nan_tu2

<p >Hello Joel:</p>

<p >Could you please elaborate on how the focus point coordinates can be measured? I am sure that it can not be measured directly, but it may be calculated. </p>

<p>I build GPS receivers for Nikon DSLR. Now, the development is finished and the products are released. I am looking for new development directions.</p>

<p>We built two GPS receivers. GPS and GPS+electronic compass (which will also record the heading information).</p>

<p>I am looking at the following future development directions:</p>

<p>1: offer a LCD display so that the GPS readings and the heading information can be displayed on the GPS receiver instead of the camera LCD.</p>

<p>2: build in a data logger and/or Bluetooth capability (to transfer GPS logger to computer). This will allow it to work with other camera such as Canon or point and shoot.</p>

<p>3: use 3-axis electronic compass instead of the current 2-axis</p>

<p>What do you think of the above? If you use a GPS for your Nikon camera, what else do you want in this GPS receiver?</p>

<p>Thank you very much in advance.</p><div></div>

I have been in Beijing for the past 4 years and have done a lot of traveling and photography around Beijing. If you are

in Beijing for a slightly longer time than most of the passby tourists and interested in going to bring back home more

than the items from Hong Qiao pearl market. I recommend the following places for half day or one day visit around

Beijing.

For the pictures of the following places, please point to: http://drtu.com/en/?p=88

1: Beijing 798 Art District

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:All Year Round

798 is an art district, similar to New York's SOHO district and Minneapolis' River Walk. The factories were built in

1950s and had German style architecture. Most of the factories in 798 went out business in the 1980s and have left

empty through out 1990s. Since 2002, individual artists started to rent empty factory floors and turn them into show

rooms. However, most of the activities were grassroots and the rumor of immediate demolition of the area was

always on the background of the area development. In 2006, Beijing municipal government decided to put in

resources to build this area not only as show rooms for individual artist but as a creative and design center for

clothing manufacturers. Today, this area is filled with artistﾒs showrooms, coffee shops, design companies, art book

shops and tourist buses. The German designed factory buildings and rusty pipes and containers added interesting

background for fashion portraits and post modem pictures. This area has the highest concentration of fashionable

women in Beijing. So that telephoto lenses are useful now.

2: ChaoYang Park or Sun Park

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring and Summer

The government and real estate companies all say that the ChaoYang park is like the Central Park in New York.

Their intention is of cause to push up the real estate price around ChaoYang park. The park is located in ChaoYang

district inside the 4th ring and very close to the Guomao CBD area. It is the largest public park-in-city in Asia. As the

host city for the 2008 Olympic game, Beijing municipal government expanded the park by acquiring land from many

surrounding and dying factories. Trees and flowers were planted. Creeks and water ways were added. The real estate

prices around ChaoYang park also skyrocketed in 2006 and 2007 at an average 20,000RMB per squaremeter. Try to

enter the park from the North gate as the South gate is always jammed with people.

3: Beijing BaDaChu Park

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring and Summer

BaDaChu (Eight Great Buddist Sites) Park is on the mountain ridge of the west mountain. It is located in Sijingshan

district just outside the 5th ring road. There were 8 ancient temples in the park. These temples were scattered on the

slopes of the West Mountain. At least one of the temples is still used by the Buddhist monks today where you will

see very rare scene of praying events for the belivers. This temple is said to house the remains of the Shakyamuniﾒs

(the founder of the Buddhism) tooth. It also has an impressive stone carvings of 500 aharts.

4:ZhongShan Park

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring and Summer

Suitable For:Flowers and Trees

This park is just outside the forbidden city. It was a garden for the emperor who lives in the forbidden city. The best

time to go there is in the Spring or early Summer when the flowers are blossom and the trees are green. You will

also see a lot of local people enjoy all sorts of events, such as playing musics, demonstrating Taiji or even singing

the Beijing opera. You will have a glimps of the city resident leisure life.

5:Miao Feng Mountain

Accessibility:3star

Best Photographic season:Winter

MiaoFeng mountain is located 50 km on the north west of the city. Once every year in April and through out history,

people around Beijing has come to the mountain to worship. The temples and the pagodas at the ﾓgolden topﾔ have

been repaired and restored in the recent years. There is a very enjoyable ﾓancientﾔ trail that leads from the bottom of

the mountain to the ﾓgolden topﾔ. The average hiking time is 1 hour. The winter scene of snow covered mountain and

the ﾓgolden topﾔ will surely catch photographerﾒs eyes. This place is suitable for a 1 day out of the town excursion.

6:JianKou GreatWall

Accessibility:2star

Best Photographic season:All Year Round

Coming to Beijing and want to visit the Great Wall? forget about the usual Badaling Great Wall where you will see

tens or thousands of human heads and thousands of small stalles besides the heavily repaired "mordem" Great

Wall. There are more than 20 different sections of the Great Wall around Beijing. The most famous and most touristy

is the Dadaling. However, almost all the impressive photos of the Great Wall are taken in the Jiankou Great Wall.

Here, the mountain ridges are shaved in very narrow paths. The slops are steep. The Wall is not repaired and

restored in any form, leaving its original state. An over night camping in one of the watch towers on the Wall will

present opportunities to shoot the Wall in early morning and late afternoon. The pictures will just add the

unforgettable experience and give a new meaning to those touristy T shirt slogans: I have been to the Great Wall.

You only have been to the Great Wall if you hiked up the JianKou Great Wall. From the north ridge, it is a 1/2 walk to

the JianKou Great Wall.

7:Frangrance Hill

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Summer, Fall

Fragrance hill is the most popular hiking mountain for the locals. It is only 10 km on the north west of the 5th ring.

The top of the hill is Guijianchou which is only 550 meters above sea level. The best season to visit the Fragrance

Hill is in the late Fall when all the levels are turning red. The top of the Fragrance Hill is also the best place to see

the Beijing skyline line. Only there, one can truly grasp the immerse size of Beijing city.

8:BaShang GrassLand

Accessibility:1star

Best Photographic season:Summer, Fall

Bashang Grassland is located in Inner Mongolia, some 300 km north of Beijing. It takes more than 5 hours to

negotiate the twist and turns in the mountain before one can reach there. However, once you are there, you will

experience the same scenery that Genghis Khan saw some 1000 years ago. There are no factories, no traffic jam,

and no pollution. There are only small villages, endless grassland, wild flowers and historical relics.

9:Summer Palace

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Summer

Almost every first time visitor to Beijing will surely visit the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. It was built in the

Qing dynasty as a summer retreat for the emperors. The historical buildings and architectures are recently resorted

to the original states. There were many trees and flowers planted. The park is a perfect place to shoot old

architecture designs and Chinese folk stories which are painted on the ceilings of the ﾓlong corridorﾔ

10:Tsinghua University

Accessibility:5star

Best Photographic season:Spring, Summer

Last if not the least is the Tsinghua University. Known as the MIT of China, Tsinghua University produces the best

engineering talents in China. Many of the graduates are among the top leaders in China, such as Hu Jingtao (current

president) and Zhu Rongji (formal primer). Tsinghua University was built in the early 1900s the east of the

Yuanmingyuan. It was a private garden for one of the emperorﾒs relatives. The remains of the garden are still seen

today as the pond, lotus, pavilions and gardens in the historical part of the university.

<div></div>

Anush: I traveled from Ko Chang Island, Thailand to Siem Reap Cambodia in May 2005. I booked the travel from an travel agency in Ko Chang Island. I took a bus to the Cambodian boarder. I got the Cambodian visa by walking to the Cambodian visa office at the boarder. I then walked across to the Cambodian side. I was then picked up by a car. I was in the car for 4 hours and finally arrived in the Siem Reap.

I started the day at 6am and did not get to bed until 2am the next day. There were so many little things happened in that day.

Here are my recommendations:

1: Book the Cambodian side transportation from Tailand.

2: Get the Cambodian visa from the Cambodian visa office (forget about any agent who will charge you additional fee to just hand in your passport)

3. Find a English speaking Tailand travel agent (unless you speak Tai)

4: Tailand cell phone does not work in Cambodia, which means as soon as you cross to the Cambodian side, you are out of touch with your Tailand travel agent.

5: Watch out for the gem stone scam. Do NOT buy any gem in Tailand.

I wrote some travel log on my 2005 visit to Tailand and Cambodian. You can read them here: http://drtu.com/en/?m=200505.

Hope this information is useful.

Mark http://drtu.com/en/

There are about 10-15 used equipment dealers in the Photography Equipment City. You can trade in your used lenses and camera (as I did with my old NikonD70s brought in 2005 and after 40,000shots sold for 300USD in Feb 2008).

The dealers there usually take a few shoots with your equipment and offer a price.

You can also buy uesed equipment from the dealers.

Hardly anybody there speaks English. But most of them will know simple words like OK, Yes, No.

A big screen calculator can be used to communicate the price :)

When I was in the US, I used to buy all photography equipment online via a few

trusted vendors such as www.amazon.com, www.ritzcamera.com etc. When I

started to live in China in 2004, I had to find a local vendor who can sell the real

camera equipment at a reasonable price.

I soon discovered that the Photography Equipment City in Wudesong intersection

on the west 4th ring road of Beijing is the place to go for all my photography

needs. They sell all the popular camera and lenses at almost the same price as

amazon or ritz), mostly with manufacture warranty.

This is a large 2 story building and houses more than 100 photography equipment

shops. The shops offer anything related to photography, cameras, lenses, lighting,

photo printing, framing, photography books, even there are a few photo schools in

the building.

The camera shops are operated by individual sellers. The building management

rents out space at a fixed monthly rent and the sellers are responsible for

merchandise and the price. (much like the eBay and the individual eBay sellers

relationship). Since each shop is individually operated, you are expected to

bargain a little bit. However, do not try to cut the price in half as you would do in

places like Hongqiao pearl market.

For the past 4 years, I have brought 2 camera bodies and 3 lenses and I sold 1

camera body and 2 lenses in the Photography Equipment City. My experiences

are positive. (used camera bodies and the lenses are usually sold at 40-60% of

the new price to the dealers)

Price: The price is about the same as the US price.

Rayi has physical shop in the Photography Equipment City in Beijing and an

ecommerce site: www.rayi.com.cn.

Nikon D300 body price:

Rayi online: 11,000RMB which is 1571USD (1USD = 7 RMB)

http://www.rayi.com.cn/static/product_6937.htm

Ritz camera online 1,799USD

http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/541531331.htm

Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Lens price comparison:

Rayi online: 14980RMB which is 2010USD

http://www.rayi.com.cn/static/product_2129.htm

Ritz camera online: 1799.95USD

Quality: These are all made by Nikon (factory in Thailand) or Canon or others, why

do you think that they are any difference if they are sold in Hong Kong, USA or in

China?

Is it possible that you pay a real Nikon price but get a �knock off� Nikon? The

answer is �very unlikely�. I have never heard such as a story from the local

photography community in Beijing. I personally highly doubt that a small factory

out in remote towns have the skills and technology to produce the �fake� or even

a �look a like� Nikon D3. What�s more, the management of the Photography

Equipment City has every bit of interests to make sure that the sellers do not

sell �fake� camera as the rent they charge the sellers every month is patially

dependent upon the buyers experience. A �fake� camera story travels very fast on

the internet these days and that story will surely put a dent on the reputation of

the Photography Equipment City and surely will hurt their business.

Is it possible that you will get a grey market camera? Yes, that is possible! But

you will most like to know it is a grey market before you buy it.

A grey market equipment is a camera that is sold in the US or China but it is not

meant to be sold in the US or China A grey market cameras do not include a

manufacturer 's warranty but it is a REAL camera that is made by the original

manufacturer such as Nikon or Canon. The grey market equipment is usually sold

cheaper than the full manufacturer�s warranty cameras.

My experience shows: the seller in the Photography Equipment City will usually

tell you that the equipment is a grey market or not. The gray market camera and

the camera with full manufacturer�s warranty are priced differently (usually less

than couple of hundred RMB). I recommend buying a camera with the

manufacturing warranty and pay the extra few hundred just for the peace of mind. I

do not know if the manufacturer warranty is international though.

For those of you who stay long term in China or have to pick up some photography

gears in Beijing for your adventure in the silk road, I recommend that you go to the

Photography Equipment City in Beijing and buy the equipments with the full

manufacture warranty.

<div></div>

The largest online travel agent (similar to www.expedia.com in the US) is www.ctrip.com and www.elong.com (the later was sold to www.expedia.com).

Both these companies sell etickets online and via their call centers (using 800 and 400 numbers)

Similar to the US, the 800 number is a toll free number for line phones and the 400 number is a toll free number for cell phones.

The airfare is usually cheaper if you book a week or more in advance. The closer it gets to the flight date, the more expensive the ticket gets. The smaller travel agents can not match the discount provided by the ctrip.com or elong.com because they do not have the volume.

When I travel, I keep the ctrip.com's 400 number in my cell phone. I book hotels and flights just couple of days before I travel. I once booked a hotel room at 3am in the morning and standing at the hotel lobby. I could just walk to the counter and get a walk-in rate. But I saved some money by calling ctrip's 400 number.

By the way, their telephone booking service is the best I have seen in the world, friendly and efficient. I have called them more than 40 times and on any time of the day (say 3am in the morning), they have always picked up the phone within 3 rings. That is why I have never booked hotels or flights with any body else.

You can check the flight schedule and the price online with ctrip.com or elong.com. Then you just call them with your cell phone. They will charge your credit card and send you a confirmation text message with your flight details. I believe that you can also have them send you a paper ticket and pay for the ticket in cash (cash on delivery) if you do not have a RMB credit card.

I do not know if ctrip or elong provides English service in their phone booking service.

http://drtu.com/en/?p=42

I lived in the America where leisure travel means road trip. As the Chevy�s

advertisement says: In the Chevrolet, see the USA. I have driven to most of the

states in the US except Maine and Alaska. The efficient, safe and toll free

highway system is a perfect choice to get around for travelers.

In China, the transportation choices are rather complicated. I have traveled to

all the provinces (30 out of 30, not including Taiwan) using various

transportation means. I have traveled by train, by car, by bus, by airplane, by

bike, by tricycle, by motocycle and even by foot. Here are my summary of the

pros and cons for each of these means.

Although Chinese national highway system is amazingly new and well developed, it

is also very expensive. All the national highways are toll roads. The average

toll is 50cents/km. Therefore, the 400 km distance from Beijing to Shanxi's

Datong will cost 200 RMB on toll. The national highway system is joined by the

local expressways. While the national highway system is very enjoyable to drive

on (the toll keeps a lot of buses and trucks out), the local roads are not.

Signs are not well developed and the traffic jam in big cities is very common.

If you do not want to drive on your own but still prefer to be on the road, then

the bus is an efficient ways to get between cities and most of the touristy

places. If the distance is long (ie, over 10 hours), a sleeper-over-night bus is

a good choice. The sleeper bus is equipped with lying down plank and serves as a

bed. The problem is of cause that the bus needs to stop every other hour in the

rest area. The frequent bus stops and the snores from the neighbors made the

night very tiring. Even such bus is staffed with two drivers, overnight driving

is still a major safety concern. I have never seen a nonechinese tried this

transportation before. If the distance is shoot and the roads are well

developed, (ie: those roads in Guangdong), the public long distance bus is

recommended. They are cheap and efficient.

Airplane is an excellent choice for long distance traveling. Most of the Chinese

cities are connected by airplanes. Because of the competition, air fare within

China is reasonable and getting cheaper everyday. For example, there are times

that the airfare from Beijing to Shanghai (1500km) can be as cheap as 300RMB

(excluding the airport tax and fuel surcharge which are 150RMB total), from

Beijing to Kunming (3500km) can be had for 350RMB (excluding the airport tax and

fuel surcharge which are 150RMB total). But the airports are usually far away

from the city. Getting to the airport is time consuming and expensive. The

airport shutter is cheap but usually run from designated stops and at specific

times. Taxi fare from GuangZhou to the GuangZhou Baiyun airport is usually

120RMB and from Beijing to Beijing international airport is usually 100RMB.

Traveling by train is one of the best ways to travel in China. The Chinese

railway system is the most traveled in the world. It covers all the provinces

including Tibet. It is very efficient and rather cheap. There are over night

trains which connect most of the Chinese cities. The trains offer hard seat,

soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. Traveling in hard sleeper is rather

comfortable and soft sleeper is even better. The train schedule is designed to

allow travelers to get from one city to another over night. In other words, one

can sleep on the train and get to the other city the next morning (saving a

night of hotel cost). Traveling by train also allows interaction with the people

and offers scenic views of the landscapes. China is developing the high speed

trains which travel on average over 200km/hour. The D trains in China are

already traveling at 150km/hour on average and offers very confortable seats,

similar to those ICEs in Germany.

If you are the brave soul, there are other ways to travel such as by bicycle or

by motocycle. However, none of them is suitable for long distance traveling.

As an expereinced traveller who have been to 47(out of 48) lower states in the

US and all 30 (out of 30) province in China, I recommend the following strategy

for traveling in China.

If the distance is shorter than 400km and the destination scenic spots are

outside the city (ie.from Beijing to Datong in Shanxi), driving by youself or

hire a taxi is recommended.

If the distance is over 400km, traveling by train is preferred

If the distance is over 1500km and the time is tight, then go by air plane. It

the time is not an issue, then go by train.

For local travellings:

In the city, use taxi

Day trips, use public tourist buses (most of the city offers tourist buses that

goes to scenic spots out side the city, such as the Ming tombs outside Beijing)

Mark

http://www.drtu.com/en (in English)

http://www.drtu.com/blog (in Chinese)

(20,000 around the world pictures)

Chris: Your trip plan sounds very exciting. However, please keep in mind that China is a very large country, almost as large as the US. Your plan of Hangzhou-Shanghai-xxx days in Jiuzhaigou Valley-Fenghuang-Hong Kong is like visiting Boston, Washington DC, then go to Utah and down to Arizona and then to Florida. A lot of frequent miles :) or a lot of nights in the Chinese trains :)

So you need to ask this question: do you want to go around China to visit the famous scenic spots or do you want to stay in a region and really go into depth by visiting big and small towns?

The great wall is in northern China. If you stay out of Beijing, then you will not see it. But if you come to Beijing, you should go and visit many sections of the wall outside Beijing, some less known but more striking sections like the Jiankou, Simata, etc.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there was a huge earthquake in Sichuan (where the JiuZhaiGou is), So JiuZhaiGou might be closed. JiuZhaigou is very similar to the YellowStone national park. If you have been to the Yellowstone, then, I'd recommend skip the Jiuzhaigou for the following reasons:

1: It is out of the way, in remote areas of Sichuan

2: Similar to the Yellowstone but with 10 times the visitors.

If you travel around Shanghai, HangZhou region, then you should visit SuZhou, and even smaller towns like ZhouZhuang. ZhouZhuang is a town that is connected by waterways (similar to Venice). The other place you can visit is HuangShan (yellow mountain, one of the top four mountains to visit in China and only 4 hours out of Shanghai by train of bus).

If you head for Hunan, besides visiting FengHuang, you should visit the Zhangjiajie ( I can not think of any similar national park in the US which offers the same, close to Yosimite).

Jiangxi is also an interesting place to visit. There is a LuShan (Lu Mountain) in JiangXi. It is where all the heavy weight politicians (Mao, Deng, Jiang) relax in the Summer. You will not be disappointed.

I think that the idea of visiting the small, remote and dusty town is totally over blown in the English media. There is nothing see in these towns. The transportation and the hotels may be difficult to find. These are not your typical Highway 51 small towns where every town is connected by Express way and all have bed and breakfast, some even has Denies:)

China is a huge country with 5000 years of history. If you can speak a little Chinese and travel like a Chinese (eat rice instead of bread, take train instead of air plane, hire taxi instead of drive around), you will find that traveling in China is a hugely rewarding experience and dirt cheap, perhaps the most bang for the buck in the world.

Enjoy

Mark

http://www.drtu.com/en (in English)

http://www.drtu.com/blog (in Chinese)

(20,000 around the world pictures)<div></div>