Anhui, China (Part 3) & Suzhou, China (Part 8)

In the month of December in 2013, I took a trip to China to visit relatives and to travel places and take photos. On this trip, I visited Jiangsu (江苏), Anhui (安徽), Hong Kong (香港), and Macau (澳门). I took many photos on this trip and I will be splitting them into many parts. I will do my best in these blog post to describe the photos, however due to the lack of map data for China (on Google) and my horrible Chinese, I may not be able to give you too much details on certain things. At the time of visit, the smog in China is very heavy. In many of the photos, you will see what looks to be fog or haze, but it is the smog (pollution) in China. Be warned, that the pollution in China is not at safe levels. I started coughing less than one week into the trip, and I did not recover until the beginning of March this year (2014). Many individuals in China had the same cough I got. If you haven't done so, you can view my vlogs here. I already posted all my vlogs (of the entire trip) on Youtube, but these photos will come out in parts.

12/2013，我去中国旅游。我去了江苏、安徽、香港、和澳门玩。我会把照片分成很多部分。我的中文没有那么好，我不能翻译所有的东西。 我去中国的时候有很大的雾霾。我咳嗽咳了好几个月。我这次旅游也拍了一些视频，你可以在这里看。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best China photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of my photos from 12/15/2013 through 12/17/2013, use this link.

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The photos for today are from Anhui, China (安徽, 中国) and from Suzhou, Jiangsu, China (苏州, 江苏, 中国). I finish off the rest of the photos in Hefei (合肥), and then show you photos from Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇), and Tong Cheng (同城). Then I will have a few photos from Suzhou, Jiangsu, China (苏州, 江苏, 中国).

今天的照片是在安徽和苏州拍的。我会有合肥，三河古镇，痛陈，苏州的照片。

Continuing from my last post. This is a photo of the remains of my great grandfather's house. Only part of a mud wall is left. On the right, 2 of my relatives are walking towards the house. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 15 N 117 16 13 E 

A storage shed made out of branches and trees. Building material is stored inside. These are pretty common out in rural China. 

 Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 17 N 117 16 09 E 

Farm raised ducks and chicken near the crop fields.  

农村的动物。

 Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 15 N 117 16 07 E 

 Here is a photo of cotton taken out of the shells laid down on a piece of tarp. 

棉花

Our relatives (that took us to our other relatives that took us to the grave site) lives in Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇). They have their own restaurant there and insisted that we go eat (and for me to take photos). So back in the historic town now.  

回到了三河古镇。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 30 59 N 117 14 17 E 

The store owners in Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇).  

Black and white process of the photo above.  

 Back to Tong Cheng (桐城), where our closest relatives live, and where we were staying while in Anhui (安徽). This is a photo from the downtown area of the city.

回到了桐城。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 03 04 N 116 56 33 E 

A small pathway in Tong Cheng (桐城). These brick roads looks original. This is the last photo I shot in Anhui (安徽). The photo was shot at night, but I white balanced it which is why it looks normal. After this, I went to sleep for the night, then the next whole day, I was on a train back to Suzhou (苏州). 

这个是桐城的石头路。这是我安徽最后一张照片。我下一天坐火车回苏州。坐火车华丽一天的时间。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 03 03 N 116 56 43 E 

Black and white process of the photo above.   

The day after the train ride, our friends in Suzhou (苏州) decided to treat us to Szechuan cuisine before we fly off for a trip to Hong Kong (香港) and to see our relatives there. I shot 2 photos in the restaurant. 

回到苏州，我们的朋友叫我们去吃四川菜。

Here is one of the dishes. Not sure what it was but it was very good. 

很好吃哦！

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. I fly to Hong Kong (香港) after this. Next time I will continue with photos from Hong Kong, China S.A.R. (香港特区). Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

我下一次飞到香港去玩。下一次的照片是在香港特区拍的。

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Rural Hefei (合肥乡下) - Anhui, China (Part 2)

In the month of December in 2013, I took a trip to China to visit relatives and to travel places and take photos. On this trip, I visited Jiangsu (江苏), Anhui (安徽), Hong Kong (香港), and Macau (澳门). I took many photos on this trip and I will be splitting them into many parts. I will do my best in these blog post to describe the photos, however due to the lack of map data for China (on Google) and my horrible Chinese, I may not be able to give you too much details on certain things. At the time of visit, the smog in China is very heavy. In many of the photos, you will see what looks to be fog or haze, but it is the smog (pollution) in China. Be warned, that the pollution in China is not at safe levels. I started coughing less than one week into the trip, and I did not recover until the beginning of March this year (2014). Many individuals in China had the same cough I got. If you haven't done so, you can view my vlogs here. I already posted all my vlogs (of the entire trip) on Youtube, but these photos will come out in parts.

12/2013，我去中国旅游。我去了江苏、安徽、香港、和澳门玩。我会把照片分成很多部分。我的中文没有那么好，我不能翻译所有的东西。 我去中国的时候有很大的雾霾。我咳嗽咳了好几个月。我这次旅游也拍了一些视频，你可以在这里看。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best China photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of my photos from 12/15/2013 through 12/17/2013, use this link.

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The photos for today are from Hefei (合肥) in Anhui, China (安徽, 中国). The photos are shot in a rural area in Hefei (合肥).

我今天的照片是在安徽的合肥乡下拍的。

Continuing from the previous post, my ancestors grave site is in these fields. Here is a photo of rural Hefei (合肥) showing the resident's houses off in the distance, with fields of cotton and bok choy. You can also tell from the photo, there is heavy smog even in the rural area. 

 合肥的农村和地。植物有白菜和棉花。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 14 N 117 16 02 E

Black and white process of the photo above.  

This is the first time I've seen cotton grown on a plant. I was very interested. 

这是我第一次看到棉花植物。

Another photo of the fields of bok choy and cotton plants. 

农村白菜和棉花地。 

 Here are the narrow dirt roads the workers walk on. 

地里面的土路。

Here is the grave site of our ancestors. No crops are grown on there. Chinese traditions is to burn paper money and launch some firecrackers over the grave site during your visit. In this photo, you can see my relatives. 

Here is a photo of the paper money being burned. These few shots are taken from around the same area, so I won't give a GPS reading.  

 Black and white process of the photo above.  

 Now back out of the fields, back to the houses. Here are some cotton picked off the plant. 

摘下来的棉花。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 16 N 117 16 04 E

Here are cotton shells with the cotton already separated out. 

棉花壳 

Here is an even closer shot of freshly picked cotton. 

 摘下来的棉花。

Now we go visit the remains of my great grandfather's house. On the walk there, I spotted this really cool window at a house. I stopped to find a good angle to photograph it. The home owner came to see what I was doing. I told him, I find your window very interesting, I want a photo. He said fine and went back home. This window seems to be one on a really old mud house that is no longer used. There was only 2 walls left on the structure. The home owner stores some building supplies behind the wall. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 16 N 117 16 05 E

  Black and white process of the photo above.  

I get up close to that window for some abstract shots.  

  Black and white process of the photo above.   

I spot a rope on the window. Decided to get a depth of field shot of it.  

  Black and white process of the photo above.   

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I will continue with more photos from Anhui, China (安徽, 中国) and a few shots from Suzhou (苏州). Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

我下一次有跟多安徽和苏州拍的照片。

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Lu'an, Sanhe, & Hefei - Anhui, China (Part 1)

In the month of December in 2013, I took a trip to China to visit relatives and to travel places and take photos. On this trip, I visited Jiangsu (江苏), Anhui (安徽), Hong Kong (香港), and Macau (澳门). I took many photos on this trip and I will be splitting them into many parts. I will do my best in these blog post to describe the photos, however due to the lack of map data for China (on Google) and my horrible Chinese, I may not be able to give you too much details on certain things. At the time of visit, the smog in China is very heavy. In many of the photos, you will see what looks to be fog or haze, but it is the smog (pollution) in China. Be warned, that the pollution in China is not at safe levels. I started coughing less than one week into the trip, and I did not recover until the beginning of March this year (2014). Many individuals in China had the same cough I got. If you haven't done so, you can view my vlogs here. I already posted all my vlogs (of the entire trip) on Youtube, but these photos will come out in parts.

12/2013，我去中国旅游。我去了江苏、安徽、香港、和澳门玩。我会把照片分成很多部分。我的中文没有那么好，我不能翻译所有的东西。 我去中国的时候有很大的雾霾。我咳嗽咳了好几个月。我这次旅游也拍了一些视频，你可以在这里看。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best China photos from this trip, use this link. To view all of my photos from 12/15/2013 through 12/17/2013, use this link.

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The photos for today are from several places in Anhui, China (安徽, 中国). The photos include photos out in China's rural side in Lu'an (六安), Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇), and Hefei (合肥).

我今天的照片是在中国的安徽乡下拍的。城市有六安、三河古镇、和合肥。

So once we were in Anhui, China (安徽, 中国), we slept the first night there at our relatives house. Next day, we went driving out to Hefei (合肥) to go pay respects to our ancestor's grave site. On the trip there, really had to go use the bathroom, and being in rural China on a rural highway, that only existed on the side of the road. I happened to have pulled over to this abandoned building in Lu'an (六安). I did my business and proceeded to find a good angle on the building. Sadly, I found an outhouse on the left side of it. (Why couldn't it have shown itself earlier?!) Anyways, this seems to be an abandoned restaurant, which now is a trash recycling center. 

六安拍的一张照片。开往合肥的路上拍的。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 18 01 N 117 01 27 E

Black and white process of the photo above.  

 Now I go ahead and shoot a photo of the rural highway in Lu'an (六安). As you can see the smog (pollution) issue is also very severe in rural China. This photo has had its contrast upped more than what I usually do for photos. 

六安乡下的高速公路。

Now I get to Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇).

到了三河古镇。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 31 06 N 117 14 19 E

 Here is a photo of Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇). I will go into the town after I visit our ancestor's grave site. This is just an overview from the side of the road on a bridge. 

这是三河古镇。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 31 07 N 117 14 17 E

Here is another photo of Sanhe Ancient Town (三河古镇) from another angle on the bridge.  

这是三河古镇。

 Black and white process of the photo above.  

 Now I arrive at rural Hefei (合肥) where my ancestors are buried. Here is a rural shot of the dirt road we were driving on. It was very hard to drive on as it was dusty and narrow, but we managed. On the left is a household where one of our distant relatives lives. They took us to the grave site. 

到了合肥乡下了。土路上很难开车。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 16 N 117 16 02 E

Black and white process of the photo above.   

 Here is a photo turned around of the rural houses. On the left is what I suspect to be the original building. On the distant right is a house rebuilt. With the newer house, you can see the upper level of the house is added on at a later date. In rural China, money is tight, therefore, this does happen quite a lot. 

这些是乡下的房子。左边因该是旧房子。右边因该是新建的房子。

Here is a photo of the bricks on one of the walls of the house.  

一个房子的墙。

Chickens on the farm! Not the first time I've seen live chickens, but still very cool. We don't see these in the SF Bay Area (except Chinatown in SF). 

农村的鸡。 

 Black and white process of the photo above.   

 Here is another rural house in Hefei (合肥) along with a dirt road on the right. 

这个是乡下的房子。右边是土路。

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 31 29 17 N 117 16 02 E

 Black and white process of the photo above.    

An abstract shot of a wall. I decided to photograph it with the edge of the wall through the center. Upper center is an electrical extension cord of some sort.  

 Black and white process of the photo above.   

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time I will continue with more photos from Anhui, China (安徽, 中国). Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

我下一次有跟多安徽拍的照片。

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