China and Taiwan Galleries

Taipei, Sep 2008 : While visiting Taipei with my good friend Morris, we visited a famous "night market," which is exactly what it sounds like, and spent some time walking around the city. The Maokong Gondola takes one high up into the mountains over Taipei, to the little tea-farming village of Maokong. The views from the gondola give a pretty good idea of what the air is like in Taipei (hint: not clear). Later, we visited the famous Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world, which provides incredible views of the metropolis.

Taipei, Sep 2008

While visiting Taipei with my good friend Morris, we visited a famous ...

Updated: Jul 28, 2009 11:27pm PST

From Taipei to Taroko, Sep 2008 : These pictures were taken on the way from Taipei, in the north of Taiwan, to Taroko National Park, on the eastern coast. We journeyed first by car to Yilan, then by train to Hualien, and finally by car again into the park. The area around Yilan has many rice farms, and the houses tend to take a square form. That area is also home to a cultural arts center, where one could walk through a reproduction of a traditional temple. Coming into Hualien, the landscape becomes incredibly dramatic. I found a real temple in a little town where we stopped, and I took advantage of the brief visit to capture some photos of traditional architecture up close.

From Taipei to Taroko, Sep 2008

These pictures were taken on the way from Taipei, in the north of Taiw ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 1:46am PST

Taroko National Park, Taiwan, Sep 2008 : The Taroko Gorge is one of the deepest in the world and an incredibly dramatic landscape on a cloudy day. We took the road up the gorge to the little town of Tiansiang, where there is a large Buddhist temple complex and the hotel where we stayed the night. Going up the gorge, one sees spectacular mountains, waterfalls everywhere, mountainside shrines, a dam, tunnels - and awe-inspiring views every direction one turns.

Taroko National Park, Taiwan, Sep 2008

The Taroko Gorge is one of the deepest in the world and an incredibly ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 2:09am PST

Beijing: Streets and Hutong Neighborhoods, and a Few Odds and Ends, Sep 2008 : Visiting Beijing, we spent quite a bit of time walking around, including through the famous hutongs. (Hutongs are the literally ancient neighborhoods of one-story houses on small alleyways that made up the bulk of old Beijing...now mostly lost to the bulldozers, but a few in the very center of Beijing have been preserved.) We also visited the city planning museum, which has some remarkable models of ancient and modern Beijing, showing the layout of the city and how it has developed.

Beijing: Streets and Hutong Neighborhoods, and a Few Odds and Ends, Sep 2008

Visiting Beijing, we spent quite a bit of time walking around, includi ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 1:11am PST

Beijing: Temple of Heaven, Sep 2008 : The Temple of Heaven was built in the early 1400s, and was the place where the emperor prayed to heaven for good harvests. Almost every aspect of its design is symbolic, for example square and circular forms representing earth and heaven, brought together in the layout of walls and buildings. The complex includes a large "circular mound altar" towards the southern end, with a form like a giant three-layer cake of stone; the emperor would stand atop to make his prayers. Two round halls to the north, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, were the other main sites of imperial ritual.

Beijing: Temple of Heaven, Sep 2008

The Temple of Heaven was built in the early 1400s, and was the place w ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 7:23am PST

Beijing: Qianmen and Tiananmen Square, Sep 2008 : Tiananmen Square is one of the most famous locations in China. It fills the space between Qianmen, one of the old gates of imperial Beijing, and Tiananmen, the front gate of the Forbidden City. This is the center of Chinese communism, home of the Great Hall of the People, the Memorial Hall to Chairman Mao, etc.

Beijing: Qianmen and Tiananmen Square, Sep 2008

Tiananmen Square is one of the most famous locations in China. It fil ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 9:11am PST

Beijing: The Forbidden City, Sep 2008 : I found the Forbidden City hard to photograph, the scale being so large that one can hardly hope to capture the grandeur of its conception with pictures taken on the ground. These pictures show many of the most important buildings of the outer and inner courts, but I fear do not do them justice. Far more successful, I think, are the later photos of the more intimate spaces off the central axis of the palace complex.

Beijing: The Forbidden City, Sep 2008

I found the Forbidden City hard to photograph, the scale being so larg ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 8:01am PST

Beijing: Jingshan Park, Sep 2008 : Jingshan is a large artificial hill immediately north of the Forbidden City, built with fill from the excavation of the Forbidden City moats (and in an era long before earthmovers!). For centuries it was the emperor's private garden; today it is a city park. There are five ancient pavilions on top from which one can view the city. Jingshan is also the famous site where the last Ming emperor, faced with a rebel army at the gates of the city, committed suicide.

Beijing: Jingshan Park, Sep 2008

Jingshan is a large artificial hill immediately north of the Forbidden ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 6:22am PST

The Great Wall at Badaling, Sep 2008 : Badaling is one of the most famous access points to the Great Wall, a pass where the wall must descend from the heights to meet the road coming up from Beijing. In this saddle a fortress was constructed, which the road passes through. At this point one can walk onto the wall and go up in either direction. During the few hours I had there, I went up first to the north, passing over the first few peaks, and then returned and went to the first peak south of the fortress. From the heights one can see the wall running across mountains all the way to the horizon. The day I was there it was incredibly crowded from the fortress up to the first few peaks to the north, as I have captured here in a few of these photos. For some reason far fewer people went southward, and at times I had whole sections of the wall to myself.

The Great Wall at Badaling, Sep 2008

Badaling is one of the most famous access points to the Great Wall, a ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 9:30am PST

A Traditional Wedding in the Zhujiajiao Water Town: Shih-Hung and Danielle, Sep 2008 : We stopped in Shanghai so that Morris could be best man in the wedding of his good friend Shih-Hung. The bride and groom were wonderfully kind in letting me come along to see a traditional Chinese wedding - despite having never met me before! I very much enjoyed getting to know them and getting to be a part of this occasion. The wedding was in the Zhujiajiao "water town," an ancient town of canals, somewhat like a small Venice. These photos show both the town and the events.

A Traditional Wedding in the Zhujiajiao Water Town: Shih-Hung and Danielle, Sep 2008

We stopped in Shanghai so that Morris could be best man in the wedding ...

Updated: Jul 29, 2009 9:37am PST

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Brian E. Coggins, Ph.D., Durham, North Carolina.
Copyright (c) 2003-2009 Brian E. Coggins. All rights reserved.

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