Why Chinese lanterns

But why the Lantern Festival?

From my research, it would be a custom imposed by an emperor of the Han dynasty (around -200 BC) who, having learned that Buddhist monks traditionally lit lamps to welcome the 15th geniuses first day of each lunar month, ordered to light lanterns on the same day in the imperial palace and the temple as a sign of respect to the spirits.
That’s the story.
What about today?

A Chinese friend told me that I should not miss this evening in the streets of Shanghai because I can see the kids hang lanterns behind wheelchairs.

We therefore mounted a fine equipped and wanting to avoid the crowd announced in Yu Garden in the Old Town which was specially decorated for the event, we thought of going to the Bund on the banks where the large pier not fail to see swarming the famous lanterns rolling missed …

By cons, we were treated to a magnificent fireworks display from boats floating on the Huangpu, and we are well satisfied.

 

We will not even see the famous vendor “tangyuan”, these balls of glutinous rice with our classmates North Koreans we were praised in the morning.

Well we will do better next year

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

Lantern’s experiences

The last day of the fortnight of the Spring Festival, China shines for the Lantern Festival.
And on February 23 was the Lantern Festival.
But already a few days before that, the old city of Shanghai had been covered a thousand lamps, and from the dusk, tables lights could surprise you at the corners of its pedestrian streets.

A dream come true …

Except for light installations: a 3D animated projection of a great man who bellowed something incomprehensible loop …

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

Shanghai lost me again

Still lost.
The next step is our door that has suffered the most. Indeed, we have to deplore the wild aggresion our door to hand Chinese morning who insisted that we wake up and we ended up opening the sake of preserving our door …

8:00 so we finally opened, and why all fuss? Come to paste stickers on our gas appliances, apparently we do not serve us, but until when??

8:45 and breakfast to grumble after the Chinese later second answer. It sounds to our doorstep again … she took the poor dear today. An employee of the gas company comes to traffic our water heater.

9:00 am, the employee is still busy in the kitchen, this time it’s the phone ringing, well, we had not yet heard this morning! Ok
It is our owner who wants to know what is happening, and who wants to come to see for himself … Or more the merrier merrier!

So 9:20, the door is still put to good use, owner’s arrival, towards the kitchen manager for employee gas always very busy.
9:30 am arrival of another crazy for even more fun, youhou … Another employee of the gas company … but it is not the same company, so you are entitled to another employee, what we and our door -what has the chance …

And thus we come to collect pajamas at home, in her kitchen, 3 who speak Chinese gas Sunday at 9:30 …

And then … I will not talk about my upstairs neighbors who are from 10am train or break a wall or penetrate the floor, because then I’ll cry.

When we think in our small towns of France, we are not allowed to mow the lawn on Sunday, but the sound of a lawnmower in the countryside, it is soft compared to what we had this morning … at case, our door, we would have preferred

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

Sunday in china

Sunday morning is sacred … usually on Sunday morning was not over, usually on Sunday morning recovering a Saturday night that lasted late into the night, so usually on Sunday morning … sLEEPING ON!

Well … obviously not in China or at least not today, you will understand why …

It is quite common (I would say on a Sunday 2, 3 in the best case …) that takes place on Sunday morning surprise at the stroke of 10 am: gas meter, water, electricity whatnot … to meet, and of course Sunday morning. Of course we appreciate general way, but we ended up doing especially as we now say … still reasonable …

But today, we broke all records!
Beginning of hostilities around 7:30, buried under the duvet I distinguish echo a megaphone that was circulating in the corridors of the residence, what takes them again this morning?

The answer was soon to become known …
7:45, they ring at our door, the now usual Tidu .. .. Tidu Tidu … the electric bell as standard in all apartments of the residence. Except that Marieke and I like the other one we stayed at the bottom of each our bed, counters, they repasseront later …
We thought … after 5 minutes of ringing ups, rest 30 seconds, and this time they picked up again by acharnant on the intercom at the entrance of the building … it does not move … it is dead they will eventually go!

 

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

Back to shanghai

Meanwhile, these days, I am what you might call a SBF, No Fixed Babasse, then instead of loading all the beautiful pictures I have taken recently (oupa), I put in value …

At the moment, I’m down … my computer is paaaaaaannne; (
So I brought for repair to computer (it will surely be an article) and in the meantime I’m No Fixed Babasse, which is a real draaaaaaaaaaame, those who know me understand

In fact, I’m not quite Babasse Without Fixed, because right now, I squat, not one of the five local cafes, but my computer super co (-loc-llègue Chinese , pine-what), I appointed Marieke, as-in-China, whom I thank from my heart, because it must be said, I owe him my life right now
Poutoux full of stars and Mali for you!

That is to say, with the many developments initiated by Over-Blog recently, I took the time today to shine a little my gallery that no longer resembled anything.

Then you can take the time to admire it by clicking on one of the iridescence of Reflections of China (see left menu), either:

Life in Minhang
Travel in China
Cards in bulk
Shanghai F1 Grand Prix
Shanghai, day and night
Student at SJTU
Beijing, February 2005
China holidays
To discover and rediscover, pending any new articles that will appear again at their usual pace once I found my home, uh, my computer;)

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

The famous Chinese Giant PAnda

And we had good reason. For the other side of the room, there was a site where we could see other pandas, but outside this time. And we may say, without the glass and artificial heat, it’s still much better to enjoy the comings and goings of these huge hairball black and white, they are all touching, it would take in his arms the big teddy bear with black eyes that can not distinguish between the tufts …

Except that Teddy, there’s just bears. And yes, the giant panda is a species of the same family as the bear, which probably explain that those responsible for feeding the corny prefers to stay behind a grid rather than a big hug
But hey, you never get tired of watching … by far … It’s still cute …
(End of message character core, it is not-that-kids still wonder … But is it not the first step towards compliance? Latter I stitched Nicolas)
After Pandas course we continued to visit the zoo. Birds, monkeys, reptiles, and elephants, oh elephants. For them to new obligatory passage through the halls thermostat fragrant … Beyond just knowing these animals confined indoors, which may be understandable in the winter, we were disgusted (yes I think it ‘ is the word) to see simply parked, unable to move in their box protected by these plexi glass.
And then you realize, but in fact, in France zoos are they open to the public in the winter? I prefer to continue to think not, and maybe I’ve just why …

Besides the general view that the Beijing Zoo has left us will hardly folichon. Facilities have seemed a bit dilapidated, or at least in need of renovation. The Chinese, however, the air rushing in number to visit, now 15 yuan entry … I confess to not knowing how zoos are managed, perhaps we can not afford to close doors in full New Year holidays? Interesting question indeed …

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

CHINESE ZOO day

we decided to go for a ride to Beijing Zoo, the main goal: to see with our own eyes the famous giant panda …

After our memorable journey in search of the Summer Palace, there was at least one thing for sure we knew how to get to Beijing Zoo

It was fortunate, precisely because we wanted to pay a visit to the famous Giant Panda yet discreet.

The Giant Panda, is it still necessary to point out, is a species endangered, we should even say endangered advanced. Everyone, I think, has led the organization’s logo WWF …

However, China is perhaps one of the regions of the world where it is still possible to see, certainly not in its natural state, but we will confine this time
Just hope that other generations after us can still admire (end of informational message).
We thus arrive at the zoo, 15 yuan entry includes access to the site of pandas. Note that many tourist sites work this way: a right of entry to general site, and an additional fee for each activity / particular site within … which often leads to dilemmas like I’m going, I do not go often … 10 yuan = 1 euro …
In any case this time, no hesitation, yes we want to see the pandas. That will be the first thing we’ll see.
First we met our first giant panda indoors in one of these rooms recreating the conditions of life of the animals they house, the kind of rooms that make you sick at heart for their guests …
The first panda stung just a nap, but the second was awake and busy around what was to be his lunch (bamboo shoot?). It continues to move in the room, where pandas are broken commercial form … It tells you a cap or a piece panda panda remember? We prefer to go out …

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

Very nice moments in china

We wait without really understanding the how of why, when a second car, more comfortable arrives. We shall then down and up again because in this chic! other ‘Western’, y ‘will therefore surely guide in English!
Well no! The guide does speak in Chinese. After a long bus ride, we finally arrived at the site of Badaling (35 yuan per person), then we are left 1:10 to stretch our legs, that’s what we expected!

Already level weather, we are not spoiled, a haze is already emerging, such photos postcard, it will not this time

But hey, as the saying goes, “He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a good”, then it is left for the climb! Oh yes I forgot to mentioned, we not only have no guide in English, but no cable either, it will be just the opportunity to show our bravery
And we were very brave!
To take a few pictures of the Great Wall, it took us to climb hundreds of steps and go through 4 or 5 thousands of watchtowers dotted along the wall, through which, by a system of signal lights, information could move very quickly from the time of the barbarian invasions.

In fact, about 8 meters high and 6 meters wide, the Great Wall was playing more of a deterrent, never able to prevent invasion. A little power our Maginot Line 10 … what

It is also said that the Great Wall is the only human work visible from the moon.

And my cheeks reddened by climbing, we see from the moon?

In short, the effort was in line with our expectations, and even though the sun was not part of the game was worth it, to convince you, find the pictures I could not fit into the album Views of Beijing, you also may have to gasp!

In fact if I had time, I would have gone further to stroll on uneven steps of the Great Wall, but we had to leave quickly because the bus was waiting for us to continue the journey.

Next step: lunch in what is perhaps the single restoration site nearby. Good noodle soup will do the trick for us and give us calibrate our emotions morning.

Because the day is not over. Now we are heading towards the Ming Tombs.
The Ming Tombs

With Sandrine we expected a lot from this visit as well, but we were disappointed.

In fact, the Ming Tombs is a collection of sites, and the fact is that our program sites or are they equally unattractive, the site we visited has certainly revealed the imposing statue a Ming emperor, but in fact the tomb one sees nothing special in any case it was felt on our site Changling.

Worse, we then stopped at another site, and it leads directly into a sort of small museum where you begin to describe the entire tomb around an attractive model, before you go around a jade sculpture gallery which ends with a workshop (still good that’s interesting). But of course, the Chinese not crazy, just after we urge you to spend your money to buy jade, stone very expensive because very hard work by the way …

So we will not see “the way of the spirits” lined with symbolic animals evocative. This may be for another time, because it is already time to go, and we must admit that once again a good night’s sleep will be welcome after a meal because of course, what better after Climbing the Great Wall of China as the sole true taste sublime Peking Duck in Beijing? To discover very soon in the section dedicated to our culinary experience

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/

The great wall

certainly between cousins ​​… but in a magical place.

Who can boast spend his Valentine’s Day on the Great Wall of China?!

The Great Wall of China, it is a must for anyone who has to do a bit of sightseeing in Beijing. This is known as the “dragon lily ten thousand” is actually a set of “Big Walls” parallel fortifications built in different places over the centuries, extending over 6700 km on the mountains of west is (longer than the radius of the Earth, or 1/20 of its circumference!)
So, when you are in Beijing, several sites of the Great Wall can be visited.

The best known is the site of Badaling. 70 km northwest of the capital, is the site that provides the best restored probably the most beautiful scenery, and it is also the most visited site …

You also speak of Mutianyu and Simatai sites (respectively 90 km and 110 km from Beijing, northeast) that they offer the advantage of being less touristy.

Before arriving in Beijing, I knew about these last 2 sites and would rather have looked for them, not appreciating the little hordes of tourists when it comes to admire the beautiful landscapes we are promised .
That said, given the distances, we wanted to do the best by booking an organized tour through our hotel. And then the reservation service (a young Chinese in all and for all …) we say that these two sites are quite dangerous in winter, and Badaling is more appropriate. Is not as Trappists specially equipped, Sandrine and I opted for the site of Badaling.
Program … badly programmed

So the program, visit the Badaling site with access to cable and English guide, lunch and visit the tomb of the Ming in the afternoon that promised well, especially as we chose our day having thrown a look at the weather should be fine.

Except of course things do not go as planned.

In the series of our galleys, just the day we had to get up a little earlier, well, I do not run with my phone / alarm clock. So wake up and preparation in fourth gear … for nothing because at the end we had to wait almost two hours at the entrance of the hotel: we were the only 2 of the hotel you have booked the trip, and Chinese girl reservation service … we had forgotten.

So we expected, not forgetting to express our discontent … When she arrived, she began to pay us our 360 yuan, then took us to a bus on the other side of the street where we had to pay for the same trick as the one we had booked. (50 yuan per person for transport)

https://iworkinchina.wordpress.com/