Thursday, August 14, 2008

Guilin (桂林)


Guilin 桂林 is a city in China, situated in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the west bank of the Li River.


Its name means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city.


The city has long been renowned for its unique scenery.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

West Lake (杭州西湖)






West Lake is a famous fresh water lake located in central Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province of eastern China.

The lake is divided by three causeways called Sū Dī (蘇堤) , Bái Dī (白堤), and Yánggōng Dī (楊公堤).

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Great Wall (長城)


The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 6th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC.

The most famous is the wall built between 220–200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it remains; it was much farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, but stretches to over 6,700 km (4,160 miles) in total.


At its peak, the Ming Wall was guarded by more than one million men.
It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall.