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PLMCN12
The 13th edition of the PLMCN was held in Hangzhou (杭州), China.
In the conference dinner, we shared our table with three Chineses, one of them actually a post-doc in Southampton whom we never met there! He recommendeded us to visit the Yellow Mountains after the conference, which we did.
Below are some pictures of the conference place and surroundings.
West Lake
Xin Xin, conference organizer, and Alexey Kavokin, the conference father.
Zhanghai Chen, the conference host, Xin Xin again and Elena.
Tania and Tim departing.
End of a show from the conference excursion,
in a Chinese amusement park where you could amuse yourself in this way.
The West Lake is the most beautiful beauty of Hangzhou.
The mountains and the fog make it a spot of unique atmosphere, with pagodas, sampan and legends all around.
This is one of the three ponds mirroring the moon (familiar to everyone in China from the one-Yuan bill).
Alejandro Gonzalez-Tudela (conference badge cropped).
A mysterious lady on the causeway between the West Lake and Xi-Li lake.
West Lake in the evening.
Emerald Valley
The Emerald Valley lays at the feet of Huangshan. It has crystal-clear water with colours of the same name, and nice rock formation. The vegetation is notable too, it might be the closest we ever got from a real jungle (with wild and exotic sound from the fauna, especially birds). It is a mainly a Chinese tourist spot, we met one occidental only. People would occasionally show up superbly dressed, maybe following or preceding a wedding.
The Emerald Valley.
Turquoise waters
or yellow
with rocks.
The most beautiful ones would tell you a Chinese poem.
Others would speak with nothing needing written down.
Emphasizing something.
A bridge other the water,
towards more rocks,
and more river.
We barely noticed them at first.
Here they are, zoomed in.
Bamboo forest.
Flying over.
A balcony with a view over the colours.
A beautiful chinese couple.
A little girl, peaceful.
A butterfly with a facial expression getting in touch.
黄山
Huangshan (黄山), literally the "Yellow Mountain", is a mountain range composed of material uplifted from an ancient sea during the Mesozoic era and subsequently carved by glaciers during the Quaternary [1]. It is one of the most beautiful place on earth, the archetype of Chinese paintings, with pine trees perched on salient peaks piercing through the fog.
This is Huangshan.
Here in the clouds.
Here without.
Fantastic platforms hanging from the mountain allow you to peek into the precipices.
Of course the access is not for the faint-hearted.
But the views are unique.
Elena leading the way.
At first you think you get blocked somewhere,
but after a while, you get used to it.
and then no viewpoint seems unreacheable.
though as seen from below, it is madness.
Walking by a mountain.
Chatting with a precipice.
The place, busy in the day, would become incredibly quiet and desolate in the evening.
Although the Chinese tourists also provide quite a lot of fun.
Elena with a giant hiding in the clouds.
Do you see her?
A map of the top of the sky.
The famous pine trees.
A dam in the mountain!
Getting down...
and up.
The fog would fall anytime,
and disappear just as quickly.
Shanghai
Yuyuan market.
Yu garden, nearby.
A bridge in zig-zag, maybe to confuse bad spirits, trapping Elena.
A Chinese guardian lion (Shishi).
A charismatic figure looking at time passing from the meagre comfort of his bike, possibly since always.
Chinese food, at the dismay of the head waitress.
Last chance to taste, at the airport. This is closer to European Chinese cooking.
Shanghai at night.
Facing the bund.
