I love a good night photo, and this one by Trent Strohm (aka Strudel Monkey) fits the bill. It’s colourful, it’s clear, it’s well-composed, and most importantly, it fills me with the insatiable urge to go to China right-freaking-now. Taken recently, the photo is of the Huilan Pavilion in Qingdao, China. It was built in 1891 and might look oddly familiar for a very good reason: It’s on the label of all Tsingtao beer bottles.
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Here is another one to add to the list of China’s Best, Longest, Tallest and Who-Knows-What-Else.
This afternoon, the 20-mile Bay Bridge started trial operation as a motorcade of 180 sedans and 22 buses drove across the world’s longest sea bridge, Shanghai Daily reports. The bridge begins at Jiaxing, near Shanghai, and ends at Cixi, about 40 miles from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. It will reduce the 250-mile drive between Ningbo and Shanghai by 80 miles and shave about one hour off the trip. Time is money, even in China.
With a design life of 100 years, the 11.8-billion-yuan (US$1.69 billion) bridge has six lanes with a designed speed of up to 60 miles per hour. The bridge is expected to help boost economic development in the Yangtze Delta Region.
I want know is how the heck they managed to shoot the area with blue skies? The colors of the sky I remember from Shanghai were the same color as the river.
What happens when you mix a rapidly growing manufacturing economy, unbridled entrepreneurial enthusiasm and uneducated workers? Sweet mistakes like what happened this week in China.
Police in Guangdong, China just raided a factory that was apparently manufacturing “Free Tibet” flags, the same ones that protesters have been flying across the world, at Olympic events and in the face of frustrated Chinese bureaucrats.
Apparently the workers initially didn’t know what kind of flags they were making, they just thought that they were making colorful, fun flags for export. After finally getting suspicious, they found out what the Snow Lion flag meant and notified authorities.
Who has the gall to try to manufacture something like that in a communist country? The workers can plead ignorance all they want, but someone had to authorize the order.
Awwwwwkward.
This shot reminded me of walking through the streets of China and having people staring at me and yelling ‘laowei’ (foreigner). I didn’t mind it. It was funny. I like villages, where the old folks still hang out outside–be it in China, Greece or Eastern Europe–and carefully examine everyone who is “not one of them.”
It seems that StrudelMonkey had a similar experience when he taking this shot in Suzhou-Dongshan, China earlier this month. I love it!
***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr Pool and post it. Make sure it is not copyrighted, otherwise we can’t post it here.***From San Francisco to London and Paris to India, protestors are taking to the streets to demonstrate against China’s hosting of the Olympic Games. Angered by the Chinese government’s refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama, as well as the continued suppression of human rights in potential breakaway regions, the world is seeking to punish China on the eve of its long-anticipated coming out party.
For travelers on the ground in China, independent tourism has never been more difficult, especially since parts of the country have now been entirely closed off to the outside world. Following wave of violence that commenced on March 14th, the Chinese government has entirely barred tourists from entering Tibet. As a so-called ‘autonomous region,’ non-Chinese nationals must obtain special entry permits for Tibet.
Sadly, it’s looking like the ‘Roof of the World’ may remain in relative isolation until the Olympic Games have passed, which is a huge blow at a time when tourism in the region was beginning to flourishing. Here in Japan, this was highlighted recently in the news when Mr. Yuichiro Miura, the 75 year-old thrill seeker who once skied down Everest using a parachute as a brake, announced that he was changing his Everest climbing route.
At the young and spry age of 75, Mr. Miura (alongside his son) was planning on climbing Everest from the Chinese side in a bid to regain his title as the oldest man to climb Everest. However, despite all of the preparations that he has made, his climbing permits were canceled following the unrest in Tibet.
Mr Miura first held the record as the oldest person to climb Everest when he reached the top in 2003 at the age of 70. Although his record was broken just three years later, he is determined to regain it despite having to change his proposed route at the final hour. According to Mr. Miura, who is presently in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu, “We are here to climb and so we will.”
Of course, would-climbers on Everest are also saddened by the current political climate in Nepal, which is threatening to topple the nation’s troubled monarchy. And, China is also exerting pressure to not allow climbers to scale Everest until after the Olympic torch has been carried up and down the summit. Needless to say, a protest at the summit of Everest would not be a great PR moment for the Chinese government!
Despite all of these hurdles however, Mr. Miura is confident that he will shatter the Everest climbing record by the end of May. Mr. Miura is best known for having skied down Everest in 1970, using a parachute as a brake, footage of which later appeared in an Oscar-winning documentary. However, his latest bid for worldwide fame is perhaps even more challenging, given that Mr. Miura is a septuagenarian.
Then again, in a country where living beyond the age of 100 is a pretty common feat, perhaps Mr. Miura shouldn’t be too upset if his travel plans are canceled this year…
** Mr. Miura’s photo was taken by the Agence French-Press (AFP). Other images were courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project. **