The Great Barrier Reef, Australia 

Strange as it may seem, I will start the story about my trip to Australia from Ethiopia.

Some believe that spending winter in Moscow is not the best idea, and so some people tend to escape winter's embrace to beaches with palms trees.  Photographers feel cold as well and also dream of sunny destinations. So a trip to Ethiopia in early January looked like a good alternative to a standard downhill skiing.

Upon arrival to Addis Ababa the weather was great: +10 degrees Celsius outside the airport. Then we had to take another flight and to spend 8 hours in the car. Finally we were in the salt desert. It was suspiciously hot, obviously over 30 degrees Celsius, if not over 40.  So I was waiting for the sunset. The sun finally set but the heat did not subside. The sweat was dripping down my face and I started wondering - What is this place? And they explained that it's "depression" - 140 meters below sea level. It was cool that time of the year, but in the summer temperature goes over 50 Celsius. There was an occasional breeze, but dust would accompany it. I was trying to cool down in our air-conditioned jeep.

But instead of cooling the A/C brought me nothing, but a cloud of dust. I was almost boiling under the sun.  It turned out we had to spend 4 days there. I was saved by two things:  dipping my T-shirt and a sunhat in water every hour, which gave me 20 minutes of coolness, and a bottle of cold Coca-Cola from a local grocery store. It was the most delicious drink I have ever tasted in my life!

So how did I end up in Australia? Finally, after arriving at a decent hotel with internet connection, I read the news and saw a headline: "Heat waves in Australia". The story was about +46 degrees in Sydney and +52 degrees in Melbourne. By that time I already got my tickets to the Great Barrier Reef (hereinafter GBR) - to the part of the fifth continent closest to the Equator.  

That's when I realized what kind of winter I'm facing. This is why I thoroughly enjoyed Moscow cold weather during a weeklong break between Ethiopia and Australia.

This was summer time in Australia. Arriving at Cairns, I found out that even though my hotel faced the ocean, or rather the Coral Sea, the beach was empty. It turned out that summer is the dead season. The sea is so warm that the coastal water is filled with some harmful jellyfish and swimming is strictly prohibited.  

The heat of +38 degrees with 100% humidity was almost unbearable. But car and room air conditioning, as opposed to Ethiopia, worked just fine.  Taking my chances I've decided to go for a walk along the promenade towards restaurants. Of course I was sweating, but I didn't feel like I was suffocating while being locked up in a "submarine". Walking into any store brought a breath of fresh air. Plus Ethiopian hardiness somehow affected my body and it endured. I'll be getting ahead of myself by telling you that I froze near the open door while in a helicopter on the altitude of 1.5 kilometers.  

I love to plan my trips ahead of time. Two weeks before going to Australia I sent letters to many helicopter companies that offered flights over the BBR. And the only thing I heard back from them was silence.  I was expecting a prompt reply and I was very surprised when I didn't receive one. I decided that I will have to deal with it upon arrival. And just the day before my departure I finally received the first answer. The letter contained an apology and a link to the article. It appears that while there was a heat wave in the south, the north part of Australia was hit by days-long rainfall that flushed service provider's cell towers, and they sat on the bank without cell phones and Internet. This is why they received my email much later. But the important thing was that they did get it!

 The town of Cairns is considered a "gateway" to the BBR.  Coral islands in this area are situated close to the coast, and renowned diving points are only several hours away by a boat.  Apparently there is no jellyfish far away in the sea. 

But my task was to describe the beauty of BBR from above while in a helicopter.

The first flight was a disappointment. During the flight, despite all enthusiastic descriptions, I didn't discover anything even remotely interesting. The only thing I saw was a sandy island measuring 5x15 meters.  It was a perfect place where you could feel like on a deserted island. However, the sight of helicopter standing still on the sand destroyed my exotic fantasy.  

When we returned, the head of helicopter company invited me to his office and started talking about getting residence permit in Australia.  I couldn't understand what was it exactly that he wanted from me. In the end he asked me directly if any of my friends wanted to get a residence permit by investing in the Australian economy, that is by buying his company. I promised to ask around.  But so far no one has responded!

After reviewing the photos I realized that I do not feel any joy and satisfaction.  And then I heard an email alert from my MacBook: a letter came from the company http://www.skysafari.com.au, located 80 kilometers to the north of Port Douglas.   They finally restored their connection to the Internet! I immediately dialed the phone number, and the voice on the other end assured me that I can reach much more beautiful BBR reefs from Douglas, and I can also see Lizard Island as a bonus!

In the morning I was standing near small trailer in the open field with parked helicopter.  This time we had a longer flight, but the pictures below us were more interesting: winding coral reefs lined up in chains, and Lizard Island, where we had to refuel, made a really big impression.  

The sun was setting and we were on our way back when pilot suddenly steered towards the mountains, hovered over the waterfall and flew in the direction of a big cloud. When I asked him about it, he said that he wanted to show me a rainbow, which is formed around the helicopter shadow projected on the cloud. 

There was a rainbow, but so weak that it could not be captured: my camera refused to focus on a cloud, and the moment was lost. After we landed, I went through the photos and was about to admit that I had to wrap up the BBR project when I noticed a beautiful photo on one of the trailer's walls: it was a picture of a small coral island shaped like a heart.  When I asked if it was photoshoped, I was told that there is an actual reef like that 400 kilometers to the south of the shore and that it will take an hour to get there. I felt that my tour was incomplete without the "heart", and the next day I went to the town of Airlie Beach. 

Staying at the beachfront hotel, I finally figured out how Australians cheat jellyfish: a fabulous pool was dug 10 meters away from the beach, where you can safely swim in the sea waters.  The city was occupied by young people. As opposed to Cairns and Port Douglas there were at least five nightclubs open all night long, and small groups of girls in high heels strolled the main street from on club to another. They were accompanied by groups of boys, of course.

The next morning I flew to the Heart Reef. Along the way I saw several interesting islands, and one of them, Whitsunday Island, made a very strong impression.  It is a big deserted island and a National Park. After white sugar sand and bent palm trees I suddenly spotted a stunning Whitsunday beach - a very long beach recognized as the most beautiful beach in Australia.  The only way to get there is by boat or, like me, on a helicopter. 

Adjacent to the beach is a picturesque inlet that can be described as a river bed filled with water from the sea during the high tide that brings all sorts of shockfish and different sharks, and during the low tide it shrinks down and becomes sandy beach.  

I had to ask the pilot to slow down the helicopter in order to take pictures of this wonderful place. Another 40 minutes of flying and we arrived at the "heart".  Yes, this reef was worth the couple of days it took to get to it.  I was shotting it both from high and low altitude, using my telephoto lens until the pilot warned we were running out of fuel.   

On the way back we landed on the Whitsunday beach. I had a sunbed and a bottle of champagne with me.  I took my time sipping champagne from a glass while looking at the turquoise Coral Sea in the last rays of the setting sun. I wish I had someone by my side to share the delight of the "heart", sunset, and white sand.  

It's amazing but at the moment I didn't feel heat at all, and I had absolutely no desire to return to my cold homeland.

Text and photography by Dmitriy Moiseenko

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And now we would like to give you some interesting facts about the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is located in the eastern part of Australia and it is one of the greatest wonders of nature. It stretches 2,500 kilometers along the coast and has a territory of 344,400 square kilometers. It is the largest coral ecosystem of our planet and the largest natural object formed by living organisms.  

It's hard to believe, but during most of Australia's geological history its coastal waters have been so cold that corals couldn't exist there. It's explained by the fact that Australia has been a part of Antarctica for thousands of years. Australia drifted to tropical waters 65 million years ago. This event coincided with the rise of sea level, which created conditions that allowed coral reefs to grow near Australia's northeast coast. 

For the most part the Barrier reef is less than 400,000 years old because the rest of the time the sea level was too low for corals to grow. Its youngest parts were formed in the last 200 years, and the most rapid growth occurred in the last 8,000 years during the rise of the World Ocean level. 

The main part of the reef consists of more than 2,900 individual reefs of different sizes, ranging from 0.01 square kilometers to 100 square kilometers. The youngest reefs live on top of the old ones at an average depth of 15-20 meters. During low tide only a small part of the corals can be seen on the water surface, and in order to enjoy a more detailed picture you have to dive into the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean.

A shallow lagoon separates the coastline and the natural formation of 540 barriers consists of over 600 offshore islands that surround the reefs. It is a home to four hundred coral species of different colors: various shades of red, yellow, brown, purple, and even black. The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is a home to 1,500 species of ocean fish and 500 species of reef fish, including whale shark, the largest fish in the world. Waters around the reef are inhabited by several species of whales, dolphins and sea turtles, not to mention a great variety of shrimps, lobsters, and other small fauna. And finally, the reef provides shelter for more than 240 bird species. It is no wonder that this huge formation can be seen perfectly from the outer space.

Although Australia's aboriginal population started using the coral islands of the Great Barrier Reef about 40,000 years ago, for a very long time this natural monument has not been known to the Western civilization.  In year 1770 famous explorer James Cook survived a shipwreck near the Great Barrier Reef. Many other ships that came here later faced the same fate. The first person to sail around the Barrier Reef in year 1815 was Charles Jeffries. Only in year 1980 - when most of the archipelago was thoroughly explored and mapped - this route became safe to travel.

Each year near two million tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. However, despite the government's efforts to establish a set of restrictions aimed to protect coral reef ecosystem, its destruction is inevitable. In addition to devastation caused by humans (for example, oil spills from passing ships, or even tourists' suntan lotions dissolved in the water), the Great Barrier Reef is also susceptible to risks created by nature itself.

For example, the so-called fading occurs, which leads to large quantities of fast deaths of corals. It's caused by global warming that affects water temperature not only in Australia, but also around the world. The fragile balance of coral reefs is also greatly disrupted by tropical storms. And perhaps the worst enemy of the coral reefs is the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) that sometime reaches up to a half-meter in size. They feed on coral polyps. In the 80s the echinoderms predators caused the most damage to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

According to the study published by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in October 2012, since 1985 the Great Barrier Reef has lost over 50% of corals that form its structure! It is unfortunate that we were not able to shoot this panorama before, but even now the Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the most impressive nature monuments not only in Australia, but also in the entire world. See it for yourself on our panoramas.

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Shanghai, China

The first day in Shanghai.

From the first moment in Shanghai I had a feeling that I was surrounded by endless construction sites. The area where we were staying looked like an anthill; we were surrounded by a crowd of people, heavy traffic, and scooters that were all over the place, even on the sidewalks.

We went to sleep without any strength left. In the morning, while cursing at the damned alarm clock, we barely woke up at 4pm local time. The weather outside was foggy (we couldn't tell if it was due to smog or heavy clouds). It didn't change in the evening either, but we still had to go shooting. We crawled out to the street where the first communication problem was waiting for us: taxi drivers stationed near our hotel didn't understand where we needed to go or pretended not to understand. In the end we had to go by foot. Past three or four blocks we realized that we wouldn't make it to the embankment before sunset. Dima managed to catch a taxi, and we had a fast and cheap trip to our destination.

We chose a little square where we unpacked our equipment and launched the helicopter. Dima suggested a very busy place for the evening and night shooting - the area around big flowerbed near the television tower. It was a heavy traffic area (with very lively crossroad), not to mention the square was surrounded by an overpass with the crowd of local people and tourists. There were too many people. At that point we couldn't find a better place and had to launch our helicopter.

It was getting dark fast. The helicopter flew up into Shanghai evening sky, and Dima kept saying that television tower refused to fit into the frame. It was a very crucial moment, not only because we were launching the helicopter over our heads, but the altitude was higher than 200 meters. And, finally, Dima said that everything worked out. The flying altitude was 270 meters. For a night flight it was so awesome! 

It made me realize that Shanghai was a very difficult place for taking pictures with a radio-controlled helicopter. There were too many high-rise buildings. Some were higher than 400 meters. But locals were very friendly: they seemed to be interested in what we were doing and even took some pictures with us. We weren't bothered by police. We had everything to continue our work.

Shanghai. Day two.

Elated by our yesterday's success of high altitude flight, we decided to raise the bar and launch the helicopter in the middle of a small park that was surrounded by high-rise buildings; but a guard came up to us and ordered us with gestures to stop the launch.

At first we pretended not to understand him, then we showed him our photos and explained that all we wanted to do was to take some pictures, and then, suddenly, Dima noticed radio-controlled helicopters inside one of kiosks not far from our starting point. Dima went up to the kiosk window and pointed to the helicopters, implying that we were trying to fly the same thing that was sold there. I couldn't understand the logic of that one minute pantomime, but the guard seemed to understand him and started consulting someone on the radio transmitter. After finished his conversation, he shook his head, but with less confidence than when we first met. I smiled and made a waving motion so he would step away from our launching point. He decided not to resist and joined the rest of the observing crowd gathered around us.

Generally speaking, Chinese were very curious, just like little children. Wherever we decided to launch our helicopter, we were momentarily surrounded by a small crowd of people. But if we didn't ask them to move they would get in our way: they would push us aside or try to look into the monitor, standing right in front of us.

Nothing interesting happened that day. Except, maybe, when a guard (or policeman, one couldn't tell by their uniform) approached us on the embankment and forbid us to launch the helicopter. I played dumb and ignored his request. He consulted someone on the radio transmitter, and in the end allowed us to launch the helicopter. After we landed our helicopter and showed him some of the pictures, we parted as friends.

When we finished shooting on the embankment, we headed towards the park. I asked Dima, "Where are we running?"

"We won't make it in time! It's getting dark very fast!  I can hardly see anything!"

"Dima, would you mind taking off your sunglasses?!"

" :)))))))"

During our second night flight we beat a new high altitude record - 300 meters above the ground.

Our stay in Shanghai was coming to an end, but it seemed we were able to show the most interesting places in the center of the city, that convey the atmosphere of an ultra-modern metropolitan city.

And now a few facts about Shanghai:

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Not many cities can boast as many records as Shanghai, China's largest city, the world's most densely-populated metropolis, and the largest seaport on the planet. 

Shanghai's lands have been inhabited from ancient times: people who lived here were engaged in agriculture, fishing and salt production. The land had been passed from one dynasty to another, until this fishing village, with its favorable location on the Yangtze River near the East China Sea, was given an official status in year 751.  

During the centuries of Shanghai's history, the city has seen both peacetime and war: it was invaded and bombed, and then, with new powers, it was restored again. But only in 1992 Shanghai entered a fast development phase, which allowed it to become the leading city in the country, and then in the whole world. And now it's one of the world's major financial centers, the core of China's political intrigues, and, at the same time, the cradle of modern Chinese cinema and theater.

Despite the fact that the city is full of ancient temples and cozy side streets with houses built in the beginning of the last century, the first real symbol of Shanghai is the urban landscape. Modern buildings have a unique architecture, and the shape of their upper floors resemble flying saucers. One of the most amusing creations is a pedestrian ring-bridge built in Pudong district in 2012. You can go up as high as 6 meters above the ground by using stairs or escalators, and the pedestrian part of the bridge is so wide that you can line up 15 people in a row. In the evening the bridge has a very beautiful illumination.

Another most important Shanghai landmark is the Bund, a waterfront area on a plot of 1.5 kilometers with 52 buildings of different styles, from Gothic to Art Deco. Because of that it's often called "the museum of world architecture." Since 2003 it also houses Aurora Plaza, a beautiful 185-meter tower on the other side of the river. At night it turns into a huge screen broadcasting various videos that can be seen from the promenade: from commercials to news reports. 

There are more than 80 buildings higher than 170 meters in Shanghai. The most famous skyscraper, which ends up in any album of Shanghai photos, is a 492-meter high World Financial Center. It is crowned with a strange trapezium-shaped window intended to reduce air resistance. Initially, the window was round, but some people thought it was associated with the sun on the flag of Japan. As a result, the circle turned into trapezium, and building started to look like a giant beer bottle opener. Nowadays it's the highest building in the city, although it's threatened to be overshadowed by another 632-meter high skyscraper that is being built in the Pudong district with a predictable name Shanghai. 

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The first "under ice" panorama in the world and stranger

The first "under ice" panorama in the world 

AirPano continues to present not only aerial panoramas but also shows the beauty of the underwater world of our planet. Our first underwater panorama had been created on Maldives islands, then the photographers of Phototeam.pro created an absolutely unique panorama in underwater Orda cave. Today we present the panorama taken under the ice of the White sea.

Now we would like to turn the floor over to Victor Lyagushkin, a person who created this panorama.

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Ice diving has a special place among all other types of diving. During this process you can't surface where you want, you have to carry more equipment, and the temperature of air and water is much lower. Salt water freezes when temperature drops below zero, about minus two degrees to be more precise. Water in the White Sea reaches freezing point. This is why only a select few can do ice diving. As a result, there are fewer registered ice divers than there are cave divers. Arctic Circle Dive Centre is considered a global mecca for ice diving in the White Sea.

The White Sea (before the 17th century it had several Russian names: Studyonoe More, Solovetskoe More, Severnoe More, Spokoinoe More, Beliy Zaliv) is an almost landlocked extension of the Arctic Ocean in the northwestern Russia. In Scandinavian mythology the White Sea is known as the "Gandvik" and also as the "Bay of Serpents" because of its curved shoreline.

Some researchers believe that it was called "white" because it's covered by ice for the most part of the year (it's the only sea in Europe completely covered with ice in winter). Others believe that the name comes from the whitish color of the water that reflects the northern sky.

The White Sea was first called "the White Sea" (Mare Album) on the map drawn by Petrus Fiancius in 1592. On the Ptolemy's world map discovered in 1427 the Arctic Sea bay, which coordinates correspond to the White Sea, is called the Calm Sea.

Among the seas that surround Russia the White Sea is the second smallest one (the smallest one being the Sea of ??Azov).

The White Sea is one of the most beautiful seas in the northern part of Russia where nature is untouched by man, and animal life is rich and unique. Every winter in the Northern part of the White Sea Greenland seals make a rookery and by spring they give birth to white-coat seals. Uninhabited islands of the White Sea are the nesting ground for numerous bird colonies: in summer sea birds hatch their eggs and raise their young. The White Sea is a home to the white whale or beluga. These beauties that weigh over one and half ton are very sociable, good-natured, highly intelligent, and artistic.

The underwater world of the White Sea has beautiful landscapes and rich marine life: soft corals, sea anemones, sponges, starfish, crabs, hermit crabs, sea-urchins, and shrimps. In winter you can have a closer look at the following fish: catfish, redfish, flounder, and henfish. During ice diving when water visibility reaches 30-40 meters a diver can observe very beautiful landscapes: underwater rocks that go all the way into the deep, slightly swaying sea wares at the bottom, and piles of ice beneath the surface that look like ghostly castles. 

Green water in this panorama is not the use of color corrector. The color is caused by microscopic planktonic algae that comprises the core of marine life. Plankton algae absorbs red light from sun rays, because they need it for photosynthesis. This is why sea water becomes green. And the more life there is in the sea, the more phytoplankton in the sea, the greener the water. That is why our White Sea is so green.

Photographer: Victor Lyagushkin. Phototeam.pro

Models: Bogdana Vashenko, Konstantin Novikov, Mikhail Safonov.

Nikon D3s, Subal housing (box), Nikkor 14-24/2.8

We would like to express our gratitude to Arctic Circle Diving Centre for help with organisation and Nikon company for technical support. 

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Rome, Italy best desttination in europ

Rome, Italy

Rome is one of the most famous and beautiful cities in the world. You've all heard the legend that it was founded by two brothers, Romulus and Remus, sons of the god Mars raised by a she-wolf. And then the first brother killed the other and founded a new settlement in the same place. It was a time of iron age and cruel hearts!

The origin of the legend is unknown. In fact, Rome, like many other cities, was founded by the Etruscans in the 8-9th century BC. Palatine and Capitoline hills had a very strategic location; moreover, there was a river Tiber which supplied people with water.

According to historical documents, the downfall of the Etruscan dynasty was brought upon by the king Tarquin's son lack of self-restraint. He dishonored a certain Lucretia, a lady of high society, which led to her suicide. Lucretia's relatives and friends didn't stop at getting vengeance only on the offender, but raised a large-scale riot against the Etruscan rule.

So in the 509 BC the famous Roman Republic started, and its size and wealth grew with each passing day. The subsequent history of Rome, even as a brief retelling will take a few pages in the smallest font. The Punic Wars and Pyrrhic victory, Hannibal and Carthage, Gaius Julius Caesar and Spartacus, Nero and Caligula, Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the Flavian dynasty and Constantine the Great. In fact, during that time the life of whole Europe revolved around the Roman Empire.

"All roads lead to Rome", "Rome is the Eternal City" - no one would understand you, had you decided to argue with these statements during those ancient times. It was only in the 5th century, when Rome was captured by the Visigoths and ransacked by vandals, that the Republic lost its influence on the rest of the world. As a result of the ensuing bloody wars, Rome became weaker and weaker, and by the mid-century the only country it controlled was Italy.

However, the fall of the empire didn't affect the city's renown: its glory wasn't tarnished, but became of a different character. Nowadays countless sights of Rome built during legendary times attract many tourists.

Let's just say that we have to thank the bloodthirsty emperor Nero for building the Cathedral of St. Peter in Vatican, the same place where he executed Apostle Peter. The Pantheon in Rome, built at the turn of the old and the new era, is now a national mausoleum. It was built as the "temple to all gods" and has been used as a tomb: among those who are buried there are the great painter Raphael, King Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I, and other famous people.

The Capitoline Hill, as the site of the city's foundation, was an "apple of discord" between the brothers Romulus and Remus. Since the Punic Wars, the Roman Forum has been the center of political, religious, and economic life of Rome. The Colosseum, a famous sight that ends up on every photo of Rome, was opened by the Flavia family.

Piazza Venezia, situated between the Capitol and the Forum, has been a major transport point since Roman times. Piazza Navona is another city square that was built thanks to Gaius Julius Caesar. For a long time it has been used as a stadium of sorts (hence the name of the Greek origin). The beauty of the surrounding buildings makes it the perfect example of Baroque architecture.

Castel Sant'Angelo that served as a tomb, the Pope's residence, and a prison has turned out to be one of the most interesting museums in Rome. It's connected by Sant'Angelo Bridge that looks very solemn and is lined with marble slabs. There was a time when heads of executed criminals were hung along the bridge as a terrible warning to others.

Fabricio is another bridge that connects the Tiber Island to the left bank of the Tiber River; it dates back to the year 62 BC (by the way, its length is 62 meters, which is hardly a coincidence). Plaza de España is famous for its stairs, the steps of which are made of travertine and designed by architect Francesco de Sanctis in the middle of the 18th century.

The Trevi Fountain, the largest fountain in the city, is also among the most famous landmarks of Rome. It was built in the year 1732-1762 and designed by architect Nicola Salvi in ??Baroque style; it's adjacent to the facade of the Palazzo Poli, making it a single architectural ensemble.

In the central niche of the palace there is a Neptune sitting on a sea shell and pulled by sea horses and newts. Allegorical figures are placed in the niches on both sides of Neptune and there are bas-reliefs above them. One of them depicts a girl that points the Roman soldiers to the source. In the 19 BC an aqueduct has been built that pumped water from the source to Rome.

There is hardly a person who have been to Rome and didn't drop a coin into the Trevi Fountain. There is a belief that one coin will ensure your return to the Italian capital, two coins will lead you to your loved one, three coins will lead to a wedding, but if you want to get rich you need to throw four coins. As a result, the Trevi Fountain is filled with about three thousand euros a day, and a million euros a year!

Anyway, Rome is a city of fountains, museums, and squares where you can see historical monuments and buildings on every step of your way. We hope that "flying" over Rome with our panoramas will give you the opportunity to enjoy the beauty and magnitude of the Eternal City.

And now let me turn the floor over to Stanislav Sedov, who will share some of his impressions about the trip.

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Our first photo shoot day in Rome started with an incident which could have potentially ruined all our plans. I would like to express my gratitude to the Italian police for their help in resolving this matter. But let's start from the very beginning.

It so happened that I came to Italy with my family two weeks before the planned photo shoot. I wanted to spend a couple of weeks wandering through the streets of Rome, visiting museums and various places of interest, because during the photo shoot Dima Moiseenko and I don't have time for these activities.

Two weeks flew by very quickly, and I found myself on the way to the airport on Leonardo Express to see my family off home. Dima arrived in Rome practically at the same time, because the next day we had to take pictures of the Colosseum. But in all the confusion of my family's departure and meeting my colleagues I left my backpack with all the documents, credit cards, and camera in the train car: I put it on the top shelf and forgot it there when leaving the train. I realized that only when the train already left the station.

Dima and I went to the airport police station. After listening to my story, the duty officer became very skeptical about our chances to find the lost backpack: there was a commune of homeless people in Rome's central station that searched arriving trains for things left behind.

However, when I told the officer which train I took to get there, he contacted the train driver and asked him to search train cars for my missing backpack. It was around the time when the train was about to depart from the center of Rome back to the airport. Ten minutes later, which seemed like eternity, the officer's phone rang. After a brief conversation he smiled at me, "Looks like it's your lucky day, he found your backpack."

Lucky doesn't cover even half of it! Passport, driving license, credit cards, and a camera worth more than $3,000 were all in place. Dima and I thanked the airport police for their help and went to the city center towards our Roman adventure. But that's another story.

Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the officer, but once again I would like to express my gratitude for his help! There is a part of his work in our virtual tour of Rome.

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Maldives, One&Only Reethi-Rah. Split-panoramas

Today we decided to gather all panoramas we have created for last years on Maldive Islands into one virtual tour. 

The Maldives Islands are often associated with calm and lazy leisure full of utter bliss and tranquil solitude. Their distant location from Europe (the flight from Moscow, for instance, lasts 8-9 hours) as well as high and, as a consequence, non-economy service standards are not available for most tourists who, for example, can afford themselves to travel round Turkey or Egypt.

Many international resorts offer their guests "primordial purity, unique nature, snow-white beaches" and so on, when on the Maldives all these are perfect in a special way. This insular state consists of about 1190 islands. From 90 thousand square kilometers, which compose the country's area, the land occupies only 298 square kilometers, i.e. less than 1 per cent!

The islands lie on the territory of 815 km from the North to the South and 130 km from the East to the West in the Indian Ocean. Some of them are below the equator. The exact quantity of the islands is unknown now due to some of them, from time to time, are divided into two parts and, vice versa, they can join each other and go down under the water, another appear.

People live only on about 200 islands when the rest is uninhabited. There are completely tiny islands; at the same time, the biggest island is only 8 km. The most distant islands can be reached by a seaplane or a regular airplane. The closest islands can be reached by the local little boats named Dhoni or a motor boat.

The unique idea of Maldivian resorts is "one island-one resort-one hotel" and each one differs with its unique atmosphere and design. But it's not easy to leave your island whenever you wish: the special permit is often required and, moreover, you have to pay for it some amount of money. Besides, you will be obliged to return back to the hotel in order to spend there a night.

By the way, on the Maldives there are other restrictions which differ from many international resorts.  Alcohol and pork meat are forbidden there and can't be taken by the tourists. It's not only forbidden to bath in the sun topless (we don't say a word about nudism at all) but also such a harmless occupation as watching porno is out of the law frameworks. All these are consequence of Islamic religion which dominates there. FYI, the Maldives is the smallest Islamic country in the world!

In spite of its size, ecology is so important there that the quests are very often provided with special garbage bags in order then they take the rubbish away from the island. So, thanks to all these measures the Maldives are that kind of place with clean white beaches, rich tropical flora, multiform underwater life and nearly most picturesque beaches on the planet.

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Guilin National Park, China best panorama

Guilin National Park, China 

Guilin is one of the most interesting cities in China. It is famous for its wonderful natural monuments and situated on the bank of Lijiang river in the Southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Guilin's beauty inspired people to give very poetic names to some of the local places of interest, such as Seven Stars Park, Reed Flute Cave, Folded Brocade Hill, and Green Lotus Peak. These are just a few of Guilin's sights. 

 

Guilin's history dates back more than 2000 years ago and it's a city where natural monuments intertwine with man-made structures. In the center of Guilin there is a 152-meter high Solitary Beauty Peak (Duxiu Feng) with 300 steps leading to its summit. There are also ruins of a royal complex that dates back to Ming dynasty and further to the south there is Elephant Trunk Hill, that got its name due to its resemblance to an elephant that drinks water.

Lijiang river flowing through the city is very pure and transparent. In the middle of the river stands Wave Subduing Hill (Fubo Shan) with a Buddhist temple at the top. It houses unique objects, such as a 2.5 ton bell and a kettle which can be used to cook food for one thousand people.

Guilin's name is translated from Chinese as "Cassia Tree Forest".   Its limestone pillars look like a giant stone forest. 

Long time ago limestone stratum that makes up the hills was accumulated at the bottom of the ancient sea. Several millions of years later this part of Earth's crust went up due to large earthquakes. Subsequently heavy showers and snow befell on this region, eroding the bedrock that was already weakened by cracks and ruptures. Later the upper limestone stratum fell off, exposing spired limestone trunks, which are considered by modern scientists as exemplary ancient karstic rocks. Nowadays limestone pillars of China's mountains are stretched from the South Central China to the northern parts of Vietnam. Cliffs, which sometimes can rise 100 meters above their base, stand almost vertically and pressed against each other. You can see Guilin's austere ridge tops for kilometers and kilometers away. 

You can assume that nothing can grow on a bald cliff. But Guilin's mountains are the most picturesque mountains in the world. The whole mountain ridge is covered with vines and small trees clinging to rocky slopes. During orchid blooming season you can see a variety of multicolored flower islands light up on the slopes. Hazy mountains and still waters of Li River have a magical aura that inspired painters and poets throughout centuries. 

Guilin's unusual, and, in the literal sense of the word, unearthly landscape was chosen as one of the shooting areas for Star Wars. Episode III. Revenge of the Sith.

And now let me turn the floor over to Satislav Sedov, who will share some of his impressions about the trip.

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We had to face our first serious challenge even before we arrived to Guilin. The fact is that new air transportation rules stipulate that you can't transport lithium batteries in the luggage. After we checked-in they put our suitcases through an X-ray machine and asked us to take out the batteries. Dima and I gathered all our batteries, put them in one bag, and went to get through the security screening. As expected, there were some complications during the screening: according to new rules you can't transport even one battery of such capacity, and we had 16 of them in our bag.

Katerina, our guide, switched on her "I can persuade anyone" mode, I took out my phone with new panoramic photos of China and, somehow, we managed to convince the security guys to let us on the plane with our batteries.  Katya asked me to pack everything quickly before someone from the upper management saw our "goods".

Having assembled the helicopter on the move, we decided to take some mountain pictures right on the road. As a result we have very interesting "hedgehogs" on our photos. During these test launches in Guilin, Dima and I realized that we would have to take pictures from a very high altitude, because low altitude photos couldn't show all the beauty around us.

The next day we arrived to the boat station. And there we almost fell victim to an old tradition of screwing over Caucasian tourists to pay double for outgoing boat freight. Our driver, a local girl, suggested that we take her friends' boat, which was cheaper, and something unimaginable happened after that. An old lady who worked as a boat rental agent suddenly stopped being all nice and turned into an old hag: she started spouting bitter curses against the girl, and it seemed like she was about to clutch at her face.  Such intrusive service made us really uncomfortable, so we decided to go along with girl's suggestion and hire her friends; at the end of her performance, the old hag shouted out some ridiculous price with zero profit to her business. Apparently out of principle.

Later that day we were on a boat, sailing up the river. I should tell a few words about those boats. The vessel is made of strapped sewer pipes of large diameter with both ends curved slightly upwards. In the middle there is a shed with shade for passengers. In the stern there is a motor unit: a mower engine with a long shaft and a propeller on the end.

The vibrations and noise the vessel produced while moving was very high, while the speed could be compared to a snail's pace. These boats seemed like they would do quite well for our purposes, because the bow had enough space for launching and landing our helicopter.

Sailing slowly up the river, we pulled in to the shore at several key locations. Chinese gave each mountain a name, which, more or less, reflected their shape. Sometimes, when we couldn't reach the land, we launched the helicopter right from the boat. Our equipment worked like a clock, and thanks to that I had an opportunity to beat my own record at high altitude flying with camera several times. I reached the mark of 524 meters. We decided not to go higher, because the haze in the valley started to conceal the landscape's details.

We finished shooting Guilin in the province capital under the same name. There are two pagodas in the center of the city, they are symbols of this place: The Sun Pagoda and the Moon Pagoda. There is a bridge leading to one of them, and an underground tunnel leading to the other.  Unfortunately, we couldn't shoot the tunnel from our helicopter, but you can see pagodas in a very good detail.

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Kazan, Summer Universiade 2013, Russia

Kazan is one of the oldest cities of Russia: in 2005 the city celebrated one thousand years since its foundation. Kazan is officially known as "the third capital of Russia": its population is over one million people, and the same number of tourists visit it every year to see Kazan landmarks.

On May 31, 2013 Kazan was announced in Brussels as the winner host city for the 2013 Summer Universiade. 

The 27th World Summer Universiade 2013 in Kazan will be the first Universiade and - what's more - the first multi-sport event in the history of modern Russia. Universiade in Kazan will be held from July 6 to July 17, 2013. In the last five years the city has undergone a real construction boom: 30 sports facilities were built, including the football stadium Kazan-Arena, the Palace of Water Sports, the Palace of Martial Arts Ak Bars, and other wonderful arenas.

Today, just like many centuries before, Kazan plays a vital role in the life of the Russian Federation.

The city was founded in the beginning of the 10th century as a fortified stronghold of the Volga Bulgar people, but no one knows exactly where the city's name originates from. The most popular legend about the city name origin is the word "kazan", which is the Tatar for "kettle". They say that a sorcerer advised Bulgarians to live "where without any fire a kettle dug into the ground would boil." He who seeks shall find: there was a time when a kettle did boil, and then a new settlement was founded here.

This is not the only version about the kettle: they say that a servant of the last Bulgarian Khan, while fleeing the persecution by Mongols, dropped a golden "kazan" into some river. After this incident both the river and the city on its bank were named Kazan. A kettle, besides its direct purpose, was considered by ancient nomadic tribes as a symbol of power, so it makes perfect sense that a city was founded here.

There are other legends about the origin of the city name: one of them is connected with the natural world ("kaen" is the Tartar for "birch" and "kaz" is "goose"), and the other one has something to do with a certain Prince Hassan, the landscape ("kazanlak" is translated as "kettle"), and so on. There are more than a dozen other versions out there. But is it really important?

Kazan is one of the most famous cities of Russia.  Its history is linked with the Golden Horde, Khanate, Ivan the Terrible and the revolutions of the early 20th century. The main Kazan landmark is the Kazan Kremlin, an outstanding architectural and sacred monument, listed as World Heritage by UNESCO.

The day the Bulgars built their fortress is the day Kazan was founded. Of course, those ancient walls are long gone by now: in past thousand years the fortress was destroyed and rebuilt many times.

The Kazan Kremlin is located the high terrace of the left bank of Volga river and the left bank of Kazanka river. Its territory has a shape of an irregular polygon which resembles Kremlin hill contours. This famous landmark which can be found on every Kazan photo has a total area of 1500 square meters and a circle of 1800 meters.

This is how a foreign ambassador described his visit to Kazan during one of the greatest periods of the city's history: "The city has many churches with so many large bells that you can't sleep on the eve of the holiday. All houses are built from wood, but there is a big fortified fortress with stone walls. A large number of warriors hold positions there at night like in Spain, Italy and Flanders."

Not all Kremlin buildings have survived to this day. Thus, Eastern Tower and Dmitrievskaya Tower were dismantled after the Pugachev assault, and only carcass remains of Polyhedral Tower built by Pskov architects. However, the Kazan Kremlin is a solid and well-restored monument which combines Russian and Tatar traditions. 

Within its walls are the Annunciation Cathedral, the Transfiguration Monastery, other orthodox buildings, and the Qol-?ärif mosque, a main mosque of Tatarstan. It was destroyed in the 16th century when Kazan was invaded by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, and restored only on the 1000th anniversary of the city. You can also visit the Islam Museum and other interesting museums. The Kazan Kremlin also features the Governor's House designed by the architect Konstantin Thon, creator of the Temple of Christ the Savior and the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow. Now it serves as the Palace of the President of Tatarstan.

Among other Kazan landmarks there are restored Gostiniy Dvor, Chernoyarovsky Passage, town hall, numerous temples and mosques. There are also new, but already legendary monuments, such as Kazan State Circus which was built in 1965-1967. The circus building looks like giant UFO that landed on the ground, and it makes you wonder if the team that build the circus, "Tatgrazhdanproekt", was actually inspired by the first manned flight into space.

And then there is the Palace Square, a new and elegant architectural complex with alleys and buildings in neoclassical style. Gorgeous city park and Millenium bridge, built on the anniversary of the ancient city, will impress you with its magnitude, as well as light and music fountains installed on the Kamala Theatre square. There is also the Lovers Arch and the Temple of All Religions, and many other interesting places.

In fact, Kazan with its centuries-old history and old monuments is a modern town that has never stopped developing. We offer you to enjoy this versatile and at the same time unified architectural ensemble from a bird's eye view.

We are very grateful to RIA Novosti news agency for help in creation of this virtual tour and the Kazan Organising Committee Media Chief Dilyara Khasanova for her great help in getting tons of permissions.

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