Is The Idiot the only person who has to constantly remind himself that in China EVERYTHING – not just the Great Wall, the Himalaya, Tiananmen Square and the population – is very BIG?

Just take a look at the extremes to which China has gone to make the rest of us feel like Lilliputians. Though I won’t bother going into the political, psychological and physical reasons for this intimidating phenomenon, it is beginning to give me an inferiority complex.

The marionette warrior is 7.2 meters tall and weighs 654 kilos.

Odysseus is no match for these hefty Terracotta Warriors.

The only thing bigger than Mao’s Mausoleum is the line waiting to get in.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’An is 64-meters high.

Actually, the inferiority complex I’ve gotten since arriving in China is a good reality check for an American from a country with a population of only 310 million people (China has 1.35 billion) that is best known for featuring the largest meal servings of any nation on earth.

“I’m really humbled to see how big everything is here,” I told Martin Hofmann, who flew in from London to join me on a railroad trip to Tibet this week. “It puts me in my place.”

“How do you think it makes an Englishman feel?” Hofmann replied.

The Terracotta Warriors live in a gargantuan hangar.

This Buddha getting a facelift at Bing Ling is 27-meters high.

Ever seen a front door as big as the gate to the Forbidden City?

A cup of Seven-Treasures Tea is as tall as the nearby mountains on the Yellow River.

Text and Photos: Joel Stratte-McClure

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."