Some of Jon's photos

The photo to the left shows sunset over the Northern Gulf of Evia. The photo to the right shows the coastline at Skinos, on the southern side of the eastern Gulf of Corinth, which is uplifted (as seen in the notch at the base of the rocks in the water). These rocks have been uplifted by footwall uplift across a recently active fault which last ruptured in 1982.

On one trip we were fortunate enough to visit the famous ancient town of Delphi and view the archeological site (left and right). Delphi lies between the Gulfs of Corinth and Evia.

Left Another picture from Delphi. Right Snow covered vegetation near the village of Anavra, further north from the Gulf of Evia, and up in the Othris mountains. In the three visits I've paid to this locality, the geology has always been obscured by the snow, but the scenery is great!

These three photos show one of the most impressive geological sights in the world: the exposed fault plane at Arkitsa on the southern side of the Gulf of Evia. Affectionally known as the 'rubbish dump fault', owing to its location in a rubbish dump and cesspit, this fault plane was exposed when the Greeks removed the overlying material as a construction material. The exposed plane is very planar and has a highly polished surface with lovely striations that give the sense of motion across the fault. This fault is a normal fault, which means that the material attached to the visible plane moves up and south away from the fault when an earthquake occurs (this is the footwall). The material on the side of the fault from which the photos were taken moves down and north away from the fault. Thus a line that joins two points on either side of the fault will get longer in an earthquake as the earth's surface is extending in this part of the world. This surface is where blocks of continent slide past each other, and this 'crack' in the Earth's crust extends to about 15 km depth.

China and Hong Kong

Photos in this section are from Hong Kong and mainland China. I have travelled to China four times in five years, the longest trip being for five months; the shortest for 3 weeks. I love the country very much and enjoy travelling there tremendously. Chinese sleeper trains are particular fun; my brother, sister and I once spent 48 hours travelling from Beijing to Urumqi (hard sleeper of course; soft sleeper is for pansies and a lot less fun!). In China I've been privileged enough to visit Tianjin, Beijing, Zheng Zhou, Shanghai, Zhang Jia Jie, Xian, Chengdu, Lijiang, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Urumqi and Kashgar, many of these multiple times, as well as smaller towns in between. China is a fantastic country to visit, not so much for what there is to see, but more for the people, who are very friendly and welcoming to foreigners. The first few photos are of where I lived in Hong Kong for a few months in 2001, and the rest are from my various visits around China.

Left My residence for 3 months in Hong Kong during 2001. This was not what I expected from Hong Kong. The village is Shui Tau near Kam Tin in the New Territories, and from the roof of this building the Chinese city of Shenzhen is visible. The village is in the mountains and facilities are fairly basic — no running hot water for example. It's in the countryside and there are plenty of places to walk in the nearby mountains. TST (the centre of HK) is only an hour away by bus, and the larger city of Yuen Long is only 3 miles away. This part of HK is brilliant — lots of real Chinese culture, as well as Indian and Nepalese communities, and almost no white people. It's changed a lot in the last 3 years as a new railway and motorway have been built to improve accessibility to this area. Right The view from my residence north to the nearby mountains. These can be climbed in an hour or two, but this is best attempted in the Winter or Spring when it's not too hot!

The view of what most people think of as 'Hong Kong': Kowloon as seen from Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. These photos were taken in January 2001, and the skyline has changed as seen in some of the photos below.

Left The view south from Victoria Peak over the South China Sea (Jan 2001). Right A tree in the village in which I lived which is most impressive for its vast reach. The tree has grown around old building and has formed several trunks down to the ground. Shui Tau is a famous village as it's where the first settlers in Hong Kong arrived. The village has many ancient temples and other historic sites which are rare in China these days.

Chinese New Year, Jan 2001. These photos where taken from the entrance to the building where I lived, only a few yards from the first photo in this section. Usually this square is empty and deserted, but it was throbbing with people for the extensive New Year celebrations. These mainly seemed to centre around firecrackers which lasted a long time (maybe 10-15 mins) and were extremely loud. Apparently they are illegal, but tolerated in the village as it's so far from the major population centres in HK, and the local families are extremely influential and powerful. The structure shown to the left was temporary, whereas to the right an ancient temple is shown decorated for the New Year.

Left Once, during an early morning quiet time, I took this photo of one of the village water buffalo which are allowed to wander freely here, there, and everywhere. I like it as the eyes have a funny glow giving a rather demonic appearance! Right Sunrise as seen from the roof of where I lived.

Left Yuen Long as seen from the foot of the mountains near Shui Tau. This city is about three miles away, and a fairly major town. Right A photo of the Kowloon Peninsula at night from Victoria Peak, August 2003.

More photos of HK at night taken in August 2003 and 2004.

Far Left Skyscraper in Central on Hong Kong Island (I think it's the Bank of China building). Left Star Ferry, TST. Right Hong Kong Island at night, August 2004. Far Right Hong Kong from Victoria Peak during the day, August 2004.

The scenery at the National Park near Zhang Jia Jie (ZJJ), central China. This is a popular tourist destination for the Chinese, and at the time I was there (April 2001) was undiscovered by foreign tourists. I was there for a cultural exchange program. The scenery is very similar to Guilin with impressive karstic topography.

Left A river near the city of Ankang between Xian and Chengdu. We had to stop here as we couldn't get the train tickets we wanted. Right The city of Guang Yuan, nearer to Chengdu. These cities had no foreigners in them and we were treated like celebrities!

Left A chinese toddler, Guang Yuan, May 2001. Right Tea house, Chengdu.

Rural China on the road from Panzhihua to Lijiang, Yunnan Province. Bus travel on unmade roads in China is an experience in itself. Right The town of Lijiang, southwest China. This is a beautiful old town, with an ugly modern addition to the edges. It's very popular with tourists and there are no end of 'coffee' shops and internet bars. The weather is very nice with less pollution than in other cities, the climate agreeable, and the scenery stunning. The local mountains top 5000 metres, and the elevation of the town is over 2 km. This region is tectonically active with extensional earthquakes similar to those in central Greece being fairly frequent.

More views of Lijiang, June 2001.

Left My brother, sister and I visited friends in Urumqi, western China in the Summer of 2003. Urumqi is the capital city of Xinjiang Province, north of Tibet on the other side of the Taklamakan Desert and at the eastern end of the Tian Shan Mountains. We stayed for a couple of days in a Kazak yurt near Urumqi, and this is the local scenery: very alpine. Right Our host was this friendly Uyghur gentleman, who was also a chef.

Further west than Urumqi is the city of Kashgar, a day's train ride away near the western border of China. There is a great mix of ethnic communities here with the local Uyghurs mixing with the Han Chinese and nearby Kyrgyz, Kazak and Pakistani communities (and others). The old city, which is very beautiful and amazing to walk around, is rapidly being pulled down and replaced with the modern, ugly, anonymous sprawl of the Han Chinese. These photos show some of that destruction.

These photos are taken near Artush, just north of Kashgar and within walking distance of Kyrgyzstan. Here I visited the birthplace of Islam in China, a 3 hour jeep ride across the desert (right). On the left is a local Uyghur knife-sharpener.

The cattle market in Kashgar. The temperature was greater than 40^oC, but the dry nature of the heat made it quite bearable (along with a lot of black tea!). The Uyghurs are Muslim, and so lamb and mutton form part of their staple diet (no pigs here!).

My second visit to Xian in the August of 2003 resulted in a trip outside of the city to find the site of the first Christian community established in China in the 7th Century AD. Nearby was this historical site where Daoism originated from (left). Right My third trip to Xian saw me return to the Terracotta Warriors, one of the three 'must-see' attractions of China (the others being the Great Wall and the Forbidden City). To be honest I am always underwhelmed by the spectacle and would rather visit more out of the way localities.

More photos of Terracotta Warriors, August 2004.

Left More Terracotta Warriors. Right My second visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing, Aug 2004. The city is an impressive sight, but it's better to go when it's not quite so hot!

Left The Forbidden City. Right views of the Great Wall at Mutianyu near Beijing, Aug 2004. This section of the Great Wall is much more rewarding than that at Badaling.

Airshows and Museums

Most of these photos have been taken at Duxford, near where I live in Cambridge. These are no-where near the best pictures I have taken — they tend to be in frames and thus not amenable to scanning. Some other pictures of aeroplanes and helicopters I've taken on my travels are shown here as well. Duxford is an excellent museum and I highly recommend a visit. The airshows they put on are also usually very good.

Left Saab Draken, Duxford. Right McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle, Duxford.

Left Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Duxford. Right Grumman F6F Hellcat, Duxford.

Left Bell UH-1D Iroquois 'Huey', Duxford. As you can see, the lighting in the US aircraft hall is not great for photography. Right Hawker Hurricane.

Left Gloster Javelin, Duxford. Right Aero L-39, Duxford.

Left BAC Lightning F.1, Duxford. To see my model of this aircraft click here. Right North American B-25 Mitchell. This light bomber has been my favourite WWII aeroplane ever since I saw a documentary on flying a group of them to England over the Atlantic for the filming of Hannover Street.

Left Dassault Mystere, Duxford. Right McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2. To see my model of this aeroplane, click here.

Left De Havilland Rapide, Duxford. Right Westland Wessex, Duxford. Far right North American F-86A Sabre, Duxford. To see my model of an F-86F, click here.

Left Grumman F-14A Tomcat, USS Hornet, Alameda, near San Francisco. To see my model of an F-14A, click here. Right Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk, USS Hornet. This is a great museum of an aircraft carrier. I ran out of film, and, unusually for a museum, they didn't sell it...

Shenyang J-6, the Chinese version of the Russian MiG-19 'Farmer', photographed at the National Park in Zhang Jia Jie. I came across this way up a mountain; goodness knows how they got it there!

Chengdu J-5A, the Chinese version of the Russian MiG-17P 'Fresco'. This aircraft is situated in the Yellow River Park near Zheng Zhou in central China and is missing some key components, like its engines.

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