Happy Chinese New Year and may Good Fortune Smile on You
or at least no bad fortune.
My time in Wuhan City, Hubei Province is drawing to a close. I was supposed to go back to Australia to see my family, but bureaucratic red tape put an end to that, so this month, as I wait to head off to my new teaching position in SuZhou City Jiangsu province, I am taking time out to visit a few people.
I spent last week in Xiangfan City in Hubei, staying with a former student and his mother. Mother, who until her retirement taught Chinese, could speak no English. His father, a manager, works in Chibi City, about which I have written before.
According to one Chinese Website Xiangfan is a historical and cultural city in the southwest of Hubei Province. It has an area of 26.7 thousand square kilometers and a population of 6.75 million. The central part of Xiangfan is a plain. The rest are mountains and hills. Xiangfan has a subtropical monsoon climate with an annual average temperature of 15.8C, and has 240 frost-free days. Annual rainfall averages 878 millimeters.
During my week in XiangFan, the city was enveloped in a cloud of Fog, which, combined with several days of rain, prevented me from doing much sightseeing, let alone snapping up interesting scenery. But here now I present some photographs that I did manage to get.
My friend lives near the bus and train station in XiangFan, and from his house we took the number 13 bus to go to a shopping center to buy some groceries. These next 3 photographs are taken from a main thoroughfare, off which was located the supermarket. This is not a scene from some street designed to attract tourists. The street itself and some of the buildings around it have a 1000 year history.
This is the view from the Main Road
This is apparently an Emperors Library
Side View of Emperor's Library in XiangFan Hubei
This is a long view of the rear of the Emperor's Library in XiangFan
This is looking toward the far (River) end of the street
This is the view from the River End looking back to the Emperor's Library
Middle right Pagoda is an antique coin and stamp collectors delight
A dragon climbing the pole.
Funny Story: The day before I took the photo above, my friend got his hair cut in the side street to the left. While I waited, I went to the Public WC just down the road. When one first comes to China, one notices everything, but after a while, you train yourself not to notice a lot of things. As I entered the WC I paid the attendant his 50 cents. Inside I was surprised by the height of the partitions of the "stalls". They are so often set about waist high. Then I noticed that because of the design structure of the building, the stalls had to have high walls, for one had clear sight of the balconies of the adjoining buildings.
I was thinking about this and other funny things about China as I was leaving. I walked past the attendant and got about 4 metres when it suddenly struck me that had I been new to China, I would have been shocked when I first entered the Public facility. You see, as you enter into the vestibule of the Facility, the man was chopping up pork on a chopping board, and selling it to some ladies.
I had observed this on the way in, but it had no impact upon me. It was only because I was thinking about how many things shock first time visitors to China, that it even occurred to me that what the attendant was doing was strange or out of place. Unfortunately, on that particular day, I did not have my camera on me, because it was just too foggy.
Leaving at the River End of the Street
The view from the tower at the River in XiangFan
Looking back toward the Emperor's Library.
The Tower
Tower with Steps down to the Street. 3 RMB to go up.
This is Madame Han. Beyond that I have no idea
Two Ancient Relics. As my Ex would say: Both are made of stone; both have cold hearts; and neither is handy.
View from Madame Han back to the Tower, and XiangFan No.2 Bridge
This sign is on the wall on the stairway to the tower.
Although it is not accompanied by an English Translation, it translates as:
"How the heck would I know? Ask a Chinese Person!"
From the Tower: Looking Right: Xiaobeimen Wharf with XiangFan No 2 Bridge background, and promenade.
From the tower looking over the Han Jiang River to more of XiangFan
From the Tower: Left View of Han Jiang River and promenade
Madame Han end of wall with back to the river:
Section of City wall running beside man made lake
Man made lake (I'm told)
The following Photographs:
These were my first attempts to take some photographs, but the fog was still too heavy. These are of a huge park complex within which there is an older open sports stadium, and a newer covered stadium. There is a memorial to Zhu GeLiang, athletic statues, a tea house, and a children's amusement park to name a few things. At night time the park fills with people Dancing.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
