The Fragile

Because living well is the best revenge.

Yunnan

Right now I'm too tired and amazed to say somnething about this wonderful, huge and amazing province, a mix of cultures and faces that makes me crazy of joy and excitement. As soon as I have a bit of time and I have the time to summarize on my mind all I've seen and tasted, I will tell you more about it.

posted by: BallAndBiscuit at 16:11 | link | comments (1) |
chinese odissey

成都 Chengdu

Here we are in Chengdu, the capital city of the Sichuan province. I have to say I like this city much more than all the others I've seen since now in China (except for the wonderful Turpan e Kashgar in Xinjiang, of course!). It seems to me much more clean and less chaothic than Beijing and all the cities of the north I've visited since now. The people are also much more friendly in my opinion! If one day I have to live in China, I definitly would like to live here.

Today we've visited a Taoist sacred moutain called Qingcheng Shan. We've enjoyed beautiful sceneries, a bit of taoist atmosphere (so difficult to experience in the city temples for the nature of the religion itself) and finally the peace of nature and of monks, whose life is still lived according to the natural times and rithm.

We're staying in a wonderfil hostel situated in a narrow road, in a Qind period house...it's really amazing and it seems to me to be in a different world in thio small quiet oasis on the noise and traffic of the city. I'd stay here for weeks if I could. But tomorrow we have to leave again...to go to the southern parto of Yunnan, at the berder with Laos and other South Eastern Asian countries. It's the region where many of the ethnic minorities of China dwell, so it must be really amazing and interesting. I can't wait to see it.

posted by: BallAndBiscuit at 21:02 | link | comments |
chinese odissey

洛阳 Luoyang

Here we are...the one-month trip around some Chinese provinces has started 2 days ago. We (me and my family) spent 12 hours on a train to go from Beijing to Luoyang,where in these 2 days we've seen the Longmen Buddhist caves and the worldwide famous Shaolin Kungfu temple. Luoyang is nothing special as a city, but there's a lovely "old town" to visit, with lots of shops and typical stuff. But the rest of the city is just like any other city in China: huge and chaotic roads, crowded markets and restaurants, and a lot of pollution.

The Longmen caves are really amazing, but unfortunately now only the 30% is still visible 'cause the great part has been damaged. The giant buddhas are really spectacular though.

The Shaolin temple is really turistic, and almost nothing of the original atmosphere is preserved now. But I have to say I've been really impressed by what the monks can do...it's absolutely unbelievable, they must have a strictly rigid discipline and training. I really liked their "art".

And now some pictures...

The last days in Beijing:

And pictured fom Luoyang:

 

posted by: BallAndBiscuit at 20:33 | link | comments (3) |
photo album, chinese odissey

CAMPIONI DEL MONDO 2006!!!!!

posted by: BallAndBiscuit at 12:55 | link | comments (2) |
photo album, chinese odissey

I'm leaving

Here's my last days in Beijing. In 3 days my family will be here, and after a few days of sightseeing of the city we will start a one-mont trip around China...actually, China is too big, so we will just visit mainly two regions, Sichuan and Yunnan. I'm really looking forward to see these places, especially Yunnan which is the region with the higest rate of ethnic minorities in China. It must be absolutely interesting. I don't know if during the trip I will have the time to update my blog (I hope so though)...but what's sure is that at the end I will have tons of pics to show you and of experiences to share with you.

Hope to see you all soon... 

posted by: BallAndBiscuit at 16:01 | link | comments (1) |
chinese odissey