Chinese Kazakh eagle hunters sit on horseback as they travel to a local competition in the mountains of Qinghe County, northwestern China
Image Credit: Photographs by John Hutchinson for MailOnline
The festival, organised by the local hunting community, is part of an effort to promote and grow traditional hunting practices for new generations in the mountainous region of western China that borders Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia.
The training and handling of the large birds of prey follows a strict set of ancient rules that Kazakh eagle hunters are preserving for future generations.
The beautiful Austrian village of Hallstatt looks like the picture-perfect postcard image of a traditional European town full of gabled homes and historic churches.
Now this lovely view can also be found in China where an exact replica of the village has been built as a high-end housing development.
Austria’s Hallstatt has a rich history dating back hundreds of years which can be seen in the historic, UNESCO-protected architecture that makes up the small town.
However China’s Hallstatt, located in the Guangdong Province, only dates back to 2012, but looks almost just as ancient.
The lovely little town was copied by the China Minmetals company who recreated some of the homes, decorations, and even the central church building as part of a novelty housing development for the wealthy who, assumedly, could not get real estate in the real Hallstatt.
Hallstatt, China is the next evolution of the Chinese trend of replicating landmarks from other places in the world.
From scale replicas of the Sphinx and the Eiffel Tower to navigable Venetian canals, China has an ever growing number of knock-off wonders, and the recreation of an entire village is simply the grandest yet.
While the entire village has not been replicated yet, construction on the site continues and one day soon visitors may find themselves a bit turned around as to whether they are in China or Europe.
This glass-bottomed bridge in China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park almost a mile up a mountain.
The vertiginous glass walkways provide a dizzying affect and a possible feeling of vertigo and are becoming increasingly popular among thrill-seeking tourists.
A 10-meter-high Santa Claus climbs the outer wall of a building in Shanghai, China looking for his sleigh and reindeers, December, 2018.
