Blogs from Hunan, China, Asia - page 5

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, 7AM. Actually not bad, we have seen 6:30 wake up calls earlier this week. The weather was perfect, clear, dry, and pleasant temperature of 72 degrees. We hit the bus around 8 AM for our short drive to the Buddhist temple known as the Goose Pagoda. Breakfast was another extravaganza. J The name, Goose Pagoda, comes from a Tibetan legend. There were two sects of monks. One ate no meat, one ate meat. One day, the group that ate meat had no meat to eat. One of the monks lamented to the Great Buddha, asking why they had no meat to eat. He implored the Buddha to help them out of this terrible trouble. At that very instant, a flock of geese were flying by and the lead Goose fell ... read more

When carrying out our research on China, we stumbled across a place called Zhangjiajie (pronounced Jang-Jyaar-Jyeh but said quickly). We were lucky to have came across it as many westerners do not really come here (call it luck or maybe it was down to our excitement in researching every last corner of China). Across this whole site you are therefore unlikely to see another western face. When you realise this, it can be very rewarding in knowing that you are one of the few that take a plunge and succeed in doing so. Having watched some youtube videos just to whet our appetite a little before we came out, we were sold. We didn't care how long it took us, we were going. We had to witness this amazing scenery with our own eyes. To give ... read more

Hi All, We moved on to Changsha to go and see our final founding father of the Communist Party Liu ShaoQi. Liu was a poiltician through and through. In the 30s he was involved in politics both locally and nationally. On the formation of the People's Republic of China he was Vice-Chairman. Liu spoke in favour of the Great Leap Forward and was thus made President in 1959. Along with Deng XiaoPing he lead the economic reforms which dragged China out of the mire after the great famine. By 1962 it was widely accepted that he was Mao's successor. However he began to disapprove of Mao's policies and as Mao's prestige grew again in the 60s it became inevitable that Liu would be toppled. by 1966 it became clear that there was a need for policies ... read more

Hi All, I know I've been before but this time I stayed in Xiangtan and didn't just go for the day. Xiangtan as a city is nothing remarkable but it is a great place to set up base camp to visit the former homes of the Communist party's founding fathers. So first on the list, the big one Mao ZeDong. It's remarkable how this man geld, and to some extent still does, such a power over the Chinese people. The young and old come to lay wreaths and say prayers in front of the statue in Mao Zedong square. The museum is full of Mao's possessions. Amazing that he had a huge library of books, smoked continuously, drank and ate only the best, the way his trousers waistline grew over the years being testament to swaths, ... read more

Hi All, Up in the mountains of LongHui county live the HuaYao Chinese minority. I have been here before 4 years ago so it was good to go back and see if anything has changed. The answer not really. The bus ride from Longhui to Xiaoshajiang takse around 3 and a half hours and the first half of the journey is done on what I can only describe as dirt roads. The road is under construction and it is very bumpy and very uncomfortable. On the way there we had to stand up all the way too. It is all worthwhile as the scenery around Xiaoshajiang is simply stunning. We hired a motorbike taxi for the day, 200 rmb and we bought him lunch, and he took us all around the local sites. I do enjoy ... read more