China

Four striking insights: (i) China apparently does not need English. We were at several hotels where they did not even know how to register my passport, cause they never see any foreigner in years. You cannot count on anyone near you being able to speak English. Better have the translation app on your phone handy, or your Chinese speaking wife. (ii) There are (too) many Chinese. The country is big, yes, but: For one, it is only really populated in the eastern quarter of the country. And in this part, there are one billion people living. And they like to travel for vacation mostly in their own country (fortunately, I guess). So you are always surrounded by crowds. (iii) The brainwashing works. They are all very diligent in following their rules. The are all very patriotic about their country and its traditions. And as in all authoritarian countries, they might admit that their country is complicated, or not run the way they would like, but they will say it's the politicians' fault, not the people's fault. I heard the same word by word from a Russian lady few months back. No wonder their countries committ the cruelest of crimes. It is so transparent how the Chinese government supports all patriotic acitivies. It goes so far that the biggest hobby of Chinese is to dress up in traditional costumes and take photos of themselves. It is so easy to amplify that behaviour by the algorithms of social media. I bet the politicians are laughing about their people, while they call it democratic people's republic. It's interesting how people can be manipulated and don't realize it. Sites like Terracotta army in Xi'An or Longmen Grottos in Luoyang and over-crowded by tens of thousands of visitors a day while the beautiful Grand Mosque in Xi'An center is quiet, maybe visited by one or two hundred people a day, mostly western tourists. I bet any post about that site is downgraded by the algorithms. I am not one for conspiracy theories, but this is just too easy. And the government knows how to control, after the Tiananmen massacre they all did a crash course on it. At any given point in time you will be monitored by several cameras, and even in the national parks there are loudspeakers for announcements and music everywhere, even along some hiking paths. The crime rate is low, you feel very safe, everything is recorded. I never had to pull out my passport this often (10 to 20 times a day) - everywhere. They check it three times when you enter somewhere, once with the ticket, once with bag check, once just for passport check. Also, in every metro station in Beijing, they x-ray your luggage, check passport, and metal-scan you. (iv) They move into the future quickly. All motorbikes, most buses and even in the countryside more than 50% of the cars are electric now. Best fixed line and mobile internets in the world. Best and fastest high-speed trains. Fastest growing installed base of renewable energies. Best AI algorithms ever programmed. Best and highly integrated mobile phone apps. They do not have oil, but I think the extra income is other raw materials, rare earths, steel. That gives the goverment the resources to get infrastructure and high-tech forward. They are more reliant on exports, but still have enough income to give USA the deserved middle finger, and they make up for the lack of oil as they are apparently smarter than those self-indulgent lazy rich oligarchs/kings/inborn desert farmers in the oil countries. 

I must say that you can have a lot of Chinese culture in Taiwan, without all that troubled background. People are respectful, reflected, curious, open-minded, food is great. They have preserved and valued their cultural relics, not destroyed them. They nurture a free and liberal society while truly following authentic traditions, are very aware of their history and conscious of the implications. I think Taiwan would manage quite well to bring China into a brighter future.

Four days on this journey I liked best: The Shilin Stone Forest visit with strolling through Kunming old town afterwards and going to the Yunnan cultural show in the evening; In Lijiang visiting the Mufu Palace and Wangulou Scenic Area; The visit of Daxuzhen old town and morning market near Guilin; The cycling along Yulong river near Yangshuo with the Liu Sanjie Impression show in the evening. Other outstanding visits were of Baisha village and Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang, the old town of Shangri-La, and the Summer Palace in Beijing. The Summer Palace is beautiful in the sunny morning, opens at 6. For the light, and the lack of masses it's worth to get up early and arrive no later than 6:30. Also the Luoyang Museum was great. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the Songzanlin Lamasery, the Terracotta Army, the Longmen Grottos, the Forbidden City are all very touristy. Impressive and nice to learn stuff, of course, but also a bit tiring.

Our journey started in Yunnan, with Kunming a more modern lively and chilled city, Lijiang with an impressive old town. Diqing (Deqen) has those highland vibes with a Tibetan monastery and wide plains between the mountains. The Tiger Leaping Gorge was very impressive. The river (upper part of Yantse) runs at around 1600 m, the hiking between that and up to 2700 m, the mountains on both sides peak at 5600 m. On the steep part not many people, very nice hike in the morning. On the level part and going down then too many tourists already to really enjoy it too much (as a European/German who might like the experience of quiet in nature). Like Lijing, also Guilin has its own very nice vibes, chilled and yet metropolitan, also set in a nice climate. And surrounded by those impressive Karst formations/hills, all the way down to Yangshou, roughly 100 km away. I actually remember the landscape around Vang Vieng in Laos to be very similar (look at the Laos album). So maybe it goes down another 1000 km. Anyway, near Yangshuo we spent a beautiful day cycling along Yulong river. Most tourists go down that river on bamboo rafts, but the bike is of course much better to explore. The rafting is a veritable industry, with a robot picking rafts out the water at the end, loading trucks, and very smooth processed to get all the crowds on their rafts. We skipped Zhangjiajie to go again later, it was a bit too much, and rounded off in the last week with culture like Terracotta army in Xi'An, Longmen Grottos in Luoyang, and Summer Palace / Forbidden city in Beijing. Due to May holiday long weekend, those were already over-crowded so we skipped the Great Wall. Impressive, lively, colourful vacation. Can highly recommend, but have your translator and a couple of apps like WeChat, Alipay, Trip.com, A-Maps handy, and a firewall (Let's VPN or Askill) installed before you enter the country. 

For photography, I love my new Nikon Z8 with the Tamron 35-150, f/2. Great combo for walking around. Focuses much easier/quicker and spot on compared to my previous D750. I thought I don't need the 40 Mpx, but the croppability is great, don't want to miss it again. On the short end, I sometimes need the Nikon 14-30 f/4 for buildings/architecture or maybe landscape, but that's OK, probably for only about 5% of photos. I might still get a 50 mm f/1.2 if a nice light and cheap one comes along... But I can also do without it seems.