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Migratory Bird Sanctuaries (Yancheng Nature Reserve) [Visited 26 Oct, 2019]

It is tricky to plan a visit to this site. There are limited English information online. The detailed maps on the dossier shows three interpretation centers open for visitors (Yancheng Nature Reserve for Rare Birds, Dafeng Milu Nature Reserve, Tiaozini Scenic Area), but all in the buffer zones. Our Chinese fellow-WHS enthusiasts Wechat group also don’t know where and how to get to the core zones.

Only the middle section of Yancheng Nature Reserve is in the core zone. The Reserve for Rare Birds is completely in the buffer area but abuts the core on its northeast corner. Likewise, only the northeast section of Dafeng Milu Nature Reserve is in the core, the deer breeding center is way far from the inscribed area. And only one side of the Tiaozini Scenic Area abuts the core zone too.

My concrete plan was go to Yancheng and Dongtai and ask locals for specifics upon arriving. I dragged my Non-WHS seeking Taiwanese friend for a weekend trip to help me talk to the locals. It went well as expected. At the two interpretation centers I visited, I was able to see what gives the OUV and managed to walk into the core.

* Yancheng Nature Reserve for Rare BirdsTake bus K2 or K202 from Yancheng Coach Station or Yancheng Railway Station. It takes bit more than an hour since the buses run slow and numerous stops along the way.

WHS#66

Masada is one of the the most visited tourist attractions in Israel. It's the total package: spectacular scenery, Roman ruins, and Jewish significance. This shows when arriving at the cable car station in the middle of the Judean Desert because it is absolutely packed with tourists on the May morning when I visited on a day trip from Jerusalem in 2018. When I first arrived, I found that the experience of exploring the remaining structures might not be as interesting as it sounded on paper. Having seen so many Roman ruins on my trip to the Holy Land, especially highlights like Jerash, Bet Shean, and Korazim, Masada's ruins didn't impress me that way. However, there are definitely a few very different things about Masada that make it a deserving WHS.

The cable car stations are the only modern structures in the vicinity of the site, which is a blessing and a curse. Almost the entire landscape is completely uncompromised, but the modern structures are somewhat distracting. I would've preferred they leave the site inaccessible to keep the visitor numbers lower, but to each his own. Walking through the inner parts of Masada, it honestly wasn't very picturesque, since the view of the vast deserts below is blocked, and the buildings didn't seem as impressive as others I had already seen. The small jagged blocks of sandstone used just didn't offer the same majestic Roman feel to them as the marbles and basalts in the Galilee sites. They …

You will notice that renting a car in Darwin gives you a grand total of 100km to drive per day unless you want to fork out lots of money. Doing the math I think it's only worth renting and driving all the way to Kakadu if you are 3 people or more or actually do more things on the way. Just going to Kakadu and back as a daytrip is not gonna work. Luckily they have an affordable bus trip that picks you up bright and early (it's not early-early like a "daytrip" to Jordan from Sinai or something silly...) and drops you back at ~8pm so this isn't actually bad at all. I even took a flight out the same evening and got dropped off at the turn-off so I can grab an Uber to the airport just 10 minutes away. The coach is also super comfy with toilet and aircon etc.

The visit via this trip only covers around 1% of what the park really has to offer but I think that's normal for a park this size. The roads are really good but there is not much off-roading. This tour also obviously doesn't visit any waterfalls in the south.

The first stop is gonna be the the rock art. It's really nice although I have to wonder about the modern one. It does follow the same style but I think that when aboriginals painted these ages ago that's an achievement but if an artist does …

I visited Mauritania in October 2019. I flew into Nouakchott (very easy to obtain visa on arrival), where I visited the camel market and Port de Peche, the city's fishing port, which houses the largest fleet of traditional wooden fishing boats on the West African coast. It took us eight hours to drive northeast from Nouakchott, on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania, to Chinguetti in the Sahara, where we arrived just in time to watch the sunset from atop nearby sand dunes over the ancient Berber town. The next day we drove as far as the road goes in eastern Mauritania to Ouadane’s old town, built in the Middle Ages and now largely in ruins. I made my arrangements with Hademine at Time for Mauritania.

WHS#67

Jerusalem is the holiest city in the world. It's crazy how all of these different religions happen to have some of their holiest sites, among other impressive sites of great historic significance, in this single square kilometer. Indeed, this single walled square kilometer is so full of things to see that it feels endless to explore, and it kind of is. I spent a whole day exploring the old city in May 2018, and I felt like I hadn't even scratched the surface. Starting from and ending at the famous Jaffa Gate, I went in a loop through the Armenian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter, and finally, the Christian Quarter. Each quarter has something interesting to offer, though I didn't necessarily experience what I might've expected from their names. At the end of the day, the experience of Jerusalem leaves feet tired, minds blown, and souls filled.

The first striking thing about Jerusalem is easily the walls. Yes, the walls included on its official WHS title. It's an impressive continuous stretch of centuries-old walls. They look very Norman castle-inspired with their little rectangular indentations on top and curved arch portals, but Islamic patterns and Arabic inscriptions can be observed too, owing to Jerusalem's history under various cultural influences, especially that of the Ottomans. The buildings within the city are also quite Ottoman, and they look quite similar to other old cities in the region, like Safed, Jaffa, Acre, and Nablus. Don't be fooled, though, the …

WHS#65

I visited Bethlehem in May 2018 on a day trip from Jerusalem. Its Church of the Nativity is one of the holiest sites of Christianity in the world, probably only second to The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. As a Christian, it was definitely a no-brainer to go and see it for myself. The complex is made up of several churches and religious structures, but I only visited 2. First was the Church of St. Catherine, the Catholic church. It was a simple neo-gothic church painted in bright colors. Nothing much to see here, but the caves under the church were once refuge for St. Jerome, and are continuations to the one where Jesus was actually born, which is right under the Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity. Speaking of which, it's right next door, and a small side entrance connects it to the courtyard in front of St. Catherine's. One has to bend over to get in, which makes it really practical to bow in respect of the holiness of the place. It was also used to keep horses out of the church. Once inside, it's really disorganized. This is one of the oldest churches in the world, and likewise, the nave is lined with Roman columns. In front is the characteristic Greek Orthodox altar, with its red and gold lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The walls are plastered bare, save for a few stretches of brilliant gold Byzantine mosaics. It's a really characteristic and …

I recently stayed for 2 nights in the Sicilian coastal town of Taormina, using it as a base for visiting Mt. Etna. There’s no way that I can write up 500 words about it (the usual size of my blog entries), so I’ll keep this a short TWHS review.

The roots of the town go back to the Siculi, a tribe that inhabited the area before it became part of Magna Graecia. The Greeks came, then the Romans, the Byzantines, the Normans, the Spanish and finally the Anglo-Saxon Grand Tour travelers. This impressive list of civilizations unfortunately isn’t reflected in a wealth of historic points of interest in the current town.

The most prominent sight is the Greek theatre, but it is not particularly attractive when you know the type already. Its only selling point is that Mt. Etna can be seen in the distance behind the stage – at least when you come during the morning, otherwise the sun will shine from that direction. Also worth a visit is Florence Trevelyan's garden, a quirky leftover from the time when some British made Taormina their second home.

And what about Isola Bella? I only saw it from the bus on my way up to Taormina. It’s a tiny island, also once owned by Florence Trevelyan. The owner of the B&B where I was staying in Taormina used to be the park ranger on Isola Bella, until it changed ownership for the umpteenth time and ceased being a …

After a week down by the coast the winding roads up into the Troodos Mountains were a blessed relief. Gone was the fungal spread of ‘Villa-Land’, little boxes all made out of ticky-tacky. Instead characterful villages of weathered homes with red-tiled roofs leapt down the slopes as the road switch-backed. Clouds huddled above the peaks like sheep round a trough. The temperature dropped noticeably as we climbed and the air was scented with the aroma of pine resin. And then, one after another, the signs appeared, all with an unmistakable logo. My wife glanced at me suspiciously. “Considering you told me that we weren’t going to visit a World Heritage Site there certainly seem to be a lot of Unesco signs around.” One day I’ll have to tell her about the Tentative List…

It is now 21 years since Cyprus gained a new WHS. And it’s hard to see an obvious contender for World Heritage status from their existing Tentative List. Cyprus’s T List is a bit of mess, to be honest. It’s existing three World Heritage Sites are strong (particularly Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region in my view). Of the 11 locations listed one is an extension to an existing site (Painted Churches in the Troodos Region) and of the others six have a Description on the Unesco website stating “NB – This site has to be considered as part of the Troodos ophiolite, a 90 million year old fragment of extremely well-preserved oceanic …

On an 8-day road trip to the Gobi desert in the summer of 2005 we also visited Bayanzag which do indeed look and feel like flaming cliffs when you are stuck trying to push your car out of the sand in 40+ degrees. Having driven past dozens of horse skeletons daily certainly highlighted the seriousness of being prepared in such a remote area. On the dinosaur theme we also visited the Natural History Museum in Yolyn Am which had several fossils found locally including eggs. We ended up sleeping in a back room in the museum for lack of anywhere else to stay at the time too. Nothing came alive in the night ;) As the largest source of dinosaur fossils in the world this should be an easy and automatic nomination, or at worst combined with the other Gobi TWHS.

WHS#68

Macao is a true melting pot between the east and west. Everything, from its architecture of Baroque churches alongside Chinese temples to its road signs in Cantonese and Portuguese to its famous Macanese cuisine, exudes the true essence of fusion, and in the most colorful ways too. Just taking a taxi ride through its streets, the great variety of colors and styles of buildings was astounding to the eye and yearning to be explored. And don't forget to try all of the street food. Fish balls, dumplings, jerky, milk tea, and the renowned egg tarts are all available in the streets around the heavily touristed historic center. If you decide on a sit-down restaurant, be sure to try the many dishes of African, Indian, Portuguese, and Cantonese flavors. Okay, enough about food, let's talk history. Macao was one of the first European outposts in Eastern Asia, settled by the Portuguese and only given back to China in the 1990s. The great thing about it is that instead of the Portuguese culture, religion, and language wiping out that of the natives, both the colonial and local cultures have thrived there and are manifested in the historic center and its people today.

I went to Macao in May 2018 on a day trip from Hong Kong by ferry, which takes about an hour.My first stop was Guia Fortress, some distance away from the historic center itself. It's up on a hill, and a vehicle can only take you up …

I was able to visit this monastery in the summer of 2005 during a jeep tour to Khovsgol Lake. It is a rather small and out of the way monastic complex sitting by itself at the end of a beautiful valley, surrounded at the time by only a few families and their flock. I doubt much has changed. I can't attest to the sacredness and OUV of the site but the scenery was stunning and very peaceful. Being so simple and yet the second-most important monastery in the country really highlighted how undeveloped and small-scale everything in Mongolia is, especially in contrast to Russia and China. We were the only group there, saw a handful of monks doing their thing in the main temple quite quickly and spent the night with one of the local families before moving on the next morning. It was a long way from anywhere and wouldn't be worth a trip alone but it was easily the highlight on the route between Ulaan Baatar and Khovsgol.

Tourist visit the Tatacoa Desert for 3 reasons:

• Landscape Formations
• Hiking (+Swimming)
• Stargazing

Only one of these even matches what it would be inscribed for because they want to inscribe it for

• Pre-Colombian archaeological remains
• Landscape Formations
• Fossils

I can tell you now that the tourist reasons are better although the stargazing was very kid-oriented but for learning more Spanish (it was all in Spanish) it was kinda useful for me. I didn't go swimming because that lake is actually artificial and it takes a long hike to get there. I hiked several other spots that had free parking. The road from Neiva is good until you reach the park itself and becomes a decent gravel road instead. If you come from Bogota like me then I highly recommend not taking the "road" via La Victoria. It's pure hell, passes through several tunnels that may just lead you to said hell, and a bridge as rickety as the one in Temple of Doom. Even with my cuatro por cuatro this was no fun and in the end takes almost the same time as coming via Neiva - and to think if another car would come the opposite way!

So we are still with the Landscape Formation - they are beautiful and I took many, many photos. They are not unique as far as I see. The natural beauty criteria doesn't seem to match either. However, this still …

I visited this site in July 2018.

The historic centre of Salvador has a very peculiar topography. The city is full of ups and downs, and there's a cliff separating the old area in the upper city and the lower city. Probably the most famous building of Salvador is the one that connects these two parts, the Lacerda elevator. The current building is in art déco style, built in 1930. Use it costs only a few cents, but expect a queue. It isn't a great touristic experience, it's just an elevator, but it's very practical to explore the area.   

The lower city is small compared to the upper city. There's really no much space, with the ocean on one side and the cliff on the other side. The most interestings buildings in this area are the Basilica of Conceição da Praia and the Modelo market. Another interesting place there is the Solar do Unhão, a former sugar cane farm complex that is now a museum, but unfortunately I didn't go there.

The upper city has a lot more to see. Usually people call this part of the historic centre of Pelourinho, but this is the name of only one of the districts of old area. The core zone of the WHS also embraces other districts, like Santo Antônio, Saúde and Barroquinha, but the taxi driver that taked me to there advised me to walk around only in Pelourinho area, for safety reasons. Pelourinho is the most touristic …

Visiting Morocco, there were a lot of things we weren’t prepared for. There was the sheer diversity of the topography. There was the beauty and the color. And yes, Volubilis was certainly one of those surprises.

Dating from the 3rd century BC, Volubilis was the ancient capital of the kingdom of Mauretania, such as it was. Then became a Roman stronghold, then an independent Christian community before becoming the seat of an Islamic dynasty. That’s a lot of change for one city to see. And each of those changes can be seen etched in the architecture (and ruins) of the site.

Like most visitors, we were captivated by the giant triumphal Arch of Caracalla for its grandness. And we fell in love with fine details of the mosaic tile floors, which are well preserved to this day.

The city was an empire unto itself. Even being on the far southwest edge of the Roman Empire, it was a formidable city. We struggled to understand how over 20,000 people could here. And, this was one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Certainly, the art and architecture speak to the affluence of the people who lived in the ancient site.

It’s safe to say that Volubilis was one of the highlights of visiting Morocco!

This is a site that I really enjoyed exploring. It’s not difficult to check out all the inscribed sites, and Mount Songshan has a lot to offer: landscape, religions, architecture... Again I’ll only make comments complementary to previous reviews. Sites are mentioned in chronological order.

Que Gates are important cultural relics that embody ancient Chinese ceremonial or funerary traditions. They are also considered as lithic replications of wooden structures that no longer exist nowadays. The three Han Que Gates at Mount Songshan were built during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the heyday of Que Gates. Due to their importance, all three were protected in sheds around 2010 to alleviate erosions caused by nature and fast-growing tourism. Now the only visible Han Que is Shaoshi Que, which can be seen through newly installed glass curtain walls. One can still appreciate on its body the carved paintings with religious or aristocratic themes.

Juha’s summary of the Songyue Temple Pagoda is very precise. I’d like to add that its dodecagonal shape stands as proof of imported Indian influence on early Chinese architecture, and makes an isolated and unique case in the evolution of domestic Chinese pagodas.

The Shaolin Temple is indeed considered as a tourist trap to some extent, as the majority of the kernel compound is a 20th-century reconstruction and the Kung Fu shows are highly commercialized. But it is still worth visiting because of the Pagoda Forest and the Chuzu Temple. The Pagoda Forest consists of 248 pagodas, some …

A lot has been said about the Taihuai Buddhist architectural complex, but one’s Mount Wutai experience could not possibly be complete without paying a visit to the magnificent Great East Hall of the Foguang Temple, the third oldest timber structure in China and the finest of its kind.

The Foguang Temple was first established during the Northern Wei Dynasty in the 5th century, but the existing Great East Hall dates back to 857 AD, when it was rebuilt after the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution ordered by Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty in 845 AD. Due to its rural and arid location, the temple kept intact and remained hidden in plain sight, not to be rediscovered until 1937. The Great East Hall is the best living example of Tang-style wooden structure in all of China, easily noticeable through its imposing hipped roof and huge columns with Dougong (interlocking wooden brackets). The carpentry expertise applied to the Great East Hall closely corresponds to the records of Yingzao Fashi, the earliest Chinese architectural treatise from the 11th century, and provides several isolated and unique structural cases for architectural academic studies. The hall still holds an exhibition of 36 Buddhist sculptures and numerous wall paintings from Tang Dynasty. The temple has always been an inseparable part of the Mount Wutai heritage. Other noteworthy spots in the temple include the 6th-century Zushi Pagoda, two Tang funerary pillars with chronological records, and the 12th-century Manjusri Hall. The oldest timber structure in China, the Nanchan …

I'll always associate the Orkney Islands with the 2019 World Heritage Site meet-up, since they were the first place I met some of the regulars from this forum, to include Nan in Kirkwall, Hubert in Stromness, and a near miss of Philipp and Jasam and their wives, whom I unknowingly passed by at lunch. Orkney also had an exceptionally interesting World Heritage Site, the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, the components of which have been very well documented below. Of the components, I most enjoyed Skara Brae, a neolithic coastal settlement uncovered in the 19th century, though I'd also highly recommend a visit to the mounded tomb of Maes Howe, which generally requires an advance reservation for a guided tour. If there is time, the walk between the two groups of standing stones is very scenic, and takes one right next to the Ness of Brodgar archaeological site, which I though was well worth the detour. Summer turned out to be a great time to explore this site, and I can only hope the weather is as nice for other visitors as it was for me.

Logistics: Many others have documented how to get to Orkney via Stromness, but if you have your own car, I can recommend the short ferry ride from St. Margaret's Hope to Gills Bay, from where one can drive along causeways around the Scapa Flow to Kirkwall on Orkney.

WHS#69

Just over an hour north of Bangkok lie the ruins of what was once the biggest city in the world - Ayutthaya. I got the opportunity for a short day trip to the site in July 2018. Unfortunately, because I was traveling with my dad's college batch, who weren't very fond of temples, ruins, or off-the-beaten-path travel, I had a private tour organized, and the itinerary definitely wasn't to my liking, but what could I do except try to satisfy the group? We only visited Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Wat Mahathat, and Bang Pa-in Palace before getting on a river cruise back to Bangkok. Out of these, only Wat Mahathat was located in the WHS, so I can't say I got to explore this site very well, but entering the core area really gave me a good idea of what the site is like as a whole.

The Historic City of Ayutthaya is made up of about half of the riverine island that formed the center of the once great capital of Siam. Many ruined temples stand today as proof of that, and these temples include Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Mahathat, Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Phra Ram, and Wat Thammikarat, among other less preserved or less impressive ones. However, this also includes areas of empty space and of modern buildings, once located at the heart of the great city, but now showing no actual heritage value. It also means that other outstanding sites like Wat Chai Watthanaram …

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019 as a stopover on my way back from Czechia. Overall, I quite enjoyed what this quaint Bavarian town has on offer even though I felt its water features have nothing particularly unique or outstanding. Even in Bavaria there are similar towns with equally lovely fountains and water features, let alone in Germany as a whole or on a European or worldwide level. Strangely enough it reminded me of Regensburg which I had rated similarly.

I'm very glad I visited mainly for the Fuggerei apart from the extra tick after completing Czechia. Had it not been for its inscription, I would have missed out by not visiting as I wasn't aware of its existence. Unfortunately, Augsburg's inscription does not add any substance or fill in any gap in Germany's quite saturated WH list, but I suspect that those who drafted its nomination knew that this was precisely the case yet headed on to attract more tourists. For those of you who haven't visited the Ice Age Caves yet though, I'd recommend sleeping over in Ulm rather than in Augsburg as there's much more to see and do there.

It took me 2 years to get into Pakistan. 4 trips to the embassy to request a hiking trip up around Gilgit coming from the Karakoram Highway but I still couldn't convince the officer it was safe and the tour agency didn't seem helpful once they got their money for an invitation letter. Since then there is e-visa. For me I have to apply for a business visa, also a first, but it seems most arriving on a business don't really business here and just pay for an invitation letter. On the other hand, visa fee was waived.

The immigration officer fell heads over heals for me (alternate motive? paving a path to get abroad or my getting his hands on my imaginary monopoly money piles? Second wife? But anyhow he offered to take me out to Mardan and Taxila and my welcome to Pakistan couldn't be better. I met him up at the Taxila museum which I explored on my own. There is a nice app for the museum that will make some display cases easier to understand, although the security guard gave me a rundown of the first one as well (I stopped him not wanting a guide or start shelling out tips for services I didn't ask for). Whereas the museum isn't bad and makes for a good introduction, it's a real shame that they ripped out many artefacts from the original locations to display here.

Second stop was Jaulian, the old monastery. This is …