Posted by jerry on December 21st, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
We couldn’t go to China and not see the Great Wall – what an amazing structure!
The wall was completed during the Qin dynasty (221-207BC) although several sections predate this period. It extends more than 6500 km from Shanhaiguan in the east to Jiayuguan in the Gobi Desert to the west. The wall is actually several walls that were joined together under the direction of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It was built to keep the Mongolians out (notably Genghis Khan). While it failed dismally as a defensive structure, it had what these days might be called ‘undocumented features’ or unintended consequences. When the wall was built, China was far from being a unified country, and each sub-kingdom had its own reasons for maintaining their bit of the wall.
The issue was geography – many people were kept separate by the sharp ridges of mountain ranges – all but impassable to any but the most intrepid donkey rider. Then along comes the wall, hugging the razor-sharp ridge-lines and providing, perhaps for the first time a trafficable path between provinces. As a result, the wall became a trading highway which did more than any decree to unify the country!
The Wall provided a network facilitating communication between people divided by a common language. Ironically the wall continues that tradition by providing a secure elevated structure on which to attach mobile phone repeater links!
The Badaling section of the wall is one of the steeper sections, but it affords a terrific view once you start to gain altitude along the 2000+steps
One interesting custom we encountered was that of lovers bringing a padlock – often engraved with their names – and locking the padlock to a chain provided for the purpose on the Great Wall, to symbolise the enduring nature of their love. Apparently it is not just the wall, but mountains too are favoured for this practice!
And as you near the top you can have a certificate signed to mark your climb. This was all the certificate I needed:
The wall is certainly an imposing structure and you can just imagine what resources it took to build it – in cost, building material, and in lives. It is well worth a visit!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on December 20th, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
Okay, you asked for more images and here they are – these ones are of the Forbidden City. If you have seen the movie “The Last Emperor” you will have seen at least some of these…
The mist made modern Beijing disappear as though it were not quite real
One of the hidden corridors
The Starbucks coffee shop is quite discrete…
It’s the details that count – these scenes are painted delicately and high in the rafters – they are slowly being painted over in the ‘restoration’ effort – so catch them while you can!
Here is one of the magnificent ceilings
Another fabulous ceiling in the Forbidden City
This woman was sweeping despite the fog and the lack of leaves or rubbish – unseen by most who passed…
The terraces were bounded by beautifully carved walls and drained by fabulous gargoyles
A small corner in the greater scheme of things
I’ll add more on other parts of our visit soon
cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on December 19th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Technology
We bought a Canon powershot A-75 digital camera to take with us to China and I thought I’d see how this one handled a moon shot tonight from my back yard in Canberra 🙂
Here’s the result, using manual setting and exposure of 1/250th sec the result sharpened once and cropped in photoshop and compressed in Imageready for the web:
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on December 10th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Music, Travel
The tour was awesome! I’ll have some more photos up soon – suffice to say the trip was exhausting and exhilarating. Beijing is a vibrant place with many surprises. We played five shows over a week and had a few days at either end to do some sightseeing and shopping.
The weather was cool – similar to Canberra winter temperatures. The language was completely alien to us although by the end we had learnt some useful phrases – like the greeting: Ni Haou, yes, no, and No Way! But there were always enough people around who spoke English for us to be able to get around without problems.
The traffic is truly chaotic! Pedestrian crossings exist only to concentrate the targets, red lights are treated as ‘advisory only’ and they somehow manage to fit six lanes of traffic into four lanes of road! but for all the chaos we were soon crossing roads with care, and trusting to the skills of the taxi drivers. On the taxis – look for ones with low numbers on the side – they have been licensed for longer and are more likely to know their way to your destination.
The shows: The John Bull Pub was fun – I think they expected us to sit quietly in a corner and play wallpaper muzak – instead after about half an hour we looked at each other and said ‘nah – time to show our stuff’ so we launched ourselves at individual tables and played requests and did silly antics – and the crowd loved it – soon we had them singing along and a great night was had by all!
The Bookworm is like a Parisienne salon of thirty years ago – the place is lined with books – it doubles as a lending library for expats – the place serves excellent food and drinks and offers a wonderful respite from shopping at the Yashow market.
The first time we played there it was a jam with some local celtic musicians – including an expert gallic linguist who sang some wonderful songs. We also met the piper who had been flown out from Scotland to participate in the St Andrews Ball – the highlight of our tour. Make sure you get good directions though – I wound up walking around a dilapidated hutong, or dingy residential back alley way for about 30 minutes before I stumbled on the place… scary!
St Andrews Ball at the Great Wall Sheraton – a formal Highland Ball with piper and Full Circle playing scottish music for the dancers – we played until 0530AM – a full 12 hours from sound check to pack-up! Exhausting but fun:-) This is the first year they had brought out a band and I don’t think it will be the last! We were able to tailor the pace and the start-finish of the dances to suit the dancers – something a CD can never provide. We made many friends that night and I hope we get to do it again next year!
Sights included the Great Wall – a truly amazing structure! We also visited the Lama monastery, The Ming Tombs, the Forbidden City (need to spend at least two days there!) and the ancient observatory – one of the overlooked gems of Beijing!
We saw an acrobatic show at the Chowyang Theatre – truly amazing performers
Beijing is certainly a place to visit again before the Olympics!
cheers
Jerry
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