Shaolin Vacations

The taxi dropped me off in the historic Xuanwu district, in South Beijing, and my eyes were caught by the majestic temple that stands very elegantly in the distance. Built in 1406, with architectural gracefulness as impressive as its arrangement, it's the Temple of Heaven. 

It's not easy to be a responsible tourist in China! The environment here suffers like nowhere else; historic buildings are destroyed to make way for pale, concrete imitations; and the Chinese love the kind of guided tours that involve large groups of tourists being dragged from one point to another by a guide yelling into a microphone. Oh dear! Adopt a sensible approach, and make yourselves ambassadors for a different kind of tourism!

Welcome to the biggest and highest plateau in the world. At an average height of 4,200 meters, it is so high that you have trouble breathing. On it you will find the highest mountains in the world, including Everest and Lhotse , which is 8,516 meters high. It's not surprising that very few people live here, but the countryside is magnificent. 

Witness to a long vanished working class architecture, the hutongs are an area of narrow passages and intertwined alleys that remind you what towns used to be like in China.