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Have you never seen
the Yellow River waters descending from the sky,
racing restless toward the ocean, never to return?
Li Bai (701-762)
China October 2006
18/10/06: Brussels-London-Beijing
19/10/06: Beijing-Jade Youth Hostel (www.xihuahotel.com)
Elise, Andrew, Jessie & Joris (www.nolens.nl), Henk-Jan, Eric; Night Market
20/10/06: Great Wall in Simatai
21/10/06: Bicycle tour to the Summer Palace with Henk-Jan (www.henkjangoesasia.web-log.nl) and Eric
22/10/06: Forbidden City with Diana
23/10/06: Beijing-Xiamen; Nanputuo Temple with Jiangning; Sea food dinner with Hematology Department
24/10/06: Xiamen University Zhongshan Hospital: visit & lecture; tea pot shop; foot massage; hotpot dinner; tea ceremony
25/10/06: Gulangyu island; Xiamen-Xi'an with Jiangning; meet Liying; Muslim Quarter; Bell Tower & Drum Tower; Xi'an snacks
26/10/06: Terracota Army; Hot Springs; Dumplings
27/10/06: Bicycle tour city walls; Xian museum of History; dumpling banquet; departure Xi'an-Luoyang (night train)
28/10/06: Longmen Caves
29/10/06: Flower Market; train Luoyang-Zhengzhou; Flight Guilin
30/10/06: Li River Cruise and bamboo rafting
31/10/06: Rice Terraces with Bea and Marco (mmase@email.it)
01/11/06: Guilin-Beijing; shopping (Foreign Languages Bookstore and silk); Night Market
02/11/06: Beijing-London-Brussels
Klik op een foto voor een grotere weergave.
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 Essential handbook to a vast and extraordinary country
The Peony (mu3 dan1) is China's national flower
October 19-22
First impression of modern Beijing, China's Northern Capital
Eight-lane freeway from the airport to the city centre
Traffic jam
Hutong (hu2 tong4) on the way to my hotel
Jade Hostel
n° 5, Zhide Beixiang, Beiheyan Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing 100006
jadehostel@xihuahotel.com
www.xihuahotel.com
The Great Wall: Mongolian guides between Jinshanling and Simatai
The Great Wall at Jinshanling
The wall is so tall because it is stuffed with the bones of soldiers. The wall is so deep because it is watered with the soldiers' blood.
Song-dynasty poem
With Jessie, Joris and Henk-Jan in Simatai
Bicycle Tour to the Summer Palace (yi2 he2 yuan2)
Food stalls in the streets
Broad cicle lanes
Traffic...
Traffic...
More traffic
Summer Palace
Summer Palace
Summer Palace
Summer Palace Lake
Summer Palace Lake
Marble boat
Summer Palace: Henk-Jan and Eric
Summer Palace
Summer Palace
Summer Palace
Summer Palace: Calligraphy
Summer Palace
Summer Palace: restaurant for lunch
Summer Palace
Summer Palace: lunch
Summer Palace: Lunch
Summer Palace
Summer Palace
Longevity Hill
Summer Palace
Summer Palace
Summer Palace: precious stone
Tai Chi. (Picture: J&J Nolens)
The Forbidden City (gu4 gong1 or The Imperial Palace) on a Sunday morning
Forbidden City
Forbidden City
Forbidden City
Forbidden City: Turtle
Forbidden City
Forbidden City
Forbidden City: 'Ren' character formed by this tree in the Imperial Garden
Forbidden City: Imperial Garden
Forbidden City: Imperial Garden
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City: Portrait of Empress Dowager Xixi with Diana
Forbidden City
Tian'anmen 'Gate of Heavenly Peace' Square with portrait of Mao Zedong
Waiting for the bus. (Picture: J&J Nolens)
Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven
Wangfuijian Street
Night Market
Night Market
Night Market
Night Market
Night Market
Night Market
Night Market
Night Market
Silk shop
October 23-25
The toponym 'Xià mén' literally means 'The Gate of the Grand Mansion'.
Xiamen University Zhonghshan Hospital
In front of the hospital with dr. Lu Quanyi
The Hematology Department (director: dr. Lu)
Nanputuo Si
Nanputuo Si
Nanputuo Si
Nanputuo Si
Nanputuo Si
Fujian Tea Pot Shop
Fujian Tea Ceremony
QUAN YIN: THE GODDESS OF MERCY
Quan Yin is one of the most universally beloved of deities in the Buddhist tradition. Also known as Kuan Yin, Quan'Am (Vietnam), Kannon (Japan), and Kanin (Bali), She is the embodiment of compassionate loving kindness. As the Bodhisattva of Compassion, She hears the cries of all beings. Quan Yin enjoys a strong resonance with the Christian Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Tibetan goddess Tara.
In many images She is depicted carrying the pearls of illumination. Often Quan Yin is shown pouring a stream of healing water, the "Water of Life," from a small vase. With this water devotees and all living things are blessed with physical and spiritual peace. She holds a sheaf of ripe rice or a bowl of rice seed as a metaphor for fertility and sustenance. The dragon, an ancient symbol for high spirituality, wisdom, strength, and divine powers of transformation, is a common motif found in combination with the Goddess of Mercy.
Sometimes Kuan Yin is represented as a many armed figure, with each hand either containing a different cosmic symbol or expressing a specific ritual position, or mudra. This characterizes the Goddess as the source and sustenance of all things. Her cupped hands often form the Yoni Mudra, symbolizing the womb as the door for entry to this world through the universal female principle.
Quan Yin, as a true Enlightened One, or Bodhisattva, vowed to remain in the earthly realms and not enter the heavenly worlds until all other living things have completed their own enlightenment and thus become liberated from the pain-filled cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
Like Artemis, She is a virgin Goddess who protects women, offers them a religious life as an alternative to marriage, and grants children to those who desire them.
The Goddess of Mercy is unique among the heavenly hierarchy in that She is so utterly free from pride or vengefulness that She remains reluctant to punish even those to whom a severe lesson might be appropriate. Individuals who could be sentenced to dreadful penance in other systems can attain rebirth and renewal by simply calling upon Her graces with utter and absolute sincerity. Quan Yin counsels us by Her actions to cultivate within ourselves those particular refined qualities that all beings are said to naturally possess in some vestigial form.
Contemplating the Goddess of Mercy involves little dogma or ritual. The simplicity of this gentle being and Her standards tends to lead Her devotees towards becoming more compassionate and loving themselves. A deep sense of service to all fellow beings naturally follows any devotion to the Goddess.
From such an easy and comfortable way of thinking the world slowly and inevitably becomes a better place.
Foot massage
Foot massage
Foot massage
Foot massage
Hot Pot, Chinese fondue
Fujian Tea House
Fujian Tea House
Fujian Tea House
Fujian Tea House
Gulangyu Islet: Shuzhuang garden
Banyan tree
Gulangyu Islet
Gulangyu Islet
Gulangyu Islet
Gulangyu Islet
Gulangyu Islet
Gulangyu Islet: Sunlight rock
Gulangyu Islet: in front of Sunlight Rock
with Jiangning en Liying
October 25 - 27
Streets leading to The Bell Tower
Xi'an: The City Walls
Xi'an Drum Tower
Pharmacy
Muslim Quarter: Local Snacks Street
Xi'an Muslim Quarter: Mirror cake
Xi'an Muslim Quarter: Mirror cake
Barbecue
Dumplings
Dried fruit
Xi'an: Wood painting
Xi'an
Xi'an: Street stalls in the morning
Huaqing: old imperial bathhouses
with Jiangning en Liying
Xi'an
Dragon and Phoenix, or Emperor and Empress
Xi'an
Liying in Xi'an
Xi'an: Jiangning and the seal of the emperor (1)
Xi'an: Jiangning and the seal of the emperor (2)
Xi'an Terracota warriors
Xi'an Terracota warriors
Xi'an Terracota Army
Xi'an: old and new
Xi'an: The City Walls
Xi'an: The City Walls
Hutongs
Jia Brothers' restaurant. Guan tang bao zi (steamed buns served with sauces inside) three flavors -lamb, mushroom and prawns
Shuyuanmen, a cobbled street east of the South Gate
Ancient houses
With Liying
Artists' materials
Calligraphy (1)
Calligraphy (2)
Calligraphy
Calligraphy shop
Papercuts
Xi'an: Pagoda
Xi'an: The City Walls
Xi'an Drum Tower
Xi'an: De fa chang Dumpling restaurant
Dumpling Banquet. Ingredients for the dumpling fillings include various meats, vegetables, an seasonings. Cooking methods include steaming, boiling, pan-frying, deep frying, and roasting. Many flavors, including salty, sweet, hot, and sour are offfered. While guests sample various delicacis, traditionally waiters will explain the cuisine culture of each dumpling.
Xi'an: Tea preparation
Jade Shop
Pair of Lions
The Happy Buddha, also called Laughing Buddha, stands for prosperity, happiness, and longevity. People believe that rubbing his belly will bring good luck and fortune.
Tong Sheng Xiang Restaurant: Rou jia mo: Chinese 'hamburgers'; chopped pork stuffed in toasted wheat flour flat bread
Yang rou pao mo (crumbled unleavened bread soaked in mutton stew). The custom of serving is both unique and interesting. When we order the meal we are given a large bowl and a quantity of round, flat unleavened bread (nan bread). We have to break it into small pieces. After that we pass our bowl to the chef who will stir it into a pot of hot mutton soup.
yang rou pao mo. When the steaming hot meal is brought in, the waiter also offers us sweet crisp pickled garlic, coriander and hot pepper sauce. These together act to reduce the greasiness so often associated with mutton.
Modern Firework Tang Paradise
Train: Hard sleeper
Summer Palace
October 28 - 29
Longmen Caves 12 km south of Luoyang: The Yi River flows between the mountain Xiangshan (to the east) and the mountain Longmenshan (to the west). For this reason, the area used to be called Yique (The Gate of the Yi River.
Longmen Caves
Longmen Caves
Longmen Caves: Entrance with carps
Longmen Caves: West bank
Longmen Caves: Ancestor Worshipping Cave (Fengxian)
Wise men
Painter: Ying Jie
Peony painted on my entrance ticket of Longmen Caves!
Plum blossom
Orchid
Orchid
Bamboo
Chrysanthemum
Plum, Cymbidium, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum, which Chinese, particularly Chinese artists consider as the best carriers of lucky meanings, wishes or prayers! The four plants, in Chinese called "MEI, LAN, ZHU, & JU", are best known among Chinese literary and artical circles as "the Four of Noble Characters or Manners". As you may know, Plum, a dediduous tree that bears fragrant five-petal red or white flowers, often stands chilly early Springs and snow or gusty winds in north China. Whenever people refer a man to the plum, they mean the man is a man of uprightness and never bows to pressure. Cymbidium, an evergreen herb with long slender leaves and bearing light fragrant flowers, often feels proud of itself with its flower blossoming by the end of autumn when many other plants come to their end. It also reflects a tender yet strong character of a person! Bamboo, also an evergreen plant with hard hollow joints, can stand the vicicitudes of the four seasons, regardless of cold or snow while forging its way upwards! It can often be used to refer to people who are noble or highbrow-mannered and never bow or kneel down before pressure. While Chrysanthemum, also a perennial fragrant Chinese herb, has similar character to its three other friends above and blooms in autumn when other plants have already winded up their life circles.
The four plants' images are often combined together by artists to refer or compare or even pray them to or to be someone who are of noble qualities, virtues and manners. So, they are a must or a necessity in a painter, or calligrapher or other artists' studies or collections.
Chrysanthemums
Landscapes
'Waterflow' meal
Luoyang
Picture: J&J Nolens
Touching this statue will bring Good Luck!
October 29 - November 1
Li River in Guilin on a 20 yuan banknote
Li River
Local fruit aperitive
Li River
Li River
Li River
Li River
Li River
Li River
With Gregor from Scotland
Snake 'Whiskey'
West End Street in Yangshuo
Farmers house 19th century
Lotus garden
Living room with the portrait of Mao Zedong
Bamboo rafts
Our bamboo raft for 8 persons
Ice tea
Friends from Costa Rica
Like punting in Cambridge!
A local song
Fisher with cormorants
Cormorant fishing
Longsheng
The Yao hamlet of Huang Lo
Selling silver bracelets
Guilin: Rice terraces at Longji Titian with Marco and Bea
Yao community
The village of Ping An
Longji Titian: 'Dragon's Spine Terraces'
For 10 yuan these women in beautifull clothes are professional photomodels. I've taken this picture from the internet afterwards...
Zhuang people
With Bea having 'bamboo style' lunch
Bamboo rice, bamboo fried chicken and bamboo water wine
Rice harvest
Tot Ziens!
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