Destination China
Celebrate the year of Tiger, beginning February 14
Walking along the Great Wall in Beijing; riding man-peddled wooden boat on the Grand Canal in a water village; and taking martial art training at the famous Shaolin Monastery Institute, China is a cultural and experiential destination for families and individuals.
YANGTZE RIVER CRUISE
The Yangtze River, along with the Yellow River, is the origin of Chinese civilization. From melting glacial waters in Tibet to the East China Sea at Shanghai, the world’s third longest river runs almost 4000 miles and divides the country into northern China and southern China. On the cruise, you will see the spectacular Three Gorges, many archaeological and cultural sites, and the largest hydroelectric power station in the world: the Three Gorges Dam.
GREAT WALL OF CHINA
Built in 210 BC by the first emperor Qin Shi Huang, the Great Wall stretches for more than 5500 miles. While walking on the Great Wall is very popular at Badaling, you can also take a day or two to trek the less popular but rather impressive Mutianyu, Jinshanling, and Simatai.
GOBI DESERT
The world’s fifth largest desert is along the Silk Road, a route through which China opened its door to the West in the Han Dynasty. Today’s Xinjiang province has several legendary sites such as Mogao Cave in Dunhuang, the Heavenly Lake in Urumqi and Flaming Mountain, a well-known 16th century Chinese classic and scenic Journey to the West spot in Turpan.
The 56 Chinese ethnic groups(中国56个民族)
Kudos to 14 professional Chinese photographers who traveled more than 10000 miles and took one year of time to take these beautiful high resolution pictures of each of the 56 Chinese ethnic groups. In the book they published “Harmonious China — China’s 56 ethnic groups silhouette” (<<和谐中华——中国56个民族剪影>>), each picture was documented with the photographer’s name, when and where the picture was taken with the exact longitude and latitude, and the names of the actors and actresses in the picture.
Among the 56 ethnic groups, Han(汉族) is the largest also called the majority while the rest is called the minorities. Han people accounts for 91.6% of the Chinese population. While the 55 minority ethnic groups distributed extensively throughout different regions of China, Yunnan Province has the greatest minority groups – 25 groups. Government policies allow ethnic groups to deal with their own affairs to ensure unity and equality, especially in five autonomous regions; Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet. Each of the minority ethnic groups has a distinctive and different character, its own language and belief. Among the 55 minority ethnic groups, Guangxi province’s Zhuang Zu, Tibet’s Zang Zu, and Inner mongolia’s Mongol are the top three largest groups
Names of the 55 minority ethnic groups(少数民族) are: Achang, Bai, Blang, Bonan, Bouyei, Chaoxian, Dai, Daur, Deang, Dong, Dongxiang, Dulong, Ewenki, Gaoshan, Gelao, Gin, Hani, Hezhen, Hui, Jingpo, Jinuo, Kazak, Kirgiz, Lahu, Li, Lisu, Luoba, Man, Maonan, Miao, Monba, Mongol, Mulam, Naxi, Nu, Oroqen, Primi, Qiang, Russian, Salar, She, Shui, Tagik, Tatar, Tu, Tujia, Uygur, Uzbek, Wa, Xibe, Yao, Yi, Yugur, Zang, Zhuang.
See all 56 photos at http://hi.baidu.com/pdsdhh008/blog/item/adb6cc50c19e436885352491.html