Modern China

July,2004

NCTA Study Tour

Aerial view of the Forbidden City

The Imperial Summer Palace

Beijing license plate

Chinese graffiti on the Great Wall

Note the air quality issues !

A night shopping area in Beijing

Wanfujing – a pedestrian area

A very busy night spot.

Mao Zedong’s portrait

Hutong Tour in Beijing

The Chinese government is busy removing Hutong’s before

the Summer 2008 Olympics come to Beijing. They are going to be a way of life from the past. They are crowded but offered a

unique type of urban life.

Hutong bedroom

Small streets and houses

A memorial to Red Guards in

the Hutong neighborhood

Narrow streets & rainy weather

Hutong area from above

Beijing Drum Tower

Climbing up to the tower area.

Drums told the time for half the day.

Drums

Small houses without sanitation.

A pedicab we took on a tour of the Hutongs.

Prince Gong’s Mansion

Prince Gong was a bureaucrat who built several lovely homes for

himself. Eventually he was charged, tried and executed for

dishonesty.

Lovely painting under the roof

His fish pond and pavilion

The tea room area .

A restaurant with Qing greeters

A throne fit for an emperor

How a lady would have traveled.

A lovely picnic spot.

Beauty all around you.

A lily

Typical appetizers .

Dumplings shaped like many things. What you select tells something about you.

Our sleeper car to X’ian

Our Qing hostess

Terrace Farming from the train to X’ian

Chang’an, the start of the Silk Roads

A walled city with an existing moat. Notice the air quality!

A coal fired electric plant

More than 1 million people live in caves because they are energy

efficient.

Old & new. Everywhere you look there are construction cranes !

This is a memorial for the dead.

A large display of some Chinese gods

Chengdu, western China

Even in western China !

A busy street in Chengdu

A rural home outside Chengdu

Farmers going home across a board walkway

A pre-school in Chengdu

Nanjing license plate

YANGTZE River Bridge

capitalism meets communism

A shipyard on the Yangtze

Lots of river traffic

Construction everywhere

Few cars but this is changing fast !

Small & narrow streets

Nanjing street scene

The Grand Canal from the train.

Shanghai

The Chinese government is working hard to make Shanghai the financial

center of all of Asia. They have spent a lot of money and time meticulously

planning every aspect of its development at their Urban Planning

Center. All housing, arterial roads, business areas, sports centers are

placed carefully on a huge map .It was incredible to see their plan being built

and well into construction.

Shanghai Urban Planning Centre

Origin of the Chinese Communist Party

Deng Xiaoping

You can find Starbucks everywhere.

Bamboo scaffolding

Drying laundry

Jin Mao Tower

We spent about 1 ½ hours talking to an architect involved in building Jin Mao

Tower. The design comes from a Chinese pagoda. Feng Shui was incorporated into the design and

landscaping. It is one of the 10 tallest buildings on Earth.

Inside Jin Mao Tower

The ladies room mirrors

View from the observation deck of Jin Mao Tower.

Shanghai license plate

Typical apartments

Notice the air quality !

A typical small store

Ads are universal

Pepsi in the south

Regular transportation

The old and the new

The river in smog

Hong Kong

Actual blue sky !!!

Hong Kong by sunset light

I traveled across China for 3 weeks, visiting 9 cities. There were very few

bright and sunny days. The air quality across China was generally poor

except right after a heavy rain when the air was washed clean of all the smog. I

was grateful for the rain so I could breathe more easily.