Sarah's Trip to China with Open Streets

Visit to China with Sarah and her Garmin GPSmap 76Cx
And Canon Digital Rebel (July 2013)
Photos by Sarah Gilboe © ° Text and GPS maps by jack yeazel

Also check Sarah's trip to the North Pole

Overall Tracks of the China Visit

NOTE: Click on Thumbnails

Beijing, China - July 23, 24
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Beijing Zoo Entrance Tiananmen Square Forbidden City Entrance Forbidden City Tower

Tiananmen Square was built in 1420s when the emperor of Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing. It can accommodate over 1,000,000 people and covers 99 acres. It is named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world . It has great cultural significance being the site of several important events in Chinese history.

Forbidden City Details
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The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the center of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings, and exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

Google Earth Views from the GPSmap76Cx Waypoints
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Beijing Zoo (001) Tiananmen Square (002) Forbidden City (003) Summer Palace (004)

Garmin-compatible OpenStreet Maps agree with recorded waypoints on Google Earth.
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Beijing Zoo (001) Tiananmen Square (002) Forbidden City (003) Summer Palace (004)

The Open Streets Project maps are free (donations accepted) and can be customized as to the tile arrangement one needs for download. The downloads can be either in the gmapsupp.img format for copying onto microSD cards or the 'csm_generic_windows.exe' format which will install the map onto MapSource or BaseCamp. With an installation into MapSource, one can select only regions of interest to load into the unit.

View these maps using the Garmin City Navigator China NT microSD card (HERE)

NOTES: In the case of the GPSmap 76Cx (a 'protocol' unit), once you use a microSD card for map storage, one can never again access the internal memory for map storage. Thus one must have a microSD card inserted to load maps, and each map upload will overwrite the stored map. To retain several maps, one must use a separate SD card for each map set. Waypoints, Tracks, and Routes stored in internal memory are not disturbed. Garmin's specifications for the GPSmap 76Cx indicate the maximum size of an SD card is 1 GB, but with the latest update (v. 3.40), the maximum size is increased to 4 GB.

The GPSmap 78sc (a 'mass-storage' unit) one can upload map sets into internal memory without disturbing the map in the SD card. in fact with a large SD card (up to 32 GB), one can charge the names of the unused maps from something other than 'gmapsupp.img' and store several map sets. These "rules" may also hold for other protocol and mass-storage units, such as the Dakota 20.

The Great Wall of China - July 25

3-D View ° Located about 50 miles north-west of Beijing

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Entrance to the Wall ° The rampart slots are on the SE side facing Mongolia ° One needs to be in good physical condition!

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OpenStreets maps show the existing portions of the wall. ° The Badaling Hills, one of the most impressive and best-preserved sections of the Great Wall of China, a 4,000-mile-long series of sandstone and earthwork fortifications built and maintained between the 5th century B.C. and the 16th century A.D. that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Changling ° The Sacred Way
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One of the Sites Close to Beijing ° Location map

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Google Earth and Open Streets views of the Sacred Way ° Pointing Toward the Ming Dynasty Tombs

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The Sacred Way, a tree-lined avenue with massive sculptures of elephants, lions and camels leading to the Ming Dynasty tombs.

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Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty are located some 25 miles north-northwest of central Beijing.

Old Beijing - July 26
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Hutongs (narrow alleys), the sights and sounds of traditional Chinese life

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A jar of snake wine and other interesting sights in Old Beijing

Xian and the Terra Cotta Warrior Museum of Qin Shihuang - July 27
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Plaque Inscription ° Let's keep this place neat. ° Entrance to Covered Dig ° Xian, about 600 miles SW of Beijing

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This is where Emperor Qin Shi Huang was laid to rest over 2,000 years ago. Thousands of life-sized terra cotta warriors, archers and infantrymen that were buried with him; each man and horse molded with its own distinctive features.

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It's hard to take in the enormity of the site.

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Work to preserve the figures and discover the original vivid colors

Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terra-cotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits near by Qin Shi Hunan's mausoleum. Other terra-cotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. For an interesting WikipediA article about the warriors, see (HERE)

Chongqing - July 27
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Some Chongqing city views after a flight from Xian ° A double 'Chrysler' building?
Chongqing is technically the largest city in China in terms of area (32,000 Sq. Mi.) and the fastest growing. The population increases by 500,000 each year and has 31,000,000 residents, currently. It was established 3,000 years ago. In 1891, it became the first inland port that opened to foreign trade. The National government relocated here during WW-II.

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Creatures in a small park ° A 'pet?' snapping turtle in a bucket ° Preparing to board the ship

Chongqiang and Yangtze River Cruise

The cruise extends from Chongqing to Wuhan

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Getting underway on the river with the Viking River Cruises ship, Century Emerald

July 28
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Impressive (old) tower and (new) river commerce ° "Annie" (our ship guide) ° Docked to travel the Gorges

The Gorges - July 29
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The maximum pool level is 175 meters above sea level. ° Small strange-looking ships take side cruises in the gorges.

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River 'cliff-dwellers' ° Closer View ° Nearing the Three Gorges Dam ° Dam and Locks Map

Three Gorges Dam - July 30
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Traversing the locks at night ° Ship cam, so you don't have to go outside to see where you're going!

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Views of the locks of the world's largest dam.

Trip Downstream, - July 31
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Life on the river

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Mrs. Gilboe with friends at the Dam visitor's center, and the Jingzhou Viking School. Viking sponsors the school but not the content of what they teach. The school is in a poor part of the town that really needs help. Asked what kind of science they teach the kids in grade school, and the response was, "political science." Apparently the kids don't get the other kind of science until well into high school.

Ship Entertainment, Karaoke Night
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The onboard chef's demonstration of "Things" he could create
A face-changer. As he was dancing the mask would all of a sudden change. It was some sort of ancient tradition