Xi’an

Xi’an (pronounced Shee-On) in Shaanxi Province is located southwest of Beijing about an hour and a half flying time. Here a Terra Cotta Army lines up waiting to be photographed. They were discovered in 1964 when a farmer digging a well turned up broken arms and hands. With special permission from Meng Jian Ming Vice Director, arranged through our tour guide, we were allowed to photograph many Terra Cotta Figurines in the First Pit of the Emperor’s Army.

When you visit China, hire a tour guide. It will cost about $9 a day and the price is well worth it. The tour guides speak very good English and serve as an interpretor while you’re shooting pictures. This can be a big in getting permission to shoot at certain locations.

The Chinese people love to prepare banquets for tourists and they will use every excuse to do so. Our banquet included several tables of outstanding food prepared by artistic chefs. Much of the food was western style baked ham, beef, turkey, chicken and served with rice wine. After dinner local talent put on a fantastic ballet with authentic Chinese costumes like the Emperor’s private theater group. China’s Theatres are world famous for ballet/opera productions. Stage shows are a lot of fun to photograph for the traveling photographer. Take along several rolls of Tungsten ISO 160 or faster for great chromes of theater action.

QuFu

QuFu (pronounced Chew-Foo) is located in Shangdong Province and is a one hour flight from Xi’An. This is the home and birthplace of Mr. Confucious, thinker and educationists. To offer sacrifies to him, the Emperor’s built the Magnificent Temple of Confucious and the Kong Family Mansion. With the Confucious Forest planted over many dynasties, QuFu is an ancient and beautiful town. Photographic possibilities include several temples, Dacheng Hall, the Hall of Great Perfection, The Kong Family Mansion, the Confucious Forest, theater performances and craft construction projects.

Tai’An

Tai’An is a one hour bus trip north and is the home of the International Mount Tai Climbing Festival. Mount Tai is 1,546 meters (5,072 feet) above the sea level. A beautiful mountain park with majestic peaks, centuries old pine and cypress trees, springs, waterfalls, pavilions, temples, archways and steles. People from all over the world travel here to climb the mountain. It takes one day to climb (with a built-in walkway), and a half day to walk down. The traveling photographer fwill find almost every shooting possibility in sunrises, sunsets, lakes, ponds, ancient trees, interesting people, etc.

Out tour group elected to take the cable car to the top because of time constraints. It was a 10 minute ride in a packed full car. You could feel the excitement and hear the chorus of A-A-A-Hs as the car traversed each cable support tower. I shot several chromes on the way up and back with views of the other cable car as it passed. At the top we found many street vendors, gift shops and other subjects to shoot. As the rays of the sun spent a pattern across the sky, I captured beautiful heaven like pictures of the clouds and mountain top.