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On
the West Lake in Hangzhou. |
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Entering
the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River; taken before the Three Gorges
Dam was complete and the reservoir started to fill. |
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Building
along the Yangtze; this is probably now underwater since the lake is
filling behind the Three Gorges Dam. |
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The
Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an — an absolutely amazing sight. This
photo shows the width of the space but less than 10% of the length. |
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Iguaçu
Falls from the Brazilian side. |
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Iguaçu
Falls from the Argentine side. |
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Iguaçu
falls from the river. |
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A
family group of coati on the walk to the falls. |
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A
glorious bunch of butterflies at a water seep, probably getting
minerals from the water. |
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A
toucan at a bird preserve; we saw a number of wild toucans but couldn't
get good photos of them. |
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Two
rocks at Fernando do Naronha; this is one of the most famous sights in
Brazil, according to a guide we met at Iguaçu Falls! |
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Sign
on a beach bar on Fernando do Naronha. If you translate the
Portugese you'll find just a touch of the Prairie Home Companion! |
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Two
caymen at night at the Refugio da Ilha in the Pantanal. |
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Steve
on horseback at the Refugio da Ilha. He stayed on for the whole
ride... |
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Roadside
bird on the way to Bonito; we saw a lot of new kinds
of birds in the Pantanal. |
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Part
of the fortress at Jiayuguang that was at the western end of the Great
Wall — and of the civilized world. When traders rode west from
here, they made their final good-byes before leaving because there was
not a good chance they would return. |
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The
Great Wall at its western end in Jiayuguang. The wall is smaller
here than near Beijing but is still impressive — and there are no
crowds around! |
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Yulin
— a Buddhist site with decorated caves cut into the sides, much like at
Dunhuang but only barely developed for tourists. We were not able
to photograph any of the caves themselves, of course. This site
was reached after what could only be called a challenging drive. |
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The
sand dunes just outside Dunhuang, shown over the roof of an arts and
tourist center at the Crescent Lake. |
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Riding
camels at the sand dunes. |
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Judy
on the Maglev train from Shanghai out to the airport in the Pudong
district. If you look carefully, you can see that the sign over
the doorway reads a speed of 431 km/hr or about 270 miles per
hour. Wow! |
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Parent
and baby African (aka Jackass) Penguin, nesting colony near Cape Town. |
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Judy
at the Capetown Harbor with Sarah Brown, a student at the University of
Cape Town. |
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Pictographs
on a stone at the bottom of Hell's Canyon on the Snake River. |
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Judy
at the former Old Faithful Gift Shop where she worked one summer when
she was a college student. |
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Nene
geese, very rare birds. |
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Sunrise
from our hotel room. |
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Pictograph
in a group of stones at the Wailua River mouth right by our hotel. |
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Waimea
Canyon. |
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Cliffs
on the Na Pali coast. |
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Geyser
(pronounced "geezer" in New Zealand) in Rotorua. |
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Maori
dancers in Rotorua. |
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Enormous
stones on the beach; these formed underground and were exposed by
erosion of the land behind the beach. |
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Yellow-eyed
penguin and chick in a sanctuary on the South Island. |
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Glacial
country near Mount Cook on South Island. |
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Prof.
and Mrs. Shi at the dinner in Hangzhou celebrating his 70th birthday. |
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The
special working table in a house dedicated to preserving ancient
calligraphy, Shaoxing |
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Judy
and Steve in the bamboo sea, similar to the place where the "fighting
in the bamboo forest" scene in Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed. |
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A
group of actors at a temple in Ningbo, apparently waiting for their
scene(s) to start. |
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The
stone monkey overlooking the ocean, photographed just at sunrise.
There is a bit of a "sea of clouds" behind the monkey. We left
the hotel at 4:30 am to walk up to the viewpoint from which this was
taken. |
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Some
craggy rocks near the top of the mountains. These kinds of rock
formations are common in the Huang Shan and show that Chinese landscape
painting is based on real places such as this. |
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The
old (and getting pretty tired) folks in front of a formation called the
"praying hands." The steps to the left are typical of the
well-used trails in the mountains: very well maintained, but quite
steep. |
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Bearers
carrying supplies to the hotels and shops at the top of the
mountains. All supplies are carried this way; the cable car is
reserved for tourists (both foreign and Chinese). |
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The
entrance to an ancient Hong village. The village is still
inhabited. |
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Inside
the ancient Hong village. The village is built around this pond,
and was used for some of the shots in Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon. |
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The
high-rises on Hong Kong Island with Kowloon beyond, shot from Victoria
Peak. |
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A
downtown Kowloon street with signs filling the space over the street. |
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The
convention center (building with the swoopy roof) and other parts of
the Hong Kong waterfront. |