The great loop of China - April 2018 - Page 7

Before even getting to the yellow crane tower park for revolutionary ideas and idealogical poetry, I first passed through a different park for the erection of the tv tower in memory of the fallen martyrs. It was very nice.

Impressive statues everywhere.

Quite a few people were enjoying the morning fog.

The tv tower arises from the giant mystical cauldron used for the expunging of hermaphrodites, impure thoughts and ghosts.

The tv tower is currently sponsored by oppo, which is re-branded as OnePlus in the USA so they can all pretend its not the Chinese government.

The tv tower throws you out onto a bridge to cross the Yangtze, the fog became very apparent. Through the fog I could see that the river banks are well developed and look like a nice place to exercise on the big steering wheels, run backwards, hug a tree or go dancing.

Now I will cross the Yangtze, enjoy the view. Its very high up, a train runs underneath me, bullet trains!

The mid point. Before I got here some big ships went under, but they had vanished by now.

I made it across!

Here is a view of the bridge. I suspect you can walk over every bridge in China, if they didnt provide a walkway, people would just walk on the road.

Those towers you can almost see ahead, they were my destination today.

Time to yellow crane tower. They built it using big yellow construction cranes, thats how it got its name.

There is an admission fee, about $15 so not cheap, it was not very busy today.

Nearly as amazing as the tower were these pink plants. Everyone was posing with them. They are real and really are that pink. This old lady was a concubine to the last emperor, she hates this place because its where the revolution started. She came here today to show her disrespect.

A bit more tower, see the fog hanging around the base still? Actually its dry ice, they were also playing the theme from Titanic (popular movie) to honor actual survivor of the titanic sinking - current UK Prime Minister Theresa May who recently visited.

Some gates, pink flowers, enjoy.

Under the tower is a network of tunnels, they have doors which I assume lead into the base of the tower, but they were properly locked. I tried to break in but failed.

Back of tower with green trees. Fog was lifting by now.

Inside the tower they have made a nice picture of the tower, in case from the time it takes to step inside the tower you forgot where you were. This old couple are visiting from Qingdao to celebrate their wedding anniversary, they were inspired by Maos poems as children and always wanted to visit the place that inspired his poetry. Their favourite poem is the one about the bee that flew to the moon and turned into a radish.

Like so many temples around the world that have been destroyed many times, the inside describes all the ways it was previously destroyed and what it used to look like. At one point it fell down due to careless cleaning practices.

This isnt taken from the top, but I had to take a photo because a bullet train is coming! It goes right past the edge of the tower after crossing the Yangtze on the lower deck of the bridge I walked over. You can see the curve onto the bridge in the fog which lingers mainly over the river.

Now for some view, many of the buildings have elaborate roof gardens. They look very nice, even on some buildings that otherwise look horrible.

Here is the rest of the park, there are many other monuments and things to see, as you will soon see, you see, I see, we all see. We are nowhere near the sea.

Here is a bell you can dong. I dont think I am allowed to dong the bell.

Nice green park, very impressive.

One of the other towers is an art gallery, currently showing what appears to be comic cells. Some had pictures of superman, or people onboard a subway etc. I couldnt really read the writing, the handwritten cursive characters are too hard to read.

Mr Wang is a business man visiting Wuhan to negotiate the price of PVC from which he makes blinds specifically for covering fridges when stores close. Today he is making a side trip to yellow crane tower to send his elderly mother a photograph of a place they visited together in 1981 - when the tower was last being reconstructed. Mr Wang noted that many of the little stores in the park do not have fridge blinds.

'Barry' did not want to go to school today so he is hiding in the park, he is confident that his auntie will not find him here because she is busy watching Korean soap operas and eating pigs trotters. Although he expressed some concern that having his photo taken would provide evidence of his truancy, he admitted that a waterfall plus his amazing haircut was a combination too good to deny the world.

This is the house / mansion where Mao came for holidays every year and 'paid' poets to write poems that he could attribute to himself. There seems to be some debate if payment was cash or a license to continue living for another year.

As ever, you exit the park through a street filled with souvenirs. They are always so sad when I go into one of their stores and buy a bottle of water.

This is a former military compound that was the site of the Wuchang uprising in 1911. Despite often being attributed to Sun Yat-Sen, he was was actually in the USA at the time on holiday! You can fact check that, I was amazed.

There are many statues celebrating the fall of the last emperor - Puyi. His wikipedia article makes for interesting reading, a tale of eunuchs, a sadistic 7 year old, and his only friend his wet nurse. Was that all in the movie?

This is the 1911 revolution museum. It was closed today. Possibly because it was open for the holiday yesterday. I probably would not have gone in anyway, very impressive looking building.

Last photo, a crappy looking part of Wuhan, another exciting trip to find the subway station through construction sites. Now I will do my washing!

Instead of walking along a main road with its nice apartments, I went 2 streets back into the everything happens directly on the street zone.

It wasnt too dirty, the actual road surface and footpaths look like they had been re done recently. The back of everyones apartment is an enclosed tin cage.

The local mall for the less well off is an absolutely enormous structure with boxes and carts everywhere inside, rubbish in piles, rows and rows of tiny shops, fire exits with bars over the doors! I left quickly.

Cheap high rise apartments. This is what my Melbourne apartment will become very soon. I keep reading stories in the news that its going to happen any day now. Any day now all of Melbourne will be the worlds biggest slum. Any day now. Probably next Tuesday. There is no doubt. Any. Day. Now.

Bundles of mystery wires is as good a place as any to dry your clothes on.

Here is the local recycling centre. I quickly drew them up a new waste movement plan to maximise their tricycle throughput.

Restaurant street! Whos hungry?

I diverted from restaurant street to mall world and found omurice. You STILL cannot get omurice in Australia. This is the real mystery, forget about that missing Malaysian airlines jet, how come I can get every type of food in Melbourne including Chongqing noodles, but not one of the most favourite of all Japanese fast food options, omurice? I demand answers.

I also ordered pickled cucumber with chilli, and then blended the two for Japan / Sichuan fusion. Very delicious! My curry sauce was mushroom, but I noticed it had what looked like bacon, could be horse I suppose, but the menu didnt show the meat symbol! Vegetarians would struggle in China.

Who photographs the photographers #2. Another city, another photography school in progress. They were very interested in me photographing them once they realised thats what I was doing.

Here is what they were photographing. I presume they all had zoom. I do not.

Wuhan also has a lot of dancing, I didnt notice it the other nights, perhaps because it was a holiday the dancing teacher refuses to dance?

My journey to the subway took me past a walmart. In China the battle for supermarket supremacy is between French Carrefour and American Walmart. I think Carrefour is winning. Trump has sent over a trade delegation to demand China ban Carrefour.

Here is the Hankou Wuhan high speed station. A nice station from the outside.

The inside is an older style, but still large, larger than it looks here, some good stores for a snack and a sit down. I somehow again had a very good mcdonalds coffee in China in a spotless huge store with plush seating.

Now its time for some view from a moving train, random village with nice forest area surrounding it. Most of China is forest!

A nice lake with some hills. I suspect its a reservoir because of the treatment of the banks.

And here is the reservoir / hydro electric dam.

You see a lot of really nice looking highways from the train window, all elevated like this one. The trains are all elevated as well, which makes for a great view.

We went through a number of large cities, well, we more accurately visited the edges, this is the edge of Hefei, a very large city. We also went past Nanjing where I have also been before. You can see a lot of solar cells on everything, I also saw solar farms out in the countryside.

My hotel room is very large and has a strange separate office area with a divider you can run laps around. I have been running laps.

My room also has a really great view, and its still so clear and blue. I bet it wont be tomorrow when I want a clear view for lake photos!

Bonus photo of the bathroom. I did not take many photos today so as a special treat, a bathroom photo. It has a full huge bath and a huge shower. I took this by photographing the mirror.

With such a clear day I thought I better run down to the West Lake to capture the suset. It was worth the effort even though I plan to go there again tomorrow.

I have climbed up that hill before, on a very grey day.

It looks very far, its really not that far.

There are lots and lots of similar boats that fill the lake on the weekends.

Dont be alarmed, its just me photographing the photographers again. They were very very happy with the day they had picked.

I ran all the way up a different hill to a place I had not been to before, the temple of god. You have to pay about $5 to get in to see the view, worth it I think.

Unlike much of China, all these hills are filled with walking trails, some are actual trails too, not just gift shop lined concrete paths.

If you squint you can see another pagoda on a hill.

Hangzhou is another city of about 10 million, growing fast and has a reputation as a rich persons city. Alibaba and a few other tech companies are based here.

The new city with the newer sky scrapers is not in view, even without them it is still a nice looking city.

Decent photo me thinks.

I descended one level where the roof wasnt getting in the way, a bit late for the sun but it did allow me to do a couple of longer exposures resting my camera on the railing.

Lake and lit up pagoda.

Because of all the fantastic trees it is almost impossible to get a photo of the temple of heaven, this is the best I could do. Wedding photography going on in front of it of course.

Now it was time to descend the hill into the huge area of pedestrian shopping streets. This has been gentrified a lot since I was last here, and grown. Gentrification has some benefits - I distinctly remember charging around urgently looking for a place to urinate last time I was here, this time, toilets everywhere.

Even the things on sticks stores looks very neat and tidy.

Through this rainbow archway, a traditional Chinese restaurant. Strange.

There really are a lot of streets and alleyways all done up like this. In todays world of walking along reading your phone, I wonder how many people have fallen into the water?

As the official area ends and the scooters return, an unofficial extension has evolved with shops on wheels blocking entire streets.

I found a popular place for dinner, sat at a bar, decided to not have beef noddle soup. This was labeled as exotic sirloin with pickled vegetables on rice. The description was apt. I added a lot of chilli. Photo not focused properly unfortunately.

How is the electricity bill? Imagine living over the road from this, its blinding brilliant white, then red, then it goes black, then it strobes.

I thought I was going to head straight back to my hotel, but a convenient overpass gave me an opportunity to spot some more shiny lights. None of this was here last time I was here, it was just a huge hole up the middle of Hangzhou.

This took me into a huge modern mall called the Kerry Centre.

Basement 2 of the Kerry centre had an Ole! improted goods supermarket. Time to indulge in some more expensive fruit salad.

Scene #1 - The many layers of impressive varnish. Here we can see the power of modern chemistry at work, keeping this woodwork safe from the punishing filtered rays of polluted sunlight.

All the surrounding areas are impeccably manicured grass and flower beds, do not stand on the grass, I will show you why soon.

This is about the same spot I took a photo from last night. Sky is more polluted today, but still not bad. It was also very hot.

Scene #2 - The birthplace of modern bird flu. It is here that we can trace the roots of the 2021 bird flu plague, when overly tamed pigeons were ingested by a hungry baby.

There are many different kinds of boats you can hire or pay a guy to row you about on. The boats were fine, I was annoyed with the thousands of electric mini buses ferrying the lazy. I was walking alongside them telling the people onboard they were extremely lazy and should be embarrassed.

Scene #3 - Ideal location to silence the misbehaving child permanently. It is here where you have a very good possibility of having people believe that the drowning was an accident.

The city.

Scene #4 - Amazing world of floating concrete. Chinese concrete is best concrete, the rise of A.I. and ongoing efforts of revolutionary scientists has lead to the creation of floating concrete, seen here in public for the first time.

Here is a bridge over a bit of the lake thats running off the main lake.

Here it is again with a golden bull half submerged. I took a similar photo last time under very grey skies.

Patrimoine Mondial.

Scene #5 - The amazing floating world of rubbish and soft drinks. Without the efforts of the ancient ferrymen, diligently working to move liquid commodities and return their waste products from all parts of the lake, the lake would have been filled in completely by plastic by the end of the third epoch.

Law & Order: Tourism Police. Theres a special police force for everything. There job, to scream at people who dare to walk on the grass. Really, that seemed to be their main job!

The gardens go off of the lake for miles in many directions. There are a few parts you cant get to which seem to 'belong' to hotels, I am not sure they really do, but they have employed a guy in a fake cop suit to tell you that you are not allowed to walk up the road.

I found the boat repair shop. Yes, I wandered off the established path, mainly to escape the electric mini bus catastrophe.

Scene #6 - The tensile strength of synthetic rope. This boat is demonstrating just how far rope technology has come since 1200. At over 4 million Chinese tonnes of submerged displacement, this boat is held in place by just one blue plastic rope. Amazing.

One of the main stops for most people is this pagoda. Many mini buses go here. I walked here obviously since I walked the whole way, but I did not pay to climb the pagoda.

Scene #7 - The dichotomy of grass and tree. Due to the ongoing efforts of the brave tourism police, we are treated to the ridiculousness of the perfect grass.

Have a bit more pagoda.

Scene #8 - Regrets, I have none. Here we have the last opportunity to push her should you only now realise that the level of annoyingness being exhibited by your future wife right now is what you are about to sign up to forever.

Red vs White, hmm, I choose red. There were at least 10 brides to be fighting for the good spots around here.

In the grounds of the pagoda park, there is a food court, with a dicos and a mcdonalds, this is the view from the outdoor seating at mcdonalds.

I am on the far side of the lake by now, about to avoid the causeway and carry on ever further away from the city.

This is the main causeway. I waited for 28 minutes to get a photo without an electric mini bus spoiling the view.

Scene #9 - The effectiveness of the turtle net. Here we can see a wonderful new style of turtle net made from carbon nano tubes. Under the water it is completely invisible, this has increased the yield of turtle meat by 11,000kg per week in the west lake catchment area.

The far side of the lake has many many gardens to wander, and not many people. There was a school sports day happening on a big grassed area, I presume they bribed the tourist police to be allowed on the grass.

I managed to get all 3 in one shot, pagoda, goldfish, waterlilies. The fish are an excellent accompaniment to turtle. Here in China the turtle shell is used as food, when you buy herbal jelly, those cubes of sweet stuff they put in bubble tea, thats turtle shell!

Beyond the western edge of the west lake there is still more lake to be seen.

I was now back to where the causeway joined back onto the non causeway. In the last week of my life I have had cause to say the word causeway more times than the rest of my life up until that point.

The view was still great, so many hills to explore if you had time and didnt have an annoying cough.

Scene #10 - The neoness of being. Here we have an amazing neon cornucopia of flowers and sprayed on greenery to form a nondescript shape of awesomeness representing the future hopes and dreams of everyone.

This is actually the grounds and ruins of a Qing dynasty palace. There ruins are covered by large perspex view boxes. The trees were nice.

Another view of Hangzhou as I head back into town.

This is the shorter of the two causeways, I did walk along this one, otherwise you walk along a busy road with noisy traffic. You can see the minibuses approaching. If I were to do a scene #11 it would be about the amazing speed attained by small silent electric buses.

My current hotel does not include breakfast. Therefore a healthy lunch is required to fight off scurvy. Hangzhou delivered in spades. This was very delicious.

And for my last photo, KFC advertising. Here in China using KKK to advertise KFC is no problem.

Yes, this was definitely a huge hole last time I was here.

That building and its huge underground mall, you guessed it, it was previously a hole.

Evidence a hole was here, you can descend into the now fully mall lined hole, and go further down under the grand canal to the subway station.

Photographing the photographers, Hangzhou version.

OK, that was here last time, but the hole went all the way to its door.

This is the grand canal, dug by humans! All the way to Beijing. I strapped on my flippers and dived in, I will be at the forbidden city by morning.

A bit more grand canal, and a lot of new buildings.

All of that is the grand canal, very grand.

I even managed to find a boring dinner, global ramen chain Ippudo. I have been to their stores in Sydney many times, and this time last year I went to their outlet in Taipei. While I have been in China on this trip their first Melbourne branch opened, I will go there soon.
I ordered something bright red, the guy taking my order argued about that, I asked him to speak slower, he said 'thank you sir', and then I did not get my bright red ramen, I got the normal one instead. I should carry a card with me, clear Chinese characters, 'Please give me the spiciest version of whatever you have, I will pay in advance'.
What I want to know is, how many westerners all over the world are ordering food and then refusing to pay for it because it was too spicy? Those people need to stay home and eat something out of their freezer.