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Locks, Three Gorges Dam, Yangtse River, China
It’s hard to get perspective on the Three Gorges Dam itself without ...
Locks, Three Gorges Dam, Yangtse River, China
It’s hard to get perspective on the Three Gorges Dam itself without taking a helicopter ride. We saw photos from such vantage points and they were spectacular. But on this overcast day, our only option was to take some escalators up the mountain above and look down on the side of the dam which features […]
Dawn, Qutang Gorge, Yangtse River, China
The light was sort of dull right after dawn on the Yangtse, but the sun got high enough and peeked out from behind a cloud just long enough to sidelight the gorge walls and throw a nice halo on the water as we sailed into the eastern morning. Thanks to Viking River Cruises for waking […]
Rainbow over Lhasa, Tibet
So I went up on the rooftop of the Shangri-La Hotel in Lhasa, hoping to get a nice shot of the Potala Palace at sunset. I was sitting on a couch in the lounge when a friend said, “Have you seen the rainbow?” I couldn’t see it from where I was sitting, so it was […]
Surprises Along the W: Trekking Patagonia’s Torres del Paine
I realize now that trekking the ‘W’ in Patagonia’s Torres del Paine National Park was something I should have been better prepared for. So when I heard recently that World Expeditions was looking for #BestMountainTrek stories and personal experiences in Patagonia, these memories of our haphazard planning and some of the surprises we encountered came […]
The Terra Cotta Army, Xian, China
I was prepared not to like the Terra Cotta Warriors of Xian. Despite the fact that everyone has already seen images of the thousands of clay figures, I was more than slightly skeptical as to whether seeing them would be worth the effort it takes to get to Xian from Beijing. We got up very […]
Taipei Tips and Highlights
Taipei, I hardly knew ya. We traveled to Taipei for one week–sandwiched between Hong Kong and Seoul–and the challenge was to take it easy so I could recover from a knee injury, but still visit the top sites and get to know a corner of the city. The taking it easy part was the hardest. […]
The Temple of Heaven, Beijing
One of the coolest things about this pavilion in the Temple of Heaven complex, other than the spectacular painting of course, was the fact that these galleries wound around the park in various directions, and every 10 meters or so, there was a group of old men or old women just chatting away. Of course, […]
The Great Wall Near Beijing, China
It’s hard to say anything original about the Great Wall of China, other than according to some astronauts’ accounts I’ve read, you really can’t see it from space. The Great Wall, especially the Badaling section near Beijing where we went today, is like pretty much everywhere else we’ve been in China–teeming with tourists. But luckily […]
The Moat of the Forbidden City, Beijing
Perhaps the hardest part of shooting in the Forbidden City of Beijing is trying to get just one shot that doesn’t have a thousand people in it. We’ve been to a lot of tourist attractions over the past six years, but I’ve never seen anything like the hordes here in China. And, like most everywhere […]
Young Women in Traditional Dress, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, Korea
If you visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, in traditional Korean dress, you get free admission to the complex. We were there on a day where there was also an event featuring traditional Korean music, so the attendees in traditional dress must have numbered in the hundreds. And, they’re all to happy to pose for […]
