Traditions and travel

[Irish Rambler]

Thank you RT. everywhere you look in the town they are building as if on steroids, I'm sure the Romans would be delighted to see their Putalaneum being used so prolifically.

More self explanatory photo's of the Terracotta Army.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Apologies for 'turned' photo's but snap shots were necessary due to crowds.

 

[Irish Rambler]

And a few more to do it justice.

 

[Irish Rambler]

I hope you enjoy more of these photo's of in and around the Terracotta Army.

1,2,3,4 Self explanatory.

5, Police van with riot shields at the ready, in a museum ? The aluminium pole is an electric taser

6, Cops walking around with riot shields make you feel safe ?

7, McDonalds everywhere in the world.

8, Low tech carbon free transport.

9,Entrance to the great hall housing the terracotta army.

10, Not sure why the traditional silk dress but nice anyway.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Another part of our bucket list of things to see were the giant Chinese Panda's having read so much about them.
Here's the photo's of our visit to Beijing Zoo.

1,Entrance and yes we had to have the full electronic body search to go in.

2, Everywhere you look manual labour's cheap here, 1 man and a rotovator would be easier.

3,4,5, This little guy is a red Panda.

6,7,8 Is the giant Panda were more used to seeing on TV.

9,Baby Panda's are really tiny in relation to the adult, more so than similarly sized animals.

10, The real deal.

Visitors are kept well away from the animals so photo opportunities vary, plus of course as part of a group if you stop to get a good photo your left trotting behind trying to keep up as the guides don't really give you enough time.

 

[Irish Rambler]

A few more from the Zoo.

1, Looking for a way out.

2,Little bit of exercise.

3,No shortage of bamboo to eat.

4,There are various effigy's of animals around the zoo.

5,Hey man, this beats a McDonalds for this guy.

6,Antelope.

7. Rhino's, they are hunted for their tusks which ground down are considered an aphrodisiac in Chinese medicine.

8, Somebody has to do it.

9, Hippopotamus relaxing.

Of the Zoo's we've visited in various place in our humble opinion the best of them all is Steve Irwin's Zoo in Australia for sympathetic animal welfare, well laid out for visitors without being to oppressive and restrictive for the various occupants.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. IR. Just a quick comment about post #215. "1 man and a rotovator would be easier." Yes but then those people wouldn't have jobs. We saw that type of thing a lot. Didn't seem to bother the workers.


We didn't see the Beijing zoo but we did see Giant and Red Pandas in Sichuan. Good pictures. Thanks.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Thank you for your kind comments RT.
Its a problem when you have so many people in a country, you have to keep them employed or they get restless, religion helps to a certain extent.
You either eventually face civil uprising (as Chairman Mao and Mao Tse Tung did)or you become expansionist and start to employ them militarily. Just read the news.
There are 31 million single men in China, due to its attempt to reduce the population, the problem was that families only allowed the male child to survive. If a girl was born she would grow up and get married, the parents would have to give a brides troth and the female would be subjugate to the husbands family and unable to support her own parents in old age. To put it bluntly many baby girls were killed at birth.
Now the authorities have relaxed the one child rule the parents are at a stage that they can't afford to raise any more than one.

Photo.
1, The 5* room service menu in China,

I digress a little here with a true story.
In Northern Ireland condoms were sold discreetly at the barbers where the barber would ask 'Would sir like something for the weekend'.
Southern Ireland was strictly Catholic at the time and condoms were banned by the chapel.
My business traded from Northern Ireland and our truck drivers would regularly be asked 'Hev you any of the ould lads wit ya ?' Of course that prompted a brisk trade in smuggling and I had to go to our local chemist and explain in private that we weren't running a brothel to serve gargantuan appetites in the industrial estate, we were supplying customers in the South.
Being an entrepreneurial chap he gave us a healthy discount for bulk buying and everyone was happy. We agreed he would never tell his lady assistants in case word got out and we got into trouble with the customs at the border.
We got many discreet smiles and and the odd discreet offer from his assistants though.

 

[Irish Rambler]

As you are aware by now of Chinese military expansionism and Tibet is a case in point. Largely kept quiet from the world news China claimed 'Tibet was a part of ancient China' and moved in with its military to take over the country. The religious leader of Tibet, the Dali Llama, managed to get spirited away and now lives in exile whilst his people are now subjugated under Chinese rule.
We took the opportunity to visit a Tibetan restaurant whilst in Beijing. The food was virtually the same as supplies dictated.

Photo's, apologies again for the 'turned' photo's.
1, Ornate entrance.

2,3, Beautifully decorated dining room.

4, Intricate inlay work on the table top.

5,6, Murals around the wall tell the tale of Tibet and its customs and heritage. No mention is allowed about the takeover by the Chinese military.

7, Beautiful traditional dress.

8. Apparently this signifies Tibetan fires.

The Tibetan people who worked in the restaurant were very pleasant and great hosts.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Naturally any country wishes to show its artistic side and China is no different in that respect.
We were invited to two evening shows.
The first one we saw we saw was a story in dance and costume from the Tang dynasty, I know diddly squat about Chinese dynasty's other than the Ming dynasty pottery and its connection with the Dutch Delft pottery industry (You can read all about that and see the photo's in my post 'Windmills And Wine, or buy the book of Amazon).

Some beautiful photo's from the Tang dynasty show, the music was a bit 'twangy' for my taste though.

1, Entrance.

2,3,4, introduction scenes.

5, Very colourful.

6,7,8, Wonderful dance routines.

9, The musicians, the mature lady with the overgrown ukulele is an excellently dextrous and very impressive artist.

10,How could you not enjoy this.

All in all a very impressive show, highly recommended for its scenery and costumes.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Just a few more self explanatory photo's of the show.
We enjoyed every moment with very professional scenery, beautiful choreography and dancers. Wonderful evenings family entertainment.

 

[Irish Rambler]

I know some people in the US are complaining about Donald's wall but bear in mind the first and longest lasting one was started in the 7th century which is of course The Great Wall of China.
The majority of it was built between 1368 and 1644 during the Ming dynasty and its purpose was defence and border controls for immigration(not much changes over the centuries).
As a by product it was also found useful as a transportation corridor for parts of the 'Silk Road' which incorporated garrisons and stores to support the troops.
In it stretches from Laiodong in the East to Lop Lake in the west for a total distance of 5,500 miles made up of 3,899 miles of actual stone wall, 223 miles of trenches and 1,387 miles of natural defences like escarpments, hill, cliff faces and rivers.
We only visited the centre access opening in the wall on a freezing cold day and my gonads were sheltering up in my armpits for warmth so God help the soldiers who had to man it.
Unfortunately the internet was overloaded tonight and I couldn't upload the photo's so they'll come on the next post.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Sorry guys, can't upload photo's at the moment the TF site won't accept them. Will upload asap.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Success at last.
The photo's are pretty much self explanatory, this centre section of the wall has been rebuilt for tourism. Each of the buildings on a promontory were in time were small garrisons/guard posts.
There was a constant movement of soldiers passing as garrisons changed along the wall and each soldier acted as a coolie and had to carry supplies to deliver to their garrison and returning soldiers carried back items for repair etc. There was virtually no rubbish as it was all recycled or burnt to provide cooking fires or warmth.
We were told that for defence purposes there were only 3 entrances, this one and one at each end, but considering the length of the wall I was a bit sceptical. The wall was never breached and security camera's make sure it ain't gonna happen nowadays.

 

[Irish Rambler]

A bit more of the wall.
Some of the photo's may seem hazy and that's down to the constant smog that seems to cover most of China.
These heavy insulated covers keep the cold out and heat in as it was minus 5 degrees when we visited. You quickly got a sweat up walking round taking photo's but just a quickly felt the cold when you stopped.
Remember everyone walked everywhere in those days, even the commanders could only use horses for parts of it due to all the steps.

Photo's.
1, Insulation.

2, Toilet signs telling which are squatters and which are sitters.

3, Make sure you've nothing in your back pockets when you use these or it will fall out and you'll have to retrieve it.

4,Chinese are small in stature so watch you don't splash your boots.

5, Access to the wall.

6, Even the roofs have dragons carved on them.

7,Souveniers.

8, A giant gong announces that you're a 'hero' of the great wall and get a 'certificate' to prove it, for a price of course.

9. Steps to the granary.

10, All signs are in Chinese and English.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Last look around.

1,2,3 and 7 Self explanatory.

4, Storehouse/granary ornately decorated roof.

5, Everywhere you go you are surveyed. You can see on TV news how China clamps down hard with an iron fist on its population in the current coronavirus news.

6,Lots of these storehouses were needed to feed the garrison.

8, French 'round eye' (gwailo's) tourists exiting, as they left they had to walk through a bunch of hawkers selling souvenirs.
'Souvenir' in French means 'memory'.

 

[Irish Rambler]

One of the main reasons I went to China was to get a conducted tour around the largest ship lift in the world.

First lets look at the history of ship lifts and how the one in China came into being.
There are 4 ways of overcoming hills, contour canals which we'll discount, a shaft lock,an inclined plane and a ship lift.

Photo's
1, A very early ship lift with muscle power, some types had teams of up to 16 mens hauling on ropes and pulleys on the Dortmund Ems canal.

2,An early inclined plane came later in the same place.

3, One of the first ship lifts at Datteln in Germany using buoyancy tanks and coal fired pumps.

4,This is the first actual working ship lift in the world which is preserved as a museum piece.

5,Look closely at the mushroom top, that houses a differential cog system which drives a vertical screw, there is a screw at each corner to stabilize the lift.

6, Differential gearing.

7, Another way to overcome height difference is using a shaft lock like this one on the way to Minden, Germany. The largest shaft lock in the world is in Russia but I've had my bellyful of socialist/communist country's and I'm not going to go there to take photo's

8, This barge is exiting an inclined plane in Belgium.

9,This is the next in line going down the inclined plane at Ronquerries in Belgium. It 1,350 meters long and the counterbalance weighs 950 tonnes.

10, This is our boat 'Snow Mouse' experiencing the thrill of the inclined plane.

 

[Irish Rambler]

The Chinese don't invent anything, they use industrial espionage to copy other designs.
A further look at ship lifts to see which one inspired the Chinese to copy for its 3 gorges Yangtse river project. .

Photo's,
1,2,3,4, This is the innovative Falkirk wheel, this unique construction is so finely engineered that to transfer a boat from one level to the next it takes the same amount of electric as it takes to boil a kettle .

5,6, This was the worlds largest ship lift in the world until the Chinese built theirs. It's based in Strepy Thieu in Belgium and can accommodate barges up to 3,500 tonnes, it takes just 20 minutes using the Archimedes principle with minimal power consumption.
Look closely in photo 5 you will see up on the left the caisson in the raised position, as we enter the one on the right, the gates are closed, all safety checks completed and as we rise the other counterbalanced caisson descends
Wonderfully smooth and you can get off your vessel and walk along the pontoon during the operation which we did to take photo's. You can see the full story in the post 'Windmills and Wine' or buy the e-book or paperback book off Amazon.

Being fascinated by boats, marine and canal engineering one of the main reasons we went to China was to view the largest ship lift in the world which we'll share in the next post.

 

[Irish Rambler]

A bit of background.
After the Mao Tse Tung's communist revolution the people needed to be kept occupied or they'll become disillusioned and Mao Tse Tung would lose power.
So during the last 30 years China has been resurrecting its manufacturing industry using cheap labour to fuel exports and fill the country's coffers.
Communism doesn't give workers any enthusiasm so China introduced a little bit of capitalism for its workers to motivate them, they could then buy a car or take a holiday and other little luxuries that we take for granted.
Daily life and manufacturing needed energy. Lots of it !
China is Australia's biggest export market for coal and China was commissioning a coal fired station every day for a while to supply these daily needs.
With the size of China and its many rivers hydro-electric power is an obvious choice and eliminates the need imported coal so reducing import costs.

The first hydro-electric power was invented by an Englishman a Mr Lester Allen Pelton who could see the benefits of using constant water flow as a motive power.

China has over 23,000 dams, yes that's correct and the 3 gorges dam is the largest in the world.

 

[Irish Rambler]

The 3 gorges dam is obviously where 3 river gorges meet to form the Yangtse river.
These gorges have over millennia been cut by the power of water flowing through the granite.
What better place for a hydro electric dam you may ask.
The Chinese government owns all the land and many families up along the river banks have farmed the rich soil and fished its waters for many centuries.
When the idea of a dam was first mooted it had many supporters in the politburo, and a few brave hearted detractors.
Nobody criticizes the Chines government with impunity, just read the current news about the guy who alerted the authorities to the coronavirus epidemic !
To begin the construction of the dam it meant displacing 1.9 million people, think about it, 1.9 million people, from their homes and flooded 1,500 towns and villages, they were given no choice and had to go leaving everything behind except what they could carry.
The inhabitants, who were hitherto free of surveillance were given a free 2 bedroom apartment in any city they chose, with of course the obligatory surveillance that all tower blocks in China have.
The smart ones chose Shanghai where property prices were high, after some years they sold there apartments and then bought/leased some farming land in a fertile region in the countryside and built a house for their family, others just accepted their fate.
The 3 gorges dam took 17 years to build, a 100 workers died in the process and it's the most expensive in the world costing 28 billion dollars.
Its also the largest dam in the world at 1.12 kilometres wide and a height of 630 feet and believe it or not when it filled it slowed the earths rotation, check it out for yourself.
Its construction along with its 2 lock systems meant freighters of up to 10,000 tons can travel 1,400 miles upriver from the seaport of Shanghai.
Having seen the freighters they are crudely maintained and creature comforts are barely minimal, I would term it crude.

Photos.
1,2 The 3 gorges dam by night.

3, The locks illuminated by night.

4,5,6,7,8 The lock system.

9, Chinese freighter. If you see, and hear, the engines they are very 'basic' and we're worried about pollution ? They certainly aren't.

10, If this guy gets caught snoozing I wouldn't give much for his chances.
Everywhere you're prevented from getting near the dam despite getting assurances of a conducted tour as the past chairman of the Inland Waterways of Northern Ireland and a member of several Institute's of Logistics and paying over the odds for a specific tour. 'Velly solly', 'sir not possible for security'.

 

[Irish Rambler]

The 3 gorges dam produces 22,500 MW's of electricity so its a no brainer as to what would power the ship lift.
The Chinese say it was built by Chinese engineers and so it was, under the instruction of a German company Krebs and Kiefer's engineers, they in turn copied the principle of an early design and modernised it from the old German ship lift on the Dortmund Ems canal (shown in post 227).
Because of the sheer size it was built as a concrete chamber with a central lifting section powered by electric motors, the scores of steel cables with counter balance weights for the lifting chamber were made in Great Britain, 8 vertical screws keep it stable during the ascent/descent.
The lift was opened in 2015 for vessels up to 3,000 tons and it takes just 40 minutes as opposed to 4 hours using the adjacent lock system for ships up to 10,000 tons
We were shown around the park overlooking the ship lift and the tourist centre with the obligatory stalls selling food and tourist knick-knacks before boarding our ship the Yangtse River Gold 3.

Photo's.
1,Even the entry into the tourist museum had the obligatory guard.

2,Looking down to the locks from the adjacent tourist park.

3,4, Topographical layout.

5,Another layout by the food stalls.

6,Look closely at this photo, the packets of various ground seeds you see in the foreground are made into powder by 2 guys in the background with 2 wooden mallets pounding the seeds in a large wooden bowl.
With 22,500 MW's of electric you would think an electric grinder would be more efficient. The Chinese as you may well know eat many mixtures of plants/seeds for 'traditional' medicines.

7,8 Ships waiting their turn at the locks.

9,Our cruiser for the next 3 days.

10, Turn this photo to see a shot of the inside of the ship. To be truthful it was very comfortable and well fitted out, mealtimes were buffet style and the Chinese don't queue, so you quickly learnt to keep your elbows out, or go hungry !

 

[Irish Rambler]

You know when things start to go wrong they just keep on goin that way.
Firstly the conducted technical tour group (which was my raison d'etre for the visit in the first place) and for which I specifically reserved and paid up front when I booked the Chinese visit failed to materialise, lots of apologies, no rebate.
Then the cruiser which was to take us on a 3 day Yangtse river cruise was late leaving the dock which meant that we passed through the ship lift (sunset comes quickly in China) it quickly became dark.
As I've explained previously the Chinese don't queue so between restricted access and a bit of elbow wrestling some of the photo's are turned.

1, Approach to the ship lift.

2, Closer approach to the bottom gate with numbered dolphins on the right.

3,4, Gentle approach as the cruisers a tight fit and the captain quite rightly was taking good care of his ship.

5,Gate closed and the lift begins.

6, In the right hand vertical slot a 'shoe' slides up as you lift to stop any sideways movement of the caisson, there were 8 slots/shoes on each side of the caisson. In behind the central vertical piece you see is a slowly turning vertical screw, these do not lift they are there to steady the caisson.

7,These series of British made steel wires with counterbalance weights do the lifting, there are 4 groups of these each side of the caisson.

8,Approaching the top gate.

9,Safety barrier.

10, Looking back down, as you can see during the 40 minutes in the ship lift darkness has fallen. The Chinese thinking is that lots of lights everywhere give an impression of prosperity.
In this case security.

I can't help reminiscing about those intrepid group of British/Commonwealth air crews who inflicted a mortal blow to Germany in WW2, if anybody dropped a couple of buckets of sunshine on this dam complex the devastation would be a major blow to China.

 

[BruceK]

Rats! Don`t suppose you return via the lift in daylight? Thought not.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Hi Bruce.
I have to admit to being pretty hacked off with the excuses about the technical visit and the subsequent delays. Unfortunately the trip up the Yangtse river is a one way cruise. When in China you learn very quickly not to make waves or try and buck the system as the smiles disappear faster than snow of a ditch in spring.

 

[slowgoesit]

I can't help reminiscing about those intrepid group of British/Commonwealth air crews who inflicted a mortal blow to Germany in WW2, if anybody dropped a couple of buckets of sunshine on this dam complex the devastation would be a major blow to China.

Lucky for you that you didn't post this until AFTER you left the country! Or you'd still be over there . . . Free room and board as well!

 

[Irish Rambler]

Too public, I'll stick to the tourist bit of the story.

 

[slowgoesit]

 

[BruceK]

Will you have difficulties returning to UK or France after being in China? Presently, Australia is not allowing entry from China except for citizens, people with Permanent Residency, and special cases. Even then self quarantine may be required. Some Chinese students enrolled here(there are many) are going to a third country for 14 days on the way here.

 

[Irish Rambler]

slowgoesit. I can tell you that the Russian embassy wasn't very happy when I took photo's of their sat coms, I said 'I was impressed with the guards uniforms and asked them to pose' the guards said some very rude words and made gestures referring to sex & travel so I did a tactical withdrawal and blended amongst the crowd of other Western tourists.

Fortunately Bruce we left Wuhan about 2 weeks after the coronavirus so we just got out of there in the nick of time tg.

 

[slowgoesit]

That's like when I was in Moscow in the 1977. I was taking pictures of stuff, and had a couple of soldiers come up and tell us that we weren't allowed to take pictures of anyone in uniform. I pointed out that it was almost impossible to take a picture of ANYTHING in Moscow without accidentally getting some people in uniform in the pics!
A couple of sticks of Juicy Fruit gum and they went on their way, happy as clams. . .