What’s happening in China? MSNBC is offering a good article explaining some of the details behind China’s web censorship program. “You can only guess what the rules are. It means you should self-censor, limit your mind and be cautious, because you have no idea where the line is.”
We pass quickly through Serxu Xian, the modern administrative town, 35 kilometres after the huge Serxu monastery. Our driver seems concerned that the local police may look for an excuse to fine him, just because he has Qinghai number plates.
It feels like a long drive now. Progress is brisk, as the road is paved and in reasonable condition, but in general, signs of life are few and far between; we pass a few Tibetan villages with the odd monastery.
In some places the landscape is a bit less harsh; we pass a large lake, surrounded by soft, green hills.
Soon after, there is a succession of passes and the landscape changes abruptly. Suddenly, [Read more →]
Preliminaries:
I could see the doubt in the driver’s eyes. Either he thought Christmas had arrived early, or, more likely, he was contemplating some grim and rapid end to his life. What we had proposed was the following: Yushu to Manigango in a day, with stops at Serxu Gompa and Dzogchen Gompa.
His reservation: his claim that Sichuan Tibetans were not honest like the Tibetans who lived in Qinghai. The word ‘Manigango’, he repeated it several times with distaste, evoked some kind of hellhole from which you’d never return. “Bandits, the lot of them; what if I just drop you at Serxu?”, he protested.
His incentive: The 1,000 Yuan I was offering, plus food and accommodation in Manigango.
I pointed out to him that we had been to Manigango in 2004 and found it quite safe. Even though we too had heard numerous stories of pillaging bandits around Manigango, these seemed to belong to an era long gone. Still, I remembered that Manigango had felt like a real Wild West frontier town in 2004.
The main problem was that I had no option: the altitude sickness was playing havoc on my body; five days without sleep and the Tibetan medicine and the oxygen tank were having little or no effect. Serxu, at 4,200 metres above sea level, is another 500 meters higher than Yushu; lingering around, counting on dodgy bus schedules, didn’t appear to be the best option. So, basically, the upshot was: “Either you take us or we’ll have to hire another car”.
The first leg of the journey
Price agreed and the driver’s mind set somewhat at ease, we set off at 6.00 am.
The road followed what was now familiar territory, passing the Mani wall, Domkar Gompa, the turn- off to the Leba gorge and finally [Read more →]
Last year we visited the Monastery of Youning Si in the Huzhu Tu Autonomous Region of Qinghai near Xining. The Monastery is famous not only for its beautiful setting, but also because the monks are descendants from the Mongols and continue to speak an old Mongolian dialect.
They are known as the Tu minority. We visited Youning Si by taking a bus to the town of Ping’an and then hiring a taxi the rest of the way. We never saw a check point or a police patrol during our entire visit.
However, we have had a few comments on our previously posted article saying the area is actually closed to foreigners and that any traveller found visiting without a permit, or without an authorised group, runs the risk of being punished or fined. The most recent comment came [Read more →]
The amazing Zhaozhou Bridge in Zhaoxian County, Hebei Province, about an hour from the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, is a stunning reminder of just how sophisticated Chinese engineering techniques were, more than one thousand four hundred years ago. That is the amount of time the Zhaozhou Bridge has stood spanning the Jiaohe River.
The bridge is the work of the engineer Li Chun who had to overcome numerous technical difficulties when designing and building it. First of all, it had to be high enough to avoid damage from frequent flooding, but at the same time it had to be flat enough to allow trade caravans and the imperial army to cross. Li Chun’s answer to this engineering dilemma was a segmental bridge, the world’s first, and [Read more →]
Hola!
Para cualquier persona que tenga interés en aprender el idioma Chino en Madrid:
45 horas en total. Las clases son de 10:00-14:00 los viernes. Para mas información haz click aqui.
http://www.ucm.es/info/fgu/formacion/csim/csim_index.php
Apart from the exhibition, visitors to the Matadero can also take in one or two Chinese films or documentaries a day, in the small projection room to the right of the entrance. From Tuesday to Friday, the sessions are at 17.00 and at 19.30; on Saturdays they are at 12.00 and at 16.00; on Sundays sessions may be at 12.00, 14.00 or 16.00. Programmes are available at the reception desk, or on-line at the Casa Asia web site.
The Road 芳香之路(2002, directed by Zhang Jiarui) is the moving coming-of-age story of a young girl, Li Chunfen, set against the Cultural Revolution of the 60’s and 70’s.
Li Chunfen is a sweet and naïve young girl works as a ticket seller on a bus driven by Lao Cui, a decent, quiet man and a model worker who has been praised by Chairman Mao himself. Every day, their trusty old bus travels the precarious mountain roads of eastern Yunnan, connecting isolated villages and providing a valuable life line. In the course of these travels, [Read more →]
We start our second excursion around Yushu at the nearby Domkar Gompa, scenically located on the mountainside, overlooking the main road. Today, our driver has brought his little son along, a boy of about five, with a Fu Manchu pigtail at the back of his otherwise bald head. Both father and son are in good spirits, as if they are looking forward to the day’s sightseeing as well.
First, we are shown around the Gompa’s main Assembly Hall, which houses an impressive collection of large, gem-studded statues. For 15 Yuan, our [Read more →]
