Markuswelder wanders around Northern China.

[Markuswelder]

Edit -none of these photos were taken with the intention of creating a travelogue, or documenting the trip in any shape or form. They're just snaps I took whilst wandering around, for my own personal enjoyment. The camera just came along for the ride, it wasn't the purpose of the trip.

My Wife is of Chinese origin, so consequently we've done a fair bit of wandering around in China, to quite a few places where the average Westerner would be very unlikely to travel to, and going by the locals reactions at times, not often seen. These aren't photo's shot in those areas, this thread was originally posted in an m4/3 forum, so all the shots were taken with my Panasonic GX8 and three tiny little primes.
I'm also not going to try and finish this thread all in one hit, it will be an evolving, ongoing animal, possibly with a bit of a mind of its own. But we've got to start somewhere, now's as good a time as any.
Looking out of plane windows. Because China is such an enormous country, air travel is one of the quicker ways to get to places, without wasting too much of your time. I hate it, I'd much much rather the Bullet Train network, which is rather extensive. Far more comfortable & relaxing.

This is a very very cool Airport to land at. Gansu Province. The pilots are pretty damn good, as you enter into a pretty steep banked spiral -I'd guess 45 degrees easily, and spiral down for several rotations between the mountain ranges before leveling out and landing.

No one seems to care too much about using electronic devices, even when refuelling, so I whipped out the GX8 and joined in the party. If we're all going to die in a screaming ball of flaming Jet fuel, may as well go down enjoying yourself hey

Like I wrote, no one seems to care in the slightest about using devices, I never got yelled at, so why the hell not hey?

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Great thread, Markus. Love it! Going places where we usually can't go.

An idea maybe: we have the option to blog. I installed the software only last week. I can also turn existing threads, such as this one, into a blog. It's entirely up to you, I'm just mentioning it as you may not be aware that we have that option, after all it's not common for a forum to have a blog.

 

[JohnPD]

Great shots! Looking forward to more.

 

[Markuswelder]

Great thread, Markus. Love it! Going places where we usually can't go.

An idea maybe: we have the option to blog. I installed the software only last week. I can also turn existing threads, such as this one, into a blog. It's entirely up to you, I'm just mentioning it as you may not be aware that we have that option, after all it's not common for a forum to have a blog.

I've never ever used a blog format before, not the first clue how to use it. If it's the same as just posting in a thread, I can't see a problem with that.
Would it direct any more, or less traffic to the forum?

 

[Markuswelder]

Right. Food. Food seems to be an enormous source of pride for the Chinese people. I love it. It's great. Simple, fresh, tasty as, unfortunately a little bit too much at times. As my waistline can attest to. No hiding from that lol. A few street food shots.

 

[JohnPD]

I've never ever used a blog format before, not the first clue how to use it. If it's the same as just posting in a thread, I can't see a problem with that.
Would it direct any more, or less traffic to the forum?

Markus, Levina has gone to sleep. She always lets us know in her sig. Tomorrow morning she will replace the sleeping smiley with an active one: drinking coffee most likely.

I don't know the first thing about blogging either, but we have an experienced blogger, Rosalie, aka @greatgrandma . She has been blogging for years and moved or copy/pasted her existing blogs here. She and Levina worked together to get a grip on the blogging software and Levina wrote a User Guide in the process.

Blogs seem to get a fair amount of views. Maybe more than threads but could be too early to tell.

 

[Markuswelder]

Transportation. My favourite subject matter There's an extreme variation in modes of transport over there. Everything from Jet Airliners, bullet trains, slow trains, Buses, cars, Taxi's, Trucks, bicycles, right down to donkey and cart etc etc etc. They seem to have a bit of a love affair with three wheeled vehicles for the masses. Economy I guess. Less tyres to wear out and dispose of at a guess.

Hmmmm. My mobile interwebz connection seems to be acting up, I'll try again once I get home on a proper computer

 

[Chuck]

Transportation. My favourite subject matter There's an extreme variation in modes of transport over there. Everything from Jet Airliners, bullet trains, slow trains, Buses, cars, Taxi's, Trucks, bicycles, right down to donkey and cart etc etc etc. They seem to have a bit of a love affair with three wheeled vehicles for the masses. Economy I guess. Less tyres to wear out and dispose of at a guess.

View attachment 15192

I even saw a Buggati. For the common people

Hmmmm. My mobile interwebz connection seems to be acting up, I'll try again once I get home on a proper computer

I remember seeing footage of streets full with cyclists. Unless that is something of the past.

 

[Markuswelder]

I remember seeing footage of streets full with cyclists. Unless that is something of the past.

Now it seems to be lot's of little electric scooters. Every time I visit you can see the improving economic status of the people. Cars and Taxis getting bigger, and more modern. Apartment sizes increasing. Just a couple of things I noticed

 

[Markuswelder]

I even saw a Bugatti. For the common people

Who recognises that grill shape ha ha ha?

It's cold out here. Freaking cold. Like in the minus 20-25 degrees C range. Visiting the Wife's relo's

Starting to thaw a little

If you look closely, you can see the stacks from little coal fired heaters in the 3 wheeled electric taxis. No doubt to keep warm, and extend the battery range. Aaaaaah, got to love the Green initiatives

 

[Markuswelder]

Some more

A little bit of contrast

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

I've never ever used a blog format before, not the first clue how to use it. If it's the same as just posting in a thread, I can't see a problem with that.
Would it direct any more, or less traffic to the forum?

We're all new to it, as it's not something a forum usually has but I think it can be a great asset to the forum. If you click on Blogs in the top menu you can see greatgrandma Rosalie's blog entries. She has been blogging for many years and is now reposting her past blogs here. I plan to start a blog too.

As to how much traffic blogs draw, it's too early to tell. Our members don't seem to find them yet as there are less likes and comments than in threads which is not a surprise as we're simply not used to having a blog on the forum. At the same time they get a lot of views and I see guests find them. So do the bots that index our site.

Blogs have their own block on the homepage and in What's New. The same is true for comments to blog entries. So in a way blogs stand out more than regular threads, just like Resources do. I'm still thinking about how to display them in What's New as I don't like how it looks now.

I'm writing a Blogs User Guide, adding new chapters regularly. You can find it here.

I haven't converted a regular thread to a blog yet. I'm going to test that later today.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

It's cold out here. Freaking cold. Like in the minus 20-25 degrees C range. Visiting the Wife's relo's

That's seriously cold!

I was wondering how you communicate. Most people I believe don't speak English. Do you speak Chinese?

This is a great thread. Very interesting info/stories and great images. By the way, what's with all the 3-wheeled vehicles?
EDIT: Reading on you already answered my question. Aren't 3-wheeled cars rather unstable?

 

[Markuswelder]

That's seriously cold!

I was wondering how you communicate. Most people I believe don't speak English. Do you speak Chinese?

This is a great thread. Very interesting info/stories and great images. By the way, what's with all the 3-wheeled vehicles?
EDIT: Reading on you already answered my question. Aren't 3-wheeled cars rather unstable?

My Wife speaks Chinese and English. Most of the time we wander around together so she's my translator When I go wandering off on my own she writes our local address on a piece of paper in Chinese so I can catch a Taxi home should I get properly lost. You can get free WiFi pretty much anywhere, SIM cards are cheap so it's pretty easy to message or call her if I get into trouble, or call her to translate for me. Translator apps' are pretty good these days too. I rather enjoy dealing with the difficulties of communicating with the locals at times, adds a bit of a challenge to the whole experience. Oh, I don't speak Chinese myself, other than a few words. My hearing is not the greatest, so that makes it really difficult to try and learn

 

[Markuswelder]

EDIT: Reading on you already answered my question. Aren't 3-wheeled cars rather unstable?

Yeah, they are. But they seem to manage just fine. I've got a few shots from one of my previous trips of a few different 3 wheeled vehicles, I'll post some up.
One of the best things I've ever seen, but yet to catch on camera, was the young guys driving the 3 wheeled trucks to and from construction sites. Loaded to the gunnels with bricks, or pavers, or sand, gravel or other construction materials. If they get stopped at a red light at an intersection, and have a suitably impressionable/appreciative audience, the engine revs rise right up, the clutch gets dumped as the lights go green, and they pull fabulous wheelstands across the intersection. It's brilliant. It's one of the things on my bucket list to try and catch on camera. I've talked the Wife into going to the city where I saw it for a few days on this trip, so with a bit, or lot of luck I might see it again.
The trucks are very similar to this one

It's hilarious, you see signs on the freeways saying no tractors, otherwise you'd see this sort of thing on major 6 lane high speed freeways

A couple more shots of the contrasts seen.

People stopping and hopping out of late model Land cruisers, Range Rovers and the like, buying vege's off farmers with a Donkey.

I thoroughly enjoy just standing on the side of the road, shooting whatever interesting things motor on by. Going to do it again this trip for sure.

This one I shot out the window of a Taxi as we were driving along

It's brilliant fun, there's such a rich pallet of subject matter to catch on camera