give way to any bicycle ring, horn toot etc.  Next lowest are bicycles, next motorbikes, thence cars, taxis and [...]

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timgoos on February 6th, 2012

   Lynn is standing on the ancient city wall of Xi’an and we are looking north to the Bell tower.  With many ancient buildings as well as a completely refurbished wall and partial moat, the buildings and architecture of this former capital of China are a real attraction.     However, this is not fog [...]

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timgoos on February 6th, 2012

  I had visited the famous buried soldiers once on an earlier visit but nothing prepared me for the significant changes since then. There are now three different pits in which one can see the soldiers. Some, as in this picture, are standing and essentially like new. Some of these have likely had some repairs [...]

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timgoos on February 4th, 2012

 We went to visit the Small Goose Pagoda in Xi’an and found a cultural festival with music, dancing and many displays. This small statue was outside and the black areas indicate the significant number of people that have touched it.  We never learned which ethnic minority was dancing but, for the women in the dance group, [...]

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timgoos on February 2nd, 2012

 The Muslim Mosque is noted in guidebooks as an interesting mix of traditional Chinese and Muslim themes – a blend of a people’s culture with a religions beliefs. It made for a very interesting place to visit. You were mostly only able to visit the grounds but it was interesting to see and a quiet [...]

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timgoos on February 1st, 2012

 On our first day in Xi’an, we visited the large market near the Muslim mosque in the centre of the city.  Our hotel had an exceptionally uninspiring breakfast to offer us so we were looking for a little food.  The first blocks of this market were almost exclusively food – retail shops, butchers, bakers, etc. [...]

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timgoos on January 26th, 2012

 The New Year celebration continues here although the sound of fireworks is now mor occasional than continuous. It is quite a celebration compared to the one evening/day event at home. Even more interesting is the number of businesses that stay closed for a large part of this week. As busy as this country is, they [...]

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timgoos on January 26th, 2012

The New Year celebration continues here although the sound of fireworks is now mor occasional than continuous. It is quite a celebration compared to the one evening/day event at home. Even more interesting is the number of businesses that stay closed for a large part of this week. As busy as this country is, they [...]

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timgoos on January 25th, 2012

 We visited the Summer Palace in northwest Beijing today. It was a popular place today as it was sunny and just above zero.  It really illustrates the power of the Emperor. There is a large man made lake along with a hill from the creation of the lake – all to create a summer retreat [...]

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