Saturday, August 31, 2013

elderly playground

Why only in China? 

Beijing, August 2013.

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Friday, August 30, 2013

Poem's life

Beijing, August 2013.

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Thursday, August 29, 2013

After a hard day's night

Beijing, August 2013.

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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Too many shity dogs in Beijing

Beijing, August 2013.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Hungry Ghost Festival

Beijing, August 2013.

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Monday, August 26, 2013

restroom in the restroom

Badaling, Beijing, August 2013.

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Sunday, August 25, 2013

East meets West

Badaling, Beijing, August 2013.

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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Brush art

Xian, Shaanxi, May 2013.

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Friday, August 23, 2013

Will they build in front of the house?

Beijing, May 2013.

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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Hutong = slum?

... or just the endless reconstruction period. 

Beijing, August 2013.

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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Chinese and their birds

Beijing, August 2013.

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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Bring your home

Beijing, August 2013.

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Monday, August 19, 2013

Water calligraphy

Beijing, August 2013.

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Sunday, August 18, 2013

Morning at a children's playground

Beijing, August 2013.

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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Weight lifting

Beijing, August 2013.

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Friday, August 16, 2013

How to destroy the old with the new?

Temple of Heaven, Beijing, August 2013.

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

It's a boy

Beijing, August 2013.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Smile in Chinese...

Beijing, August 2013.

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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Summer: Forgot to attach suspenders?

Beijing, August 2013.

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Monday, August 12, 2013

Man with toy

Beijing, August 2013.

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Sunday, August 11, 2013

China Rocks


Beijing, August 2013.


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Saturday, August 10, 2013

long live the elderly

at least some are more fun

Beijing, August 2013.

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Friday, August 09, 2013

Choose your disease and treatment

Beijing, Ditan Park, August 2013.

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Thursday, August 08, 2013

Turtles


In China the shell of the turtle is symbolizing heaven and the square underneath symbolizes earth. The turtle is considered the animal that united heaven and earth. The turtle is a creation of nature that carries its round shell over the ground, like heaven, and has a flat bottom, like earth. For more turtle symbolism see...

Next time I will take a picture of a turtle's head but that's another story...

Beijing, August 2013.

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Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Street beggar

Why do we see so many old beggars?

Beijing, 33°C, August 2013.

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Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Listening to the band

 ... and fresh air with Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Liu Shaoqi (if I spot it right) 
Beijing, Tiantan Park, August 2013.

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Monday, August 05, 2013

Back to Datong, 27 years later


Waiting for the hard seater train, August 1986.

August 1986 – While waiting for our visas to be processed for Mongolia and the Soviet Union to return to Europe via the Transsiberian train we used the time traveling to Datong in Shanxi province. Hard-seater night train, crowded with workers and families, a long ride at the rhythm of a slow train marked by the recurring clearing of throat and spitting. The result of which is then just rubbed on the floor with the shoe soles (sadly no spitting pictures from the train ride but the sound of spitting survived in 2013 Beijing’s hutongs).

June 2013 – It is a working weekend for the Chinese as they will have Monday and Tuesday off for the Dragon Boat Festival on Wednesday. A good weekend to travel. We take our car (hardly used and almost rests in peace in a giant underground parking as cycling is much faster in inner-city Beijing), get onto the highway and are in Datong three and a half hours later. Hotel is reserved. No worries.

 1986 above and 2013 pictures below 



We first go the the Yungang caves, Buddhist caves dating from the 5th century. 27 years ago, we took a public bus to get there and there was nothing but the caves. Now, there is a huge parking area, a visitor welcoming center, a new temple, LCD displays, the ubiquitous stainless steel railing to channel tourists in and out and, of course, the ever present food and souvenir streets. The caves are as beautiful as ever, more have been excavated, some are closed due to maintenance and construction work, but their grandeur and mystic appeal is as ever. 
Datong with its bell tower (1986 above and 2013 below)

Datong is just another big Chinese city, although one with a great past. Now, rows of middle-height rectangles and high-rises dot its centre. And as many Chinese cities, it is a huge construction site. A special one. Datong is rebuilding its ancient city wall. And is building its old town. The few remaining alleys, already crumbling in 1986, are now so derelict that they cannot be saved. So the new old city is going to be nice and neat. With shops, restaurants, and a few historical things in between. The old tiled dragon wall of the former Ming palace is still there. The mosque has been enhanced with new towers, renovated, so that it is difficult to tell what is old from what is new. As we want to visit one of the old temples, it has been so renovated Chinese style that it looks new. In short, Datong is gearing up for welcoming a massive influx of Chinese tourists.
 Constructing New Old Datong in June 2013.
... ancient Datong characteristics? 
 .
August 1986 – Our guidebook is mentioning a hanging monastery some 50 km from Datong. Unfortunately, there are no busses to get there, no taxis either, and also no private cars… We are lucky enough to meet a group of French tourists with a few spare seats in their bus, and we can join. On the way to the monasteries, we stop at a very old wooden pagoda. And the locals also have their attraction of the day: us!

June 2013 – At the hotel, we show the 1986 pictures of the pagoda and ask people where it is and what its name is. No one seems to know. The very talkative older ladies at the nine-dragon tiled wall will recognise it and tell us at once: Mutawooden pagoda in Yingxian. Around 60 km from Datong, easy to combine with the hanging monastery.

The nearly 1000 year old fully wooden pagoda can be seen from far away, owing to the thunderstorm of the previous evening that has cleared the air from its ever present coal dust. The city has changed a lot, and we no more gather the whole population just because of our presence there. We buy tickets, channel in through the stainless steel railings and arrive… in 1986. The courtyard has not been filled with shops and souvenir stands, and the pagoda has not been over-renovated. As a matter of fact, it is not in a good shape, its wooden structure cannot carry people any more and the second, third and fourth floors we saw 27 years ago are now off limits for visitors. We show the 1986 pictures, and have soon around us all the people working there. They are so fascinated by the old pictures (a young guide even takes pictures of our pictures) that we are even allowed to take pictures of the big Buddha.

 1986 above and 2013 below.
People watching us in 1986 (below)
 The view from the Pagoda onto the city in 1986
 The main street of Yingxian in 1986 (below)
Inside the Pagoda (2013 below)
... and in 1986 (what is now closed)

Due to the clear weather, the way to the hanging monastery is very nice (it rained 27 years ago and it took us 4 hours to get there from Datong). Unfortunately, the hanging monastery has lost its mystical clout. There is now a big road on the other side of it, a huge parking lot and too many new structures to reach it. These structures all make it appear very small, and lost on its cliff.  



The road is mostly used by big trucks transporting coal. So we decide to go and see what’s on the other side of the tunnel. Shanxi at its coal best (or worst)… Hengshan, the holy mountain is gearing up for huge tourist influx with the unavoidable new cable car being built. As for the villages along the road, they are so derelict and dirty, with coal heaps everywhere that they do not welcome to stay. The damage on the environment is dramatic. And what the coal mining has not managed to make ugly, a huge highway in the middle of the valley does. 
   


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Sunday, August 04, 2013

Hanging Monastery

Near Mont Heng, Hunyuan Count, Shanxi, June 2013.


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Saturday, August 03, 2013

Buddha in construction

Datong, Shanxi, June 2013.

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