Hongcun Village (宏村) - Anhui - China

Hongcun Village enjoys the reputation of 'a village in the beautiful Chinese picture' because of its location at high altitude and being shrouded by clouds and mist.

Established in 1131, this well-preserved centuries old village is unique. What makes Hongcun Village so unique is that the village was designed by a fengshui master to resemble a cow

 

The architecture and carvings of the approximately 150 residences dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties are said to be among the best of their kind in China. One of the biggest of the residences open to visitors, Chenzhi Hall, also contains a small residence museum.

 

Together with Xidi it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. Hongcun was a location where the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was shot. Since then, tourism has dramatically increased.

Don’t let the photos fool you, they might look empty but let me assure you the crowds were there. I just waited for them to move on before taking the shots.

 

 

 

Hongcun Village is built in the shape of an ox. The locals liken Leigang Hill as the 'head', two huge trees on the hill as the 'horns', the residences in the village as the 'body', a winding stream as the 'intestines', a crescent pond as the 'stomach' and the four bridges as the 'four feet'.







Hongcun is unique among all Chinese villages for its very sophisticated water system. Water is the main feature in this village. Its two large ponds are connected to a series of flowing streams which pass by every house, providing water for washing, cooking, and bathing.

 

 

 

 

The humidity was extremely high today, probably, made worst by the fact that we just came down from the much cooler mountains (20C). It wasn’t fun especially with the huge crowds, from various tour groups, pushing and shoving. There appears to be no concept of queuing in China.

Ascend to Mt. Hallelujah - Huangshan - China

After a good night sleep and a good breakfast we were ready for our ascend up to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain). Our guide gave us the option of either visiting Hongcun in the morning and then up to the mountain later in the day. Apparently, it is still raining up on the mountain. We all decided to risk it and go straight to the mountain as that has always been our priority for this trip.

Cable car trip to the Top

There was fog all the way up to the top of the mountains. Near complete white out in some places as we saw nothing except white or the occasional cable car going the opposite way.

 

There was a collective sigh in the cable car when the fog parted and we caught glimpses of what was awaiting for us up at the top. The scenery was breath taking and I knew straight away that I was going to get great shots today if the weather cooperated.

 

 

Check out those pine trees growing on the side and top of the mountain.



"The prototype of Mount Hallelujah in 'Avatar' originated from Mount Huang, whose peculiarly-shaped granite peaks and steep mountain shape brought us great inspiration", said James Cameron, director of 'Avatar', at its Beijing Premiere on December 23rd.

 

Due to same stuff up, I mentioned in the last post, by our travel agent meant that we would only be staying for 1 night and 1 day instead of 2 nights and 2 days. I still get angry when I think about this.

 

Mt. Huang, Huangshan, China

 

Tunxi (屯溪区) – Anhui - China

Tunxi Ancient Street

Arrived here late afternoon from Shanghai. Due to a stuff up of our flights by our less than observant travel agent we missed the last cable car up to the Mt. Huang so we will have to spend the night here in Tunxi. After checking in and a quick rest we wandered down to ancient street.

               ISO 280 f/4 1/60                                              ISO 200 f/4 1/60

                 ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

This tea house is about 800 years old. The girl is performing a traditional Chinese tea ceremony and later instructed us on the proper tea drinking etiquette. I really enjoyed drinking one so much so I bought some.

                                                   ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

We then tried out Chrysanthemum tea. It was lovely, sweet and mellow. I really enjoyed it.

                                                     ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

This was lovely too and the most expensive tea we tried that night. Excellent green tea indeed.

                                                     ISO 400 f/4 1/60

Hmm, looks like some sort of bicycle convertible. How cute is it?
Wonder if it would catch on back in Australia.

                                                    ISO 640 f/4 1/60

I found this bicycle parked all on it’s lonesome in a back lane off ancient street.

                   ISO 560 f/4 1/60                                            ISO 900 f/8 1/60

                                                     ISO 500 f/4 1/60

                           Drying clothes the traditional way.

                                                       ISO 800 f/4 1/60

                             Fan Artist/Calligrapher/Painter.

                                                       ISO360 f/4 1/60

Seal stone Carver at work. He is actually carving this one for me. You can see what it looks like at the top right hand corner of this photo.

                                                      ISO 450 f/4 1/60

                                      A very friendly local.

                                                      ISO 500 f/4 1/60

              ISO 2800 f/4 1/60                                              ISO 500 f/4 1/60

                                                        ISO 3200 f/4 1/60

Random tourist trying to decide which fan to buy or get both. This goes on for an eternity. Okay, I am exaggerating.

                                                      ISO 640 f/4 1/60

Fast food Chinese style. The food was actually very tasty and ridiculously cheap.

History

This street with centuries-old history dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) moved his seat of government to Lin'an (now Hangzhou), when many architects and workmen were conscripted to construct the new capital. After returning to their hometown, they imitated the structural style to build architecture along the street, so Tunxi Ancient Street was formed.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a merchant in Anhui invested money to build 47 stores so as to attract businessmen, which contributed to the communication of the street with outside world.

Gradually it developed into the distribution center for materials in and out of Anhui in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The street is paved with maroon flagstones with a total length of 1,273 meters (about 1,392 yards), of which 895meters (about 979 yards) is the pedestrian commercial street.

Shops standing on both sides are generally of two or three floors, which feature the local Anhui style of stone base, brick construction and tile roof. The layout of these buildings commonly takes on the appearance of shops in front while houses and workshops are to the rear. Once a professor from America was amazed by the street and he said he had found an Oriental Ancient Rome. Nowadays the street is also used as a natural studio for films and TV series.

Tunxi, Anhui, China

Tunxi, Anhui, China

Nikon 16-35mm f/4 & Heliopan 10 Stop ND Filter

Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens

This is a sharp lens, Probably not as sharp as the 14-24mm at the corners but still happy with the sharpness. However, the is definitely noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end, around 16-18mm. I don’t have this problem with my 14-24mm.

Samples

Here are some shots I took with the lens, coupled with a Heliopan 10 stop ND filter, at Turimetta Beach last weekend.














The results were tack sharp with zero colour cast. I really love long exposures and its effect on water.

Distortion

Original

There is noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end. This was taken at 16mm, notice the distortion of the horizon and where it starts dipping at either end.

Fixed using CS4

No biggie, easily fixed in CS4 using Filter>Distort>Lens Correction. Used +8 and did a little cropping and alignment of the horizon. LR 3 can also be used to correct any lens distortion.

Fixed using PTLens

The example below was fixed using PTLens. I used the plug-in for CS4 instead of the stand alone app. I like the way it fixes the distortion. The difference is subtle but it is there. See if you can spot the difference. PTLens is very easy to install and use.

Thanks again Andy for the heads up on PTLens.

Panoramas

I was interested in seeing if this lens was any good at doing panoramas. So I did a couple in both landscape and portrait modes.

ISO 200 f8 1/400 16mm

Distortion fixed using PTLens.

This 180° panorama consist of 5 separate frames in portrait mode. Each frame contains 3 separate exposures (-1, 0 +1). This was then fused/blended using Photomatix Pro and stitched together in CS4 and tweaked in LR 2.7. Actual size is 5759 x 2881.

ISO 200 f8 1/400 35mm

This 180° panorama consist of 7 separate frames in landscape mode. Each frame contains 3 separate exposures (-1, 0 +1). This was then fused/blended using Photomatix Pro and stitched together in CS4 and tweaked in LR 2.7. Actual size is 10985 x 2373.
I am very happy with how both the panoramas turned out.


Conclusion

If you are still trying to decide whether to get this lens (16-35mm) or the 14-24mm. I recommend that you get this one. It is tack sharp, cheaper and much lighter. This would be an excellent lens for travelling.

It is also much easier to get filters for this lens. You can use either screw-on filters, as it has a 77mm thread, or opt for square/rectangular filters made by Lee or Cokin.

If I didn’t already have the 14-24mm I’d be happy with just this lens. Besides being tack sharp, I really like the colours and contrast this lens produces.

Turimetta Beach – North Narrabeen