Going to China Soon

[dan_tybor]

I'm headed to China next march as a requirement for school. I'm spending two

weeks in Hong Kong, but have 8 days to kill beforehand. Any suggestions where

to go? I was thinking Beijing and Shanghai. I also looked at yellow mountain

(Huangshan) near Shanghai and Yangshuo near Hong Kong. In terms of getting

the most both out of sight seeing and photo opportunities, what do you

suggest? I would have really liked to do Lhasa, but don't think 8 days is

quite long enough.

 

Also, what equipment would you suggest? I'm planning on brining the 18-135

kit zoom and the 50mm 1.8 for my D80. I was also thinking of picking up a

Tokina 12-24. Would it be worth while to bring a tripod also, or would that

just weigh me down? I'm purely an armature, but always enjoy getting

professional looking results.

 

All suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

Dan

[MTC Photography]

Dan,

First of all, you can use elong.com or ctrip.com to book hotels and

domestic flight in China, it is much cheaper, also you dont need to pay in advance when booking hotel.<P>

Suggest itenerary:<P>

Day 1: Beijing Imperial Palace, Heavenly Temple, A tour of narrow Beijing streets-- "Hutung tour"<P>

Day 2: The Great Wall, Ming tombs, Summer Palace.<P>

Day 3, fly to Shanghai. The Yuyuan garden, the Bund.<P>

Day 4, fly to Huangshan (Tunxi airport). Suggest hotel on mountain top

for example Behai hotel, which is closest to one of the cable car destination station. Hire a taxi to take you to the Huangshan scenic district gate. Huangshan entrance fee is free for visitor 70 years old and up, half price for 65(60?)-69, even for international visitor,

show your passport. At the main gate there is a frequent bus take you to the cable car station. There is still a 4 km uphill climb from the cable car station to hotel, you can get a porter to carry your luggages <P>

Day 5 Huangshan. You need two days to explore Huangshan, there are many tracks.<P>

Day 6, fly from Huangshan (Tunxi airport) to Guiling, transfer flight from Guangzhou, since there is no direct flight. At Guilin explore the

Ludi cave, Elephant snout hill etc. After noon take a river cruise

from Guiling to Yangshuo,(or by taxi or bus if you prefer), roam along the West street( Xi jie), a favourite of international tourists,

try out beer cooked fishes, or spicy escargos<P>

Day 7, A bamboo raft tour on inner river is recommended, then go to

the Shangrila resort by bus.

Day 8, taxi or bus back to Guilin, then fly to Hong Kong<P>

 

As for tripod, unless you plan to use selftimer to put yourself in pictures, else you will be better off with a monopod, which can double

as a mountain climing stick for use on Huangshan.<P>

 

Don't forget to bring a spare battery for D80<P>

 

Happy trip

[MTC Photography]

If you want to buy gifts, the Pearl Market in Beijing or Shanghai (near the Yuyuan garden) are good places to visit. You must bargain,

starting at 10% of asking price<P>

 

A vest with many inside pockets such as Tilley vest or the like is a must<P>

 

Beware of con man, particular in Beijing, which I mus say is The con man capital of the world.<P>

 

Con trick 1: At the airport, if some one comes forward offer you help

to carry your luggage, or get your passport and ticket to "bring you to the right window", beware.<P>

 

Con trick 2: Tour guide may take you to special Chinese medicine consultation with a "retired expert who treated many high ranking officials". Beware, you may end up with a bill of several thousand CNY bill.<P>

 

Con trick 3: At some busy tourist sites, if a vendor gives you brand new leather belt,brand new shirts, brand new jackets for free

"because our company is in promotion drive", beware. You may end up

paying a lot of "sales taxes" on the highly inflated "original prices"<P>

 

Con trick 4: A young mother with a baby in hand, asking for help. Beware.<P>

 

Trick 5: At Huangsha, there are many bamboo sedan carriers. If you

want to hire one, negotiate the total price before hand, don't simply

ask "Duo shao qian ". You you do they will provide you with per li

price.

[s_u]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Xian as a possibility. Of course, this is the locale of the fabled terra cotta warriors discovered in the seventies. It's very much worth at least a day of your time. I concur with posters who recommended Guilin and the Li River area. Gorgeous area for photographer. If you go there, be certain to try some "snake wine." Unique stuff.

[cfimages]

If you're interested in Chinese art/ceramics etc, then biggest and most complete collection is actually in Taiwan.

 

Taiwan also has the highest mountains in East Asia and (arguably) better preserved Chinese culture.

[Mary Doo]

You have not mentioned what kind of photography you like to shoot. Martin's suggestions are comprehensive but you are going to be extremely busy! :) As a nature photographer, my favorite locations in my limited experience in October were Guilin and HuangShan. If you like to look at the villages, the HongCun Village, where the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was partiially filmed, is close to HuangShan as well.

 

If you like skyscrapers and people shots, Hong Kong and Shanghai are the naturals. In Shanghai, go the Bund early in the morning, you will see people doing Taichi exercises with a gorgeous skyline at the backdrop. Bend down low and shooting up, your camera will see these dancing sillouettes looking tall against the skyscrapers pleasingly composed. Go there at night and straddle your tripod legs on the railing, your camera will see the gorgeous skyline again, all lit up. Do try some shots with and without the lit up ferries/boats going across in the foreground. To catch the boats unblurred, you will need to crank up your ISO.

 

Have fun! :)

Mary

[Mary Doo]

<i><< You must bargain, starting at 10% of asking price >></i>

 

<p>That's what they say. Thus I saw apparently wealthy tourists haggling over with poor hawkers on what would equate in the US to about twenty five or fifty cents.</p>

 

<p>Somehow I don't feel quite right about that. Haggle, yes, but enough should be enough. I don't think one should cut the profit margin, to the bare bone, of those who are much less fortunate financially than we are.</p>

 

<p>Mary

[john_hughes4]

Just come back .Been going there for 25 years.If its for school, and you want a professional approach,go to Lhasa and take photos of tibetan girls forced into prostitution.Hang around train stations and shoot some of the 100 millions peasants who wander around aimlessly after being kicked off there land.Go to Yangshuo, but dont bargain, as that place has been selling pancakes and false Ming statues(in the beginning they were real)for 20 years under officiel rip off permission.So when next year the whole world talks Olympiques and economical miracles, you'll know its not true, and the proof to show.Take equipement thats good in bad light,that's where the real China is.

[ilkka]

"I don't think one should cut the profit margin, to the bare bone, of those who are much less fortunate financially than we are."

 

I think rich USA should willingly pay more for all the imports from poor China instead of trying to get China to revalue (strengthen) its currency so that the poor Chinese will get less for their products. Maybe you could suggest Mr Bush not to bargain that much either.

[Mary Doo]

<i><< So when next year the whole world talks Olympics and economical miracles, you'll know its not true, and the proof to show.Take equipment thats good in bad light,that's where the real China is.

>> </i>

 

<p>I understand your compassion. However, China is not all poor. The eonomic boom has been significant fore sure. The local guide in Beijing told me it pained him to see that the Chinese wealth has not alleviated abject poverty in remote villages and regions. I said the wealth resulting from multi-million contracts with the West will inevitably "trickle down" to the poor, but it will take time. Then the next day he did address this issue a bit to the group, mentioning that he loves his country very much and he was very impatient that the economic reforms are not happening fast enough, but he realized he needed to be more patient.</p>

 

<p>When we were visiting the villages, I was not comfortable photographing the poverty. Then it appeared that the villagers we met seemed quite happy with their way of life. While hoping to make a few dollars to better their lot (who doesn't), they laughed with real laughs and smiled with real smiles. When I resolved that in my mind, that they were poor yet appeared content, I was much more at ease.</p>

 

<p>John, I have not been to Lhasa. It is so remote that I believe the poverty must be much worse. I know a professor who teaches international women studies, she confirmed the women trade in Tibet. I also know someone who went to Lhasa recently on a photo trip. She told me that she was unprepared for what she saw. Thanks for your contribution. I think our photography should not only incloude beauty -- much as we would like it to be.

 

<p>Mary</p>

[dan_tybor]

Martin, thanks for the guide. That's exactly the sort of traveling I do so that itinerary fits me well. The other comments have also been helpful. I know from traveling to other places that bargaining can be a way of life, however you don't want to undercut the vendors and at the same time not to pay too much as that can be disruptive. I had a friend that went to India and a riot almost broke out from people trying to sell to her and her friend!

 

Thanks again for the input.

[john_hughes4]

Mary

I know that this is not politico- net,but as an ageing Bolshevik and Ethnologue, I believe that understanding cultures is an important part of photography.The Chinese(especially what they call the minoritys)are polytheist,in other words unlike our society,they do not believe in the total superiority of man.Something which we are telling them is good.The first time I went to China,the kids ran indoors screaming when they saw me, I'm not that ugly.Now they ask me for a dollar in English.Does that mean that human greatness is financial?What the Chinese are doing in Tibet,the English, and the French and the Japanese did the same to them...we taught them everything we knew.I have photos of villages and monuments that dont exist anymore,so when I tell people to use there photography as a witness, its because quite simply places like Tibet will become just like Inner Mongolia,emptied of all culture,and peopled by a deliberate mixture which is a very cunning form of genocide.

[bnyc]

One note on the Li river cruise from (Guiling to Yangshou) - try not to take too many shots, or you will go crazy looking through them afterwards. The limestone formations are beautiful, but they last for the WHOLE length of the river. My gf and I literally had hundreds of shots to sort through, and even though some of them are very nice, after a while they all look the same. The formations are hard to really capture on film - one of those things you really need to see for yourself to appreciate, IMHO, or maybe they just need to be shot from a vantage point other than a boat on the river.

 

Also, if you do follow an itinerary like Martin's, I recommend a guided bike tour through the countryside in Yangshou. It's hardly "novel", but it will be one of the few times on your trip where you will feel like you've stepped away from the crowds, and it's a pretty cool experience on its own. Oh, and I heartily recommend Xi'an - it was my personal cultural highlight, but not necessarily a treasure trove of photo ops (the wonder of the terra cotta soldiers is, to me, in the scale of the place, and you just can't convey it on film, partly because of the hangars they have built to protect the site).

 

You will be one of many, many tourists everywhere you go on that itinerary. But having done a very similar (but longer) tour, I can say there is a good reason people flock to those destinations, and you won't want to miss them on a first trip to China. You can be more adventurous the second time around.

[ilkka]

Good point on endless limestone formations. Try to look at people and animals (mainly bulls) along the river for a change. Makes good foreground interest.

[john_hughes4]

The Li minority on the Li river are amongst the last people to continue fishing with cormorants,and are well known for there pig carrying baskets, interesting photos.They have no written culture,everything is oral.You wont need to saturate your colours as the greens are better than anything than PS can do.Reminds me of Fujichrome Velvia(but then thats prehistorical)You'll see lots of Water Buffalo ploughing.The holes that you will see in the majestic lime-stone peaks are not caves,but whats left of extremely old tombs that were dug out,and sealed off ,only to be smashed open in the eightys to recuperate objects buried with the dead,and sell them to tourists.Dont bother with a tripod,as by the time you've set it up there will be about 250 people wanting to look through your lens.In China there is always someone.A Monopod is good,but will never really stand up as a serious walking stick.I've used one also as a fishing rod, and a good deterent for a group of drunken Mongolians who thought that my saddle was available.Wear a paper mask in Beijing,you wont look weird because the Chinese know that its an intelligent thing to do.If you do ,take a look at the state of it in the evening and you'll realise why.In March the Gobi wind starts coming through with sand, so take some cleaning gear.Nothing can beat Air plus Vaccum cans.If you send a mail home, dont say anything bad about China as it wont get anywhere.Part of the Google- China contract.John Hughes

[Mary Doo]

<< Dont bother with a tripod,as by the time you've set it up there will be about 250 people wanting to look through your lens.>>

 

Again, depending on what you plan to shoot, you may need a tripod. For example, a tripod will help you nail that special shot at sunrise in Guilin (Yangshuo) or HuangShan. In my experience, I didn't have the problem of having many people wanting to look through my lens, though a few kids were curious.

 

However, it may be counterproductive to use a tripod on the boat ride along Li River. I handhel a VR lens set to a high ISO. It was fine.

 

Good luck,

Mary

[s_u]

I'll offer a slight elaboration on my earlier post, in light of subsequent ones. I am glad to see that someone else extolled the virtues of Xian (or, if you prefer, Xi'an). If you are of historical bent, there is arguably no better site to visit in all of China. The terra cotta warriors who "guard" the first true Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, are arrayed in what one poster called "hangars," and can be photographed quite well under natural light. You indicated that you are carrying a good wide angle lens, but you'll need a good longer focal length to capture the interesting details in these figures. I was fortunate to be there on a day when one of the gentlemen who discovered the site was there, signing autographs of his book. He seemed a bit piqued when I took his photograph. About twenty km. east of the museum is the massive mound under which Emperor Qin is supposedly entombed; to my knowledge, the Chinese government has yet to permit the opening of the tomb, but it's quite a sight in any case.

Regarding Guilin and the Li River, I noticed a tendency toward haziness and used a skylight filter. The results were quite good, but as one poster noted, there is a tendency to over-photograph the formations along the river. I, too, had many discards. Mr. Hughes, I believe, mentioned the cormorant fishermen. There was a gentleman there who had across his shoulders a long pole with cormorants tethered to each end. I got a superb photograph since I was able to get close and take in the whole image with my 18-35mm Nikkor set at 18mm. It made quite a photo.

Finally, many posters have recommended Shanghai as a jumping-off point for other destinations nearby. In addition to those already mentioned, I would suggest Suzhou, particularly if you are interested in classic Chinese gardens. It is very near Shanghai and is truly a city of gardens; I believe it is on the UNESCO list of world cultural sites. Shanghai itself is a mixed bag. Regrettably, the skyline resembles that of Dallas. Even the ubiquitous Coca-Cola logo stands out prominently atop one building. On my photo site, I titled a photograph of the skyline "Capitalism Gone Mad." There are, however, interesting areas off the beaten path. Bon voyage.

[MTC Photography]

I travelled to Japan and China(Mountan Resort Chengde, Yungang Grotts in Datong, Thin West Lake, Yangzhou, Lingering Garden Suzhou, and the Hakka tulou (earth building ) in Yongding Fujian . Some of my

pictures :<P>

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/gp/21208832@N02/WYhS84">Travel 2007</a>

[luis_curran]

"If you send a mail home, dont say anything bad about China as it wont get anywhere.Part of the Google- China contract.John Hughes"

 

Utter rubbish! I have three mail accounts between here (Beijing) and the rest of the world and I have never experienced any censorship whatsoever. And I've been living here for the past fifteen years.

 

It's these types of comments from occasional travellers which give others the distorted impressions of life in China. I realize that life is not the same here as in the west and, yes, it is a totalitarian state, but to make statements such as the above is disingenuous at best.

 

Other comments from the OP regarding Tibet fall into this category.

[john_hughes4]

The 'occasional traveller'has been going to China since 1981 when individual travel was allowed again.When visas were needed for different city's.When kids ran away screaming ,scared of a 'big nose'.Oh I'm sure you dont believe that.Before people used to be amazed that I went to a 'terrible place' like China, simply because I was fascinated by the culture.Now its full of cowboys who are amazed that I'm not there for the money.You just keep your head in the sand mate, and play the leaders game.The Chinese are not vindicative people, but when they do blow a fuse, it changes the world. And when that happens(cause its gonna happen) you and your buddies will run like hell, because you did'nt see what it was inconvieniant to see.I've just come back from a meeting concerning forced prostitution in Tibet,and the next one(using my photos)will be about the millions of poor peasants who are infected with Aids because they give blood to make money,one needle...one village.But of course you know nothing about that...or do you?