China, May 2004

    I took a four-week trip to China in March and April 2004, my second of three during winter and spring. (For the other two, see China Dec03–Jan04 and China May04). This one had four one-week segments that were Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and Hefei (University of Science and Technology). I took digital pictures with my Canon EOS 10D and its three zoom lenses, 16–35 mm (effective focal length of 25–50 mm), 24–70 mm (effective 40–110 mm), and 28–105 mm (effective 45–170 mm).
    Viewers should feel free to use these pictures for any purpose. I ask only that you let me know that you are copying them, mostly to satisfy my curiosity as to who is interested and why.
    I shot at ISO 100 and 200 outdoors, and 400–1600 inside and at night. I used flash only once on this trip, and was disappointed with the results.

How best to view these photos
    It is extremely important to view these photos properly in order to get the most from them. They are 1024x682 pixels, which means that they need to be viewed on a monitor that is set to at least 1024 pixels wide. The standard setting of 1024x768 will be fine, as will the next-higher setting, 1152x870. In either case, I strongly recommend viewing them in the Web browser's full-screen mode. For Internet Explorer, this requires three short steps:
    (1) Go to one of the introductory pages or a page of photos.
    (2) Remove any frames on the left, such as Favorites.
    (3) Go to full-screen mode, either by View/Full Screen or by hitting F11.
After taking these steps, turn down the lights in your viewing room and sit close to the screen. The goal is to try to match the angle subtended by your screen with the angle of view in the original picture, which in most cases is very wide. So sit as close to the screen as you can focus your eyes. After you take these steps, the pictures will suddenly become three-dimensional and extremely lifelike. You will be "in" the scenes.

Flight from Detroit to Tokyo, 26 March  1  2  3 

Beijing, 27 March–4 April
    28 March—Dust over Beijing  1  2  3 
    29 March—Dust storm in Beijing  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8 
    30 March—Visiting SEPA  1  2 
    31 March—Fragrant Hills  1  2  3  4  5  6 

Inner Mongolia, 4–10 April
    4 April—Beijing to Hohhot  1  2  3  4 
    5 April—Hohhot to Erlenhot  1  2  3  4  5  6  7 
    6 April—New desert—Erlenhot to Xilinhot  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13 
    7 April—Lost in the desert  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17 
    8 April—Gao's hometown  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13 
    9 April—Pingyao  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17 
    9 April—Dinner with Gao's family in Taiyuan

Hefei and USTC, 16–21 April
    16 April
        USTC Campus 1  2  3  4  5  6 
        Institute of Polar Environment 1  2 
        Shanghai Ballet at USTC  1  2  3  4 
    17 April
        West Campus  1  2  3 
        Dumpling restaurant
        Mountain  1  2
        Research Island  1  2  3  4
    21 April
        Synchrotron  1  2 
        Yin Xuebin's house

Back to Photo Shows