Christianity in China: Ningbo Catholic Cathedral Church.Qing Ming, means clear and bright in Chinese. It is both the fifth term in the traditional lunar calendar and a festival to hold memorial ceremony for the dead. Being as how I was the only white face in the crowd, the Chinese attendants jumped on me, baptised me, confirmed me and handed me the brochure with all the church services times listed on it. They wanted to know if I was Catholic or Christian. Usually I just tell people I am a Muslim, and it makes them think twice. This time I said something that I regretted. Ha! I'm not telling you what I said!
Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption Ningbo City China
Up until this year in China, 'May Day' was celebrated as a 7 day holiday, but because of all the transport hassles associated with this and other 'golden weeks' in China, this holiday has been altered. To make up for this loss of a week's holiday, some 'older' festivals have been elevated to 'public holiday' status. One of these in the 'Qingming' festival, which you can read about on the Taiwan Government Site.
Qing Ming, means clear and bright in Chinese. It is both the fifth term in the traditional lunar calendar and a festival to hold memorial ceremony for the dead.
This year the ceremony fell on a Friday. On the Thursday I only had two classes. Because I was free from Thursday at 9:40am until Monday morning I decided to treat myself to a long long weekend and do some travelling.Having made some prior arrangements with Ming Xing who is studying in Chengdu, we met up on April 3rd in Nanjing.
Just that meeting is a story in itself as both of us spent 2 hours walking round and round in circles at the Nanjing Railway station completely missing seeing the other. Anyway, once we got underway, we had a great time visiting Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Park. We also visited the Presidential Palace from which Chiang Kai-shek governed China.
Chiang KaiShek - Vicious man He saw me take his photo and then he began to demand money from those Chinese nearby who were also taking his photograph. I ran away.
My school has a tradition. Every year the foreign teachers are treated to a sightseeing weekend. By sheer coincidence, on April 12th, the week after I had been to Nanjing, they took us to Ningbo City. Within the city's environs are to be found the hometown village of Chiang Kai-shek's family, The WenChang Pavillion in which Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife Song Meiling lived for some time. Additionally at 'Xikou' Village, one can climb the endless steps up the mountain and see where Chiang Kai-Shek's mother is buried. (In China, important people are always buried on a hill).
Women at Xikou washing clothes in the River
Between these two trips I learned a lot of history, and I hope in the coming month or so to present to you numerous photographic articles on the various points of interest upon which I stumbled in my two journeys. For Instance:
Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Park
The Nanjing Ming Tombs and the remnants of the Imperial Palace of the Ming Dynasty
The Presidential Palace and Chiang Kai-Shek's Offices
Photographs related to the Taiping Rebellion and it's 'Heavenly King'
Chiang Kai-Shek's hometown and family history.
Chiang Kaishek was much more docile in his old age.
For today however, all I am presenting are some few photographs in Ningbo, and especially of the Cathedral of the Assumption. Some of the photos were taken during an evening stroll. The night time shots are courtesy of Miss Naoko Uehara who was kind enough to send me these photos because at the time I did not have my camera with me.
We had ended a long day in a restaurant, after which, Naoko wanted to go for a stroll. This is Japanese English for 'Window Shopping'. Whilst Naoko, Mr. Hamano, Myself, and Tan Teng (the Chinese Student who does the Japanese/Chinese translating) went into town, the rest of our party went for a good nights sleep.
It was quite an interesting night from two perspectives. The first was that everyone keep looking at me and saying 'Foreigner' in Chinese. This made me laugh since our party of 4 had only one Chinese person in it. The second interesting perspective, was watching Chinese mouths drop open when they heard all these people speaking Japanese.
Crazy guy on left and Naoko on the Right - Tower in background
Oh! You didn't know I could speak Japanese? I can say - 'Delicious!' 'Beautiful' - 'Coooooool' - 'Good morning' - 'thank you' and - 'would you like another beer?' My fascination with Japan started when I was young. I learned Karate, Judo, Jujitsu, and several other Japanese words like 'Sayonara and Nihon' at an early age. I even had a Japanese Pen Friend, not to mention Japanese Family in the form of a Great Aunt.
So there we were walking around window shopping, with me constantly trying not to speak English and constantly looking for an opportunity to say something in Japanese. As soon as a Chinese person got near enough to have a good look at me I would say in Japanese: "Naoko. Is that Beautiful?' - 'Mr. Hamano. Is that cool?'.
Eventually, we came across the Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption. We went up the stairs to the entrance to take a look - and lo and behold, it was a real church. Being as how I was the only white face in the crowd, the Chinese attendants jumped on me, baptised me, confirmed me and handed me the brochure with all the church services times listed on it. They wanted to know if I was Catholic or Christian. Usually I just tell people I am a Muslim, and it makes them think twice. This time I said something that I regretted. Ha! I'm not telling you what I said!
At any rate, in ending this little snippet of my trips away, I will leave you with the words of the story printed on the brochure given me at the church.
A concise History of Cathedral of the Assumption
Catholics have been in Ningbo since 1533. Guo Zhongchuan, a French Missionary, bought a piece of land and built a church in Yaohang street in 1702. During the Qing dynasty, an imperial edict banned evangelization and drove out all the missionaries in 1723. The Yaohang street church was then used residential homes and shops.
Another French missionary, Gu Fangji came to Ningbo and rebuilt the Yaohang street church in 1845 with the help of donations. In May of 1855, the church was completed and liturgy was celebrated, but collapsed later in July. A rebuilding project began in August of 1865 and was completed at the end of 1866 and named Church of the Assumption. The rectory was still under construction. With the help of donations as well, a 122 meter bell tower was erected in 1918.
In 1953 religious activities were prohibited and the church became a ballroom for the Municipal Shaoxing Opera. During the construction of the Municipal Shaoxing Opera house in 1978, the bell tower collapsed.
The church was re-opened in 1991 as religious activities were once again permitted, but soon collapsed in 1994 due to a lack of maintenance. In June of 1995 talks about rebuilding were under way, and the work began in 1997.
In June of 2000 the church was in use once more, and the new building, including rectory and an underground parking lot, totaled 9800 square meters.
(English Mass on Sunday at 10:30am)
I hope you enjoyed this excursion.
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When excavating workers discovered the original Royal road and archaeological viewing platforms have been set up from both above and beside the original road. No charge! You can go down the ramp and clearly see the road and the accompanying signs/ The Chaotian Gate - During the Zhizheng Reign of Yuan Dynasty it was renamed to Gongbei Tower. It was destroyed in the 10th year (1474) of Chenghua Reign Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in the next year. The building was destroyed again in early Qing Dynasty and rebuilt in the 25th year (1686) of the Kangxi Reign Qing Dynasty. It is known as Drum Tower.
Located at the south foot of Qixia Ridge, Yue Fei's Tomb (and Temple) is one of representative historic sites of Confucian culture in West Lake Cultural Landscape as well as the place for the famous national hero Yue Fei. As a model of Chinese cultural tradition of loyalty and filial piety known to every household, Yue Fei has been respected and cherished by people with their sacrifices for centuries in this sacred site.
Photographs of the Paris Gardens and Rome Metropolis in Jiaxing City Zhejiang Province: Arc de Triomphe in Jiaxing: Avenue des Champs-Élysées: The Vatican: Egyptian Obelisks at the Rome Metropolis
I once had someone write me to say that there was no such thing as Murphy's Law but that my personal 'negativity', my belief - if you will, was drawing all the negative energy of the universe into my life and thus I was creating all my own bad luck. Wow! Who knew I could have such power! - Two weeks later I decided to return to Jiaxing to take some photos. At the North Bus Station in Suzhou I bought my ticket and while waiting for the bus, noticed that my destination in Jiaxing was the 'Central' bus station. When I arrived, I was totally lost and had to call my friends and ask them how to get to their place.
You will arrive at Taipa House Museum Area with so much to see. If you want to go into the Museum you must pay. But there is also much to see outside. This is a museum beside the A-Ma Temple on Macao Island. This sits on the waterfront and you can see Zhuhai in China across the harbour.
Mt. Emei - The first day we climbed to 940 metres. The Second Day we took the bus up as far as the Cable car. just 200 metres or so below the summit. At over 3000 metres the clouds just kept coming and going. Rather like the tourists! Bloody tourists! Noisy nuisances! Don't know why they let them spoil the tranquility!
These next two shots were taken at the corner store in Chibi town after we had finished with the museum tour. We had an hour to wait, and this gave the townsfolk the opportunity to gather around. At one point in time, we were surrounded by 36 people, but I must point out that people kept leaving and being replaced by others. This is a photograph of myself standing at the lookout at the Museum park at Chibi town (not PuQi). It shows me pointing to the Barge Landing on the Hong Hu side of the Yangtze River. Xin Di where I live and Teach is only 20 minutes drive from the barge crossing by the main road, and about 10 minutes via the levee road
Mt. Tai is located in the center of Shandong Province, lying across the cities of Tai'an, Jinan and Zibo. Its main peak, Jade Emperor Summit, which is within Tai'an City, is about 1532.7 meters (5,029 feet) high. The mountain was once called Mt. Daishan, Mt. Daizong or Mt. Taiyue and was renamed Mt. Taishan in the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC-476BC). It epitomizes splendid Chinese culture and was listed in the World Natural and Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO in 1987
Arriving at the Hotel at 7 pm, we booked in to once again find ourselves faced with a room with one queen sized bed in it. Again we insisted and received a twin room. We stayed at the JinHui hotel which you can find listed at www.ctrip.com. It is located at LuoHu (lor - who) and is 2 minutes walk from the cargo vehicle border crossing into Xiang Gang (Hong Kong).
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.
(Originally a 4 part article) On January 14th 2010, I commenced my trip back to Australia. The temperature at that time was varying between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. It was for this Aussie, despite living in China for 7 years, truly cold. I flew from Baotou in Inner Mongolia to Beijing and stayed one night in the Beijing Aulympic Airportel. The Hotel is located very close to the airport. The fees were very very very low and that suited me fine. I did not expect however, that the hotel would be as nice as it was. Next day I flew to Hong Kong where I connected with a Qantas flight travelling to Brisbane Australia.
When we arrived, we noted that this place really was a resort centre. It had wave pools and other interesting things for people to enjoy, and even accommodated school tour groups with dormitory style accomodation. Opposite the breakfast room was a swimming complex, in the front of which was a very interesting sign. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring my .38 Smith and Wesson. When we went in for breakfast, we saw that the next room was set up for a wedding, and discovered that it was 'our' wedding reception. Taking a 'sticky beak', I noted that there were no knives on any of the tables. 'Ahah! Thank God I brought that solid clear plastic knife with me!'.. The whole time before and after the actual church service, the local beggars were inside the church hitting everyone for money. Oh the guilt of refusing a pittance for the poor in the house of God, but I was advised to give no one anything, for that would be more effective than the 'last trump' for the dead. All the beggars would arrive. Not that this mattered at all. Who was carrying money?
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air 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.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
The ancient writings, which revealed HaShem's (God's) ongoing process of calling out Israel, were constantly at the mercy of mortal men. The King's Calendar assertion, is that one particular group, transliterated the chronological material into an artificial calendar. Where the Septuagint differs chronologically from the Masorete, it does so because it's references are provided in the original Solar year chronological reality. "Abrabanel saw in this verse's manner of expressing time an opportunity to teach about divine providence and history. He felt that God expressed Himself in history by making events happen in symmetrical patterns of time".
If 1 Samuel 13:1 however is meant to indicate that Saul reigned Thirty-Two years there might be some reasons why it appears corrupt. It may be that 1 Samuel 13:1 originally referred to Samuel, who was 31 years old when he became judge, and judged Israel for 32 years. Most commentators on Antiquities 6:14:9 believe it should read – Saul reigned Two and Twenty years. The King's Calendar relying on an artificial construct and Second Chronicles 36:21 determines that Saul commenced as King in 1038 BCE and that he reigned 28 Solar years or 30 artificial years (which was recorded as 32 years because the 29th Solar year when he was annointed Prince was a double artificial year.)
Topic 1. What is the Seder Olam Rabbah By R.P. BenDedek
This article has been designed for students as a quick study tool. It contains both basic information on the Seder Olam Rabbah, and links to articles about the Seder Olam Rabbah. For Information on King Cyrus, SEE: King Cyrus the Great : Reference File.
Topic 2. Seder Olam Chronological Chart : Adam to Abraham: By R.P. BenDedek
This article consists of a chart which lists the chronological details contained in the Seder Olam Rabbah. The Chart has 3 columns. Comparing The Bible: Josephus: Seder Olam Rabbah. The chart provides relevant details for comparison between the three sources of information. It a Topic Excerpt from the much larger article entitled: Seder Olam Rabbah (No.2) : Adam to Joseph
