Night out

I went to the Legend of Kung Fu at the Red Theatre.

It was a great show

 This kid didn't move.

Once in a while he would hit that round thing, but he still didn't flinch.

He was out in the lobby. 

 Drove past the "CUBE" from the 2008 Olympics.

A Temple

Well i forget the name of this place, but it had some nice buildings to look at.

All the buildings were in a straight line.  This one you walked through and you can see the next one behind it.

The Chinese were very good at measuring.  Buildings and walk paths were all very straight.

This is the building in the first picture.  It is empty inside.

 Impressive ceiling, they do a lot of detail and painting.

The second building had guards and art work and some history about China in it.

 This goes all the way around the building.  Impressive stone carvings.

 The ceiling inside this building.  Very large timbers.

 Then you walk around the side of this building to go behind and get to the next building.

 The last building.  This is a Temple for some one or more, sorry don't remember.

We walked in the lower arched door way which inclined about half way up then you can go right or left and keep going up.

 I found it hard to believe that they had trees growing out of the side of the wall.  Nice.

 WELL, here it is, this is what we were walking to.  OK

I am sure it means a lot to the Chinese people, my tour guide was talking about it a lot.

 The structure, the stone work, the plants, trees everything, when you think about what they did that many years ago.  WOW

 OK, i remember this part.  My tour guide insisted that we walk through this arch as we leave and we had to say something in Chinese when we stepped through.  She made me repeat it 2 or 3 times before we stepped through to get it right.

It has something about we were visiting in a dead place and now we were stepping back into life again.

The Chinese people from what i can tell are very superstitious.

For sure they are DEEP into their roots and history.

GREAT WALL day one

Well there are 2 ways up to the wall at this site.  A ski lift or the stairs.  I really wanted to know and feel how far up the mountain the wall was and get a real idea of what it took to get all the building material up there.  And remember they didn't have these stairs here to build it.

I honestly don't see how they accomplished it.  It is steep and those rocks that they used are large.

This area of the wall was kept up and modernized for tourist.

 Still not there yet.

 My first glimpse of the wall.  How did they do this?  I don't know how many times i have stopped before this point to catch my breath.  Well Beijing was experiencing the highest smog of the year so i will use that for my excuse for shortness of breath.

 Finally the wall!

Look at the size of those carved stone.

 My first few steps on the wall.  

I am impressed.

 When you are there and you walk for miles, and there is no end in sight it really starts to hit you on how massive this undertaking was.

 This guy spoke broken English and wanted to know where i was from so i bartered info for a picture.

Have you ever heard of the phrase   "A Thousand Screamin Chinamen"  I think this is 999 and 1000.

My bartering didn't work so well with them.  They cost me 20 RMB each.  $3.19 US a piece.

Hey, they got sharp objects so i did good.

They could say 20 RMB and picture.  Oh and each after you show them one,  20 RMB

After this experience on the wall i booked a second day on another part of the wall that doesn't have the upkeep and is falling down.

Didn't get enough of this.

Bullet Train

The train station in Tianjin on my way to Beijing. 

This was a bit of a challenge to start with.  First i got dropped off at the wrong train station in Tianjin.  After i found someone that spoke alittle English i knew which train station i needed to go to.  So back out side to the taxi's.  Now get that explained to a taxi driver.  Nop, not working.  Thank goodness for Wendy at work and a call to her and having it explained in Chinese to the driver.  Got to the right train station but just about every sign was in Chinese, so it was hard to find the ticket office.  15 mins later i found it and thankfully i picked a line with a part English speaking ticket person. 

Got my ticket, now it is easy just show your ticket and they keep pointing where to go.

The bullet trains are very popular in China.  The train i was on goes 300 MPH.  They had just opened up a new rail while i was there that connects the North to the South of China and it goes 350 MPH.

 This train run so smooth.  I selected the VIP class seating which was 93.50 RMB and that is $14.89 US.  My seat was in the first car right behind the control room.  I tried to get a picture of the controls after we stopped but the guys that came out of the door didn't seem to like a camera to much and along with some words to me in Chinese, i could tell they meant no pictures.

There is also a First Class and then General seating.  I did get a free hot  Green Tea served to me.

 This is the Hotel that i stayed in while in Beijing.

Darn close to the center of Beijing so it had new modern shops and a little farther walk away it was old Beijing street life, which i walked to a number of times.

Beijing Apple Store

 Back alley store.  This one looked interesting.  You can buy a bottle and sleep it off right outside.

Field trip videos

This video was taken on a field trip to look at some trees.  Some of the villages had tall walls with large decorative doors in different colors.  It seemed to me that the doors is what they took pride in.

When i got to Beijing and went to some of the Temples they had large impressive doors.

This was an area where we looked at some possible trees for the golf course.

The white truck with the loud speaker was trying to sell fire wood and coal.  Different village areas had trucks like this with the same message, i found them very annoying.

OLD & NEW technology

It seems strange or maybe just hard to believe that they still use some old equipment like this but yet China has the technology to build or reverse build about anything that the US can build if they want to.

I find that the people are stuck in some, or a lot of their old ways of doing things.  But then if they don't come up with a new way to improve something on their own, they sure won't read or see it on their censored media.

And i saw this guy and some of his buddies driving this thing along side of the road to go home for the day.  No working lights.  Most of the workers either walked  rode a bicycle or some type of a 3 wheeled cart to and from work.

There were 4 of these dump trucks on the job site.

Remember it was below 32 degrees most days i was there.

And the high end of their technology.  

They had a lot of these light poles on streets with LED lights run only by a wind generator / solar panel.  

The Chinese use LED lights every ware.

And now we are back to the old again.  There were a number of trees that came it with branches tied in for transport with homemade rope.

They also weaved there own padding to protect the tree trunk or round ball where needed. 

Dinner and some news clips

I had a buffet dinner at the Holiday Inn that was in the area when i was around the Eye of Tianjin.  Great meal.

I had been warned by some guys at work about the food that is out on the streets sold by the venders, some of it looked good, but i didn't really care to get sick.

 Dinner

 And the deserts were amazing.

Just some local news you may find interesting.

 And this could be another reason not to eat from the street venders.

Back in the USA

Well if you are reading this i have made it back to the USA.  

It was a great trip, but really good to get home.  We don't realize how good we have it in the US.  Our way of life in the US should be appreciated every day.  Just little things like the ability to send and receive web site info.  Facebook and i found out after arriving in China, my blog page are not allowed here.  I had to pay for a US secure VPN account to publish my blog and get certain information.  It was a pain.  Every time i want to post a blog i have to connect with a web site company in the US so that i have a none censored route for my info.  Magazines that i get electronically in the US on my iPad can't be down loaded in China.  The Chinese people are kept in their little world by the government here.  Even their news papers that were translated into English, i could tell that the whole story was not told.  It is scary to think about it.  

They have no clue on what the world really has to offer!

Below is what they call "The Eye of Tianjin"  

I spent about 8 hours in this area on Jan 2 2013

More pictures will be on my web site under China.  www.robertploen.com

 They do chair skating on the river.  I don't really get it, but they seemed to be having a good time.

A lot of people ice fishing on different parts of the river.

 A catch.

 There was a street/building market area close.  I spent about 3 hours here just watching the people and seeing how their life works.

Feb 10 is the Chinese New Year,  this is their most important celebration in the Chinese Calendar.   This year will be the Chinese year 4711 and the year of the Black Snake.  Chinese people will take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate.  The bright red colors symbolize fire and are popular to drive away bad luck.  Years ago they lit bamboo stalks and the crackling flames would frighten evil spirits.  The mythical beast they want to scare away is called "Nian"  Now they use fireworks.  And they have some LOUD stuff.

 Street activities, busy people and busy traffic.

Wishing all a HAPPY NEW YEARS

I had a New Years fireworks show right outside my Hotel window.

The Chinese sure do like their fireworks.  They have been shooting them off in different places now for the past week and the police don't ever show up.  Probable no permits and no one cares or complains.

These guys set up on the street, you can see cars driving right past.  Love it.

Not sure if the Hotel hires them or it's just a good spot.  Lasted for about 15 min.

It made my night!

Tianjin view from my window.

An outing

Well i found a great cup of coffee.

It cost $5.41 US and i guess u should add the taxi ride to get there, $2.54 US, sooooo,

well i enjoyed it.  And it was the largest cup.

A park area for the public.

They like their arched bridges.

I find people all over town working in the streets to keep them clean.

This person, on break has the same equipment as all of them.

Notice the hand made broom.

Not sure if the Government pays them or the town? 

I see a lot of this also, i assume that people get paid to recycle here.

The tallest structure in Tianjin, Known as the TV tower.

I heard there is a restaurant up there.

Might have to check it out sometime.

Tower at night.