Seven Wonders of China (4/5)

August 11, 2010

Mount Wudang is home to eight palaces, seventy-two temples in caves, thirty-nine bridges, thirty-six nunneries, twelve pavilions, and two temples.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1643 AD), Mt. Wudang was known as a grand spectacle of all ages and is one of the best examples of ancient-religious architecture anywhere.

The Golden Hall, a temple built on Mt. Wudang in the 15th century is the largest copper building in China. The ninety-ton structure was plated in Gold in Beijing before being moved to the mountain.

6. Shibaozhai  (Precious Stone Fortress)

Near the banks of China’s Yangtze River, a twelve story, five-hundred year-old Buddhist temple made of wood clings to a cliff without the support of a single nail.  Before the temple was built, devout Buddhists climbed the cliff risking their lives to worship the Buddhist statutes on the mountain.  The temple was built to resist high winds and remedy this problem.

To protect and save the temple against rising water due to construction of China’s Three Gorges Dam, the Chinese government had a radical and ambitious solution.

See Li River Cruise or return to The Seven Wonders of China – Part 3

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Real Police State (3/4)

August 10, 2010

Some of the crimes one may be sent to jail for in the US are shocking like the 65 year-old American who went to prison for 17 months because he bought orchids from South America because the company in South America that shipped the orchids was sloppy with the paperwork. Prosecutors described this man as the “Kingpin” of an international smuggling ring when he was earning less than 20 thousand from his orchid business.

The Economist says, America has “a long love affair with lock and key.  Justice is harsher in America than any other rich country.” There are more than 4,000 federal crimes, and many times that number of regulations that carry criminal penalties.

Did you know that failing to prevent your employees from breaking federal regulations you have never heard of could send you to jail? One American went to jail for six months because one of his workers accidently broke a pipe, causing oil to spill into a river.

See Growing China’s Legal System or return to The Real Police State – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Seven Wonders of China (3/5)

August 10, 2010

The Great Wall of China was not built by one man, one king or emperor but is a product the collective effort of the Chinese people over centuries.  The Great Wall united the country in its construction and still unites the Chinese today as a symbol of pride.

4. Leshan Buddha

Everything about this Buddha is BIG. More than a thousand years old, it took almost a century to carve the Leshan Buddha from the solid rock cliff. The Buddha looks out over a river and legend says the rugged, unpredictable river sunk many boats drowning people until the Buddha was carved from the cliff.

It is thought that the rocks cut from the cliff while the Buddha was being constructed tumbled into the river and calmed the currents.  However, today, air pollution as in acid rain from industry is threatening the Buddha. Maintaining the Buddha has become a challenge. About two million people visit each year.

5. Mount Wudang

To the Chinese, Mt. Wudang is the first mountain under heaven. Ornate palaces may be found on the mountains slopes.  Temples, pavilions and bridges are all designed to harmonize with the landscape.  This mountain is also the home of Wudang Kung Fu.  A martial art that is still active today after seven hundred years.  In Chinese terms, Wudang is a small town of 20,000 people that is a fascinating mix of tradition and modernity.

See The Prince’s Garden or return to The Seven Wonders of China – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Real Police State (2/4)

August 10, 2010

No one knows for sure how many criminals are executed in China.  Amnesty International says the numbers are in the thousands.

I find it interesting that no one in the West has studied China to see if there is a link between the way China treats convicted criminals and a culture that has survived for several thousand years. I’m sure there are Americans who might not want to know the results.

The United States may not execute as many as China does, but the US locks up more people than any country—more than twice that of China, a country with almost five times the population.

In fact, The Economist published an interesting piece about America called Rough Justice.

The Economist says, “Conservatives and liberals will always feud about the right level of punishment.…  As a result, American prisons are now packed not only with thugs and rapists but also with petty thieves, minor drug dealers and criminals, who, though scary when they were young and strong, are now too grey and arthritic to pose a threat. Some 200,000 inmates are over 50—roughly as many as there were prisoners of all ages in 1970.”

See Officer in Action or return to The Real Police State – Part 1

_______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Seven Wonders of China (2/5)

August 9, 2010

2. Hanging Monastery

Another popular tourist site is the fifteen-hundred year old wooden Hanging Monastery.   The monastery is suspended fifteen stories above the valley floor on the side of a sheer cliff.  It is a mystery why the monastery was built there and why.

One reason might be the floods that once plagued the valley. Today, a dam controls the water. The monastery was built in an indentation in the cliff below an overhand.

What cannot be seen from the valley floor is the Hanging Monastery was built into the cliff’s face. More than forty caves and rooms were dug into the rock.  This process allowed supports to be built into the cliff.  The thin wooden pillars are only there for decoration and were added in the last century.

3. The Great Wall

One of the world’s greatest treasures is the almost four-thousand mile Great Wall, which took two-thousand years to complete.

The early great wall was made of layers of pressed earth and straw. The Qin Dynasty completed the first wall.  The Han Dynasty extended the wall toward Mongolia.  The Ming Dynasty built the wall stronger of stone and mortar.  The Chinese used smoke and fire to send messages over long distances to warn of enemy attacks.

See Traveling the Great Wall or return to The Seven Wonders of China – Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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