Travel « xmagination Blog

The Great Wall

March 31, 2012

Now we are already on the express train on our way to Shanghai. The past days were quite busy with sightseeing and our unique adventure to the Great Wall.
As I have never been keen on seeing the Great Wall from one of the main tourist spots, where the wall had been rebuilt to perfection, I was looking for an alternative. I found a chinese guy named James who offers daytrips as well as overnight trips to Jiankou, a section of the wall being regarded as one of the original (and most dangerous) parts of the wall. We booked the overnight trip in the hope for having a nice sunset and sunrise and for enjoying a private experience of one of the authentic parts of the wall.
After we were picked up from our hotel and after over two hours of driving through small villages and mountains far away of Beijing we finally arrived at a track leading up into the mountains. After approx. 800 height meters and a walk of 1.5 hours we reached the wall at a very steep part which is called “stairway to heaven”. We decided to climb up and to enjoy the view from up there. This part is really nothing for people afraid of heights!

Stairway to Heaven - Great Wall

Jiankou section - Great Wall

The camping site was closto one of the watchtowers of the Great Wall where we set up our tents, made a warming fire and ate a chinese meal which was, due to its self-heating mechanism, designed for soldiers or for people like us. It was delicious and had (surprisingly) no bones, gristles or skin. Sadly the sky was cloudy and it became very cold so that we decided to go to bed early.
After a night of freezing and only dozing I somehow managed to get up at 5.45 and grab my backpack in order to look for a good spot for catching the sunrise, of which I was not sure it will ever come.
I came to a watchtower where the second floor had been destroyed and so I climbed up and waited for the sun. And luckily the sun was looking through the clouds from time to time tinting the Great Wall with a pale warm light. I decided to use a graduated Singh-Ray filter to handle the different brightness of the sky and the mountains and additionally I took different exposures of the same frame that I later combined in order to improve the dynamic range. This is the very first image I ever took with the intention making an HDR. To be honest the combination was not really needed but it slighly improved the darker parts of the picture. I guess the effect would have been more intense if I had not been using a graduated filter.

Jiankou - Great Wall

Actually to be honest it was quite an expensive trip but it was worth it. I am pretty sure it makes a difference if you just see a perfectly rebuilt stone wall which could stand anywhere or if you touch and feel the stones people layed almost 2000 years ago. And we really felt it as Jiankou is a beautiful, though very steep, part of the Great Wall with a picturesque scenery. If one sees the dimension of the wall from this point one can hardly imagine that the whole length is over 8.000 km! Remarkable!

Filed under: China,Travel — Tags: Beijing, Great Wall, singh-ray, x100 — Andreas @ 1:03 PM

Forbidden City & Temple of Heaven

First stop was the huge palace with its unnumerous people passing one gate and one hall after the other. But this place is really worth to see! I tried a panorama with the in-built function of my X100. You just have to turn the camera either by 120 or 180 degrees from left to right and the camera records a set of images and combines them automatically in just a second. I sometimes noticed vertical stripes in the pictures but this one turned out quite good.

We noticed a simple kept restaurant stuffed with people so we stept in and were blendet by a wall of chinese latters. It was the first time that we really had no chance to order anything as the stuff did not speak a foreign word. After we asked some people in the line a girl spoke english and she helped us to get noodles with a red brown sauce. It turned out that the noodles were cold and the sauce seemed to taste slightly fermented – but we were hungry. People at our table asked us to try fermented soup too but this would have brought our culinary adventures to a new level.

After our first attempt to buy tickets for the Express Train to Shanghai (here only cash, try 2nd floor – here no credit card try counter #36 or #41 – #36 sent us to #41 too and #41 sent us to #36, who finally sent us to the cash machine, where cash withdrawal was not possible) we continued our tourist tour at the Temple of Heaven Park. This huge park was visited by many old people who flew kites, played cards or board games or just sat there with their birds in cages.

I am not gonna tell the story about waiting, patience and the right moment when taking pictures again but we kept to it. This time I wanted to take a “perfect” picture of the harvest altar within the temple of heaven complex but everywhere you go in Beijing there are always people and so we waited short before closing (it is the moment when rude men in uniforms enter the place to kick people out). For me this beautiful place is one of the symbols of Beijing but sadly symbols are no places for people who love to enjoy them in silence. This time I could feel how the mood changed when people vanished so that the place became a peaceful sight and inviting for a longer stay. The picture will be added to the gallery shortly. This one is a picture taken from the south-east side almost half an hour before closing.

The following pictures are from the atmospheric “Ghost Street” in the north-eastern part of Beijing’s central district.

Filed under: China,City,Travel — Tags: Beijing, x100 — Andreas @ 7:32 AM

Beijing

March 26, 2012

After arriving in China we first walked to Jingshan Park which is lying north of the Forbidden City. At the top of the hill is a little temple with a big Buddha who is looking down on the Forbidden City…which was vanishing in the smoggy air. And this is what we did too, to get a first impression of the city.

Filed under: China,City,Travel — Tags: Beijing, China, x100 — Andreas @ 11:57 PM

Istanbul – Final Impressions

February 21, 2012

Istanbul is a beautiful city which I will definitely visit again! It is only 2.5 hours away from where I live but it is another world you step in. I had many great moments in Istanbul: early morning on the Galata Bridge, late night strolling through the empty streets, the warm sun rays on the Bosporus tour and a visit to an original Hammam (from which I do not post any pictures as the towel bent around my waist was constantly loose). The city is definitely worth a visit!

One word about the Fuji X100: It performed fantastic. Neither did I miss a zoom lens nor did I miss the weight and size of my D300. OK to be honest it could really have a faster autofocus – especially in low light it can drive you crazy!! But what amazed me most was the dynamic range the camera offers, this is something that I had been missing with my D300 so far.

Early morning at the Galata Bridge

Morning at the Galata Bridge

Tünel train

Tünel tram

Blue Mosque

Shop window

At the Topkapi Palace

Me in a mirror

Filed under: City,Portrait,Street Photography,Travel,Turkey — Tags: B&W, d300, x100 — Andreas @ 2:09 PM

Istanbul Mosque and Bosporus

Istanbul has quite a few Mosques where tourists have there own entrance; they are provided with plastic bags for their shoes. However tourists have to stay in the rear part of the Mosque, behind a wooden railing. Muslims wash their feet, arms and face before praying no matter how cold it is…and it was very cold. But obviously they are still ready for a smile.

Praying in Blue Mosque (Sultan-Ahmed Mosque)

Washing before prayer

Blue Mosque

Since weather became better we decided to take a boat ride in the direction of the Black Sea. After the cold and windy days it was a relaxing ride sitting in the sun, enjoying the landscape, drinking hot tea and eating fresh made yoghurt.