Chinese Carnival at Jinzhong of Shanxi Province

Jinzhong, located in the central Shanxi Province. It is an ancient city with rich historical heritage and unique culture. The world cultural heritage -- Pingyao Ancient City just located in the area.

2013 Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration at Jinzhong

During the past 2013 Chinese lunar new year, universal celebrations are held and the whole nation is in elation. Everywhere in Jinzhong presents a scene of prosperity, let's go through the pictures to fell the deeply atmosphere for the most biggest Chinese festival.

Chinese Ballet： 左权小花戏

                           

Old and Rare Folk Dancing：寿阳傩舞      

祁县九曲黄河阵 - a blessing custom, is a traditional activity for The Lantern Festival.

 

南庄架火

 

Fireworks

 

太谷花灯- Lantern Show

Source: China Tour Guide

Potala Palace, The Highest Palace in The World

Overview:  
Potala Palace, the highest palace in the world, located at on the Red Hill of central Lhasa, at 3,700 meters(12,139 feet) above sea level. It is a grand blend of Tibetan and Han architecture, was first built by Tibet King Songtsen Gampo to greet his bride Princess Wen Cheng of the Tang Dynasty of China. After the reconstruction of the 17th century, the Potala was used as a winter palace and the chief residence of the Dalai Lama. 

                                                       (Source: Tibet Tour)
 
Major Structures of Potala Palace:
Potala Palace consists of two parts, the Red Palace as the center plus the White Palace as two wings. The Red Palace is the highest part in the center, which is wholly dedicated to religious study and Buddhist prayer. It was painted to red to represent stateliness and power. The White Palace once served as the office building of Tibet local government makes up the living quarters of Dalai Lama. Its wall was painted to white expressing peace and quiet.

Red Palace

White Palace

A Few Notes When Visiting Potala Palace:
Here have strict travel route at Potala Palace, all of the visitors should enter from east main entrance. And you have only 1 hour to complete the visiting. One another thing you should notice is that there is no rest room during the route since the toilet was set at the right side of the White Palace Square.

                                                 Interior of Potala Palace

Best Time to Visit Guilin

There is an ancient Chinese saying “East or west, Guilin scenery is the best”.  Guilin, China’s most picturesque City, has been a popular destination for travelers and an inspiration for poets and artists for a long history.

The most important thing before you travel to Guilin, is that you should know about the weather there.It might get pretty hot, humid, and it rains a lot!  The average temperature for the year is 19.3 celcius with a July average temperature of 28.3 degrees. The average rainfall for the year is 192.6 cm per month.

Guilin Landscape

There are various views in diverse season. Spring in Guilin is warm with some rain. It is a sea of flowers. On rainy days, the rivers, pinnacles and the city itself would be shrouded in mist, which is particularly charming. Summer in Guilin is hot and humid, however the beauty to be found outdoors is very sufficient compensation. Guilin is a place surrounded by limpid rivers and lakes. You will find a lot of exiting activity to do in Guilin throughout the entire summer and most of them are connected with water. Autumn in Guilin is beautiful. The Guilin Climate in autumn is very present for traveling. Winter is fairly a low season for tourism in Guilin. However it is still very lovely during the season. More than that, it will cost you less in winter than other seasons to visit Guilin in winter.

 

Longji Rice Terraces

                                                               Li River

2013 Hong Kong New Year Fireworks and Countdown Celebration

2013 Hong Kong New Year Fireworks and Countdown Celebration - The eight-minute show, the largest ever in the event's history, which was launched from both the skyscrapers and the harbour barges surrounding the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (HKCEC).

Highlighting Hong Kong's night vistas, the show was dubbed as the first of the world's top 10 destinations for new year countdown celebrations. Nearly 400,000 Hong Kong residents and tourists watched the show on both sides of the Victoria Harbor.

Starting from 11 p.m. on the new year eve, fireworks were launched from the rooftops of participating buildings in Wan Chai every 15 minutes, lighting up the sky with "shooting stars" in four different colors to symbolise good wishes in career, health, fortune and love. In the final 10 seconds of 2012, fireworks in the shape of the numbers 10 to one shot from five buildings in Wan Chai. As the clock strikes midnight, fireworks were fired in three layers first from Victoria Harbor, then from the rooftop of HKCEC, and finally from five other buildings in Wan Chai.

 

  Recommended Spots to Watch The Show:
The Tsim Sha Tsui side. All along the Avenue of the Stars from the Star Ferry Terminal to the New World Centre in the East, anywhere where the Convention Center is within view would be preferable as it is this year's focal point of the extravaganza.

Another popular vantage point for fireworks is the Hung Hom Bypass which is closed to traffic between Salisbury Road and Hung Hom Road

If staying in the Hong Kong Island side, consider the area around the Ferry Piers and in Wanchai around the Convention Centre and Bauhinia Square, although this might be too close. Hong Kong Tours

Top 4 Ski Resorts in China

Top 1: Yabuli Ski Resort (亚布力滑雪旅游度假区)

Located in the east-southeast of Harbin. It is China's largest and best ski resort in terms of overall quality, and, in particular, in terms of the gradient and quality of the pistes/ trails. With 9 intermediate-to-advanced Alpine pistes – the longest of which measures 3 kilometers and has an impressive drop of over 800 meters measured from start to finish – and with a first-class, 5-kilometer-long Nordic (cross-country) trail, Yabuli Ski Resort caters primarily to the experienced skier, though it also has a very wide, forgiving beginner piste at 500 meters in length, which is long enough to be challenging without being overly daunting.

Suggested Tour at Yabuli Ski Resort:  5 Days Harbin Ice World Tour with Thrilling Yabuli Skiing


Top 2: Xiling Ski Resort （西岭滑雪圣地）

Located at the Xiling Snow Mountain 120 kilometers away from Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Xiling snow Mountain Ski Resort is the largest and best-equipped alpine ski resort in China. The resort incorporates snow ski, grass ski and other entertainment to create a year-round tourist destination.


Top 3: Nanshan Ski Village (南山滑雪度假村)

About 60 kilometers northeast of Beijing. It occupies a total area of more than 4000 mu. As a resort of four seasons, it offers such tourist activities as skiing, water skiing, grass skiing, sliding and gliding. In the picturesque resort, visitors are offered skiing in the winter, hiking in the spring, swimming in the summer and fruit-picking in the autumn. Suitable for all seasons, these activities focus on sports while giving consideration to sightseeing at the same time.


Top 4: Wanlong Ski Resort (万龙滑雪场）

Covering an area of more than 30 square kilometers, Wanlong Ski Resort is located in Honghualiang, Chongli County, Zhangjiakou city of Hebei Province, with the highest altitude of 2110.3 meters and the average height of 550 meters. It is 249 kilometers away from Beijing and 50 kilometers away from Zhangjiakou city.

Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is one of the world's four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival.

The Festival, established in 1985, is held annually from January 5 and lasts for over one month. Harbin is the capital city of Heilongjiang Province and this is China's original and greatest ice artwork festival, attracting hundreds of thousands of local people and visitors from all over the world. It is a happy carnival which provides visitors a whole new world of ice and snow. And for skiing lovers, you could not miss out this unique tour! It specially provides you with a dynamic skiing experience at famous Yabuli International Ski Resort! Beautiful snow sceneries and ice recreations, exotic high streets and state-of-the-art Yabuli ski resort, definitely give you a best winter vacation in Harbin! If you get interest, ckeck out the 5 day Harbin Ice World Tour.

.

The Best Time to Travel China

It is really not easy to say when is the best time to tour China, mainly because itis truly a vast nation with wide territory. Through the frozen months to the hottest months, diverse parts of China will show people unique charms of this nation.

                                                            Guilin 

Ordinarily, except some particular destinations like Harbin, the advised months to visit in China are from April to October. Throughout this period, the weather in most parts of China is enjoyable. It gives you a fantastic condition to take lovely pictures.
In this article we'd prefer to share some tips on the best time to visit China, aiming to assist you preparing your China tours:


 The North Part of China:
The cold winter may likely bring about a comparative unsatisfied travel throughout this region, but people plan to experience world of snow can think about this region. Attempt to stay away from the spring time to visit here. The sandstorm could make you loose moods to travel around. Summers and autumns would be the golden time to visit, plentiful rainfalls fresh the air while the splendid scenery will represent their highlights through these seasons.

                                                     Yellow Mountain 

The Central Parts of China:
Depending on the weather condition within this region, we recommend that June through August is truly a great time to visit central. Despite the fact that the spring and autumn days are nice options to come, please don't forget to prevent the peak time that cause by Chinese public holidays in some destinations.

The Eastern Parts of ChinaDue to the comparative enjoyable natural conditions and also the better developed paces within the eastern parts of China, cities throughout this region may well travel all year around. Perfect time to travel is also spring to autumn, particularly in April, May, June, Sep, and Oct. One particular matter need to be paid attention is the fact that rainy days is going to be much more frequent.

                                                               Yangtze River
The Southern Parts of ChinaOwing to the high temperatures in southern parts of China, spring and autumn would be the preferred months for travel in this region. In spring period, warm air, green trees and colorful flowers create the regions vigorous. In autumn days, the cool air, clean rivers and grand mountains impress people deeply

Others:
To the kind of tourists who love adventurous tours, the shoulder season (around March and April) along with the low season (from November to the winter months) are rewarded to go with surprisingly low prices and far fewer fellow tourists.

High seasons in China:
Labor Day (May 1, 3 days duration)
National Day (October 1, 7 days duration)
University Holidays: Summer holiday (June-September) and Winter holiday (January-February)

Resource by: http://www.infobarrel.com/The_Best_Time_to_Travel_China