once the most important city in China, today is barely a provincial capital, but its charm continues to fascinate millions of people. it's my favourite Chinese city, so enjoy!

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Do you feel the love in the air?
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It`s really heaven on earth. Awesome nature.

thats looks really nice !

Is that Suzhou or Hangzhou?

West lake,Hangzhou

i love my country...

beautiful!

I've been there but it was too crowded.
Nice pictures... I love the last one!

yea,too bad its a seriously polluted city

Marco Polo was right. very nice! :)

Lovely pictures!! :applause:

Cheers!! :horse:

that's nice

When I went 2 years ago, the scenery of West Lake is kinda ruined by all the skyscrapers peeking thru the trees and mountains :-(

Here are some pictures I took while at the West Lake in Hangzhou, they aren't as spectacular but Hangzhou was a very nice city. I don't believe it to be polluted at all although the lake was hot and humid especially while taking the ferries that took you from one island to the next.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/bigkahuna87/Picture054.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/bigkahuna87/Picture055.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/bigkahuna87/Picture078.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/bigkahuna87/Picture072.jpg

thank you...

Lakes and the architectures are very similar to Yangzhou.

nice pics, one of them doesnt show up....

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i think Marco Polo never expect China would become technologically inferior 500 years later.

I've heard that China has no records whatsoever of a 'Marco Polo'....

I've heard that China has no records whatsoever of a 'Marco Polo'....

ya, :weirdo: :jk: :bash: :cheers: according to you he was chinese? :runaway:

http://www.answers.com/topic/marco-polo

Quoted:

"Did the trip really take place?

On his deathbed, a priest begged Marco to confess that he had lied in his stories. Marco refused, insisting, "I have not told half of what I saw!"

While most historians believe that Marco Polo did indeed reach China, in recent times some have proposed that he did not get that far, and only retold information he had heard from others. Those skeptics point out that, among other omissions, his account fails to mention Chinese writing, chopsticks, tea, foot binding, or the Great Wall. Also, Chinese records of the time do not mention him, despite the fact that he claimed to have served as a special emissary for Kublai Khan—which is puzzling, given the careful record-keeping in China at that time.

On the other hand, Marco describes other aspects of Far Eastern life in much detail: paper money, the Grand Canal, the structure of a Mongol army, tigers, the Imperial postal system. He also refers to Japan by its Chinese name "Zipang" or Cipangu. This is usually considered the first mention of Japan in Western literature."


http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/marco.htm
http://dawgnet.butler.edu/archive/040920/2488.html
You decide.....

actually, his father visited Kublai Khan in 1260-69, just a few years before Marco Polo. he spent more than 20 years in China, mainly in Yangzhou. Chinese records did not mention him because Marco Polo was just one of the "barbarians" coming to the silk road. Kublai Khan met lots of people from middle east in his empire. Great wall is famous now because it is for tourism. people forget it's just one of the military facilities. only soldiers would visit it.

Marco polo did mention food binding, and great wall was first built in 2 century BC but the great wall you see today was built by ming in 16th century, when marco polo travelled to china the ruiling dynasty was established by nomads they didn't need to build greatwalls to defend themselves from themselves, this can also explain why chinese didn't keep records of him, recording history is han chinese tradition, nomads (mongols) didn't care about it, they probably also destroyed some historical texts.

just my personal view.

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