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All over Beijing
chickendrop
Registered Users Posts: 175 Major grins
Just returned from a week in Beijing. Not a place I would visit again anytime soon. The smog was so outrageous, worse than Delhi, probably the worst I've ever seen. It made me depressed to see an environment in such awful condition. My wife and I still got out and explored. HouHai and Nanluogu Xiang were great areas to walk around. The mountains of the Great Wall were beautiful, a nice break from the city. The palaces and hutongs were sprawling! The weather was intense, mid-nineties and humidity to the max! I'm guessing any other time of year would be better than the summer. Unfortunately with all of the smog the skies ranged from grey to a hazy brown, with the exception of the mountains where the blue skies tried their hardest to peak out. Here are some shots of our journey. Enjoy.
Day one. View from the hotel. Shocking:
Knobby palace doors:
Palace gates. These were awesome!:
Delivery rickshaws - cool, Pedestrian rickshaws - stay away!:
The Charlie Brown Cafe. Awesome! Good coffees and food. Free wifi too:
The Summer Palace. 290 acres. I walked it all in one day. By the end I looked like I fell in the lake:
Roof tiles at the temple of heaven:
Temple of heaven drainage:
Temple through the gates:
I love me some doors:
One of many unique bridges around the lake at The Summer Palace:
The Jade Bridge. Very steep, very cool:
Tons of birds flying through here. I kept my distance:
Old school lock:
Crazy details:
Quiet path away from the crownds on the grounds of Temple of Heaven:
Groundskeeper cutting the grass with a hand blade:
Groundskeepers ride:
Crackly wood carved door panel:
Summer palace inlays:
Summer palace carvings:
The big round door:
Driving to the mountains:
Tower view on the wall:
The Mutianyu Great Wall:
On our way:
Climbing up. Crazy hot!!:
You could fry an egg on that wall! Worst time of day for photos and hiking:
Heading back down. Completely cooked and dehydrated:
Not the best for dehydration but it sure tasted good. This was followed by several glasses of water:
Flags at HouHai:
Forbidden city worker:
Roof details:
Turtle dragon?:
Knobby roof tiles:
The massive crowd at The Forbidden City:
Big red double doors. Super ornate and kinda cool:
Hoards of hat wearing tour groups:
Checking out the architecture:
Chinese Coca-Cola:
Night view from the hotel:
A Beijing White Russian: Milk, Vodka, Stir. Ummm:
Beautiful downtown:
Afternoon in the city:
The thirst quencher:
Awesome back alley brewery:
Hutong bicycles:
Even this guy liked it:
Red bean ice cream?:
They like it:
Bus advertisement:
See ya Beijing, it's been real:
Day one. View from the hotel. Shocking:
Knobby palace doors:
Palace gates. These were awesome!:
Delivery rickshaws - cool, Pedestrian rickshaws - stay away!:
The Charlie Brown Cafe. Awesome! Good coffees and food. Free wifi too:
The Summer Palace. 290 acres. I walked it all in one day. By the end I looked like I fell in the lake:
Roof tiles at the temple of heaven:
Temple of heaven drainage:
Temple through the gates:
I love me some doors:
One of many unique bridges around the lake at The Summer Palace:
The Jade Bridge. Very steep, very cool:
Tons of birds flying through here. I kept my distance:
Old school lock:
Crazy details:
Quiet path away from the crownds on the grounds of Temple of Heaven:
Groundskeeper cutting the grass with a hand blade:
Groundskeepers ride:
Crackly wood carved door panel:
Summer palace inlays:
Summer palace carvings:
The big round door:
Driving to the mountains:
Tower view on the wall:
The Mutianyu Great Wall:
On our way:
Climbing up. Crazy hot!!:
You could fry an egg on that wall! Worst time of day for photos and hiking:
Heading back down. Completely cooked and dehydrated:
Not the best for dehydration but it sure tasted good. This was followed by several glasses of water:
Flags at HouHai:
Forbidden city worker:
Roof details:
Turtle dragon?:
Knobby roof tiles:
The massive crowd at The Forbidden City:
Big red double doors. Super ornate and kinda cool:
Hoards of hat wearing tour groups:
Checking out the architecture:
Chinese Coca-Cola:
Night view from the hotel:
A Beijing White Russian: Milk, Vodka, Stir. Ummm:
Beautiful downtown:
Afternoon in the city:
The thirst quencher:
Awesome back alley brewery:
Hutong bicycles:
Even this guy liked it:
Red bean ice cream?:
They like it:
Bus advertisement:
See ya Beijing, it's been real:
0
Comments
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Good choice not going to the Badaling wall, there are huge crowds there.
Some good shots there, thanks for sharing.
http://jziegler.smugmug.com
Great job with those images. Too bad the air quality was so poor; although it seems like it was clearer for your visit up to the Great Wall...
Unfortunately, visiting Beijing can be quite a crap shoot regarding the air quality. When we visited at the end of March last year, we missed a sand storm by just a few days. The conditions for photography wouild have been horrendous during that storm. We encountered very clear but, pretty darn cold conditions with a stiff wind for the three days we were in Beijing. The first day I wore only a light shirt and my photo vest and was pretty cold. However, I prefer that to smoggy or sandy...
We hit the Guilin-Yangshuo area during a drought when the Li River was too low to navigate all the way from Guilin to Yangshuo. However a couple of weeks later the Li River was overflowing its banks and Yangshuo was flooded...
We were lucky to miss the climatic extremes in the Bejing & Guilin-Yangshuo areas...
Sometimes a little too real
Thanks!
Thanks! The wall was the best part of the trip. Unfortunately we were there at the absolute worst time of day for photography. I wish we could have planned a sunrise or sunset trip, but with the communication hurdles I'm lucky that we just made it there and back.
Thanks! He's been around the world
Thanks! I was told that the sandstorms are intense. Good thing you missed the flooding!
I bet! The clearest day while we were there was still worse than the smoggiest day in LA.
Thanks! Certainly a memorable trip!
I was in Beijing last June and the weather was a polar opposite of what you experienced..
Good choice going to Muntianyu portion of the great wall, for some reason most of the tour groups go to Badaling?
Time for me to buy another ticket... waiting for USCIS to process paperwork sucks... I miss my wife and stepson..
Good luck!
hope you don't mind
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=174752&page=2
Not sure if this is improper etiquette... I posted some images previously remarkably similar to a few of your...
Window frame in Forbidden City
My wife and I in front of the Birds Nest...
Mumon is right! "Every day is a good day!"
http://www.keithbroadphotography.com/
If you don't mind, what were you using for your telephoto shots/walk around lens?
D800
16/2.8, f1.4G primes, f2.8 trio, 105/200 macro, SB900.
It never gets easier, you just get better.
Thanks! I imagine it would be a totally different experience with clear skies and little haze. Bummer about monuments and stuff being covered up, but I'm not surprised about you getting charged full admission. I didn't have a single transaction where someone wasn't trying to rip me off.
Thank you
Thanks! I only took a handful of shots with my 70-200mm, and the same with my 11-16mm. Most days it was too hot to carry a backpack so I just took my 35mm and my Canon Powershot, which is what the majority of these were shot with.
Thanks!