17Sep05_1458_TerracottaWarriors

17Sep05_1463_TerracottaWarriors

17Sep05_1464_TerracottaWarriors

17Sep05_1465_TerracottaWarriors

17Sep05_1472_WarriorDiscovererBookSigning

17Sep05_1477_CrossbowArcher

17Sep05_1479_TerracottaWarrior

17Sep05_1483_Archer

17Sep05_1488_TerracottaWarriors

17Sep05_1491_HuaQing

17Sep05_1494_HuaQing_KMT_HQ

17Sep05_1495_HuaQing_HotSprings

17Sep05_1498_HuaQing

20Sep05_1500_Hepzibah

22Sep2005_1505 The 'Muslim market' at Xi'an.

22Sep05_1506_MuslimMarket

22Sep05_1510_DrumTower

22Sep05_1511_BellTower

04Oct05_1514 Another picture from the ChangNingGong resort. The haze in central China is better than it was a few years ago, but could still be improved!

04Oct05_1516 ChangNingGong is a tourist resort south of Xi'an. I attended a short conference there during the October 1st holiday weekend.

04Oct05_1520 ChangNingGong was also one of the places where the KuoMinTang had their headquarters during the Japanese invasion of China during World War II.

04Oct05_1523 ChangNingGong has a mountain hide-out, used by the KuoMinTang. You can visit the tunnel and caves, which are rather sparsely furnished and labelled. Outside the tunnel complex is a room with this sculpture of ChangKaiShek.

04Oct05_1531 A picture of some fish in an aquarium at ChangNingGong resort.

04Oct05_1532 Another picture of fish at the ChangNingGong resort. I did not stay at the resort myself. Some of the rooms looked very nice, and had some great views!

05Oct05_1536 Another rainy day in central China! This picture is of a temple, and is taken from a nearby hill, LouGuanTai. It is an old Nestorian temple, the Daqin pagoda 大秦塔. The Nestorians were a Christian sect which spread into China during the 7th century A.D..

05Oct05_1539 Persimmon trees at LouGuanTai

05Oct05_1542 Goats at LouGuanTai

05Oct05_1546 Farmer's house at LouGuanTai. Those goats are the same as in the previous photograph. LouGuanTai is a park, but it seems as some farmers continue to have the right to use the land.

05Oct05_1548 Chicken at LouGuanTai. This chicken belonged to another farm at LouGuanTai. Some of the tracks ran through fields, and were very muddy and prone to landslide! It was not really practical to reach the summit of LouGuanTai on the day we went due to mudslides. I am told that the way to the Daqin pagoda was also very muddy on the day, and that people had to turn back to the main paths.

05Oct05_1555 LouGuanTai stream. Pretty handy to wash my shoes, after trudging through all those muddy tracks!

05Oct05_1557 Waterfall at LouGuanTai

05Oct05_1559 The same waterfall at LouGuanTai

20051007 XiBeiYiLu

20051008_1587 ChaoYangMen

20051015_1601 ShuYuanMen

20051015_1602 ShuYuanMen market

20051015_1605 ShuYuanMen market

20051015_1607 Sticky Rice

20051015_1611 Bell Tower (Zhong Lou)

20051016_1613 Badminton by the West Wall

20051016_1614 Badminton by the West Wall

20051016_1615 Dancing by the West Gate (Xi Men)

20051016_1624 Nestorian Plaque description at the Forest of the Steles

20051016_1626 Nestorian Plaque

20051016_1633 South Wall

20060907_1267 Mashuang Hospital Welcoming banner! Why is the United States listed first?

20060907_1268 Mashuang Hospital Welcoming drums and firecrackers!

20060907_1272 Mashuang Hospital. Lecture theatre About seventy village doctors and hospital staff attended.

20060907_1276 Mashuang Hospital. Everyone was wide awake, in the morning anyway!

20060907_1278 Mashuang Hospital Listening attentively...

20060907 MaZhong A warm welcome as we drive in, but where is the hospital?

20060909_2193 HuaShan mountain My own camera survived. The weather was really quite good. The steps especially running under the cable car, are quite steep. During the Civil War, the CCP troops made an 'impossible' attack using this path, although no steps were cut into this side of the hill at the time!

20060909_2195 HuaShan mountain Somehow, the CCP troops managed to work their way along this cliff face as well.

20060909_2211 HuaShan mountain ...and make their way up this incline!

20060909_2239 HuaShan mountain There are many good views to be had at the top of HuaShan mountain, although the sky had 'greyed' a bit by the time we got there. HuaShan is a granite rock, and has multiple peaks.

20060909_2246 HuaShan mountain

20060909_2247 HuaShan mountain Lot more steps to climb, even between HuaShan's several peaks! The tall timbre in the distance is Paul.

20060909_2256 HuaShan mountain

200060909_2269 HuaShan mountain

20060923_2383 South Wall West of this place, but east of the South Gate, we went to lunch at the One World Cafe. I had pancakes and hash browns from the breakfast menu, Paul had pizza which had rather a lot of potato!