Traditions, transistors and triumphs

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Traditions, transistors and triumphs

I"ve not been successful publishing my first blog.  I think that I may be experiencing a similar problem to one I encountered in the Middle East.  Foreign WiFi connections often cannot handle the additional load of pictures.  If this one is successfully published, I'll go back and remove the pix from the first one.  Those who love the pictures will simply have to attend the slide show, which at the rate I'm going, will take about two days to show!).

Days three and four were also quite informative and spectacular.  Day three began with a pedicab ride through what is left of "old Beijing."  This is an area which has been preserved from urban renewal, which means in China, complete leveling of one and two story traditional residences, and replacing them with thirty to forty story high rises.  In Beijing, as in all desirable locations, rents and/or purchasing prices are astronomical.  Condos in Beijing's first ring are priced at 60,000-80,000 yuan per square meter ($10,000-13,500).  Our pedicab ride delivered us to one of these preserved homes for a home cooked meal served by the lady of the house.  Very good if somewhat plainer than the elaborate and abundant food which we have been getting in restaurants and hotel buffets.  The few families that were able to hold onto their homes are sitting on a gold mine.  These properties are even more valuable than the new high rises.  This one we were in, a modest two story dwelling, is valued at $3,000,000.00!  It pays to be picturesque!

From there we visited the Summer Palace of the Ching dynasty.  A greater contrast is hard to imagine!

The last Doweger Empress loved the Summer Palace and even took money from the Chinese Navy to referbish and improve it.  In outward appearance, it is much like the Forbidden City, but smaller, and definately more pleasant, with gorgeous plantings, creative landscaping, and its own man made lake.  It seems that the Doweger Empress, Cixi, rationalized the construction of this lake with naval money by offering it as a possible, future training base for appropriate officers training.  Pretty thin ratiocination in my book. Since it is not that old, one gets some better idea of the life of the last dynasty, sheltered, self indulgent and cruel, easy targets for a revolution.  All that said, they had exquisite taste and most of the outside statuary and internal furnishings are intact....beautiful to say the least.

We finished our visit with a cruse across Cixi's lake in a dragon boat, befitting an exit from so magnificent a retreat, and went directly to Tienanmen Square, the site of Mao tse dung's mosoleum and rallying point for Comunist Chinese displays of power and "superiority."  Like seemingly all things in China, it is huge, and even on a off day, has hundreds of people milling around, admiring the shear grandiosity of the place, and, of course, waiting in line for a glimps of Chariman Mao, himself.  Fortunately, we did not have time for such a diversion, as we had to get back to the hotel for another sumptuous dinner and preparations for the next day's trip to the Great Wall.

I'm sure that I am not the first person to say that the experience of the Great Wall is indescribable!  The size and extent of even the small section which we experienced is awesome, in the true sense of that word. The section we explored contained not only the spanning of extremely rugged terrain, but also contained towers and command posts which would be impressive in themselves, let alone on top of a moSaturday, September 24, 2016

Traditions, transistors and triumphs

I"ve not been successful publishing my first blog.  I think that I may be experiencing a similar problem to one I encountered in the Middle East.  Foreign WiFi connections often cannot handle the additional load of pictures.  If this one is successfully published, I'll go back and remove the pix from the first one.  Those who love the pictures will simply have to attend the slide show, which at the rate I'm going, will take about two days to show!).

Days three and four were also quite informative and spectacular.  Day three began with a pedicab ride through what is left of "old Beijing."  This is an area which has been preserved from urban renewal, which means in China, complete leveling of one and two story traditional residences, and replacing them with thirty to forty story high rises.  In Beijing, as in all desirable locations, rents and/or purchasing prices are astronomical.  Condos in Beijing's first ring are priced at 60,000-80,000 yuan per square meter ($10,000-13,500).  Our pedicab ride delivered us to one of these preserved homes for a home cooked meal served by the lady of the house.  Very good if somewhat plainer than the elaborate and abundant food which we have been getting in restaurants and hotel buffets.  The few families that were able to hold onto their homes are sitting on a gold mine.  These properties are even more valuable than the new high rises.  This one we were in, a modest two story dwelling, is valued at $3,000,000.00!  It pays to be picturesque!

From there we visited the Summer Palace of the Ching dynasty.  A greater contrast is hard to imagine!

The last Doweger Empress loved the Summer Palace and even took money from the Chinese Navy to referbish and improve it.  In outward appearance, it is much like the Forbidden City, but smaller, and definately more pleasant, with gorgeous plantings, creative landscaping, and its own man made lake.  It seems that the Doweger Empress, Cixi, rationalized the construction of this lake with naval money by offering it as a possible, future training base for appropriate officers training.  Pretty thin ratiocination in my book. Since it is not that old, one gets some better idea of the life of the last dynasty, sheltered, self indulgent and cruel, easy targets for a revolution.  All that said, they had exquisite taste and most of the outside statuary and internal furnishings are intact....beautiful to say the least.

We finished our visit with a cruse across Cixi's lake in a dragon boat, befitting an exit from so magnificent a retreat, and went directly to Tienanmen Square, the site of Mao tse dung's mosoleum and rallying point for Comunist Chinese displays of power and "superiority."  Like seemingly all things in China, it is huge, and even on a off day, has hundreds of people milling around, admiring the shear grandiosity of the place, and, of course, waiting in line for a glimps of Chariman Mao, himself.  Fortunately, we did not have time for such a diversion, as we had to get back to the hotel for another sumptuous dinner and preparations for the next day's trip to the Great Wall.

I'm sure that I am not the first person to say that the experience of the Great Wall is indescribable!  The size and extent of even the small section which we experienced is awesome, in the true sense of that word. The section we explored contained not only the spanning of extremely rugged terrain, but also contained towers and command posts which would be impressive in themselves, let alone on top of a mountain.  Rather than trying to describe what I saw, I'll share some of my thoughts while there.  What most people don't realize is that the mountains on which the Great Wall is built, are very high mountains.  So, my first surprise was that we had to take a ski lift (a long one) to even get up to the area where we cound stand on the wall itself.  Once there, I found myself amazed and perplexed by the means by which this colossus was built, all hand labor, with not even a ski lift to transport the enormous volume of stone and fill all the way to the site, which is hundreds of miles long, let alone build and staff such a fomidable structure(s) which have lasted 1,000+ years.  I was exhausted just walking from the ski lift to the base of the wall!.  There is a "toboggan slide' which one can take all the way down, and I was excited to try it out.  In one of the few disappointments of this trip, it was not available to us at the time due to some earlier passenger screwing up and getting stranded mid-

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Traditions, transistors and triumphs

I"ve not been successful publishing my first blog.  I think that I may be experiencing a similar problem to one I encountered in the Middle East.  Foreign WiFi connections often cannot handle the additional load of pictures.  If this one is successfully published, I'll go back and remove the pix from the first one.  Those who love the pictures will simply have to attend the slide show, which at the rate I'm going, will take about two days to show!).

Days three and four were also quite informative and spectacular.  Day three began with a pedicab ride through what is left of "old Beijing."  This is an area which has been preserved from urban renewal, which means in China, complete leveling of one and two story traditional residences, and replacing them with thirty to forty story high rises.  In Beijing, as in all desirable locations, rents and/or purchasing prices are astronomical.  Condos in Beijing's first ring are priced at 60,000-80,000 yuan per square meter ($10,000-13,500).  Our pedicab ride delivered us to one of these preserved homes for a home cooked meal served by the lady of the house.  Very good if somewhat plainer than the elaborate and abundant food which we have been getting in restaurants and hotel buffets.  The few families that were able to hold onto their homes are sitting on a gold mine.  These properties are even more valuable than the new high rises.  This one we were in, a modest two story dwelling, is valued at $3,000,000.00!  It pays to be picturesque!

From there we visited the Summer Palace of the Ching dynasty.  A greater contrast is hard to imagine!

The last Doweger Empress loved the Summer Palace and even took money from the Chinese Navy to referbish and improve it.  In outward appearance, it is much like the Forbidden City, but smaller, and definately more pleasant, with gorgeous plantings, creative landscaping, and its own man made lake.  It seems that the Doweger Empress, Cixi, rationalized the construction of this lake with naval money by offering it as a possible, future training base for appropriate officers training.  Pretty thin ratiocination in my book. Since it is not that old, one gets some better idea of the life of the last dynasty, sheltered, self indulgent and cruel, easy targets for a revolution.  All that said, they had exquisite taste and most of the outside statuary and internal furnishings are intact....beautiful to say the least.

We finished our visit with a cruse across Cixi's lake in a dragon boat, befitting an exit from so magnificent a retreat, and went directly to Tienanmen Square, the site of Mao tse dung's mosoleum and rallying point for Comunist Chinese displays of power and "superiority."  Like seemingly all things in China, it is huge, and even on a off day, has hundreds of people milling around, admiring the shear grandiosity of the place, and, of course, waiting in line for a glimps of Chariman Mao, himself.  Fortunately, we did not have time for such a diversion, as we had to get back to the hotel for another sumptuous dinner and preparations for the next day's trip to the Great Wall.

I'm sure that I am not the first person to say that the experience of the Great Wall is indescribable!  The size and extent of even the small section which we experienced is awesome, in the true sense of that word. The section we explored contained not only the spanning of extremely rugged terrain, but also contained towers and command posts which would be impressive in themselves, let alone on top of a mountain.  Rather than trying to describe what I saw, I'll share some of my thoughts while there.  What most people don't realize is that the mountains on which the Great Wall is built, are very high mountains.  So, my first surprise was that we had to take a ski lift (a long one) to even get up to the area where we cound stand on the wall itself.  Once there, I found myself amazed and perplexed by the means by which this colossus was built, all hand labor, with not even a ski lift to transport the enormous volume of stone and fill all the way to the site, which is hundreds of miles long, let alone build and staff such a fomidable structure(s) which have lasted 1,000+ years.  I was exhausted just walking from the ski lift to the base of the wall!.  There is a "toboggan slide' which one can take all the way down, and I was excited to try it out.  In one of the few disappointments of this trip, it was not available to us at the time due to some earlier passenger screwing up and getting stranded mid-way.  So for me, it was a return trip on the shi lift, a return to the hotel, another amazing dinner and an intriguing performance by the Beijing Opera which just happens to be located in the very same hotel.  I thought the opera was great.  Others thought it was a trial to sit through, and were grateful when it was over.  I was moved to participate in a tee shirt sale that the Opera store was holding.  That should be no surprise to anyone!

Posted by Gary Lawler at 5:50 PM way.  So for me, it was a return trip on the shi lift, a return to the hotel, another amazing dinner and an intriguing performance by the Beijing Opera which just happens to be located in the very same hotel.  I thought the opera was great.  Others thought it was a trial to sit through, and were grateful when it was over.  I was moved to participate in a tee shirt sale that the Opera store was holding.  That should be no surprise to anyone!

Posted by Gary Lawler at 5:50 PM untain.  Rather than trying to describe what I saw, I'll share some of my thoughts while there.  What most people don't realize is that the mountains on which the Great Wall is built, are very high mountains.  So, my first surprise was that we had to take a ski lift (a long one) to even get up to the area where we cound stand on the wall itself.  Once there, I found myself amazed and perplexed by the means by which this colossus was built, all hand labor, with not even a ski lift to transport the enormous volume of stone and fill all the way to the site, which is hundreds of miles long, let alone build and staff such a fomidable structure(s) which have lasted 1,000+ years.  I was exhausted just walking from the ski lift to the base of the wall!.  There is a "toboggan slide' which one can take all the way down, and I was excited to try it out.  In one of the few disappointments of this trip, it was not available to us at the time due to some earlier passenger screwing up and getting stranded mid-way.  So for me, it was a return trip on the shi lift, a return to the hotel, another amazing dinner and an intriguing performance by the Beijing Opera which just happens to be located in the very same hotel.  I thought the opera was great.  Others thought it was a trial to sit through, and were grateful when it was over.  I was moved to participate in a tee shirt sale that the Opera store was holding.  That should be no surprise to anyone!