http://www.perjovschi.ro/
http://para-site.org.hk/exhibitions/dan-perjovschi
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Shanghai Hi!
The first cappuccino I have had in a Shanghai branch of Starbucks (yes, this was necessary!) seemed to be much lighter than usually. A closer look under the lid revealed that all of the milk in the worldwide standardised "Grande"-size cup, not just the very top part, was foamed. It probably reduced the weight of the cappuccino by a third. Degustations of the same coffee beverage brewed in three other of the (whopping) 131 branches (Source: http://www.starbucks.com.cn/) in Shanghai confirmed: This is just the way it is made here. Alternatively, you may want to try the local specialty Green Tea Frappuccino or one of two sets of moon cakes for the mid-autumn festival. - By the way: Starbucks celebrates is 40th anniversary this year.
The 30 km journey from Pudong International Airport to Longyang Road metro station took us 7 minutes with the magnetic levitation (Maglev) transport system. Between 15:00 and 16:00, the time we travelled, the train has a peak speed of 431 km/h. (What is the average?) Most of the other 115 daily trains operate at a lower maximum speed as we learnt from the display at the ticket office. Noteworthy also - rather the latter part -, "[...] the Shanghai maglev is extremely fast and comes with on time - to the second - reliability of greater than 99.97%." (Source: Wikipedia)
Probably (based on personal empiric over a week this August) the Shanghai Metro's reliability for on-time arrivals is lower. Nevertheless the TV screens in the metro stations display the arrival time for the next 3 trains to the second. If you need any help taking the metro please follow the 8-step instructions from the official metro website: "1. get into the station, 2. buy the tickets, 3. move to the platform through turnstile with ticket, 4. wait for the train, 5. get on the train, 6. get off the train, 7. move out of the platform through turnstile with ticket and 8. get out of the station". (Source: http://www.shmetro.com)
"The China pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China, colloquially known as the Oriental Crown (东方之冠), was the largest national pavilion at the Shanghai Expo and the largest display in the history of the World Expo. It was also the most expensive pavilion at the Shanghai Expo costing an estimated US$220 million." (Source: Again Wikipedia) "A total of 6 million people (7% foreigners) visited the China Pavilion during its 6-month-long reopening period, according to municipal authorities in Shanghai. [...] The average number of daily visitors was around 30,000 during the reopening period, the officials said. However, this number surged to 50,000 during holidays such as Spring Festival, according to the officials." (Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com) - That sounds more like the number of people trying to enter on the Sunday when we went too. The "cattle" queuing system before the entrance had surely been designed to keep visitors in line.
The Shanghai World Financial Center, a mixed use skyscraper in Pudong with 101 floors, was the second tallest building in the world (based on architectural detail; 492 metre) and the tallest in China (including Hong Kong) when it was built. In 2008, it also had the highest occupied floor and the highest height to roof, two categories used to determine the title of "The World’s Tallest Building". Today the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828m) and the Taipei 101 (509m) have exceeded the SWFC. (Source: Wikipedia) The Shanghai Tower, currently being under construction and expected to be completed in 2014, will reclaim the second rank with its 632 metres to the top of the antenna spire. - More on the tallest buildings and structures in the world and their history here:
Finally, according to the Economist's China Special Report, by the end of this decade the GDP per person in Shanghai, China's richest city, could be almost the same as the average for America in 2009. (Source: Economist) Full article "Beware the middle-income trap" is online at: http://www.economist.com/node/18832106.
Go, Paris of the East, go...
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Shanxi Cave Dwellings
In Shanxi province people have been living in caves for 5,000 years. It is believed, so the Lonely Planet China, that once a quarter of the population lived underground. Today, Shanxi's countryside is still full of cave dwellings. Although these days most of them are abandoned, incredibly, 3 millions still live in caves. They are cheap and easy to make, better insulated, are nowadays connected to the national grid and even have internet connection. However, there is no running water or sewerage.
We went to the remote 550 year old village Lijiashan, where most of the people are named Li, to see ourselves. The village is on a hillside next to the Yellow River. To get there from Pingyao you have take a bus to Lishi bus station (117km, 2.5 hours by bus) and from there to Qikou. (The latter is about 47km apart or 3 hours by bus to go there and, curiously, 1 hour to go back the same way.)
From Qikou you have to cross the river, walk alongside for about half an hour and turn left at the blue sign 李家山 (If you are going there, note that it is the second sign written only in Chinese characters.). From there it is another 20 minutes uphill. There are hundreds of cave dwellings scaling nine storeys high. Indeed most of them are abandoned as is the school now. It is reported in the same above mentioned travel guide that the local school used to have four pupils.
It is lovely to wander around the terraced village, watch the remaining villagers and have a peak into the abandoned caves. We also met Sean there, an Australian who has been teaching English in Shanghai for the last year and was so happy to meet two other tourists in the village. :-)
The photos from Lijianshan with the caves, the school and our cave "hotel" room with the Li family can be found in the "Shanxi" set on Flickr. The first image is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xhardy/6028014311/in/set-72157627410141816.
And, before closing, thanks Google for providing Google Translate. This helped to explain our host that we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch the 6 o'clock bus from Qikou and that we will not have breakfast. Well, finally we agreed that it was not the best idea but Mr. Li would arrange a taxi to collect us at quarter to six. So, in the end there was a back road to the "remote" village and we were glad that we did not have to hike through pitch dark mountain trails the next morning.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)