Climbing the Dragon Back

May 18, 2010

The Dragon Back Rice Terraces are located in Guangxi Province in southeast China near Vietnam.  The nearest city is Guilin, which is close to the Li River. 

When we arrived, there was two-legged transportation for anyone who wasn’t strong or healthy enough to climb to the top. There are fifty-six minorities in China and this is an autonomous region where the Zhuan minority lives—the largest minority in China.

Halfway to the top

Halfway to the top, we passed this woman cleaning rice.

We arrived in the autumn and the rice had been harvested. The terraces were turning brown. For lunch, we ate in the village.  The terraced rice was cooked in segments of bamboo over an open fire.

at the top looking back

At the top, we looked toward the far mountains—a foggy blue outline. On the way down, we noticed an entrepreneur making money by letting tourists dress in minority costumes and take pictures.

To see more photos of the Dragon’s Back, click on Travel Pod.  You may also want to join me on a Li River Cruise.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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2 Comments | China, Chinese minorities, tourism | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Giant Panda

May 12, 2010

The Panda is popular.  I just Googled the Giant Panda and there were 269,071 hits and that was just for Blogs.  The first post was “Pandas are Precious“.  The second Blog was from the Smithsonian and was about Mei Xiang, a Giant Panda, who wasn’t pregnant.

When we took my sister and her youngest daughter to China in 2008, my forty-year-old niece wanted to see the Pandas and have a picture taken of one sitting on her lap.

The Giant Panda, because it is so cute with its black and white coloring, is considered by many of the bear’s fans as docile, but it has been known to attack humans. It probably isn’t a good idea to have a Giant Panda sit on your lap. An adult male may weigh 330 pounds and a female 275 pounds. That pudgy bear is cute, but it is still a wild animal.

In fact, China’s Giant Pandas are considered a living treasure. Although the dragon has historically served as China’s national emblem, recently the Giant Panda has also served as an emblem for the country. The Chengdu Research Base is working hard to breed the Pandas so the species survives.

The Budget Traveler is a good site to find out about places to see the Giant Panda in China.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the lusty love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

#1 - Joanna Daneman review posted June 19 2014

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, environment, tourism | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Freedom

May 7, 2010

If you have been reading “iLookChina.net”, you may have discovered that many Chinese have similar freedoms to Americans. 

Every citizen in the US has a right to a mandatory education to twelfth grade. China has mandatory education too, and the better the education, the higher earning power.

Americans may buy property but so can the Chinese. In America, most homeowners have to pay annual property tax but not in China. In fact, if one has the money, he or she may buy anything sold in China just as in the US. But most Chinese pay with cash and still manage to save.

The average American carries $8,000 in credit card debt. If you are an American, are you one of those credit card slaves?

 

Recent estimates say sixty-five million Chinese globetrot as tourists. In 2007, it was estimated that fifty-seven million Americans traveled internationally.

About the only freedom the Chinese don’t have is they aren’t free to publicly criticize their government. The punishment is severe, but that is spelled out in their constitution. It isn’t a secret.

In America, we might have a Bill of Rights to protection us from our government, but we don’t have any protection from violent street gangs that clog every American city. China has one person in jail for about every 867 Chinese.  In America, it’s about one out of every 31 adults.

What does freedom look like to you?

To learn more, see “You’ve come a long ways, Babe“.

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Leave a Comment » | America, China, Chinese middle class, crime, education, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Hooters China

April 28, 2010

The score is America 455 and China 4. 

That score shows how fast China is changing as the Middle Kingdom evolves into an Asian Super Power beginning to look more like the US than the US.  As America’s political system drifts toward socialism, China is roaring toward capitalism with all the trappings of a consumer society.  Will the two meet at a “Hooters” balanced in the middle?


Hooters Girls In Shanghai, China

I’ve never been to a Hooters, but on my next trip to China, I may visit one since they are in Shanghai, Pudong, Beijing and Chingdu. I’ve already watched the YouTube videos.  See for yourself.  It’s fun.

As fast at McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, GM, and Ford are all growing in China (and making money), it’s easy to imagine that Hooters may have more stores in China than the US in a few years.

Discover Understanding How to do Business in China

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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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2 Comments | American culture, Chinese Culture, Chinese food, Chinese women, expatriates, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

I Miss the Smell of China

April 27, 2010
Bob Grant

Originally Published at Speak Without Interruption on April 16, 2010 by Bob Grant — publisher/editor for Speak Without Interruption. Posted on iLook China, April 27, 2010 at 12:00 PM

 For various reasons, my business in China declined a little over two years ago, and I have not had occasion to visit there during that time period. A lot has happened—both within the U.S. and China—since my business went south.

I do miss China – its people – its culture – its smell. This might seem like an irrational statement since China is suppose to be one of the most polluted countries in the world, but it is not the smell of pollution that sticks in my memory.

Our China office was located in Guangdong Province, which is in the southern part of China near Hong Kong. Traveling around that province, I always remember the fresh scents of flowers, rain, trees, grass, and meals being prepared for daily consumption.

I tended to visit factories that were in outlying areas—their conference rooms, factories, reception rooms, and gardens all had a smell that I grew to welcome during each of my visits. As I made trips and visits to other parts of China, I felt they each had their own unique smells and aromas that I have not found any other place in the world that I have traveled.

I have written other posts regarding my feelings about the Chinese people—those have not changed.  I am not certain that I will ever have occasion to visit China again but the smells and memories of that country and its people will remain with me forever.

Follow this link to see more by Bob Grant “Transporting Goods by Road in China” http://wp.me/pN4pY-jf

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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