MODERN CHINA-2006

With my first digital camera, I visited China in 2006 , when China was in the middle of changing from a Socialist/market economy to a capitalistic economy. As a child, I watched a neighbor dig a deep hole in his lawn. Every few minutes, he’d say, “Look at this?  He’d hand me a penny he’d supposedly found, and tell me “We must be getting close to China.”  He regaled me with fantastic stories about dragons and castles and magic, all happening on the other side of the earth.  Simple things that fostered a dream.

We whizzed through Beijing with 300,000 vehicles in a city of 13 million people. Fifteen percent of families now own cars that intersperse with weird motor driven carts piled high with goods,  and 8 million bikes, motor cycles carrying whole families  and buses and pedestrians all mingling  in a way that you are sure someone is going to get killed at any minute.  I saw a man carrying a baby high above his head as he squeezed between two moving buses. You just have to turn your head away. We stop at Tiananman Square, so huge it defies the camera’s ability to capture it. A flag pole so tall the flag can be seen all over the city.

Just like us, Chinese tourists, something new for China, have their picture taken at their seat of government,  much like us having our picture taken outside of the White House. Sixty per cent of the citizens of Beijing work for the government just like the greatest percent of people in D.C. are under some kind of government employ.

The grounds around the building are beautiful where once there was a forbidding wall around the buildings and the whole city. Chairman Mau tore down the old city walls and built what they call ring roads to replace the  feudal walls of China’s  cities.

This is “modern” China. We were very quickly dispelled of the notion that we would see Chinese men and women in black sack pants and shirts wearing straw hats. This is the infamous square that led to student deaths in 1989, forever giving China a black eye over their aggressive policies. We are mobbed by vendors selling post cards. Capitalism is grasped very quickly.

We move on to the Forbidden City which was built, or finished anyway, in 1420. Eleven Emperors  have lived  in this multiple complex of 980 buildings between 1419 to 1911. It has 9,999 half rooms in the palace. Nine is the supreme number. Nine gates, each gate measures nine x nine. Our guide tells us that the Last Emperor,  the movie, is very accurate about what happened to their last Emperor.

This is one of 18 water pots around the square, (a multiple of nine). They represent the 18 provinces. All must be in harmony.

Soldiers still guard the palace and live here. Notice their boots and shoes  lined up next to their “barracks”. The living quarters of the Emperor  is approached by a series of stairs and nine gates to pass through.  Each gate is a palace with marvelous gold, jade carvings, incredibly fancy decoration as part of the building, with real gold leaf.   The rooms that store antiquities are  not lighted, tall columnar rooms, no windows. Pictures don’t reflect  the glorious treasures inside.

It seems as though every inch of the building is exquisitely decorated like this mantel above a doorway. The complex is a UNESCO site.

My traveling companion, Michal Houston and I posed before this Chinese guard lion. His left foot is crushing some small creature, I think.

His right foot is balanced on this ball. I’ve forgotten the significance of this stance, and its meaning, but it is the same wherever these lions are seen. And, the dog-like face of Chinese lions was rendered by artists who had never seen a lion. They only had a description of lions from explorers/travelers  who passed through China.  I always wondered about that. Now I know and so do you.

The roof of the palaces are  protected, as you can see. It seems a bit strange to us that the superstitions of old are still, if not believed, at least respected and revered. Visiting China  helps to understand many mysteries about the Chinese people’s beliefs that hang on.

This little boy knows nothing of the Ming Dynasty, 1420 to 1644 or the Ching Dynasty, 1644 to 1911, or the turbulent  history of  the gate he is crawling through. Notice you step over the deep thresh hold as you move from one gate , then palace,  to the next.

And I got to see many dragons. This gives you an idea of the size and scope of these carved wall panels, nine of them in all.

Aren’t they gorgeous?  They are depicted along the walk to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity.

We see so much, it is difficult to take it all in and remember it all. The Palaces all have beautiful names, like the Palace of Heavenly Purity, and so on.

More tomorrow.

MY HAIRCUT PAL AND THE DUTCHMAN

CeeCee and Aaron Canvasser, long time friends of Jim’s, came to visit for a couple of hours. We went to breakfast and returned to the motor home where I gave Aaron a haircut while Jim coached CeeCee how to buy a car at the price you want, from a car dealer. The haircut is looking to become a tradition because the very first time I met Aaron, he offered to cut my hair. I repaid the favor and here we are at:
http://wp.me/pDCku-13v

Aaron and CeeCee hail from Oregon State. They follow a challenge ballroom dance circuit here in Apache Junction.

In the afternoon we visited Superstition Mountain Museum. Apache Junction has thrived on the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s mine and other strange tales because of it, which are fully covered in this museum. The story and setting attracted Hollywood and the museum includes Apache Land, a movie set from the 1960′s. It burned down twice and only a few buildings remain.

There is no known photo of Jacob Waltz, the Dutchman, but there is a collection of drawings and purported photos of him.  The drawings are as varied as the many maps attributed to him.

It even looks fake. Why anyone would pay money for it is beyond my comprehension.

This one in Spanish must have been sold to a Spanish speaking miner. Jacob Waltz did not speak and write Spanish.

A letter from a friend is considered authentic proof that Waltz  found gold and assayed it. Other miners found gold of a specific type as well. The map of his buried treasure was left with the woman who owned the boarding house where he lived and died. In the museum are 28 paper maps.  The maps are crude, unreadable and amusing unless you consider that men fought and died for gold that was never found.

Six stone  maps of an equally obscure Peralta Mine qualify as works of art,another mystery.

A really good site about the mystery and deaths that occurred in this area is this one:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/dutchman.html

We were without a signal for two hours this morning, so I’ll continue this blog tomorrow.

Eureka! I Found A Huge Gold Nugget!

For about ten days now, I’ve been camped only one mile from where gold was discovered in California in 1848. While wandering around my campground I came across this huge gold nugget!

Anyone have a suggestion on how to remove the black paint some fool used on it? Now that I am rich, I believe this may be my last Blog entry about the California Gold Country.

If you missed my Blog entry about my visit to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, click this link…

http://blog.seattlepi.com/ramblinman/2011/04/07/marshall-gold-discovery-state-historic-park/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
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