China 2019 Photography Tour 1
Early May 2019, I spent around two weeks in China for two photography tours and another relaxing tour afterward in Shanghai before returning home. This was the first time I went to Photography Tours and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The first tour started in Beijing. There were nine of us including our guide, Callie. The day after arriving, a majority of us would like to visit Tianjin Binhai Library, but due to time constrain as we needed to leave for Jinshanling early to catch the sunset, most of us decided to head for the Summer Palace. But Steve and I decided to go to the Temple of Heaven instead.
天壇 (Tiāntán), the Temple Of Heaven is located inside its park which covers 267 hectares (660 acres). It is huge in comparison to the Forbidden City. Early in the morning, many people young and old gathered around at various spots to share their interests. while waiting for the door to open which was at 8am, we walked around and found people practicing martial arts, dancing and exercising.
After the Temple of Heaven, we left for the Jinshanling (金山岭) section of the Great Wall. This section is 125km north-east of Beijing. It is more remote than the others that most tourists visit. We arrived just-in-time to hike for the sunset. We headed for the wild part of the Wall. The first impression was wow! wow! wow!. What we saw was mountains stacking one after another in layers that seemed to go on and on into infinity. The next morning, we started climbing at 3:30am so that we would not miss the sunrise. We hoped to get some mists but unfortunately, there weren’t any. But the Wall still didn’t disappoint us. We had a clear sky sunrise and even had our breakfast on the Wall, how cool was that. It was colder than we expected and when we got our hot coffee or tea, it was precious. In the afternoon we started another climb to a different part of the Wall for the sunset and the view was as spectacular as the previous locations.
The next day we headed for Guilin. This place is well know for its unique cone-shaped like hills. Combining with the weather system they could create magical landscapes that photographers love. The first location shooting was sunset at the 五指山 (Wuzhi Shan) Five Fingers Mountain. Despite there were no sun, but cloud and rain, the view was still amazing with the farm land in front follows by many hills as the backdrops. And we ended the day with a surprise location, the Yulong bridge. It came with free models. The next day we started arriving at 3:30am at the 相公山 (Xianggong Shan) Husband Hill. This location was very popular so we wanted to ensure that we had a good spot. As it turned out, it was raining and no one else turned up. So we had the whole place to ourselves. Later we also had a session with a Cormorant Fisherman. He claimed that he was a professional model. Some of his poses were ridiculous but funny at the same time. We finished our Guilin tour with a visit to a farm with a buffalo man crossing the bridge. The bridge is known as the scholar bridge. The Chinese people believe that the more you walk over the bridge the smarter you become. The buffalo walks over many times but whether it is smarter or not, I don’t know. But one thing I do know for sure is that it must work harder to avoid going to … you know where. This place is quite popular among the locals.
With the tour came to an end, it was time to say goodbye to some of our friends before three of us, Callie, Hilda and I catching the flight to Fuzhou to continue our second tour. Special thanks to my room mate also called David for the unexpected gift, a pair of walking poles, and also to Penne for lending me one of hers. Without them, I would have struggled to complete my tour. Other tour mates including Anissa, Niall, Steve and Jackie. It was a great tour and I am glad I went and get to know you all. Hope to catch up in the near future maybe in another tour.
Photos of this tour
