We started at 6 in the morning on Friday with our personal driver. We arrived in Xidi, the first of the ancient towns of the day, around 7. Light was quite magic, have a look ...

In Hongcun, the next ancient city, we found a beautiful little village and again amazingly interesting people ...

There are a lot of art students in the ancient towns, sitting around all over the place drawing and painting ...

After Hongcun we went to the mountain area of Qiyun Shan. We took the cable car up, walked around for two hours and climbed down again by foot ...

In the late afternoon we convinced our driver to take us to the last place of the day, Chengkan. It was worth going from a photographers point of view as light couldn't have been better!

That was a long day and we took the night train at 11 pm with only a seat and no bed to rest, pretty uncomfortable. Oh well ...

We are in Pingxiang today and take the night train the evening to Guilin which will arrive there in the early morning. Think we will take a rest in the park now, weather is great.

KIKI

Just a quickie from today. We've been to French Concession, met with a friend from Germany and enjoyed the pleasant neighborhood. We need to catch the train to Huangshan in one and a half hours ...

See you the next days, going to the mountains now ...

KIKI

After a heavy day of shooting on Friday we wanted to relax a bit on Saturday and took the Metro out to Summer Palace in the Northwest. Actually we first went to a different park with kind of a flower scheme, we just realized after a while that we were at the wrong place. As I am using the tablet to navigate in foreign cities I had to experience that GPS doesn‘t work in China sometimes and you find yourself struggeling to navigate like in the old days of paper maps ;-) Oh well, in the late afternoon we managed to be at the Summer Palace. The windy day had blown away all the clouds and we had a beautiful blue sky. Climbing up to the main building was worth it as its colours sparkled in the evening sun. We had the worst meal of the whole trip in a quite cozy teahouse at the lake. It came in plastic bowls right out of the microwave :-)

Yesterday was Carmen‘s birthday and therefore we did a trip to the Great Wall. It was really great, the landscape beautiful and the monument simply stunning. We went to Mutianyu, a part that is particularly picturesque and we managed to walk from tower 4 to tower 14 before we had to return to the starting point. The way back down to the bus we took the bobsled run, which was a lot of fun. Back in Beijing the afternoon we climbed up the Bell Tower and had another Hoegaarden on the roof top terrace. After that we took the Metro and had a last glimpse of modern Beijing around Wangfuijing Road. It was quite boring, shopping malls like everywhere else in the West and the main road indistinguishable from those of other big cities.

We had dinner in one of our favorite restaurants around the corner, with the weirdest food by now, sweet potatoes thickly caramelized, sweet and gross ;-)

We took the bullet train this morning to Shanghai, it only took five hours for a 1.250 km distance, impressive. Shanghai is much more modern than Beijing but I will try to capture normal life in the older neighborhoods tomorrow morning ...

KIKI

Approaching Beijing ...

Yesterday was a long day travelling. We took the plane from Bishkek to Ürümqi at 9:30 in the morning which only took two hours. But we had to wait at Ürümqi Airport for our connecting flight for four hours and the plane to Beijing couldn't take off right in time, so after boarding at 5 pm we arrived in Beijing only at 9:30. It was a beautiful sunset during the flight, though, and appraoching Beijing I could enjoy the 19,3 million capital illuminated from above. I only had my little Lumix at hand, so the picture is neither blur- nor noisefree, but still quite a nice capture.

After a half hour taxi ride we arrived at our very centrally located hostel around eleven at night. Today we were just casually exploring the neighborhood and had a long walk along the Northern tip of the Forbidden City and, stopped for a lunch and coffee in one of Beijing's upcoming Cafés. Then we walked through ancient Hutong, which was pretty touristy, up till Drum and Bell Towers and enjoyed a Belgian Hoegaarden beer for sunset on one of the rooftop terraces nearby. On the way back home we walked along a pretty cheesy but quite pretty illuminated canal district and had Chinese dinner in one of the restaurants around the corner, very tasty.

Tomorrow I will get up early, I want to document normal street life in Beijing and try to keep it in the older parts of town. We will also book our ongoing train rides tomorrow and will visit the Forbidden City and maybe the Temple of Heaven Park. Exciting!

Check back soon

KIKI

We've been to the animal market this morning and once again, it has been amazing, have a look ...

In the early evening we will go to Tasma village, the real countryside, together with Mai, our Japanese friend. No internet the next days, probably only when we come back to Bishkek on Tuesday evening.

See ya

KIKI