Monthly Archives: May 2011

Shaolin pagoda forest

Posted on May 24, 2011 by andrew

This is the monk graveyard — a pagoda, in this case, is a sort of crypt.  One of the newest pagodas is carved with modern themes:  bullet trains, jets, etc. The man with the big camera is Kangdong Liu, our … Continue reading →

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Shaolin monastary — outside of Zhengzhou

Posted on May 24, 2011 by andrew

(These photos are out of order thanks to an internet outage.) Most buildings in this batch of photos were rebuild in the 80’s.  The temple has been burned down enough times that I’m tempted to question the efficacy of Shaolin … Continue reading →

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Tasty grubs

Posted on May 23, 2011 by andrew
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Xian + vanishing points

Posted on May 23, 2011 by andrew

Last night we visited a musical fountain in a new part of Xian.  It was ridiculously huge… a couple of blocks long at least. Today we saw some of the excavated pits of the Chin terra cotta statues. They, too, … Continue reading →

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Millenium City Park, Kaifeng, Henan

Posted on May 23, 2011 by andrew

Millenium City Park is a sort of rennaisance fair style park which roughly recreates 10th century Song dynasty life, minus the hunger.  The architecure is based on an enormous painting, Qingming Festival by the Riverside. There were various shenanigins including … Continue reading →

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E-scoot

Posted on May 23, 2011 by andrew

In Shanghai about half the scooters were battery powered.  Now that we’re in a more recently-developed area about 9 of 10 scooters are electric, and there are also many electric bicycles with pedals.  There’s also a wide range of electric … Continue reading →

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“It’s shot from guns”

Posted on May 23, 2011 by andrew

The Firewall seems to have closed around my website so it may be a while before I can post this.. This photo is of a guy making puffed wheat/rice/corn by heating it in a compression canister over a charcoal fire.  … Continue reading →

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Before and after

Posted on May 22, 2011 by andrew

We ate more xiaolongbao today, at a very old (100+ years) and friendly restaurant. The man in the second photo is Kangdong’s brother in law who has been driving us all over the place this week.  He’s featured here so … Continue reading →

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Shanghai: what we didn’t order

Posted on May 18, 2011 by andrew

I mentioned to Tong that Americans seldom eat work animals.  “For instance, we almost never eat horse meat.”  He looked a bit shocked.  “We don’t eat horses here!” “Ok, but you eat donkeys, right?” “Oh, donkey meat, yeah.”

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Hefei

Posted on May 18, 2011 by andrew

My new favorite street signs:  a sign says ‘0 meters.’  Then 50 meters later another sign says ’50 meters.’  50 more meters and it’s ‘100 meters.’  I guess the idea is that since you’re just driving you may as well … Continue reading →

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