Saturday 30 September 2017

A Brief Interlude

Following Mark's recent posts on his trip to Vietnam, which can be viewed on his blog '1866 and All That' at http://stracmark.blogspot.com.au/ , I thought it might be a good idea to do the same with regard to our recent trip to China, if nothing else than to explain the recent lack of output on the miniature painting front of late.

A week and a half for the wife and daughter number three, commencing with five nights in Beijing and a visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City:


















And then on to the Great Wall, which was far more impressive than I was expecting. The part we visited was quite steep and the steps were very uneven, so it took a lot more effort to climb than I was expecting:


















It also made me wonder why they actually went to the effort to continue it in certain places, as the hills were so steep that I could not imagine an invading army being able to navigate the terrain, even in the absence of a wall:


















We also visited the Ming tombs. They were very peaceful at this time of the year and we were quite happy to spend some time just sitting in the well-maintained gardens:



















Then on to the Summer Palace which was full of weeping willow trees, which was a little like walking through a scene on a piece of Spode pottery:


















We also spent an afternoon shopping, although we weren't adventurous enough to load up on some of the multi-coloured delicacies that the locals appeared to enjoy:


















Then on to Shanghai, which was every bit as Westernised as I had been lead to believe, but with its own unique flavour:























A visit to the zoo, and more shopping:


















And a night cruise to round out the trip:























A very enjoyable trip, but it was great to get home and tuck into a nice medium rare rib fillet and it will probably be another month or so before we can look at another Chinese meal. I have managed to get back into a painting routine again however, and hope to have a few more posts up during October.



8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the brief pictorial tour, Lawrence! Too funny re: Chinese food fatigue!

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    1. We normally enjoy a Chinese meal once every fortnight or so, but three times a day definitely tested our resolve.

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  2. That sure brings back some memories Lawrence, but all my pictures of those two cities show people wrapped in heavy coats - since we were there in the winter. The stragest irony for me was visiting the Summer Palace with the lake completely frozen over.

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    1. I wonder if winter may have been the better time to go, as the pollution in Beijing as quite heavy in early September. Our eldest is enjoying Vietnam by the way, and we received our first set of photos on Saturday.

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    2. You just reminded me, I must look at the rest of the Vietnam photos (on a different camera). Then there is a bunch of video footage I shot...there just isn't enough time!

      Just four days now until we have our big games week at Lake Tarawera...five days of wargaming, too much food (a lot of which is not "good for us"), too much alcohol and no family. Until recently that statement included no cellphone coverage, but regrettably that changed last year.

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    3. That does sound like an excellent weekend, and something to savour. The lack of mobile phone coverage is very appealing, even though that has now been rectified.

      I was supposed to be having a boys day at the races this weekend which the other half is always very supportive of, but seems everyone else has family commitments.

      I'll look forward to living vicariously through your weekend when you have posted a few photos.

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  3. Stunning pictures, hope I'll go there one day...

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    1. Definitely worth the trip, if only to tick it off the list.

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