N. China - Day 11, Part 1 - Beijing: Observatory

"I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting." - Ronald Reagan

***

Ed: I will be going to Australia soon, and as in March, I am again faced with the possibility of having 3 major travelogues to complete.

Thus I will try and finish China so as to leave me with only 2 on my return.

N. China
Day 11 - 9th November - Beijing: Observatory (Part 1)

I woke up at about 5am, annoyed at how short the night train was (slightly longer than 6 hours). I don't know which cock planned it this way.


"Being self-conscious about preserving order
Do not pass the barriers"


Vagrants in the Beijing train station. Or maybe their night trains had also come in early and they needed more sleep.

I looked around at breakfast items. 永和's breakfast menu didn't suit me, 康仔 served Hong Kong food and 康隶 didn't have a toilet, so I returned to KFC.


"Hail Customers: Please do not vomit or shit in the urinals, at the basement the neighboring market area there is a larger restroom to use. Thank you for your cooperation"
Even after 10 days in China I was still surprised by such a sign.

During breakfast I ran into a Filipino Chinese-Canadian couple I'd shared my night train cabin with. It'd been quite strange because they'd covered the train pillow with a plastic bag and scattered newspapers on the cabin bed. And the man had to use a machine to sleep because of asthma (so night trains were a strange choice). Luckily they didn't try hard sleeper.

They liked to visit China a lot, and said in the past it was too crowded but during a previous visit in September it hadn't been crowded. They also said 九寨沟 (Jiuzhaigou) was more pretty than the Rockies. They said in the 70s you could access everywhere, and there were few local tourists. However this would be their last time because of the pollution.

They also said Singapore was more expensive than Canada.


Peidan zhok, sweet youtiao and 豆浆, hashbrown. KFC also had 法风烧饼 (Shaobing à la française)

Some vendors sold pre-cooked (ugh) shao bing on the street.


Huge bing, looking like roti prata

One guy picked up his dog's shit with a plastic bag. I told him: "先生，很好。我支持你" ("Sir, this is excellent. I support you"). He ignored me.


Previously mentioned guy walking his dogs. Somehow only one got dressed.

There're 3 levels of prohibition in China:

请勿 - "Please don't"
禁止 - "Don't"
严止 - "You better not"

Examples seen in the field:


"Please don't loiter on the steps
Don't sell shit
You better not bring in dangerous things"
(I like the "no vendors" sign)


"Welcome to Take Beijing Subway"
Bad automatic translation again.

On the subway, they had "A starry night" - a PRC drama serial. They filmed some scenes in Singapore. I liked a romantic night walk scene by the Merlion, and they also went up the Singapore Flyer. This episode could've been titled: "the failure of Singapore's immigration policy" - PRCs come to Singapore and hook up with each other. I bet the next scene shows them returning to Shanghai where they'd first met. I was so distracted by all this, I missed my stop.


Faux (?) Ancient Gate in front of modern hotel


Gender and age discrimination in hiring (they want girls under 40 for the post of cleaning lady)


I was undecided on whether this was a bona fide massage place. Perhaps it offered both sorts.


Hutong entrance aka Hei Li Hai Painting Work Room


"还有比安全更重要吗？" ("Is there anything more important than safety?")
Hilarious poster in the hostel

After dropping my stuff, I headed for the Ancient Observatory.

A guy on the street remaked to me: "有点凉" ("it's a little cool"). I replied that the word should've been 冷 (cold), i.e. colder than cool, and he asked if I was from Hebei. How odd.


Another place selling donkey meat! In fact they specialise in it


Hong Kong has infected the mainland


北京天伦不孕不育医院
At first I was confused by a hospital for un-pregnant people. Now I know it's for treating infertility (isn't this against the One Child Policy?)


Car that parked willy-nilly


Observatory built in 1442, "the oldest one of its kind with astronomical instruments preserved in the world"


Courtyard and tower


Courtyard

The signs didn't say how old some instruments were, e.g. the Stardial. They must've been modern.


Simplified Armilla


Chinese stardial


Armillary Sphere


Cat on Heritage Tree

The signage in the Observatory was alright, but at one point I got annoyed.


"Please find below translations of the exhibition content in the following languages:
Français Deutsch 日本語"

As you can see, there're no translations. So I left trilingual feedback:


"你的翻译怎么都不见了？
Où se trouvent les traductions ? Elles se sont perdues.
Where are the translations?"
(I had to use my phone to look up "翻译")

By this time, it had become clear that the Observatory was basically a testament to the uselessness of Chinese astronomy for more than a millennium: everything advanced was taken or learnt from the Europeans. Basically as with other scientific fields, China was good at first but stagnated by the Ming Dynasty.


"Famous astronomers throughout history have come from many different countries... Jesuit missionaries were among the first to travel to China, bringing with them the astronomical knowledge of the West. At the same time, they also took Eastern culture and knowledge back to Europe. This is what we call 'European Astronomy's Spread to China.'"


More on the Cultural Imperialism of Western Astronomy

Outside in the garden they had busts of famous Chinese astronomers.


Zhang Heng


Xu Guangqi (the only "modern" one of the 4)
Notice that he wasn't notable because of his personal creative contributions per se, but for spreading European astronomy


Song Dynasty Star Map (天文图)
I asked the girl in the room "什么世纪" ("what century?") and she told me "古代" ("Ancient Era"). I thanked her, remarking that "古代很长" ("the Ancient Era was very long")

A lot of the originals had been moved to Nanjing Purple Mountain Observatory. I was annoyed at having been cheated.


Buddhist Astronomy


Pussy Willow


Pussy Willow detail


Bust of Guo Shoujing, Instrument and building

On the roof of the big building they had other instruments.


Equatorial Armilla


Sextant
The date (1673) wasn't impressive (the sextant was invented in the 10th century) but the size was - 1.3-1.5x my height (I estimated)


Altazimuth


Quadrant


This is some bad gas

I then went to the Lama Temple to wait for Charis.


"RELAX! We have an ENGLISH MENU. Certified by Simplify China" (the website doesn't work as of time of writing)
The English menu had a 15¥ premium for Kong Bao Chicken and 25¥ for other dishes.


"Wisdom Light - the New Age Shop"

There was a shop selling buns for 0.7¥ for one, and a Taiwanese food place sold a piece of sushi with a prawn for 2¥. Opposite, a Hangzhou food place sold noodles for 6¥.


"Please go straight on for about 150 meters to Yong He Gong. Please bring standard incenses"
Maybe this was sponsored by the incense merchants.

With Charis's arrival, I had lunch. I thought the area would be full of tourist traps but I managed to scout out a few alright eateries. We went to a Xian place.


拍黄瓜 (Cucumber in vinegar and garlic)


Celery and taukee


Beef noodles


Xian Lamb Noodles
Lamg Pao4 Mo2 with pickled garlic. The noodles were like cut up dumpling cubes. It was not very muttony so I was disappointed.

It seemed all of China used the chanting tape I'd first heard at Taishan. I'd definitely also heard it at Yungang. Here I heard the modern version (there were kids singing)


Chinese sex shops are pathetic in the hardware they sell, but stock many dodgy pills and medicines. Probably many are lethal.

I don't understand fingerless gloves. The fingers are the parts of the hand most in need of warmth, after all.

I met a Singaporean at the hostel who thought the visa-free period for China was a month. I wished him good luck.

There were a lot of French tourists in China. There were quite a few dutch ones also.

Some Canadians confirmed that in India they add on extras to the pre-agreed price.

Links - 26th July 2011

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak." - Jay Leno

***

Dominique Strauss-Kahn case 'on verge of collapse' amid doubts over maid - "Prosecutors have serious concerns about the credibility of the 32-year-old maid who accused Mr Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her... He is under house arrest and armed guard, and must wear an electronic tag. But the newspaper said that the flaws in the prosecution were so great that he could soon also have all eight criminal charges against him - including attempted rape and criminal sexual acts - dismissed"
I expected the feminists to go silent, declining to pursue the implications of the more recent DSK developments. What's sauce for the gander is also sauce for the goose... (or should be, without feminarchy anyway). Predictably, they went down another track but that just provides more sauce to throw back

Bernard-Henri Lévy: Lessons of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair - "The “shame on you’s” that greeted Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrived for the hearing on June 6th, shouted by battalions of hotel chambermaids who knew nothing of the actual case and whose protest had been orchestrated and scripted, were obscene... Dominique Strauss-Kahn was no longer Dominique Strauss-Kahn... He was the symbol of arrogant France. He was the emblem of the world of the privileged, odiously sure of their own impunity. He was the mirror of this world of white global bankers that constitutes Wall Street—one that the other America, the Main Street of every city in the country, sees as the quintessential enemy... The sad thing is, that’s not what justice is. Justice doesn’t oppose symbols, but human beings... “That Dreyfus is guilty, I deduce not from the facts themselves, but from his race.” The Strauss-Kahn affair is obviously unrelated to the Dreyfus affair... giving voice to the lowly is one thing. Considering this voice as Gospel is quite another... after George W. Bush’s invention of the concept of “pre-emptive war,” America, under Cyrus Vance, Jr., has perhaps begun to invent the idea, scarcely less horrifying, of “pre-emptive penalty”"

How to Train a Husband - "Amy Sutherland, a journalist who spent a year at an animal-trainer school and decided to apply the trainers' techniques to her husband's annoying habits... [Critics] contend that books such as Sutherland's reinforce war-of-the-sexes stereotypes about women using their feminine wiles to manipulate simple-minded men. The idea of women training simple men is a well-worn trope of pop culture. In the 1963 film "If a Man Answers," Sandra Dee's mother hands her a canine-training manual with the advice "If you want a perfect marriage, treat your husband like a dog." More recently, the BBC reality show "Bring Your Husband to Heel" featured a professional dog trainer teaching wives how to get their husbands to sit and stay"
The differential reaction to the "Obedient Wives Club" and things like this (Addendum: i.e. the Obedient Husbands Club) is very telling

Gym workout caused tremor at Seoul building: Experts

Zimbabwe man claims rape by gang of women - ""The intentions by the three women are not clear but we suspect it could be for ritual purposes," he added. While sexual attacks by women throughout the country have been carried out by various numbers of women, Bvudzijena says that victims have all been caught unaware when they were drugged... There is currently no law on the books in Zimbabwe for rape by a woman"

TOKUSATSUS - O maior blog de downloads de Tokusatsu do Brasil!
Lots of Tokusatsu video files - both subbed/dubbed in Portuguese and Raws. I found hard-to-find J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai raws here

33 Reasons Librarians are Still Extremely Important - "Eliminating libraries would cut short an important process of cultural evolution: The library that we are most familiar with today – a public or academic institution that lends out books for free – is a product of the democratization of knowledge. In the old days, books weren't always so affordable, and private libraries, or book clubs, were a privilege of the rich. This started changing during the 1800's, with more public libraries popping up and the invention of the Dewey Decimal Classification system to standardize the catalogues and indexes"
Summary: "We're romantic just as we used to idolise memory and condemn writing as making humanity stupider"
"We haven't digitised everything"
"We can't digitise everything"
"We don't understand the web"

The humble physicist - "My colleague from the English department asked if the behavior she had just witnessed was typical of what happens when scientists get together. When we assured her it was, she commented, “Wow. It seems like you all are really trying to get at the truth. In my field, we just stand up and try to show how smart we are.”"

Living With Breasts That Can Be Seen From Orbit - "I've found that nothing helps my breast-related self-image quite so much as sleeping with women. If you're not queer, sorry about that, but for the girl-on-girl crowd: When was the last time you thought “Wow, I wish her breasts were smaller/bigger/perkier/farther apart/a different shape”? Probably never. Probably you usually think something along the lines of “Hell yes, naked girl!” Seeing other women's bodies in a context where you're enjoying, not critiquing, can help you reframe your relationship with your own body in the same way."

Broken Taboos Take Center Stage in Singapore - NYTimes.com - "“Both our media and education system have been very poor at providing Singaporeans with a language with which to discuss politics. And just when the people were beginning to speak, they would often be dismissed as ‘complaining,’ airing ‘grievances’ or ‘venting.’ I’m quite sure that if these ‘complaints’ were given more recognition as genuine and honest examples of political expression, then many would have been able to develop the confidence to improve and refine how politics is discussed and debated in this country.” ... “The piece is very masculine, and in Singapore that very masculine point of view is not very often heard of.” ... “I think heterosexuals are a bit under-represented right now in local plays”"

Big Content's latest antipiracy weapon: extradition - "If people can be extradited for copyright infringement by countries in which they haven't set foot, "every website like this could give rise to prosecution in several jurisdictions. It will become impossible for the person to defend without spending millions of dollars.""

World’s Richest Man: ‘Charity Doesn’t Solve Anything’ - "“The only way to fight poverty is with employment,” he said. “Trillions of dollars have been given to charity in the last 50 years, and they don’t solve anything.”"

Somali militants block foreign aid from famine-hit south
They're probably denouncing the famine as a Western Anti-Islamic Conspiracy

Discovery of a More Equal Number of Viking Women - "The society they lived in was pretty egalitarian. Originally, the researchers who have been studying Viking society mis-identified the remains of the settlers as male because they were often buried with swords and shields. Finally sorting them by their bones, instead, it was recently discovered that approximately half of the remains were female."

Pictures: Fake Chinese Apple store fools staff - "A fake Apple store so convincing even the staff think they work for Steve Jobs"

HARRY POTTER AND THE FILM PHD - "In essence, episodes two to eight are all remakes of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2001)"

Ramen Walker: Making Ajitama (味玉)

‪The Albert Heijn Song‬‏ - YouTube

Why Taipei’s MRT trumps Singapore’s - "Taipei proves it is possible to offer a high-quality, high-frequency and affordable MRT service without losing money. It also suggests that certain services, such as public transport, tend to function optimally as natural monopolies and ought not to be owned by companies that seek to maximise profits"

Are Singaporeans selfish self-centred people? I put it to the test - "We had convened 2 hours after we seperated and the stories flowed out, to my astonishment my story was by far the most mundane…"
Best comment: "What if it's 4 males doing this experiment? Would it have the same results?... you can't just set up social experiments in a haphazard manner and then proclaiming the end result as positive and definite"

Google is changing your brain, study says, and don't you forget it - "When we know where to find information, we're less likely to remember it -- an amnesia dubbed The Google Effect... It doesn't prove that we're incapable of thinking long and hard about anything, she said. "And it could be that once we stop worrying about memorizing dates and facts and names, we're better able to concentrate." In fact, a wired life may actually open up more creative things to do with our brain, the team said. Psychologists have long known that it is easier to grasp an abstract concept when the brain is not fixated on memorizing facts"
"this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves"

The Logic and Morality of Feminism - "If the masculine terms used to describe God in the Bible are proof of its hostility toward women, then the masculine terms in which it characterizes Satan must be proof of its hostility toward men.  Yet we can go further: if the Bible is a piece of “misogyny,” then why is Wisdom, which Christians later identified with God, feminine?  The name of “Judas” has for 2000 years been synonymous with unspeakable treachery throughout Christendom; so horrible is it that in spite of having once been fairly common, it has been millennia since any parent in the Western world thought to curse his child with it.  Indeed, Judas, the apostle who betrayed Christ, is the Villain Extraordinaire in the Western imagination, and has been for thousands of years.  Why, we may ask, would the authors of a book (or collection of books) allegedly shot through with “misogyny” identify, not women, but men and male figures as the worst of monsters? Why would it not infrequently portray women as being the most loyal servants of God?"

Steve Jobs: Il rend indispensable ce dont vous n'avez pas besoin

Steve Jobs: Remember when I said that netbooks aren't good at anything and that they're just cheap laptops?

Bill Gates: Yup.

Steve Jobs: Well, I fixed the cheap part.

(Steve Jobs on netbooks (funny) | GoGeeks.tv)

Conversations - 25th July 2011

"Outer space is no place for a person of breeding." - Lady Violet Bonham Carter

***

TC: nothing worth telling u want to hear bout us fighting ah lol

Me: why not
schadenfreude


MFTTW: why the hell would anyone go to laos... sex tourism lor
indochina is rubbish lah
the only place worth seeing was angkor wat
the rest is like
"come visit our history of oppressing our own people"


Someone: *** was so drunk she got semi-raped in the toilet

Me: how do you get semi-raped

Someone: u think u gg toilet to make out or maybe give a blow job then suddenly he is in you and u are too drunk to do anything

Me: well. this is the problem with consent

Someone: yar loh


TC: i think might be the same thing
that pple get so upset with u
and flame u

cause u think pple shd be able to defend their statements
then when u prove them wrong they get angry


Someone: u bring out the most puzzling in women :p


Someone else: it's getting hard to get friends to hang out with now that most of them are married

*** only gets to go out when his wife goes for her facials. but another friend his wife allows him to go to ktv, thai discos


TC: Sad she got boobs but frigid Maybe she just nv meet v hot guys who like her

Me: It's OK to be frigid if you're flat?

TC: No But more wasted

Me: Lol

TC: Is okay to be frigid But missing out on v nice things mah

Me: Wasted for who

TC: Humanity

Me: ...


Me: you're from cote d'ivoire?
how come you have an aol address?

Someone else: good
i was in usa before my father my father was killed in cold blooded by an on known killer due to my father supported to stop the genocide in my country.
then i came back

I am contacting you to kindly assist me locate a
Lucrative business in your country into which you can
Assist me invest the sum of (1.2Million United States
Dollars) left in the bank by my late father.
I was in my second year in the university in my country studying medical before i stop because of the war.
I have decided to contact you for this assistance
After going through your profile, and I am
Believing/trusting that you must surely assist
Me, hence it will be have benefit to you once you
Accept to assist me. With your assistance i will offer you 15%

Me: are you sure you're not from nigeria?

Someone else: yes
i can give you the number here to call

Me: sure. let me pass it on to an enemy of mine