Short travel post number one -- China, the Great Wall -- and a few bonus photos.

Several of you asked for more pics of my trip to China and I'm happy to oblige. Today I'm starting with a few outtakes from travel articles I've written since returning home. I'll start my first 'proper' China post back at the Great Wall after a little detour.

If you'd rather read/comment on my Word Press blog, go here...

TRAVEL 'FIRSTS'

Travellers the world over share the heady anticipation of ‘firsts’—the first time they see Rocamadour, (the town of the Black Madonna and foie gras) built into the cliff face not far from Bordeaux in France, the first time they make it to Everest Main Camp, the first time they make a pilgrimage to Machu Picchu.

Glorious Rocamadour didn't disappoint!

Yet some ‘firsts’ can be disappointing. Think about this...As I entered the hallowed halls of the Vatican to gaze upon Michelangelo’s painted ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, a much-anticipated 'first', it was not the ceiling but the floor that dominated the scene—wall to wall tourists lying on their backs pointing cameras with lenses as long as their arms to the ceiling while nattily-dressed security guards danced over the inert bodies screaming, ‘No photo! No photo!’

But my last ‘first’ exploded every expectation I’d held since I saw newspaper photos of President Nixon and Mao Zedong on the Great Wall of China in the '70s—my own ‘first’ visit to the Great Wall, the foremost example of ancient architecture on the planet.

What I dubbed Base Camp at the Juyong Pass Great Wall section.
After climbing the wall, it was good to mosey around here while the thighs tried to stop wobbling.

Getting ready to rock! That mountain top looks a long way away!

Heading for the watchtower at the top of the mountain. Those stairs were full-on killers. We’re all giddily happy to be climbing the wall. Some tell me it was a long-cherished dream, impossible to fulfill when China was closed to foreigners, (wàiguó rén, or ‘big noses’).

This wall is mighty steep and goes forever. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock 'n' roll!!

The top of the section. Sadly, I didn't make it this far, but the hubs is far more competitive than I am...of course he had to take photos for me!

• How about you? Do you have any travel 'firsts' that never leave your mind?

Thanks for coming by.

I hope you enjoyed travelling with me.

Next post will be on Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.

#IWSG...The A-Z is into its first week...but I am climbing walls in China!

What an eagerly-awaited month!

 April is here!
The A-Z is here!
But...I am not here.

Alex's awesome co-hosts for the April 6 IWSG are Megan Morgan, Chris Votey, Viola Fury, Christine Rains, Madeline Mora-Summonte, L.G. Keltner, and Patricia Lynne! Please visit if you can!

Click HERE to visit more posts

I am not participating in the A-Z as April is a different sort of month for me. Posting every day and commenting is out of the question...because I AM IN CHINA! Yes, you heard! I've been here 3 days now and no doubt I'm loving it! (If that confuses you, this is a pre-scheduled post).

I mentioned some time ago that China was on my wish list, and I grabbed a fantastic opportunity for a guided tour of Beijing and Shanghai when it came up. So, I'll either be so amazed I'll return and see more under my own steam, or this short tour will be enough to satisfy my China wunderlust.

I love immersing myself in new cultures, do you? China is the polar opposite to Australia in so many ways. The good thing is that several of my students speak Mandarin, so I have the important go-to phrases if I manage to give the guides the slip and do some exploring of my own.

This is not a travel article (that will be written when I return), but for those who're interested, here are the highlights...Can't wait to get photographs of my own, but here are found images...

www.china-mike.com

BEIJING: The Great Wall of China (of course!!).  I'm probably clambering over some of the 5,000 km Wall (3,100 miles - some say 5,500 miles) trying not to think about the skeletons under the cement of those labourers who died during the making of (I used to teach Ancient History), Tienanmen Square (to pay  homage to the students who did/didn't die there in the demonstrations of 1989), The Forbidden City, parts of which are no longer forbidden to Westerners. We get to eat real Peking Duck...hmm...hope the feet have been removed...ogle bogle!

1930 on Tai'an Lu - art deco store
in the French Concession

SHANGHAI: The highlight here to me will be the French Concession. I read a fabulous novel by Lisa See set in this section of the city (it is not on the guided tour, so will have to sneak off..but I AM GOING THERE!). No doubt it'll turn up in a future story.

Click here to read about it...

Then the Bund District (the European section which I suppose they think we'd like to see), but most importantly we spend a couple of days out in the country visiting and staying at two little traditional cities where we can imagine the Old Dynastic China. I'm expecting a photographer's paradise!

So, not feeling insecure. Travel always washes away my insecurities as it's my default happy position. I've been writing up a storm in March...have a novella set in Paris which keeps growing at the suggestion of my beyond-awesome critique partner, and I have made a good start on the sequel to my paranormal romance, Under the Tuscan Moon.

All you A-Zers, I wish you well. I'll be along to read catch-up posts when I return. But the final weeks of April I will spend doing my April NaNoWriMo...writing every day like it's November. In China I will be writing every chance I get. Will have a new big, fat, copious journal clutched under my arm.

Thanks for coming by!

Leave a comment please! Google is out of favour in China, so is Facebook and most social media, I am told, but I will reply to comments when I return to the land of Oz.