Nanyang: Huazhou Academy
Category Archives: Travel
Musical fun in Nanyang
While wandering on my last day in Nanyang, I encountered a friendly group of musicians who were setting up to practice.
My request to photograph them led to them insisting I join in.
But I have no musical talent!
No problem they said, and this was the result.
(no part of the conversation was in English and most of the communication involved one of them saying something in Chinese, me insisting I don’t know any Chinese and couldn’t understand, then communication occurred through gestures and smiles.)
Taiyuan – Capital of Shanxi province (April 3rd)
After Datong we had another smooth ride on the Chinese high-speed rail network. Destination- Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province.
There is a lot to see in Taiyuan, but unfortunately my time was short, so I really only was able to squeeze in a visit to the twin pagodas.
My friend Jim had even less time because he was flying to Nanjing in order to get back to his hometown of Tongling in time for work.
The inside of one of the pair of pagodas was open and one could (theoretically!) climb a dark slick staircase up to the top of that pagoda.
From that location there is a view over the city.
I soon began to question my judgement and my decision to ascend. Fine for younger, more nimble bodies. But this slow, tired old man of 69 decided that about halfway up was plenty far enough!
Well, as is often the case going down can seem more dangerous than ascending!
Adjacent to the towers was a temple complex.
Datong- Day two: Yungang Grottoes and more!
Located16 km from Datong this remarkable concentration of Buddhist statues includes some 50,000 statues, some protected completely within about 50 caves. Initial work to create this artistic marvel began a bit more than 1500 years ago.
Ubicado a 16 km de Datong, esta notable concentración de estatuas budistas incluye unas 50,000 estatuas, algunas protegidas completamente dentro de aproximadamente 50 cuevas. El trabajo inicial para crear esta maravilla artística comenzó un poco más de 1500 años.
It is considered to be among the three most significant concentrations of Buddhist statues in China. (The other two are the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang in Gansu province [been there!], and Longmen grottoes near Luoyang in Hennan province [yep, there too!])
Se considera que se encuentra entre las tres concentraciones más significativas de estatuas budistas en China. (¡Los otros dos son las grutas de Mogao cerca de Dunhuang en la provincia de Gansu [¡He estado allí!], Y “Grutas de la Puerta del Dragón” cerca de Luoyang en la provincia de Hennan [Sí, allí también!])
After visiting the grottoes, it was time to head back to Datong to visit some other great things including a “Nine Dragon Screen”, a temple or two, and the old city wall.
Después de visitar las grutas, fue hora de regresar a Datong para visitar otras cosas importantes, incluida una “Pantalla Dragon”, un templo o dos, y la antigua muralla de la ciudad.
Datong- An ancient town in Shanxi’s far north, almost at the border with Inner Mongolia (Day One)
A six-or-so hour train ride from Zhengzhou brought me to Datong.
The trip involved leaving Henan province behind and heading north through the loess covered land of Shanxi province.
Along the way there was ample evidence of the depth of China’s commitment to green energy. A very large number of buildings were topped by either photovoltaic solar panels and/or hot water heat panels.
We even passed entire hillsides covered with photovoltaic panels!
My friend Jim and I had second class seats, which are about as narrow as a tourist class seat on an airplane, but have much more leg room! And China’s high speed trains have an even smoother ride than the excellent “AVE” trains in Spain.
We saw some of the sites of and near Datong the afternoon of our arrival, and got a chance to see much more the next day!
Here is a small selection of snapshots from that first day:
The hotel (Pipa Old Inn) I had selected is within the old walled city and takes its name from the traditional upright stringed “Pipa” as displayed in the statue.
One of the famous sights of Datong is actually over an hour outside town. It is the “Hanging Temple”.
The first time I saw a photo of this, I honestly thought it was a mock up on the theme of “What would a Chinese Mesa Verde look like”.
Zhengzhou- One of the 8 greatest ancient capitals of China
Lists, lists, lists…. China has had many historic capital cities over the many centuries, no millennia! of its existence. Lists of these capitals generally follow the format of: the 4 greatest ancient capitals… the 6, the 7, the 8…
In the near future I will be working on the sixth and final installment of my “Capital cities of China”. That set of videos mostly focused on the capitals of provinces and autonomous regions. But the last installment will include an overview of the 8 most important ancient capital cities of China. Included in that list is Zhengzhou due to it’s role during the Shang dynasty (roughly 3,600 to 3,000 years ago!)
Among the relics from that period are the earthen remains of the city walls of “Xiao” (as Zhengzhou was known at the time).
Hangzhou- Day Three (Deshou Palace, etc)
An important reason for my visit to Hangzhou was to visit a recently restored historical site dating to the Southern Song Dynasty: Deshou Palace.
But that attraction did not open until 9:30, so first we casually ambled around a lovely nearby neighborhood.
Deshou Palace was an absolutely wonderful site. The building was a reconstruction carfully designed to match the original appearance. It was paced full of artifacts as well as artwork related to the history and culture if the era. Various panels provided text that gave historical background .
An interesting modern twist was a huge interactive video display with a seemingly random collection if Chinese written characters that floated downwards. If you touched a character, it triggered the screen to display a relevant poem!
Historically this palace had been a sort if retirement quarters for the emperor. It had included extensive gardens of which only a small section has yet been restored .
A beautiful place! I could easily have spent a whole day there. It was a shame that our train tickets forced us onward to Tongling, where Jim wanted to show me his hometown!
Hangzhou- Day Two-
Decent weather today! No sign of rain!!
First I spent some time exploring the area around the Grand Canal. I viewed the canal from walkways along its bank. I also rode a “water- bus” to the picturesque Gongchen bridge.
Later I went to the far side of beautiful West Lake, and visited Leifeng Pagoda.
Still later I met up with my good friend Jim ( the ” young scholar”), and we returned to Hangzhou by one of the wooden tourist boats that cross West Lake.
Refreshing plum juice, and a dumpling snack.
Hangzhou- Day One (pitter patter)
Tears fom the sky fell in torrents, driving visitors to seek any cover they could find. Tied to the dock these small boats echoed the pitter patter of falling raidrops. And they creaked and groaned in their helpless captivity, unable to fulfill the meaning to their existence.
Nanjing
Nanjing: the “Southern Capital”. This was my fourth visit to this former imperial capital city (also capital for a while during the Republic).
During this visit my focus was seeing my friend Violet, and a pair of historical sites related to Zheng He, the renowned admiral during the early Ming Dynasty whose immense “treasure fleet” explored southeast Asia, India, and even areas of Africa’s eastern shores! Unlike typical “western” expeditions, the goals were trade, goodwill, and world investigation.
Unlike the later Christopher Columbus, Zheng He actually *did* arrive in India, and was not so stupid as to confuse new, unknown regions with India.
Nor did Zheng He spread disease and enslave the people he met.
