Transcript Modern China

Modern China
July,2004
NCTA Study Tour
Aerial view of the Forbidden City
The Imperial Summer Palace
Beijing license plate
Chinese graffiti on the Great Wall
Note the air quality issues !
A night shopping area in Beijing
Wanfujing – a pedestrian area
A very busy night spot.
Mao Zedong’s portrait
Hutong Tour in Beijing
The Chinese government is
busy removing Hutong’s before
the Summer 2008 Olympics
come to Beijing. They are going
to be a way of life from the past.
They are crowded but offered a
unique type of urban life.
Hutong bedroom
Small streets and houses
A memorial to
Red Guards in
the Hutong
neighborhood
Narrow streets & rainy weather
Hutong area from above
Beijing Drum Tower
Climbing up to the tower area.
Drums told the time for half the day.
Drums
Small houses without sanitation.
A pedicab we took on a tour of the
Hutongs.
Prince Gong’s Mansion
Prince Gong was a bureaucrat who
built several lovely homes for
himself. Eventually he was
charged, tried and executed for
dishonesty.
Lovely painting under the roof
His fish pond and pavilion
The tea room area .
A restaurant with Qing greeters
A throne fit for an emperor
How a lady would have traveled.
A lovely picnic spot.
Beauty all
around you.
A lily
Typical appetizers .
Dumplings shaped like many things. What
you select tells something about you.
Our sleeper car to X’ian
Our Qing
hostess
Terrace Farming from the train to
X’ian
Chang’an, the start of the Silk Roads
A walled city with an existing moat. Notice
the air quality!
A coal fired electric plant
More than 1 million people live in
caves because they are energy
efficient.
Old & new. Everywhere you look there are
construction cranes !
This is a memorial for the dead.
A large display of some Chinese gods
Chengdu, western China
Even in western China !
A busy street in Chengdu
A rural home outside Chengdu
Farmers going
home across a
board walkway
A pre-school in Chengdu
Nanjing license plate
YANGTZE
River Bridge
capitalism meets
communism
A shipyard on the Yangtze
Lots of river traffic
Construction everywhere
Few cars but this is changing fast !
Small & narrow streets
Nanjing street
scene
The Grand Canal from the train.
Shanghai
The Chinese government is working
hard to make Shanghai the financial
center of all of Asia. They have spent a
lot of money and time meticulously
planning every aspect of its
development at their Urban Planning
Center. All housing, arterial roads,
business areas, sports centers are
placed carefully on a huge map .It was
incredible to see their plan being built
and well into construction.
Shanghai Urban Planning Centre
Origin of the Chinese Communist Party
Deng Xiaoping
You can find Starbucks everywhere.
Bamboo scaffolding
Drying laundry
Jin Mao Tower
We spent about 1 ½ hours talking to an
architect involved in building Jin Mao
Tower. The design comes from a
Chinese pagoda. Feng Shui was
incorporated into the design and
landscaping. It is one of the 10 tallest
buildings on Earth.
Inside Jin Mao Tower
The ladies room mirrors
View from the observation deck of
Jin Mao Tower.
Shanghai license plate
Typical apartments
Notice the air quality !
A typical small store
Ads are universal
Pepsi in the south
Regular transportation
The old and the new
The river in smog
Hong Kong
Actual blue sky !!!
Hong Kong by sunset light
I traveled across China for 3 weeks,
visiting 9 cities. There were very few
bright and sunny days. The air quality
across China was generally poor
except right after a heavy rain when the
air was washed clean of all the smog. I
was grateful for the rain so I could
breathe more easily.