Throughout my travels in China, I have been fascinated with the ornaments on the tops of the roofs on the ancient Chinese buildings. Each sculpture is uniquely crafted and contains carefully detail even though it is sometimes fifty feet or higher from the ground. The number of sculptures on each building means the value and importance of the building. The more sculptures on the roof, the more important the building. From Wikipedia, “The sloping ridges of building roofs are decorated with a line of statuettes lead by a man riding a phoenix and followed by an imperial dragon. The number of statuettes represents the status of the building (a minor building might have 3 or 5. The Hall of Supreme Harmony has 10) the only building in the country to be permitted this in Imperial times. As a result, its 10th statuette, called a “Hangshi”, or “ranked tenth”, is also unique in the Forbidden City.”
Even the ends of the rows of tiles are uniquely decorated and stamped with symbols and faces.
Take a look at the gallery to see the many statues we saw on our journey.
I was asked to teach a computer lesson in Zhao Han’s classroom. I introduced the students to the website for sharing pictures with the students at Beecher.
Instead of using a large screen for demonstration, Zhao Han has setup a computer that uses the students computer screens to display his screen.
The students viewed pictures uploaded by Beecher students and they sent comments. I introduced the way to upload photos, but we were out of time, so Zhao Han will assist them with this later.
Today we will be traveling on the high speed train from Jinan back to Beijing. After arriving back in Beijing we will have an evening to explore more of Beijing.
I have never experienced anything like the way people drive in Heze. It’s not fast and crazy like in American cities. But for an American, it is very disorienting.
There are cars, trucks, bicycles, motor bikes, rickshaws, and people traveling in streets that are 8 lanes wide. Down the middle is a double yellow line, which sort of divides the direction in which traffic flows. But it appears that direction isn’t that important. This is difficult to explain, so I will give some examples.
We are traveling in one direction, but there are vehicles ( trucks, bikes, etc.) in all lanes up ahead. Just start honking and move to the left a few lanes and drive among the on-coming vehicles.
Oh, by the way. No traffic lights. No stop signs. Traffic just flows constantly in four directions at each intersection.
Perhaps we want to make a left turn but there is on coming traffic. Just start weaving among the on-coming cars until get to the other side of the street. Then turn left into the on-coming lanes and make you way among the on-coming traffic until you get into the right lanes. Of course, the horn is engaged constantly.
I will try to get some video of this. Words just don’t do it justice.
This may sound scary. At no time did I feel worried or fear for my safety. Everyone was doing it. No one seemed annoyed with it. It’s just how it works.
Mr. Wong is a very good driver! And am extremely grateful I don’t have to sit behind the steering wheel.
Well we were back to being tourists again today, it was certainly a change of pace from the last few days. Today’s schedule lead us to Qufu, home of Confucius, and it turned out to be an exciting trip! While traveling on the highway, the bus ran over something and the rear tires started making a strange noise. The driver pulled the bus over and check everything out and then got us back on the road. The noise continued for several kilometers and all of a sudden there was another loud bang. I looked out the back window and saw a small piece of metal tumble away from our bus down the highway. The driver pulled the bus over again but after a quick check it we were back driving, slowly limping our way to the next exit. Everyone on the bus knew something was wrong with the tires but no one was sure what was happening. Then as we pulled off the exit there was another loud bang and then one of the rear tires went bouncing down the road behind the bus. This time the bus was dead in its tracks. The bus driver went running back down the highway to get the tire and bring it back to the bus. There was no use in trying to limp any further down the road. Everyone got off the bus and started walking down the exit ramp. By the time we got to the end of the ramp there was another bus waiting for us to take us to Qufu.
By the time we needed to head back to Jinan, the bus was fixed and we headed home. What an exciting trip! It’s another early morning with a 7 A.M. High Speed train to Beijing.
Today we will be visiting the city of Qufu, where Confucius was born and started a school. Confucius (551-479 BCE) was a thinker, political figure, educator, and founder of a school of Chinese philosophy. He lived from 551 B.C. to 479 B.C. Confucius has many quotations attributed to him. I have listed below some of my favorite quotes.
Zaijian,
Mr. Crawford
Quotes attributed to Confucius
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
Study the past if you would define the future.
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.
This blog includes text in Chinese and in Pinyin (Chinese words written with letters of the alphabet used in English). If you see boxes or question marks instead of letters with inflections or accents, click here for an article that will help you correct the problem.
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