The most ancient city wall is well worth visiting for family vacations

Xian city, born in the year 904, with Athens, Rome, Cairo are referred to as the four ancient capital of the world, very famous for the most ancient city wall built in 1374 or so, nowadays it’s the most complete ancient city wall, and also the largest ancient military defensive project in the world. For family vacations with kids, it’s indeed a place worth visiting.

The most ancient city wall is well worth visiting for family vacations

It is 12 meters tall, 14 meters wide at the top, 18 meters wide at the bottom, the perimeter is about 14 kilometers. There are 4 gates in the east, south, west and north, the south gate called Yongning, is the most beautifully decorated one, which opening hours is from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M.; at the top of the wall there is one rampart or house every 120 meters, a total of 98 ramparts.

The most ancient city wall is well worth visiting for family vacations

You may bike at the top of the Wall, absolutely an enjoyable experience. To cycle round the whole wall takes 1.5 to 2 hours at a medium speed. In addition, you may also visit the terracotta army as the eighth wonder of the world and enjoy an old Music and Dance Show which was very popular in 618- 907 AD. The best time for travelling is from June to Oct, from 2014, Xian city implements the 72-Hour Visa-Free Policy to facilitate passport holders.

The most ancient city wall is well worth visiting for family vacations

Surrounding the city wall is a city moat, but only part of it has survived. If need any free travel recommendations, please check the websites of China travel agents.

The pictures are from Here and Here.

The most ancient log cabin homes built in the year 1300

Log cabin homes have an ancient history in the world, often associated with first generation home building by settlers. In fact, it’s a kind of houses built with wood, now log cabin homes means: Back to nature. People prefer to spend their vacation in a log cabin home equipped with modern appliance, or buy a log cabin home in some places near forest or beach. Now I’ll introduce the most ancient log cabin homes built in 1300 or so.

The most ancient log cabin homes built in the year 1300

Bagua Village in China, looking like a maze, established in 1300 or so. The whole village was laid out according to Bagua which is an ancient theory, meaning 'mazing'. Today the village still preserves a huge amount of ancient wooden houses built from 1368 to 1912. Bagua Village looks like a bowl, which middle is the pond, a total of 8 small streets radiate outward from the pond, called 'Inside Maze'; then there are 8 small hills surrounding the whole village, called 'Outside Maze'.

The most ancient log cabin homes built in the year 1300

This village just has 8 small streets, every street develops many narrow lanes, but some of which are dead-ends; in addition, all houses are the same, same style and same wood!  So that any strange visitors will get lost in this village, in fact the house numbers were also the same many years ago, because the aim of establishing this village was to confuse the enemy at that time, then do you want to have a try?

The most ancient log cabin homes built in the year 1300

The pictures are from here, and Here.

Unique iron fireworks which maybe you have never heard of

The iron fireworks are so unique, which maybe you have never heard of.

When the molten iron with a temperature of over 1000 degrees, is throw onto the cold brick wall one ladle after another ladle, bursting out sparks of dazzling, it’s called the iron tree flowers or Hit Tree Flowers in China.

Iron tree flowers

It was created by one poor blacksmith in 1700 or so, now the surface of the ancient wall of Warm Spring Town has been covered with a thin layer of iron after over 300 hundred years.

Nowadays, in order to enjoy this visual Feast, more and more tourists pour into this small town during Chinese New Year! Warm Spring Town is also an ancient town owning a lot of various ancient houses built in different dynasties, including the Liao Dynasty (916 - 1125), Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1386), Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911). So if you are also very interested in ancient buildings, this small town is a very good travel destination.

The main spawning area of turtles in the world

In the breeding season, about 95% of turtles will return to the original birthplace under the guidance of a magnetic field, mating and spawning, sometimes they need to swim 2253 km. The below picture shows the traces of the turtles who crawl on a beach for mating and spawning. So far there are no statistics on the numbers of the main spawning areas of turtles in the world, and here is a brief introduction about three famous turtle spawning areas.

Every year from September to January the following year, the Pacific Olive Ridley sea turtles will conduct a collective shore spawning activity. A turtle only lays eggs every month, lasting for 3-5 days. On the Ostional beach in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, female turtles dig their nests on the beach with their fins to lay about 10 to 190 eggs, then back to the ocean. Because of natural enemies and other factors, most of turtle eggs can’t survive. After one week, small turtles come out of their nests and return to the sea. This natural phenomenon has lasted more than 100 million years.

The Port Turtle Nature Reserve located in Huidong County, Guangdong, China, with an area of 1400 hectares, is the only one turtle nature reserve in Asia, From June to September, many green turtles will migrate to local turtle Bay, which spawning time is usually after 10 pm. After 49-60 days of natural hatching in the wet sand beach, the shells of Turtle eggs will be broken, little young turtles crawl into the sea one after another. The best tourist season is in the summer and autumn.

On the Orissa in the eastern coast of India, or the southern coast of Mexico, you can see the spectacular scene of thousands of turtles laying eggs. Olive Ridley turtles (one of the world's smallest turtles) produces 1 to 3 nests of eggs per season, about 116 turtle eggs per nest. These eggs need take 7 weeks to hatch. Small turtles will rely on the nutrients in eggshells to crawl into the sea after birth. But scientists found that the beach is very close to local 3 fishing villages, so they wonder how the human and turtle groups share an activity space.

The pictures are from Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, and Link 4.

How does a single tree make a forest?

This small island in a river is a bird paradise, a small forest, where thousands of egrets and bittern inhabit, they always go out early and come back at dusk. It should be very common, but there is only a single tree in this small island, do you believe?  

How does a single tree make a forest? 500 years ago, in the river, a single banyan tree was growing in a mud lump without life, maybe a bird planted... it grew higher and higher, some branches fell to the ground to become aerial roots,  which grew new branches soon...  repeated and repeated like that... finally this banyan tree made a mud lump an island and a forest.

Can you draw inspiration from this natural forestation? now this small island in a river is a natural park protected by local government, located in China’s Jiang Men City.

The pictures are from here.

Underground Great Wall

The underground Great Wall is a ancient war tunnel built in AD 960 to 1127 in order to guard against Liao Dynasty’s aggression; so far the discovered part of the whole tunnel is 65 kilometers long from east to west, 25 kilometers wide from south to north, covering an area of about 1300 square kilometers.

Within it there are also several sitting rooms with air vents, water vat and other living facilities, as well as some military facilities like various traps, bunkers, double walls and so on. Additionally connected to outside wells, temples, stone towers and shops and other buildings...

As a national secret military project, it was't recorded in history, so wasn't discovered until 1950. Later it's named the Underground Great Wall located in Yong Qing County, China.

The pictures are from here.

Ancient houses on cliff wall

These cliff wall houses in Beijing's outskirts, have complex structure and ingenious design. It’s said  to be excavated by a tribe during 581 AD to 907 AD, in a quiet valley less than 10 meters wide, nearly 100 thousand square meters of steep cliff wall are covered with various sizes of 117 cave rooms. As a result, tourists keep coming.

These cliff wall houses or cave houses are connected with each other through stone steps and stone ladders, very orderly.  Each cave house is about 1.8 meters high, most has three bedrooms, but only 1 bedroom has windows.  The biggest cave room is about 20 square meters, whereas the smallest about  4 square meters, equipped with stone beds, stoves and closets and so on. Different cave rooms have different functions, with a stone bed are for people, with a manger are for horse...

Besides one cliff wall house similar to ancient palace, has 4 stone pillars supporting the roof, and 2 small bedrooms on both sides, not only very tall and spacious, but owns excellent indoor lighting and fine carving...  why did ancient Chinese live in a steep cliff wall? because no definite historical records, it's still a mystery!

The pictures are from here.

World's Highest Bridge

Siduhe River Bridge in Badong County, Hubei Province, was built in 2009, is a suspension bridge over a deep river gorge, 1365 meters long, 496 meters high, 226 meters higher than France’s Millau bridge, well known as World's Highest Bridge.

To visit Siduhe River is really a very special travel, you may see this magnificent bridge from different positions. However, it won’t be World's Highest Bridge after several years, why? Woluohete Bridge under construction in Yanyuan County will be 575 meters high.

The picture is from here.

The most unique forest type in the world

There are many forest types in the world, however there's one type of forest without any species of plants and animals, very unique, we may call it the soil forest.
The soil forest composed of sand and clay and covering a wide area, is a wonderful natural geographical phenomena, very ancient, maybe can be regarded as one of the natural wonders. Rich in animal and plant fossils, such as huge oak wood fossil, Stegodon fossil, rhinoceros fossil, saber toothed tiger fossil and so on.

Located in China's Yuanmou County, each soil forest is about 5 square kilometers, looking like many pillars with different sizes and shapes. Because containing dense mica and quartz and other minerals, soil forest always sparkle in the sun.

Not only attracts many tourists and photographers and geologists, but also some famous film directors, so here is also a film and photographic paradise.

The pictures are from here.

Enclosed houses: the oldest China castles

The round enclosed houses are one of the oldest castles in China, with defense function. Their
building style and techniques are very unique: in the base there isn’t any brick or stone, the whole base is composed of the everlasting pine woods, sand, soil and limestone, all walls are connect with each other. Over 100 years went by, the walls haven’t sunk, and nearly no cracks.

Besides, there are many strange phenomena. Firstly, in the inner side of the gate, there are 7 stone slabs on the floor, when stomping on it, drumming sounds can be heard;   Secondly, there are some cracks on the stone slabs and walls, but the house is still very safe;   Thirdly, there is one old well in the back of the house, never dried up, and the well water won’t go bad even if being placed in a bowl for long time. The local villagers who often drink the well water rarely suffer from malignant disease and have longevity, now the oldest man in this China castle is 103 years old.

Now one of the China castles was built in 1886 in China’s Hezhou City, with 18 courtyards; its sewers which have never been renovated from 1886, but have been well drained.

The pictures are from here.