China

china-flag

Capital: Beijing
Population: 1.338.612.968 (July 2009 estimates)
Size: 9.596.960 sq km
Coastline: 14.500 km
Climate: Extremely diverse: tropical in south to subarctic in north
Life expectancy: 73.5 years
Highest point: Mount Everest 8850m
Literacy: 90.9%


china-map

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China’s sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, MAO’s successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight. (Source: CIA World Factbook)

 


My memories of China

Time of travel: July-August 2007

Trip to China was my first visit to Asia so this was really something new for me. My trip started in Beijing. In Beijing I have seen all of the famous attractions like Tiananmen square, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park (with artificial hill overlooking Forbidden City) and others. I was staying in a lovely little hostel in a small back street close to the main square. It was great experience walking in those small and remote back streets, mainly because there were no tourists only local people, so I got the idea how those people are living there. From Beijing I visited Great Wall and the area of Simatai. The wall is magnificent! I have spent around 4 hours walking on the Great Wall and the views are just fantastic! I had big luck that day because there were no tourists around. From here my journey continued south-west to city of Xi’an. The journey took around 12 hours with a local train. Xi’an is probably the only city that has fully restored Wall surrounding old city centre. Xi’an was also the end point of the ancient Silk Road. Xi’an is also home to Terracotta warriors, army built out of clay for the Emperor. Next stop was Chengdu. In Chengdu I visited Panda reserve. Pandas are just too cute. In the area close to Chengdu stands the biggest Buddha in the world, The Giant Buddha (75m). Chengdu is the home of Sichuan cuisine which is known to be one of the spiciest and that is why I have tried the “hot pot” and I must say it rally is hot :) . My next stop was Song Pan, which lies  3000m above the sea level and was my starting point for 3-day long trekking to the surrounding mountains (some of them are over 4000m). Trekking was a really nice experience for me. After trekking it was time to go back to Chengdu and than to Guilin (South China). Guilin was not really my next stop, I just flew there from Chengdu and my next stop was Yang Shou which is close to Guilin. Yang Shou is a lovely city among tall hills and surrounded with rice fields. In this area the climate is completely different to Beijing, it is hot and humid. In this area I have seen how they were fishing with Cormorants in the past, how they are growing rice and how life is outside big cities in China.

Related posts with China on my blog


China through my eyes