Focus on exciting China: how to photograph China without spending a fortune - includes travel tips

PSA Journal, June, 1991 by Michael Dale

Almost every traveling photographer has thought about visiting China at one time or another. China has more photographic images/reflections than most countries and the price is right. You can take advantage of low air fares and reduced hotel costs. You'll eat like a king for much less than it costs in your own home town.

Since Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, China's tourism has taken a nose dive. Tourism from the United States alone had dropped a whopping 68.1 percent. Now China wants to encourage visitors so they are offering tremendous discounts on everything from airline tickets to hotels and excellent meals.

Although the U.S. State Department still does not endorse travel to China the mood and tension in Beijing and Tiananmen Square is much reduced from June '89. China realizes the impact on tourism and wants to reverse the trend. I joined a group of journalists from Australia, France, Thailand, USSR and Japan for a two week tour of six cities in late September. There were many other travelers from the USA in tour groups who were taking advantage of the lower prices.

The best times of year to viist China are February through June and September through December. January is the coldest month with July being the hottest. There are only two months of real winter. Summer is hot and humid.

Beijing

Beijing has a history that dates back 3,000 years and their Great Wall is the only manmade structure that can be seen by astronauts. We visited Tiananmen Square to photograph the unveiling of a new statue for the People's Republic of China. At the forbidden city, which for centuries was closed to everyone but the Emperor's Army, we visited The Imperial Palace. Here you can photograph a collection of clocks and timepieces worth a fortune plus many other artifacts.

The filming of the Last Emperor took place here and attracts visitors from all over the world. You can smell incense burning as you walk into the courtyard and see smoke rise from centuries old bronze burners.

Here's in the largest palace and grounds in the world, with 30 foot high walls that seem forbidding, and well preserved from ancient Ming and Qing Dynasties. Twenty-four Emperor's lived here including the Last Emperor of China. This ancient architecture with pillars lined up like tall soldiers is a pattern of Chinese influence you'll want to expose on film.

On our way back to the Kunlun Hotel we stopped at the world famous Temple of Heaven with its unique architecture and ancient sky high cypress trees. Here you'll focus on a 33 meter (108 foot) high cone-shaped Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. It's an enormous wooden structure with three umbrella shaped roofs supported by 28 pieces of Nanwood. No cross beams or nails are used on this structure.

I spotted a pair of twin boys and snapped their picture. Twins are rare in China. Because of China's over-population, citizens are restricted to only one child per couple, however, there is no penalty for an extra child when having twins. Here also is where Wcho Wall and Triple Sound Stones are tested by tourists and citizens as well, producing a unique acoustic phenomena.

Many of the temple guards forbid picture taking inside, however, a little bit of friendly persuasion and they turn their heads. You may want a higher ISO film speed to capture darker interior details.

You'll find the night life in Beijing exciting with discos located in all the western style hotels. At the Summer Palace you can photograph the famed Marble Boat and walk the Hill of Longevity, a thousand stair steps. A mile long corridor of pillars and scenery surrounding a misty lake where colorful dragon boats and floating lily pads offer opportunities to compose your best shots.

Xi'an

Xi'an (pronounced Shee-On) in Shaanxi Province is located southwest of Beijing about an hour and a half flying time. Here a Terra Cotta Army lines up waiting to be photographed. They were discovered in 1964 when a farmer digging a well turned up broken arms and hands. With special permission from Meng Jian Ming Vice Director, arranged through our tour guide, we were allowed to photograph many Terra Cotta Figurines in the First Pit of the Emperor's Army.

When you visit China, hire a tour guide. It will cost about $9 a day and the price is well worth it. The tour guides speak very good English and serve as an interpretor while you're shooting pictures. This can be a big in getting permission to shoot at certain locations.

The Chinese people love to prepare banquets for tourists and they will use every excuse to do so. Our banquet included several tables of outstanding food prepared by artistic chefs. Much of the food was western style baked ham, beef, turkey, chicken and served with rice wine. After dinner local talent put on a fantastic ballet with authentic Chinese costumes like the Emperor's private theater group. China's Theatres are world famous for ballet/opera productions. Stage shows are a lot of fun to photograph for the traveling photographer. Take along several rolls of Tungsten ISO 160 or faster for great chromes of theater action.