China 2007 - page 5
View over the lake in "Shangri-la Paradise".
We were taken on a boat trip, going through a cave, truly very beautifull!
Crazy enough Chinese people are fond of their "minority groups", and Shangri-la Paradise is some kind of
weird Chinese attraction park where you can see all kinds of minorities...
and so our guide was super proud to show us...these people.... (no comment, just watch) ;-)
(really I had to laugh, but didnt really understand the point!)
They were doing this "fake-minority-people-stuff" for tourists. (we were the only Western tourists by the way)
Chinese tourist just love this kind of stuff.
And on the other lakeside, you got to see this....(see picture below)
No theatre, no fake, not a part of the attraction...just the real life.
Here you see the 'actors' of the Shangri-la Paradise.. Young boys and girls dressed in semi-traditional dresses.
This is the girl who showed us around in the park.. very proud on her speaker and microphone.
(we two were her only guests, so no way she needed this speaker stuff! I didnt even try to understand why... ;-))
They were having a special party thing because of the Festival Of The Dead.
There was the dragon dance, and all the red fireworks.
A lot of cute Chinese children, all dressed up in the same way.
And some other minority dressed girls.. she didnt seem to be enjoying the whole thing though...
or wait... a little smile for the camera :-)
The man locked up in the dragons mouth!
Oh and again this fascinating headdress! Look at all the nice details on it!
Aren't they charming?! They look so perfectly Chinese! :-)
Though everything was so artificial as can be, the buildings and nature sceneries in the background were AMAZINGLY pretty!!
A big hall with young girls doing the traditional handcrafts from their minority group.
Those girls were stitching/ crocheting ties. I would not buy it, but it was very well done.
And these girls were painting with hot wax to make pretty batic fabrics.
It looked cool to do, and again, they were very good at it!
And ofcourse the souvenir dolls in all kind of funky dresses!
Oke, this one is totally over the border of any good taste, but when I see it now on the picture, I totally regret that I didnt bought it...:-(
Aha, and finally I could no longer resist and bought this headdress!!
First they didnt want to sell it, only the neckpieces were for sale.
But after a very long and intense discussion, I managed to buy the headdress.
(and even for 1/10th of the price they first asked!)
This is a reconstruction of a "rain and wind bridge".
Some kind of "totem" of the Dong-people. (they always use buffalo-horns in all their symbolics)
Just a picture to show how it looks without proper cropping and framing, with all the people...not so nice...
Lovely fish in the pond...you could buy food to give them, and they totally freaked out!
Just look at their mouths, they are enormous!!!
This is one of my favourite pictures I made in China!
Man falling asleep in front of dragon boat.
This is near yangshuo. At another point on the Yulong river, you could rent a raft and go down the river till this point.
Here they took all the rafts out of the water...
...piled them up on trucks....and drove them all the way back to the start-point.
The first early blossoms!
S. again stalked by a card-seller....
Proud owner of a water buffalo.
Really this animals are cool!
Very poor baby monkey dressed like a fool.. :-(
The father monkey dressed as king of the forests...
I dont understand why people do this things....it's like having no respect for the animal.
Chained monkeys...
A beauty under the peacocks! He was mixed, green and white!!
Never seen an animal special like this!
Rock bridge with traditional lampinions from the region.
This is where you should pay to have your picture made.
No way I would go to sit on this chair!
The scene how it really looked. The nice peacock, the monkeys...
Yet another over-kitsch advertisement for a drink. I actually tried this one, it was almost too sweet to drink!
The sacred Banyan Tree. It was huge and really impressive. (if I only could think away the hundreds of Chinese tourists around me)
Prayers to the Banyan.
This size of chairs is normal in China.. It makes us look like giants ;-)
A not-so-happy view..
The beautifull "Moon Hill".
We walked the whole way up, that was rather exhousting :-)
but the view was worth it.
Happy to have reached it!
S. with our guide Mama Luna.
This was "sesame blubber". Looked awfull, but the Chinese loved it...
Oh God, look at the colour of it?!
This is another Banyan tree we came across.
The Reed Flute Cave.
This scene was simply breathtaking!
Victorian Chinese bridal fashion!
A colourfull lollipop shop!
Hello Kitty lollies!!