Category: places

China’s Spectacular Cliff Paths

Huangshan (literal meaning Yellow Mountain) is a mountain range in southern Anhui province in eastern China. The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks and pine trees. Huangshan is a frequent subject of traditional Chinese paintings and literature.
There are more than 30 touring paths in total in Huangshan mountains, which are 50 km (31mi) in total length and 1-2 meters (3-6ft) wide generally.

Stephane.janel [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

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Ko Panyi: A picturesque Thai fishing village built on stilts

By Mochileros en Tailandia – https://cdn.mochilerosentailandia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/1.png, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Ko Panyi is a fishing village under the shadow of an immense limestone cliff in Thailand, notable for being built on stilts by Indonesian fishermen. At the end of the 18th century the law limited land ownership solely to people of Thai national origins, and due to this fact the settlement was, for the most part, built on stilts within the protection of the island’s bay, providing easy access for fishers. With the increase of wealth for the community, due to the growing tourism industry within Thailand, purchase of land on the island itself became a possibility, and the first structures of relevance were built, a mosque and a freshwater well.
source: wikipedia
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Ice Stupas: Artificial glaciers solving water shortage in the Himalayas

Ice Stupa was invented by Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh, India, and the project is undertaken by the NGO Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh. Ladakh is a cold desert and due to climate change, the region experiences hotter summers with increase in melts along with shift in the timing and precipitation of the melts. Subsequently, during the spring season water is more scarce which in turn impacts agriculture and food supplies.
Ice Stupa is a form of glacier grafting technique that creates artificial glaciers , used for storing winter water (which otherwise would go unused) in the form of conical shaped ice heaps.
In October 2013, Sonam Wangchuk created the first prototype of 6 metres (20 ft) Ice Stupa by freezing 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) in Leh without any shade from the sun. Water was piped from upstream using gravity. Electricity or machinery was not used for pumping water. The Ice Stupa did not melt fully till 18 May 2014, even when the temperature was above 20 °C (68 °F).
info: wikipedia

Sumita Roy Dutta [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

 

Baldwin Street: world’s steepest residential street

Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand is the world’s steepest residential street, according to Guinness World Records. This short straight street, a little under 350 meters (1,150 ft) long, rises from 30 m (98 ft) above sea level at its junction with North Road to 100 m (330 ft) above sea level at the top, an average slope of slightly more than 1:5. The street’s steepness was unintentional. As with many other parts of early Dunedin, and indeed New Zealand, streets were laid out in a grid pattern with no consideration for the terrain, usually by planners in London.

Public Domain, Link

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Tunnel of Love

The Tunnel of Love  is a section of industrial railway located near Klevan, Ukraine, known for being a favorite place for couples to take walks. The whole line is about 6.4 km long and about 4.9 km is covered by forest. As trees were left to grow freely around the rails, the passing train making its daily rounds transporting wood,was the only thing shaping its way through. Eventually,  the train shaped a closed tunnel according to it’s size.

By Serhei – https://www.panoramio.com/photo/61947447, CC BY 3.0, Link

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The Siberian ‘gateway to hell’ that keeps growing larger with no end in sight

Batagayka crater in Siberia, known as the “gateway to hell” by locals, is almost 1 kilometer in length and 86 meters in depth. The structure is named after the near-flowing Batagayka, a right tributary of the river Yana. The land began to sink due to the thawing permafrost in the 1960s after the surrounding forest was cleared. Flooding also contributed to the enlargement of the crater. Archeologists have found ice age fossils buried in the mud around the rim of the crater. The rim is extremely unstable as there are regular landslides into the crater and the permafrost is constantly thawing. The Batagayka crater is making noises too as it consumes large chunks of the area. The crater is currently growing in size and it will likely eat through the entire hill slope before it slows down. Frank Günther of the  Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany, showed that over the past decade crater grew by an average of 10 meters per year.

By NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. – https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=90104&src=eoa-iotd, Public Domain, Link

Spirit Island: a beauty in the Canadian Rockies

By GJThomson, CC BY 3.0, Link

Spirit Island is a tiny tied – connected to land only by a spit of beach materials – island in Jasper National Park. This landmark is the destination of boat trips across Maligne Lake. Spirit Island enjoys worldwide reputation, and is one of the most famous and photographed views of the Canadian Rockies. Winters are extremely harsh with the lowest recorded temperature of -50 degree Celsius. Average snowfall is six meters in a winter.
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