In Shanghai I visited my good friend Bamboo, and her husband Sun Yiyueh (Cyrus). This made me very happy! I met Bamboo many years ago on my second trip to Nanjing. Some of you are familiar with the various videos I produce to help “westerners” learn a bit about China. Bamboo has played a crucial role in the success of the videos. As originally produced, these used the “voice” from “Google translate” so demonstrate the Chinese pronunciation of various place-names. That Google audio was pretty terrible, and I wanted to improve it to better server the viewers. I remembered that Bamboo had done extensive work on Chinese television, so I asked her if there was any chance she’d help with the needed audio improvements. She graciously agreed to give me assistance and over the years has continued to provide audio clips for that series. This makes a huge difference for the viewers!
I suppose I “don’t get out much”. I had never seen such a thing, but starting with the hotel in Shanghai, I encountered robots at each Chinese hotel I stayed in! There are robots that vacuum the floor, and others who either pick up or deliver items to guests’ rooms! How cool is that!!!!???
Well, it was a “long haul”, but I made it to Shanghai. Getting there involved a 2.5 hour drive to Denver from our (new) hometown in Pueblo, Colorado. An overnight stay in a hotel in the general vicinity of Denver International Airport. then up before the roosters to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth. There I boarded a flight to Shanghai. Ironically, about 75 minutes into the flight, the airplane flew directly over Pueblo… my starting point the day before! (I saw this on the “real time” in-flight monitor screen on the airplane!
March 20 – May 6 I’m REALLY excited about going to China again! I hope to see a lot of friends and colleagues while I am there!
Click on the photo to open it. Then you will be able to enlarge as desired.
Here is my current schedule: March 20: Fly from Denver to Dallas/FortWorth transfer to flight headed to Shanghai Pudong Airport March 21: Arrive in Shanghai March 21-22: Shanghai- March 23-24: Nanjing March 25-26: Hangzhou March 27-28: Tongling, Anhui March 29-31: Zhengzhou April 1: Datong, Shanxi April 2: Taiyuan, Shanxi April 3-7: Nanyang, Henan April 8-11: Xi’an, Shaanxi April 12-16: Yinchuan, Ningxia April 17: Lanzhou, Gansu April 18-20: Chengdu, Sichuan April 21-23: Guiyang, Guizhou April 24-25: Dali, Yunnan April 26-28: Lanping, Yunnan April 29: Kunming, Yunnan April 30: Nanning, Guangxi May 1: Shenzhen May 2-3: Xiamen, Fujian May 4-5: Shanghai May 6 Fly back to the United States! Shanghai to Dallas/FortWorth Dallas/FortWorth to Denver then home to Pueblo!
January of 2019 has me concurrently working on several projects which include an effort to update the three-video series “Learning Chinese Provinces”, a new video about provincial capitals, and posts to my Pere’s Ramblings blog to include photos and accounts of both my 2017 and 2018 visits to China.
In the course of my work, as I research and attempt to create accurate works that disseminate information about China, I am confronted with clumsy inaccuracies in published materials. And sometimes I make my own mistakes!
This is NOT the “Forbidden City”!
What!? Not the Forbidden City?!
In the middle of Beijing, just north of Tiananmin Square, visitors have a view of this impressive structure with the famous portrait of Mao Zedong. Thanks to numerous mislabeled photos and misguided web sites across the internet, it is easy to believe that this is the “Forbidden City”. It is not. Well, then what is it?
Tiananmen 天安门
Hold onto you hat, this is (drum roll) “Tiananmen” 天安门, or in English “The Gate of Heavenly Peace”. Chairman Mao’s portrait hangs there to commemorate his proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in October, 1949.
And the real entrance to the Forbidden City? Continue another quarter mile north and you can enter the Forbidden City through the “Meridian Gate”. Well, all that bad online information had me confused as well. 🙂
Meridian Gate – Wikimedia Commons Photo by Leonard G.
NOT “Tiananmen Tower”
While we are in the neighborhood, let’s take a look at another Internet misrepresentation. This one is from a web page that advertises itself as the definitive guide to 50 “must see” places in China. The page presents this photo with the caption “Tiananmen Tower is one of several highlights of the Tiananmen Square area”. The author goes on to claim that it is 600 years old and that you can pay a small fee to climb this “tower”. The stone monument is not 600 years old. It was erected in 1958 and is actually the “Monument to the People’s Heroes”. Don’t try to climb it! (I noted a disproportionate number of errors on that particular site, considering its limited scope. )
OK, continuing in Beijing:
Temple of Heaven?
“Temple of Heaven”?
This beautiful and iconic temple is often labeled as “The Temple of Heaven”. Is it? Well, perhaps this is an issue of semantics. This building is indeed to be found within the Temple of Heaven park and is one of several buildings that make up the Temple of Heaven complex. This particular building is called the “Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests” (祈年殿).
