It was certainly the highlight of my recent trip to China - I found time to visit and photograph part of the Great Wall.

I have climbed the Great Wall before, but this time it was different. This part of the wall, known as ‘Jiang Kou’ Great Wall, has not been repaired. So it was as original as it could be. It’s more like the ruin of the Great Wall. For that reason, only few casual visitors go there.

Sitting in the comfort of a new Toyota Highlander, I went there with four friends in a sunny afternoon. We first had a nice lunch at a mountain villa and then drove right to the foothill. Apparently, one of the friends has gone there many times to photograph. After about 30 minutes of hiking, a steep trail used by the local farmers lead us to the wall.

The view was breathtaking.

This part of the wall is the Ming Great Wall (15th - 16th century). Looking at the rugged terrains and steep slopes, I couldn’t help but be absolutely amazed by this world wonder. How did they pull such a tremendously huge project off?!

This is a magnificent classical garden modeled on the one in the Chinese most famous ancient literature work “ A Dream of Red Mansions”.  I visited this garden yesterday morning.  It was cold and largely due to the street fair inside, it was kind of dirty.  But I did manage to find some interesting scenes, especially when the show started.  The show was loosely based on the literature’s characters.  Interestingly, they found some foreign students to play the roles and draw some friendly laughter from the audience.

ready for the grand entrance

 Some quite different looking ‘Chinese’

Red Tiger Pillows

‘Tang Hu Lu’(haws with hardened sugar coating on a stick)

Man and a Cat

Band

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My clients canceled our photo session yesterday morning so I decided to take my son to the park, playing basket ball.  Well, more like I shoot and he watches with occasional cheer ons.  On the way to the park, I noticed a nice sun break in Seattle.  So later in the day, we went ‘downtown’.  My three years old is always excited about going through the ‘tunnels’ and ‘The long bridge’.  I took some shots at the park.

A lone jogger

A kayaker