Start planning your trip!
Start planning your trip!
Don't be guiri!
1. Beijing: capital of the People’s Republic and a paradise of Chinese culture. Here you can visit the Forbidden City (old Imperial Palace) and Tiananmen Square, as well as numerous palaces, temples, parks and gardens, not to mention the installations of the 2008 Olympics.
2. The Great Wall of China: at the height of the Ming Dynasty, it stretched 20,000 km from the border with Korea to the Gobi Desert, and was guarded by more than one million warriors. Today only 9,000 km of the wall remain, and it is truly one of the great wonders of the world! Try and visit less touristic sections of the wall, for the fewer the people the more spectacular it is.
3. Shanghai: economic centre of China and the most European city in the country. Mix of modernity and tradition, it moves at a frenetic pace more reminiscent of a Western capital than the “Pearl of the Orient”, as it was once called.
4. Xi’an Warriors: famous terracotta army. Why it was sculpted we’ll never know.
5. Guilin and Yangshuo: spectacular landscapes formed by the gullies of the Li and Yulong Rivers and by the Longii rice paddies. Amazing place to experience rural China and learn about some of its ethnic minorities.
6. Ancient City of Lijiang: perhaps one of the most beautiful cities in the world and also one of the least known. Full of canals and red Chinese lanterns, it looks like something out of fairy tale. From it you can visit Jade Dragon Glacier and Tiger Leaping Gorge.
7. Chengdu: if you travel to China you have to visit Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre. Seeing the pandas play and eat is an experience you’ll never forget.
8. Datong: from here you can see the Buddhist Caves at Yungang, known as the Chinese Petra.
9. The Ancient City of Pingyao: Reminiscent of a movie set, it’s not hard to imagine what ancient Chinese life was like in this small, walled city during the Qing and Ming dynasties.
10. Bicycle through Beijing: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Beijing is enormous but very flat, so it’s ideal for getting around by bike. Rent one and go from one end of the city to the other. You’ll fit right in!
Sailing the River Yangtze through the Three Gorges, in a 3rd class cabin, China.
Heraclites said that nobody can swim twice in the same river because, in life, everything flow non stop. The river will never be the same, and neither will you. We are sailing the river Yangtze, the biggest Chinese river, famous for his gigantic dam, but also for having the Three Gorges, three steep gorges that look like the gates of a new different world.
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Chengdu, China, the biggest reserve of panda bears in the world.
The astute and fast readers have probable noticed that among all the bears in the title of this article, there are two that are, unless some scientist proves me wrong, pure invention, and any similarity with reality is a coincidence. Today we want to talk about coincidences that are not such a thing. Think about a panda bear. It looks like a teddy bear, its tender look, and the colour of their fur. Isn’t it too much of a coincidence that Mother Nature has created such a perfect animal? Its ears: both ears have the same black colour. Just like the two white spots around their eyes. The rest of the face, cotton white. Not even the damn Walt Disney would have drawn it better! It is perfect. So perfect that it’s hard to believe that is real.
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