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Photographs of Asia travels

Photographs of Asian trips

Brand New for November 2002

Come see my newest web page online with a dozen new photographs of my travels in Israel. There may not be any dachshunds visible, but I think you might find the photos and the text of my time in Jerusalem and in other places of interest. Check it out at Israel Travel Photographs

Great Wall near Beijing China
This photo was taken on my 3+ week long trip to China in 1987. That same year I also took a separate trip to the Soviet Union and Scandinavia. We walked on this section of the Great Wall for about an hour. The stairs were sometimes most difficult to walk up as the step height varied from mere inches to 3 feet or so often in the same section of stairs. The Great Wall of China was built more than 2,000 years ago and is one of the largest building construction projects ever completed. Constructed of masonry, rocks and packed-earth, it was at one time over 6,400 kilometres (4,000 miles) long and stretches across the mountains of northern China. The part we visited is called BaDaLing which is the "North Pass" of JuYongGuan Pass which is located far outside of Beijing. It is one of the best preserved parts of the Great Wall.

At the Forbidden City in Beijing where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties carried out their administration and lived. Yellow tile roofs adorned with dragons were everywhere. The number of dragons determined the importance of a particular building--the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is shown behind me in this photograph, was the most important ceremonial building in the Forbidden City and has 12 dragons on its roof. The hall was first built in 1406 and as the heart of the Forbidden City, the Hall of Supreme Harmony used to be the place where emperors received high officials and all important ceremonies were held. Since the Hall of Supreme Harmony was symbol of the imperial power, it was the tallest structure during the Ming and Qing dynasties in the nation and no other buildings were allowed to be higher than it.


Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Tiananmen Square is a modern creation, China being a land where large public gathering places were not traditionally built. This is the square where the Chinese democracy movement was later brutally crushed. Behind me can be seen the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) which was built in the 15th century and restored in the 17th. On the top of the central door is a gigantic portrait of Chairman Mao with slogans on each side saying 'Long Live the People's Republic of China' and 'Long Live the Unity of the Peoples of the World'. Walk through that gate and you will be the Forbidden City.


I visited the largest Buddhist temple in Japan in Nara on another trip in 1989. Named Todaiji Temple it has the world's largest gilded bronze Buddha which is kept in an all-wood building,called the Daibutsu-den, which is 157 feet in height, and is the largest wooden building in the world. The Todaiji Temple complex was built around the year 743. The Daibutsu-den has been destroyed several times in the past by fire and war with this current version of the building dating from 1709. It was late winter when I was in Japan and there were very few foreign tourists anywhere I went.


Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto Japan. Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion) is the most famed of Japanese temples. Originally built by the Shogun of Ashikaga in 1394 the the three-storied, gilded hall The Golden Pavilion was destroyed in the 1950s by an insane monk and rebuilt in great detail exactly as before. The name of the surrounding pond is Kyoko-chi (Mirror Pond).


This photo was taken in Kyoto at the Higashi-Honganji Buddhist temple. The Higashi Honganji complex has the largest wooden structure in Kyoto and was built in the late 19th century. Behind me you can see the two-story gate which leads into the yard in front of the Founder's Hall dedicated to the founder of the Shin Buddhist tradition.

Early morning Floating Market
Local people buy and sell produce and other food products early in the morning at this market in boats near Bangkok Thailand. The most exotic food product for sale there was definately the grasshoppers and water bugs which were deep fried and ready to be munched like potato chips...but not by me!


At Temple of the Golden Buddha (Wat Traimit) in Bangkok. This Golden Buddha is the world's largest golden Buddha statue and weighs 5.5 tons. This statue has an interesting story. It was once encased in plaster and set in Wat Chotinaram, a temple in the business section of Bangkok. Encasing Buddha statues in plaster was a fairly common practice in old Siam to make looters less interested in carting them off. This Sukothai era statue (1238-1360) was covered to protect it from Burmese invaders. In 1955 the land that Wat was on was sold and the statue was moved to Wat Traimit. During the transfer, the Buddha was accidentally dropped from its crane and cracked. A heavy rain that evening further weakened the plaster skin and in the morning a metallic glow was seen and the protective plaster was removed.



Beautiful temple and courtyard
Bangkok...and that's me standing there (the tiny figure).


The Phillipines
I'm shown at the factory where they make the extremely colorful trucks called jeepneys that are the main source of transportation for the masses in Manila, the Phillipines.

Please come by and see my new dachshund page as of August 2002. See wiener dogs hiking at the Pacific ocean, terrorizing small lobsters and plaster deer, moving their home and murdering rats (ugh!). All this and more at Dachshunds Rule!

Want to take a trip back in time to when Wotan and Shakti were young puppies? Then stop by and see the web page I made in the Spring of 2002. There are quite a few cute portraits and action photos of them as dachshund puppies. The text tells of how we got the names Wotan and Shakti, what they mean and also talks about the defect Wotan was born with (which hasn't held him back in his life). Please stop by and see it at Dachshund Puppies: Wotan and Shakti


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