Ric Swenson on fri 11 may 07
Ni Hao Ma.
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some thoughts on China today....clay today....
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On Holiday......I ended up in Hunan Province for 5 days of delightful sight=
s and people during the May Day (Labor Day) Holiday. Hunan is not quite as=
far west as Yunnan....but close. To clarify...the Chinese geographic map =
divides the country by location NAN is SOUTH,(NanChang) .....Bei (Beijing) =
is North....Xi is West and Dong is East....GuangDong is where then?
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I went to Hunan because it was less expensive than Yunnan during this holid=
ay period....when most places are just inundated with tourists from China..=
..let alone Foreigners. I saw only four foreigners while in Hunan...white =
people. 4 total. Not that I was looking for them, but we are rare breed h=
ere.=20
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Breeds of ethnic groups I saw included the Miao and Tujia people. 56 ethni=
c groups comprise about 10 % of China's mostly HAN peoples. The JEN. The M=
iao wear silver hats and ornaments and love to sing! The Tujia people look=
ed to me like native Americans...Navajos maybe...Blackfeet? Dark and with n=
oses and long black hair. The land bridge eh?
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Went from JingDeZhen by bus to Nanchang to catch the train west (Xi) to Hun=
an Province. The natural beauty beauty of the Hunan area I visited rivals t=
he Grand Canyon in splendor if not size. Fantastic pristine natural needle =
like mountains that fight in my memory with Utah's geological marvels...and=
Colorado's rivers.....I've been to so many places......Hunan rivals even t=
he Alaska Range....and Chugach Mountains.....near where I grew up in Anchor=
age. The Tuojiang River...Bao Feng Lake....Lotus Village....TuJia'sPhoenix =
Town.....Yikes. What a week.
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A guided tour bus with 45 other people...all Chinese. We ate and slept and=
traveled together and became a family of sorts after a week together. Such=
friendly folks, the Chinese. We are after all one family in a way. Surpr=
ising how an American is accepted by them.
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460 days until the BeiJing Olympics. Can't wait to see the swimming events=
then. I will go to Beijing this summer to buy tickets to the swimming eve=
nts. Hunan will host some of the river...kyaking....boating events in 2008=
...because they have such fabulous rivers there.
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Water buffalo and goats blocked our travels in Hunan last week....narrow ro=
ads....big tour busses....a very rural...agriculturally terraced growing fi=
elds....the farmers must be part mountain goat I think! Wow! Not like the =
flat rice fields of the east and south of China...
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Monkeys! there were many monkeys in the National Park at Huang Shi Zhai ne=
ar Zuang Jia Jie.....the five fingers mountains...stuck up 1000 meters in t=
he sky...yet convenient to see because of elevators...and POMA lifts....Sed=
imentary spikes in the sky from some long ago geologic freak of nature...
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The rail and bus systems were clogged....but functioning well during the ho=
liday......more than a million tourists passed through some venues.....60,0=
00 in the national park where I spent May 2 and 3. The soil colors differ =
from area to area here...Reddish here...as are the bricks....more grey in t=
he Hunan area..... surface clays.......brick clay.....RIO and BIO? (red iro=
n oxide...black iron oxide....)
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Who knew?
No guns in China....only a shotgun seen carried by a guard on the armored c=
ar route. Why do Americans need so many guns? A militia of who? Handguns =
do what?
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Rubber baby Buggy Bumpers....She Sells Seashells down by the seashore....I =
teach my oral English students to pronounce and model my Iowa American idio=
ms and expressions....funny when you think about it.
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I went to the FRANZ factory here recently....interesting....but far from MY=
tradition of pottery....owned by a merchandiser....decorative in the extre=
me...porcelain painted highly .....and colorfully. $70,000 for a set of 4 =
dishes. A different deal.
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Tv Satellites dishes on evident on even the simplest of hovels in China's r=
ural areas. They are catching up quickly I think.
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100 days to grow a crop of rice. Plant, fertilize, grow, tend and harvest =
100 days later...three crops a year...now no taxes by the government...so t=
he farmers now can even send their kids to college.
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many of my students went home during May day holiday to help their folks pl=
ant rice.
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Few handrails and safety devices here....on the 3,000 steps down from the H=
unan mountain there were NO handrails....people just deal with the situatio=
n. Kids learn to cross traffic and bike in traffic. I think sometimes we A=
mericans are so wimpy.?
'Keep that stick on the ice' folks and Happy Potting!
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Regards,
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Ric
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"...then fiery expedition be my wing, ..." Wm. Shakespeare, RICHARD III, Ac=
t IV Scene III Richard H. ("Ric") Swenson, Teacher, Office of International=
Cooperation and Exchange of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, TaoYang Road, Ea=
stern Suburb, Jingdezhen City JiangXi Province, P.R. of China. Postal code=
333001. Mobile/cellular phone :13767818872 +86-0798-8499600 (ofc.) +86-079=
8-8499012 (fax) E-Mail: RicSwenson0823@hotmail.com=20
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