CHINA 中国
The West often paints China as this rigid, mysterious monolith. But that misses the real thing.. A bold, almost careless country where ancient history stand right next to neon skyscrapers, and life moves at full throttle without apology. I like to compare it as Taiwan’s more bashful older brother.
Here’s a collection of photos taken during my 2 month travel around China.
SHANGHAI
Flying directly into Shanghai you experience the immediacy of the chaos of China. It had a typical big city rush to it but with the added benefit of everybody staring at you and cameras everywhere. I had some freelance work on during that time so I based my self in a pretty nice hostel in the centre. Rooms were expensive but food was cheap and 好吃
DALI,
YUNNAN PROVINCE
Day hike up to an old hermitage temple on a mountain in Dali with a new friend. One monk and a cat live here. We would often pass solar powered CCTV cameras on the trail. Kind of feels everywhere in China is monitored.
CHENGDU,
SICHUAN PROVINCE
I didn’t get many photos around Chengdu, I was working most of the time. But Chengdu is famous for Giant Panda’s. They are native to Sichuan so naturally I had to visit the famous Panda Park. It was more of a panda nursery that reintroduces them into the wild at certain stages. They are very cute creatures, but made me question how they can even survive in the wild if all they do is chill and eat bamboo…
CHUNYOU MUSIC FESTIVAL,
CHENGDU
Chun You is a 10 year running music festival in Chengdu. Id say its probably the most liberal / alternative festival in China. Full of Mongolian, Tibetan youths with dreadlocks and face tattoos. It was very un-like China. I had heard about it from some new Chinese friends in Thailand. And it just happened that it worked for me date wise as the next day I needed to travel from West China to East for my Kung-Fu training.
It was a bit of a mix of young adolescent drinkers dancing to twenty-four hour techno while passing around their homemade 70% rice or pineapple alcohol and a more mature crowd around an organic stage area where there would be digeridoo and ethnic instrumental performance. This was more my vibe. And I also saw many friends I knew from Taiwan and Thailand there also!
Here’s a picture of my elite camping setup.
MALING KUNG-FU ACADEMY
After months spent in Pai training Qi Gong and Kung-fu I had a bit of a calling to deepen my practice. My friend Yuri had recommend this school in Jiangsu Province. I had spent a month here, training from 6:00 to 16:00 every weekday. It was a very transformative period for me. Being able to train discipline, focus and increasing my ability to learn new things. I hadn’t taken any photos of the school itself. It was more like an old high school or academy style building rather than a temple that most Shaolin programmes brand themselves as. But this experience was comfortable, I had my own room and had great home grown & cooked food from Mama Bao (The masters Mother).
These photos were taken at a nearby park Maling-Shan that we trained at sometimes.
The Gang Goes To (Mt.) Hua Shan
Mount Hua is defined by its sheer, vertical granite monoliths. Unlike mountains with sloped ridges, Huashan shoots straight out of the earth.
It is considered the geographical and cultural root of the Chinese civilization.
While other sacred peaks in China became blends of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, Mount Hua has historically remained an exclusively pure Taoist sanctuary.
For centuries, it attracted only the hardiest hermits and monks. They braved the treacherous cliffs to isolate themselves in its 72 suspended caves to brew elixirs of immortality and practice internal alchemy.
XI’AN
Xi’an is one of the most significant ancient cities in China. It used to be the eastern starting point of the Silk Road trade route leading to the Mediterranean. Originally called Chang’an (meaning eternal peace) It was the Capital of China throughout 13 different dynasties.
With a 14 kilometre wall around the city you can understand how it could be considered eternal peace.
TERRACOTTA ARMY
About 30 km east of the city lies the famous Terracotta Army.
It’s a massive burial complex of thousands of life-sized clay soldiers and horses was built for China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Believing it will offer the emperor protection in the after life.
All the soldiers had very detailed paint and colour on them originally. But as soon as they are exposed to oxygen now, the paint disappears within minutes. There is still a lot more soldiers buried waiting to be excavated but they are waiting for technology to advance to capture or maintain their colour.
BEIJING
THE FORBIDDEN CITY
Need I say more?
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
I visited two different sections of the Great Wall. This is the Mutianyu Section, the closest and typically most busiest / famous part of the Wall. To think the wall took over 2000 years of construction is quite mind blowing.
It had definitely been the most impactful and memorable experience of the past 4 years of travelling.
I had managed to stay for sunset on the wall and it was completely empty by that point. Not sure if I had evaded the guards or all the city-slicker locals had needed to take their return bus back to Beijing.
Every step I was taking with filled with this ecstatic bewilderment with how incredibly beautiful, silent and historic it all was. The evening golden hour was so incredible.
A friend (Dorian) at my kung-fu school passed me the contact of a local that knew an illegal side entrance into the wall. It was a perfect opportunity to see Sunrise on the wall also. Typically I’d imagine this kind of experience would be very expensive trying to pre-book something like this, being able to watch the sunrise over distant mountain tops with towers scattered along the ridge lines, most likely in a tour group. But it seems I’m quite good at landing myself in ridiculous scenarios.
I had brought my hammock with me to wild camp around the walls to then wake up for the 4am sunrise opening. I ended up staying in a guesthouse nearby as a man gave me an offer that was stupid to refuse. I was trying to save money at this point.
The local drove me to the hidden trail that allows access to an open gate that leads up to the Great Wall. He waited a few hours in the car while I soaked up the first light of the day, completely alone on one of the most historical sites on the planet.
