Zoë Sheng

Member since August 2017

#None 0 0

I'm Zoë. I'm originally from Edmonton, Canada and then moved to Vancouver Island although spent lots of time in China where family members still reside. I also spent a few years at boarding school in England where my trips started when my parents took me around the coastal paths and what later turned out to be world heritage sites which are considered my first "ticks". Since then I traveled a lot, studied part-time in Auckland, and my "skills" of efficiency and organized planning helps a lot - meaning that old towns tend to get an overnight stay to easily explore them while churches, tombs or cemeteries that only take an hour tops to visit are really just scheduled for a quick visit. I do sometimes regret not visiting a place longer but revisits are not out of the question. However, as I don't drink alcohol, party, or require fancy nights out on the town it shortens activities in places too (if you enjoy doing this  then I'm happy for you just don't wonder why I get stuff done quicker). I also scuba dive frequently which I love the most in the world though I'm not a tec-diving nerd and keep it simple (thus Bikini Atoll is probably out). No deco diving for me unless it's a special wreck.

Personally I'm very private. I ditched Facebook over a decade ago, Instagram I only lasted for a few months and even Whatsapp I tend to mainly use for staying in touch, contacting hotels and tour guides. I'm not anti-social and usually travel in a small group if it works out, although I do enjoy solo traveling more because nobody will screw up my planning. Anyone tagging along will know "it's her way or no way". I have met two people from our community although they didn't noticed it was me at the time. I also do not know the name of one of them but maybe I'll find out eventually. I also almost ran into the Aussie couple and their dog but I was stuck in the Peruvian mountains while they were partying (joke, or assumption?!) in Cuzco.

Since 2023 I started slowing down world heritage specific traveling mainly because I have just seen so many and so much already. I'd rather spend the time with friends and my marine buddies the sharks and dolphins than seek out a mediocre church or wine county, plus the list keeps growing with lackluster titles that hardly excite me, not that I try tick off tentative sites as I can anyway but outliers and crappy stuff far away from civilization isn't going to be fun to visit.

In 2024 I had a mitral valve replacement (ugly scar now) followed by an RFA to fix my heart rate. It definitely slowed down any traveling I wanted to do and unsure how it will continue. Hopefully I'm as good as new with medication. Even scuba diving is ok!

At the time of writing I still need to visit 156 sites which doesn't seem like a lot but a few are impossible to visit, some require lengthy trips (30 days for one, two weeks for a few others) and can cost a huge sum of money. There are also those warring states that are currently off-limits (+Venezuela for security/embargo reasons). Having officially visited 151 UN listed countries these are still left with sites:

Afghanistan
Angola
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Congo, DR
Congo, Republic
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana
Guinea
Haiti
Ivory Coast
Kiribati
Kyrgyzstan
Libya
Madagascar
Mali
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Niger
Nigeria
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Syria
Togo
Venezuela
Yemen

For the rest of sites in countries I have been already:

  • Heard and McDonald Island - requires lengthy boat tour
  • Macquarie Island - cruise $$$
  • Khinalig, Azerbaijan - wasn't even tentative I think and it's quite far off the beaten track, next time I visit Azerbaijan it shall be done
  • Okavango Delta - didn't want to cram this as a 1½ day drive-by on my last Botswana trip; worth a lengthy visit for sure
  • Peninsula Valdez, thought hard about adding it into my Argentina trip but early February just wasn't good enough to guarantee Right whales and orcas and September just seems better to splurge the money
  • Brazil - still missing almost half because I backed out twice but I will get it eventually lol
  • French Austral Lands and Seas - well, that's the one you join a ~30 day cargo ship trip that will visit it along the way, "fun"
  • Marquesas Island, it's an extra trip from French Polynesia's main hub
  • Zagori Cultural Landscape, Greece - I drove through this, or past this, but I can't really count it I think. I also don't mind visiting Greece again. For now Europe stays incomplete
  • Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras - One could tick this by taking a boat around the coast to one of the villages inside the park but visiting this properly isn't easily accomplished - I don't think visiting the villages will give an insight into the heritage of the biosphere reserve at all
  • India keeps adding tentative sites so I can make the trip more worthwhile in the future but only 3 sites remaining at the moment which isn't much 
  • Jordan - my first trip was the main things and rest, probably "meh", would need another trip.
  • Mongolia - a few sites and a couple of these are HARD to visit as they are in the middle of nowhere.
  • Sub-Antarctic Islands, NZ - cruise
  • Te Wahipounamu, NZ south island - technically have been there but I want to hike for a week+ to count this visit
  • Russia is currently off-limits to me personally
  • Aldabra Atoll used to have a $$$ cruise but I think Covid killed it (literally) so the only way to visit is taking the cruise from Zanzibar that stops there on the way. Not super expensive and seeing that you get a cruise it's a nice vacay - if you are into that. Having already done Zanzibar and the Seychelles doesn't help me but maybe fun in a small group
  • Tajik National Park (& Tugay Forests) require a lengthy road trip best done by car from Osh - however, for the last few years the countries haven't seen eye to eye so they won't let rental cars from Kyrgyzstan cross over thus one would have to go from Dushanbe and that's a hefty additional mileage!
  • Gough and Inaccessible Islands - named "inaccessible" with reason
  • Henderson Island - you need special permission to visit although joining a charter trip would include it; however, they are rare and $$$
  • Tauric Chersonese - well, Crimea is now in "Russian" territory and not sure I'm even allowed to visit
  • Zimbabwe I have only visited Victoria Falls but definitely interested in exploring the rest!
  • Palestine: would never visit the Gaza strip and now they have a site so it's probably unvisited from me for a while, mainly due to their policy to fast track the sites under warfare

My most impressive site: Abu Simbel, Ilulissat Icefjord, Cocos Island

My proposal for a new site: Mariana Trench

Recent Visits
  • 1
    0
    Sept. 16, 2024
    Iguacu
  • 3
    0
    Sept. 16, 2024
    Churches and Convents of Goa, Great Himalayan National Park, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers
  • 3
    0
    Sept. 5, 2024
    Chola Temples, Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas, Western Ghats
>

About Zoë Sheng

First name
Zoë
Member since
August 2017
Country of Origin
None
Visits
Rank
#None
WHS
0
Tentative Sites
0
Website Participation
Reviews
379
Ratings

Ratings

World Heritage Sites
Tentative Sites
1067 160
Photos
N/A
Locations
N/A
Zones
N/A

Reviews by Zoë Sheng

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Wood Buffalo National Park by Zoë Sheng

Wood Buffalo National Park (Inscribed)

Wood Buffalo National Park

Not one of the more remote places in Canada but still quite a lengthy drive from Edmonton unless you want to fork out the high sum to fly directly to …

Yukon Ice Patches by Zoë Sheng

Yukon Ice Patches (On tentative list)

Yukon Ice Patches

When I first read Canada wants to inscribe ice patches I already figured something crazy must be behind this site, or let’s call it “sites”. Ice patches are not unique …

Danube Limes  by Zoë Sheng

Danube Limes (Inscribed)

Danube Limes

The Slovakian extension to the Roman Frontier Fortifications is minor but in my opinion highly important to the history of the Roman Empire. There are only two locations in Slovakia …

Papahanaumokuakea by Zoë Sheng

Papahanaumokuakea (Inscribed)

Papahanaumokuakea

I wasn’t sure I had been to this place until I opened up the map on the UNESCO website with a great overview of islands. It also all made sense: …

Mount Hamiguitan by Zoë Sheng

Mount Hamiguitan (Inscribed)

Mount Hamiguitan

Hamiguitan is a good 3½h by jeepney from the nearest town Davao. It is not an easy journey and you also need to ensure the driver drops you off at …

Karst Landscape Maros Pangkep Prehistoric Cave Are by Zoë Sheng

Karst Landscape Maros Pangkep… (On tentative list)

Karst Landscape Maros Pangkep Prehistoric Cave Are

Little do they know that I came here as a little girl, stenciled all over the place and now it's considered prehistoric... Okay so not really. They claim the inverted …

Gaya Tumuli by Zoë Sheng

Gaya Tumuli (Inscribed)

Gaya Tumuli

For this location I picked the Gimhae Daeseong-dong Tumuli due to easier map location, with Gimhae also being a rather large town instead of what appears to be in the …

The Ipolytartnóc Fossils by Zoë Sheng

The Ipolytartnóc Fossils (On tentative list)

The Ipolytartnóc Fossils

Giant petrified trees! This site apparently doesn't have much chance of becoming WHS but I nevertheless found it interesting, enjoyable and something special to visit. It is probably not the …

Kangjingun Kiln Sites by Zoë Sheng

Kangjingun Kiln Sites (On tentative list)

Kangjingun Kiln Sites

From just seeing the title I am thinking that this site and the Chinese 'Imperial Kiln Sites of Jingdezhen' are pretty much identical but I can't say this from not …

Ras Mohammed by Zoë Sheng

Ras Mohammed (On tentative list)

Ras Mohammed

Ever surfaced from a dive to be greeted by a herd of dromedary camel herd? Going diving at Sharm el-Sheikh gives you an easy opportunity to go diving at Ras …

Valle Salado de Añana by Zoë Sheng

Valle Salado de Añana (On tentative list)

Valle Salado de Añana

The Salt Valley of Añana is the ultimate stopover for salt pans in Iberia that has been around for 6,500 years and was really important during the Roman times. Ancient …

Qinghai Lake by Zoë Sheng

Qinghai Lake (On tentative list)

Qinghai Lake

Qinghai Lake is around an hour by car from Xining, the biggest city before the Tibetian Plateau starts to have the population density dwindle down at the west side of …

The Wine in Iberia by Zoë Sheng

The Wine in Iberia (On tentative list)

The Wine in Iberia

Not another wine region...please! Wait, it's not? From the title it sure would sound like the general wine of the Iberian peninsula would be up for another landscape inscription but …

Medina Azahara by Zoë Sheng

Medina Azahara (Inscribed)

Medina Azahara

This place used to be an ancient city in the styles one can see at the Alcazar in Sevilla but rather than "just" a palace or building the area was …

Columbus Memorial Places in Huelva by Zoë Sheng

Columbus Memorial Places in H… (On tentative list)

Columbus Memorial Places in Huelva

I'm very torn on the monastery in La Rábida as it is after all the place Columbus planned and discussed his journey that would lead to the discovery of the …

Amami-Oshima Island by Zoë Sheng

Amami-Oshima Island (Inscribed)

Amami-Oshima Island

Iriomote is usually a day trip from Ishigaki by ferry. Whereas it is possible to stay longer it is not easy to figure out accomodation. Best and easiest way to …

Changbai Mountain by Zoë Sheng

Changbai Mountain (On tentative list)

Changbai Mountain

The long-dormant volcano of "Long White Mountain" is very hit and miss for viewing. Naturally winter is super cold up northeast China but summer brings lots of fog into the …

Kladruby nad Labem by Zoë Sheng

Kladruby nad Labem (Inscribed)

Kladruby nad Labem

A stud farm, not handsome guys, but instead horses for breeding. I was really looking forward to something else. I think Czechia has the best variety when it comes to …

SanFangQiXiang by Zoë Sheng

SanFangQiXiang (On tentative list)

SanFangQiXiang

Three Lanes and Seven Alleys is a small block in Fuzhou city that represents its old town. Having seen grande old towns at Lijiang and Pingyao makes this seem very …

Maijishan Scenic Spots by Zoë Sheng

Maijishan Scenic Spots (On tentative list)

Maijishan Scenic Spots

Maiji Grottoes are carved into a really large rock. It can be seen from afar. The best way to get there is from Tianshui in the Gansu province which has …

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