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Beijing and Xi'an

 

We went to China again in 2009; this time with friends.  Our itinerary took us from Beijing to Xi’an and then to the ‘terracotta warriors’ then back to Beijing. 

 


image006Terracotta Warriors

 

From Beijing we visited the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

 


image012The Great Wall 

 

Everything in Beijing is on a huge scale.  We soon learned that what looks like a short distance on a map can take several hours to walk; as when we tried to circumnavigate the Forbidden City.  We quickly found out how to use the Metro.  Here we discovered that many Chinese people are strangers to Beijing and within a day we were helping people negotiate the turnstiles and the other vagaries of the system. 

As in most of China old Beijing is rapidly disappearing.  For example most of the old city wall has been demolished to be replaced by a multi-lane ring road. 

 


image008Typical Beijing Roads 

One historical street has been reconstructed, complete with a tram; now powered by batteries and recharged at a charging station to avoid the overhead conductors.  When we visited many of the shops were not yet occupied and it had a Disneyland aspect to it.

Because the massacre there, on June 4th 1989, Tiananmen Square  is of particular interest to tourists, an unofficial ambiguity is tolerated.  Officially nothing happened; but with a nod and wink tourists are allowed to know the gory details.  At one end of the square is the Forbidden City and at the other the mausoleum of Chairman Mao.  Each side is flanked by government buildings.  Along the west side is the Great Hall of the People and along the east is the National Museum of China.

 


image010Forbidden City (small part) 

 

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Travel

Denmark

 

 

  

 

 

In the seventies I spent some time travelling around Denmark visiting geographically diverse relatives but in a couple of days there was no time to repeat that, so this was to be a quick trip to two places that I remembered as standing out in 1970's: Copenhagen and Roskilde.

An increasing number of Danes are my progressively distant cousins by virtue of my great aunt marrying a Dane, thus contributing my mother's grandparent's DNA to the extended family in Denmark.  As a result, these Danes are my children's cousins too.

Denmark is a relatively small but wealthy country in which people share a common language and thus similar values, like an enthusiasm for subsidising wind power and shunning nuclear energy, except as an import from Germany, Sweden and France. 

They also like all things cultural and historical and to judge by the museums and cultural activities many take pride in the Danish Vikings who were amongst those who contributed to my aforementioned DNA, way back.  My Danish great uncle liked to listen to Geordies on the buses in Newcastle speaking Tyneside, as he discovered many words in common with Danish thanks to those Danes who had settled in the Tyne valley.

Nevertheless, compared to Australia or the US or even many other European countries, Denmark is remarkably monocultural. A social scientist I listened to last year made the point that the sense of community, that a single language and culture confers, creates a sense of extended family.  This allows the Scandinavian countries to maintain very generous social welfare, supported by some of the highest tax rates in the world, yet to be sufficiently productive and hence consumptive per capita, to maintain among the highest material standards of living in the world. 

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Fiction, Recollections & News

My car owning philosophies

 

 

I have owned well over a dozen cars and driven a lot more, in numerous countries. 

It seems to me that there are a limited number of reasons to own a car:

  1. As a tool of business where time is critical and tools of trade need to be carried about in a dedicated vehicle.
  2. Convenient, fast, comfortable, transport particularly to difficult to get to places not easily accessible by public transport or cabs or in unpleasant weather conditions, when cabs may be hard to get.
  3. Like clothes, a car can help define you to others and perhaps to yourself, as an extension of your personality.
  4. A car can make a statement about one's success in life.
  5. A car can be a work of art, something re-created as an aesthetic project.
  6. A car is essential equipment in the sport of driving.

Read more: My car owning philosophies

Opinions and Philosophy

A new political dawn

 

 

The State election on 26th March saw a crushing political defeat for the Australian Labor Party in New South Wales. Both sides of politics are still coming to terms with the magnitude of this change.  On the Labor side internal recriminations seem to have spread beyond NSW.  The Coalition now seem to have an assured eight and probably twelve years, or more, to carry out their agenda.

On April 3, following the advice of the Executive Council, the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, gave effect to an Order to restructure the NSW Public Service. Read more...

It remains to be seen how the restructured agencies will go about the business of rebuilding the State.

 

Read more: A new political dawn

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