Visit to China

[Didache]

Hi all

I just arrived home last night from a week's visit to Beijing and Shanghai in China. I have around 800 photos to work through (all RAW), but here are just three to give a flavour.

The first is a Tai Chi master - she was running some kind of class in the gardens of the Summer Palace in Beijing, where the emperor would go when it was hot. I have seen Tai Chi before, but never like this - she was astonishing.

The second is the Olympic countdown board at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, complete with a guard.

The third was one of those special moments - all the parks have loads of older people who congregate for exercise and to meet their friends. This was in the gardens of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. This corner of the park was known for its ballroom dancing - every morning, a hundred or more people come to dance the waltz and the foxtrot and the tango. I shot it against the sun to emphasise the earliness of the hour. Had I had a partner who could dance, I would have been right in there with them! The whole thing was magical with the dawn light and the frost - like something from a film.

As always, any comments are much appreciated.

Cheers
Mike