Last Post From China

I will NOT miss all this pollution in Eastern China, although I read in the news this morning that Hays County is close to exceeding the EPA standards for ozone pollution.
We spent a day this week wandering around Beijing, shopping, then eating supper at the "lake-walk" at HouHai Lake. Last night we just hung out at the hotel after closing ceremonies for the trip.
I will miss all the new friends I made, and look forward to seeing them at the conference in December.
take care,
be safe
rem

Lijiang to Beijing

I haven't really talked about Lijiang, not because I didn't like it, but because I just wanted to savor the time we spent there. It was really hard to leave - I hope someday I get the chance to return. Of all the places we've been, this was one I'd definitely recommend. The city was the eastern terminus of the Tea Horse road, linking Tibet and southern China, so in parts of the province Tibetan culture is very strong.
The Old Town is a tourist trap, but beautiful. It is known as the "Venice of China" because of all the canals that run through the town, and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The climate is wonderful - it rarely freezes, and because it is so high it is mild during the day. There are some really nice hotels, and miles and miles of shops selling all manner of local handiwork, plus a lot of junk.
The area around the town is beautiful, too. We visited a high meadow, and saw an outdoor show similar to the "Texas" production at Palo Duro Canyon.

After several days in this peaceful place we had to leave. I'm glad this place was peaceful, because I needed that inner peacefulness to survive our flight(s) to Beijing. We took off in the late afternoon, never a good time to fly. After a very bumpy ride (enough that several times everybody in the plane sucked in their breath and went "ooooh" in unison) we were diverted to someplace southwest of Beijing due to the thunderstorms there. We sat on the tarmac for almost 3 hours - at least they left the a/c on. I was not feeling good - toothache- but we made it. Landed in Beijing at 10:30, over 2 1/2 hrs late, and got to our hotel at midnight.
3 more days, and I'll be home.
be safe,
rem

The Monastery in Shangri La

We got up early this morning, checked out of our nice hotel, and headed for the Buddhist monastery in Zhongdian. Built in the late 1600s, it is currently undergoing some renovations. The area is a warren of alleys, housing for monks, temples, and courtyards. When we first arrived there were not many tourists, but by the time we left it was getting crowded. Many of the people who worked there wore traditional clothing, although that may have been for the benefit of the tourists.
The many temples had fires going to burn incense, and all the housing had fires inside, so smoke hung over the whole place. The housing seemed pretty rickety - thin board walls with gaps large enough to put my fist through, and caved in tin or wood-shingled roofs. The temples, however, were in excellent shape. Gold-leaf everywhere, bronze roofs, gilded Buddhas. Picture-taking is not allowed inside, so I don't have any images of the Buddhas, prayer rugs, monks meditating, or people praying.
Outside the temple complex there was an enterprising man with a large yak, and a lean-to with a laser printer - a nice photo-op. Several of our group paid 10y to sit on the yak, while the rest of us took photos. The guy was in traditional dress, and sang as he posed. A large crowd had gathered to watch the crazy foreigners by the time we left.

We drove back down to Lijiang this afternoon, another hair-raising bus ride down mountain roads. We have free time in the morning to shop, take pictures, etc., then fly to Beijing tomorrow afternoon.
Can't believe we're almost through!
be safe,
rem

Shangri La

Well, its been found. After Lost Horizon was published everyone began to look for it, and in 2000 the Chinese government announced they had discovered Shangri La - here in Zhongdian. It was a beautiful drive up - we are over 10,000 ft. Terraced fields, a tributary of the mighty Yangtze, picturesque villages, and a very narrow, if paved, road. The kind of driving that could give you a heart attack - steep drop-offs, passing on curves, lots of honking at slow-moving vehicles. The town itself feels almost like a ghost town - lots of nice hotels, a mini building boom, but not many people. The writing on signs has Tibetan first, Chinese second. We did see a Chinese flag flown upside down on a flagpole, the sole symbol of this area's resistance to Chinese government control of Tibet.
The park up on the mountain is carefully controlled. Our bus parked in a giant (if somewhat empty) parking lot, then we boarded a park bus that took us up to the "hiking trail." The 2 trails, one a little less than 2km, one about 4km, are boardwalks through the trees around a couple lakes. The scenery was wonderful, but you can't strike out on your own. There were azalea/rhododendrons blooming, wild strawberries, a type of tree that looked like dogwood, horses, donkeys, and some Chinese tourists. We spent the night here, and go back to Lijiang after visiting a monastery this morning.
Just a few more days and I'll be home.
be safe,
rem

Kunming

We spent several days in Kunming, and left this afternoon. It's a beautiful place, and reminiscent of Austin - very laid back. Our hotel was on the campus of Yunnan University, and there was a street across from the hotel that reminded me of 6th street - chic clothes shops, bars, and restaurants. I found an Italian restaurant with fast wireless, so I was able upload photos, but I never got around to posting.
We saw lots of temples in Kunming - Taoist, Buddhist, and Muslim (which we didn't end up touring). The Taoist one was in a park-like setting on the edge of town. There were lots of tourists, as usual. I really liked the Buddhist Temple in town. No tourists except us, and a really peaceful place, which I needed. The stress of having people around all the time is starting to get to me. I spent the last evening at the Italian place sitting by myself eating margherita pizza and surfing the web. And then 5 of our group showed up; so much for solitude.
We also went to the Stone Forest. This is an area of weird karst formations, formed when old limestone seafloor was uplifted and eroded. Unfortunately, it was raining, so we didn't get to go wandering around among the huge pillars of rock. I have never seen anything like it, except for some areas in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas.
Dianchi Lake is another tourist spot in Kunming. This beautiful place is incredibly polluted by industrial waste, mostly mining activities. Around the far shore of the lake are many industries which used the lake as their dumping ground. The government is trying to clean it up, but it will take many years.
Yunnan Province is home to 26 different ethnic groups, so there is a lot of diversity in town. I am always surprised by how different each area of China has been. I'm not sure why, since not every place in the US is the same - certainly New York City looks much different than Jackson, Mississippi.
We are now in Lijiang, and our plans have been disrupted by mudslides and road construction on the road to Lugu Lake, so we're not sure what we're going to do tomorrow. Today we're visiting a glacier, so I've got to go borrow some long pants.
be safe,
rem
Stone Forest


Temples


The Lake

Expo 2010

We found the 1.3 billion people - they were all at the Expo. We went Friday, and spent all day there. Since NAEA didn't have a bus for us we took the subway, which was an adventure in itself. Chinese people (watch out for the upcoming generalization) are notoriously bad map readers, we have discovered. In Hohhot they couldn't tell us where we were when we pulled out the map, and Friday when Dr. Who and Bob were studying the subway map at the Metro station they had no idea what it meant. The sign told us where we were, and they knew where we wanted to go, but otherwise they were clueless. We had to tell them which trains to take, and how many stops for each; but we made it.

OMG, the place was unbelievably crowded, and the holiday was over. The Saudi Arabia exhibit, which was supposed to be the most spectacular, had a 5 hour wait, so of course we didn't see it. I must have walked 10 miles around the place in the blazing haze/sun. It was Texas week at the USA pavilion, and the Marshall Ford Swing Band played a set. We talked with their manager, and when he found out we were from A&M they played the Fight Song, which they had learned for Gov. Goodhair, but never got the chance to play for him. We didn't go through the US exhibit, as the ladies in our group said it was very disappointing - just 3 little videos.

Nepal, Algeria, Brazil, India.....not much time waiting in those lines. There were some very cool exhibits - Chile was spectacular - they had a whole upside down room; you walked into a blank space, looked up, and there it was. They also had a nice little outside bar. Mexico was sort of disappointing except for some art they had hanging from the wall. Italy, where we waited in line for an hour, was also amazing - a tailor shop with real people working inside a glass box, a symphony hanging from the wall, and lots of fashion-art stuff. Spain was weird - what the heck does the giant robot baby represent?


But what got me were the people. Almost everyone there was Chinese, and the tickets weren't cheap. They were coming on vacation from all over China - the rising middle class. All 1.3 billion of them, shoving and pushing with never an 'excuse me' to be heard. If I slowed down in line to take a picture they would shove right past me into the middle of our group. I guess with that many people, if you wait you'll never get anything.

The whole place closes down at 9 pm - what the ****? In the US it would be open 'til midnight, at least. But this ain't the US, so we took a taxi home, because the group I was with wanted to see the lights of Shanghai at night.


The first few pictures are from the top high school in Nanjing, which we visited Thursday afternoon. 63 kids in the geography class we saw. But then, teachers have what amounts to a college-type schedule, with only 2-3 classes per day, and office hours the rest of the time - with real offices!

Delayed Posting

We are now in Kunming, so much has happened since my last post. They keep us busy.
Suzhou was interesting. We took the bullet train there, and then a bus to a tourist trap called Zhou Zhuang town. Its a very old city that has been sort of restored - very narrow alley/streets, lots of shops and restaurants, and thousands of tourists since it was Dragon Boat holiday. Pushing, shoving, bumping, with nary an "excuse me" or "sorry" to be heard. You should definitely not come here if you don't like crowds. There are some bridges over the canals that date to the Song Dynasty, and a Ming official's house that was jam packed with people, but otherwise was beautiful. Notice most of the shots have people in them - you just can't get a picture of anything without people in it. The stalls had a variety of things for sale, including lots of silk pieces, from clothing to embroidery. The vendors are really pushy, and of course start out with a high price, but then you walk away and they chase you, so you can get a silk blouse for $13 US.
We had lunch in the hotel there, then went back into Suzhou to tour one of the 280 private gardens. Before the Cultural Revolution there were over 1,000 different large gardens, but they were destroyed because they were bourgeois, and not useful to the improvement of the people. Again, packed with tourists, so not nearly as peaceful as it should have been. It was built by a Ming official who got the money through graft and corruption, then was forced out of office.
Not all the pics are captioned = the Internet is slower than dirt here in Kunming - I mean slower than dial-up, almost.

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Nanjing Sightseeing

This is the most beautiful city we've been to. We spent today sight-seeing. In the morning we went to the Zhongshan Mountain National Park, to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and the Ming Tomb. Today is a holiday - the Dragon Boat Festival - so families were thronging the park.
After lunch we visited the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum, a memorial to the holocaust inflicted on the city by the Japanese. It was pretty gruesome, so I walked through quickly, then sat outside and people-watched.
Shopping for too short of a time, then supper and a walk along the old city wall. Later some of us went to a coffee house near the university. It had very slow Internet connection, so I am back in my room.
Tomorrow we get up at 5 and leave at 6 on the bullet train for a day trip to Suzhou. Should be fun - they have a huge park, with lots of gardens, and we have a small lecture on "the art of gardening." We won't return to the hotel 'til after 9, so I may not get pictures up.
be safe
rem

Maps of the New FAA No-Flight Zone over the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

via Geographic Travels: Maps of the New FAA No-Flight Zone over the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Why can't planes fly over this area?

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