"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world." – Virginia Woolf
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UNESCO Sites

Travel blogger Gary Arndt over at Everything-Everywhere put up a great post about listing all the places you’ve been in the world. He talks about the difference between skipping through an airport and really visiting a country, and the different ways countries are defined or listed (the UN, the IOC, etc.). I lean towards listing the World Heritage sites I’ve seen. Obviously, World Heritage sites aren’t by any stretch the only (or even the most important, sometimes) places to visit, but it’s relatively comprehensive for most of my purposes. It’s disappointing that some of the sites I visited aren’t on the UNESCO list, for whatever various reasons, but this will have to do until I find something better.

Here is a list of all the UNESCO World Heritage Sites I’ve been to, not just in China, but in all my travels – after all, everywhere is east of somewhere:

  • China
    • Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang (though I only saw the Forbidden City in Beijing, it doesn’t have its own entry)
    • Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Terra Cotta Soldiers are included as part of this site – we didn’t go to the tomb mound)
    • The Great Wall
    • Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa
    • Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing
    • Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing
    • Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (again, only saw the ones in Beijing, but they don’t have a separate entry)
    • South China Karst (seen in Yangshuo and Guilin)
  • Greece
    • Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae
    • Acropolis, Athens
    • Archaeological Site of Delphi
    • Medieval City of Rhodes
    • Meteora
    • Mount Athos (haven’t been on it, because I’m a woman, but I’ve been on a boat trip to see it)
    • Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika
    • Archaeological Site of Mystras
    • Archaeological Site of Olympia
    • Archaeological Site of Aigai (modern name Vergina)
    • Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns
    • Historic Centre (Chorá) with the Monastery of Saint John “the Theologian” and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos
  • USA
    • Grand Canyon National Park
    • Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
    • Statue of Liberty