I never knew that these little cylinders of energy could cause so much fun. It
\nstarted when I checked in at the airports in Coffs Harbour. But, I get ahead of
\nmyself. As you doubtless know I am more or less a \u201cfly by the seat of my pants
\nman\u201d and rarely plan anything. Well, on closer reflection, I do plan a few
\nthings, like packing for a holiday. I supposed I started packing for this trip
\nabout 8 weeks ago when I updated my packing list. Of course, I did not start to
\nphysically pack then, that would be silly. No, I only started to actually pack
\nabout 6 weeks ago. I then cross off items from the list as they go into the
\nsuitcase. I did the pre- final pack last Wednesday and so by Saturday I only had
\n8 items left to pack. The final- final pack was an hour before we left for the
\nairport. It was an early rise for my walk, 3:40 am, when one has already walked
\n3,500 days without a break there has to be a better excuse that having to get up
\nearly to change one\u2019s habit. Anyway, I digress. So you now realise that with 6
\nweeks packing time all was neatly arranged. I was in good time to check in and
\nthis went smoothly. My suitcase was booked through to Hong Kong and I had\u00a0the
\nseat I wanted. Just was I was about to go when the check-in lady asked if I had
\nany explosives or batteries in my case. I misunderstood her at first as I
\nthought she wanted some of my explosives and I nearly said \u201cNo, should get your
\nown explosives\u201d then I realized that I would have to undo 6 weeks of diligent
\neffort and delve to get my batteries out of the case and transfer them into my
\nhand-baggage. Why are batteries stored at the bottom of a suitcase in an ideal
\npack? I tried to reason with her and said that I had spent 8 weeks packing my
\ncase but my pleas fell on deaf ears (Just like mine). OK, I know, I exaggerated,
\nit only took 6 weeks but it was only a small inaccuracy. I did transfer the
\nbatteries and went through the security screen. They saw the batteries in my
\nhand luggage and said they would have to come out of the bag and go through
\nseparately. This was also done. At Coffs Harbour you board the plane by walking
\nout onto the tarmac and up a ramp up to the door of the plane. At the bottom of
\nthe ramp I asked the lady (the same one who checked me in) – a few staff do all
\nthe jobs \u2013 if I could put the cabin bag into the hold as a Premium Cabin bag to
\nsave cluttering up the overhead lockers. She readily agreed and a baggage
\nhandler stowed it in the hold, so, dear readers, my batteries did travel to
\nSydney in the hold after all, a couple of feet from my disheveled and
\ndisarranged suitcase.<\/p>\n
Turn right \u2013 Indian Ocean?<\/strong><\/p>\n I had a moment of panic as we approached Sydney an hour or so after we flew out Google and China<\/strong><\/p>\n I knew before I came that China does not allow any access to Google but I did Shopping in Shenzhen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Rose Garden<\/em><\/p>\n Near Guomao<\/em><\/p>\n The problem is that without glasses one thinks one is buying a lemon drink but King Town No.1<\/strong><\/p>\n That was yesterday, the train arrived 1min 30secs early – well done CHR (China Breakfast<\/strong><\/p>\n I went to breakfast and they needed a ticket from reception. That is when more Ray was right and beware to whom you ask the way.<\/strong><\/span\n><\/p>\n Ray Dowsett, a longtime friend of both Judy and I was perfectly correct when he As soon as my knees ceased to knock I plotted the correct location of the hotel I checked out the main railway station from whence the coach leaves for the In fact, strange to say the driver looked a tad familiar and I was tempted to Pingyao<\/strong><\/p>\n I will write again because at least one more fun thing happened with 10 Xian City wall<\/strong><\/span> I did not mention to you earlier that Xian had a large wall around the old city. If you can guess and want to check your answer or give up then look at the <\/p>\n The Chinese origin of a well know saying<\/strong><\/p>\n Likewise The men were nightwatchmen; they would walk around the city in pairs, in the The sky is no longer the limit!<\/strong><\/p>\n Hold on to your socks. I hope you will be impressed when you learn that I have Some observations on Chinese customs<\/strong><\/p>\n I can\u2019t leave Beijing without posting some images of the Forbidden City. I think A response <\/strong><\/p>\n You might realise that I have been back from my trip for a few weeks now. I have Well,here we are again, dear readers. This time it is China, England and Wales. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8173,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7770\/revisions\/8173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nof Coffs. The flight from Coffs to Sydney hugs the coast so, image my horror, as
\nwe saw the runway and carried on past. I immediately thought of flight MH370
\nthat is considered to have come down in the Indian Ocean. Our fate would have
\nbeen a colder one as we were heading to Antarctica. Just as the airport was left
\nbehind in the mist we turned right. I knew then that we were really headed for
\nthe Indian Ocean. Lucky for all of us the co-pilot must have wrested control
\nfrom the insane captain and we went right again and the runway come up out of
\nthe mist. I was so sorry that I did not have time to say a thank you to the
\nco-pilot but I had a tight connection to make. I did make the connection and we
\nare over 3 hours out from Sydney. It is very lucky that this text is not all
\nwiggly as we are flying over Mt Isa and the plane is bouncing up and down. I
\nknow a bit about flying so let me explain. The turbulence, in this case, is
\ncaused because the mining at Mt Isa leaves big holes in the ground so of course,
\nas we fly over the uneven ground the plane goes up and down.<\/p>\n
\nnot know that the ban extended to GMail. On reflection I should have realised
\nthat fact but I did not. So that is why you received the email telling you about
\nhow to read my latest exploits from a different email source, namely
\nbarrycoffs@yahoo.com. I have managed to setup a Yahoo free email account and it
\nappears to work. Oh! Well, if you are reading this then the mail, e variety, got
\nthrough. Technology is quite good on occasions. I can take control of the
\ncomputer at home by using the remote connection software Teamviewer. Because I
\ncan do everything as if I am sitting at home in the office and as our home
\ntheater system is able to controlled via a browser, when I want to Skype Judy I
\njump on the home computer, change the home theater from Pay TV to say, DVD and
\nback so Judy knows I am around and we Skype. Unless of course she has just got
\nto the exciting bit of a program then nothing will happen until it has finished.<\/p>\n![\"BDH_0233sm\"\n](\"https:\/\/www.pinncomp.com.au\/wb\/WebImages\/park.jpg\"\n)
<\/a\n>Earlier in the week I found a shop that sold Display Port (DP \u2013 in Chinese)
\nleads, one of which I wanted. I needed a lead greater than 1.5m and they had a
\n1.8 lead in the warehouse. While I waited for it to be delivered I chatted to
\nthe owners Justin and Candy. Candy\u2019s mum was deaf and they were interested in my
\nexperience with my aids to help them convince her to get some. I explained the
\nprocess of the hearing test and what digital aids could do. I rather think Kate,
\nmy longsuffering audiologist, would have been proud.\u00a0 Sadly, though I stopped
\nshort of telling them to give Kate a ring for a free hearing test (there is a
\nboard on the pavement outside Hearing Life in Coffs that attests to this). I
\nthought there was probably a place they could go to a bit nearer that Coffs. I
\ndid give them my email address so that if they needed any more help they could
\nget in touch.<\/p>\n<\/a\n>Attached to the hotel in Shenzhen was a spa and sauna complex. So I decided to
\nindulge. I was sitting in the sauna and I suddenly realised how like it was to a
\nday on Brighton beach in England in summer. Imagine the scene; I was sitting on
\na wooden bench with a square of towel on my head not unlike the knotted
\nhandkerchief one finds on heads in Brighton. This was to protect one from the
\nheat even though I was sat down the cold end of the sauna where it was 83C
\n(181F). On reflection it was a bit hotter than Brighton and I also had no
\nclothes on which would have frightened a few English natives. I was a little
\nunprepared for the heat because I had just washed a couple of pairs of socks
\nbefore I went down to have the sauna and I should have taken them with me. I
\ncalculated that would have been dry in that heat in around 37 seconds. Undies by
\nthe way I reckon would be done in 29.<\/p>\n
\nProverb<\/strong\n><\/p>\n
\nit can turn out to be a sweet corn drink. Something I did not know existed so I
\nwas caught out. No matter, liquid sweetcorn was an interesting drink, not that I
\nwould rush to buy one again. Because I always buy Chinese food and cannot read
\nChinese I buy from menus with pictures. This also does not always work, I got
\ncaught out when I thought I was buying chicken with capsicum and instead ended
\nup with pork skins with chilli peppers. The rice was good \u2013 I got that right. I
\nam now on the high speed train from Shenzhen to Xian. It travels at an average
\nspeed of 230 km\/hr and regularly goes over 300 km\/hr, I clocked 308 km\/hr on my
\nGPS. The 2221 km journey takes 9:45min, so far we have gone over 1000kms and the
\nonly time we slow is for a station and after 4:30mins it is exactly on time. I
\nam travelling this leg of the broken journey to Beijing in 1st<\/sup> class.
\nOne is provided with a welcome snack and a continuous glass of China tea. In the
\nsnack are some dried peas, crab flavour! I have never drunk so much China Tea in
\none day before. I shared the first part of the journey with a lady who was Vice
\nPresident \u2013 Sales \u2013 Asia Pacific of a Spanish Wind Turbine manufacturing
\ncompany. She told me, among other things, that China is about to change the
\nrules for children born to a family from one to two. Her father is quite hard of
\nhearing and quizzed me regarding my hearing aids. This time my sales pitch was
\nrather more polished than when I gave it to Justin and Candy. I purchased the
\nticket on line and had to collect a paper ticket from the station in Shenzhen. I
\nhad been queueing up at window 11 booking hall A2 for about 30mins and was
\nnearing the front of the line when a Canadian named Rick came up to chat. He
\nwanted to know if I was sure that it was the right line and I said I was nearly
\ncertain. Anyway we chatted for a few minutes and I said he should wait with me
\nto save the long wait at the back of the line. We collected out tickets and my
\nreward from him was a Metro pass with 90yuan (over $20) credit. An act of
\nkindness repaid. We have now been going 8hrs and have just left Luoyang Longmen.
\nWe had a short wait in the station as we arrived early. I am thinking it is a
\nlot easier to run a high speed train system in China than in other places with
\nall relatively new trains and equipment.<\/p>\n
\nHigh-speed Rail). I had done my research and I knew how to get to my hotel by
\nmetro, that bit was easy, with the help of friends. I asked a couple at the
\nmetro station if I was at the best exit for King Town No.1 Hotel. They were not
\nsure and another young lady stopped. She knew the hotel but knew no English.I
\nunderstood the hand signals for come this way, so, 850 meters later (by my GPS)
\nwe arrived at the hotel. Where is a stuffed Koala when you need one. She
\neventually took 10 yuan – for a cup of coffee. She was happy and turned around
\nand went on her way. No so well done King Town No.1 – they wanted me to pay for
\nthe room again on top of the payment I made last February. None of the 4 evening
\nreceptionists knew any English and none of me understood any Chinese. The only
\nChinese I know is Bei Khan \u5317\u9435\u8def\u7ad9, North Railway station that did not seem to
\ncome naturally into the flow of conversation. We were saved by an IPhone app
\nthat translates Chinese to English although it did not seem to be fool-proof.
\nThe first attempt was money for a brush compartment. After about an hour or of
\nphone calls, translations, lots of sorries it was accepted by a majority of 3 to
\n2 (me + 2 girls against the 2 other girls) that I had, in fact, paid. I parted
\nwith 300 yuan as a cash deposit. I knew nothing else would go wrong. That is
\nuntil…..<\/p>\n
\nfun started. The young man on duty spoke some English – more than North Railway
\nstation thank goodness. He wanted me to pay again but due to my hour of practice
\nlast night he was on a looser. I returned to my room and got my booking receipt
\nwhich clearly said I had paid for breakfast. Out came the IPhone and off we went
\ntranslating Breakfast and Included. That was when we started bargaining – he
\nwanted to give me 2 days instead of 4. I told him I had reduced Indian market
\ntea traders to tears with my bargaining so he had better be good. I stood firm
\nat 4 when the manager came out. He was clearly a man of integrity and after a
\nbrief chat 4 tickets were written out. Hand shakes all round, bowing and the
\nmanager escorted me to breakfast. Phew, I was exhausted. I am ready for any
\ntrouble with the Xian warriors tomorrow although I think the majority are made
\nof terracotta.<\/p>\n
\ntold me that GPS coordinates and their position on Chinese maps do not agree.
\nRay is an engineer and, like me he computer dabbles. Earlier you will have read
\nthat a young lady helped me find the King Town No1 so I had no need to use the
\nGPS to find it. However, after a walk around the Mosque market I wanted to go
\nhome. No problem I thought, I set a course for the hotel (which I had stored in
\nthe GPS at home before I left) and when the GPS marked the exact spot, I was in
\na back alley outside a fruit and veg stall with no hotels in sight. I walked
\naround in circles for a bit and then gave up. I spotted a man in uniform so I
\nshowed him the hotel address (in Chinese) and he went over to a man on a
\nmotorbike. This, for me, turned out to be a grave mistake. Before I knew it I
\nwas on the pillion and we were off. I soon came to realise 7 things.<\/p>\n\n
\nseater coach.<\/li>\n
\nill effects.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\non the GPS for future, less traumatic, homecomings.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nterracotta warriors\u2019 site. It was just after 2 pm when I located the No 5 (306)
\nstand There was no queue and a few people were boarding the coach\u00a0so all looked
\ngood for the trip next day. I set out early from the new position of the hotel
\n(not the fruit and veg stall).When I arrived at the coach stand there was queue
\nabout 50m long. Luckily the queue moved quickly because as one No 5 (306) filled
\nand moved off another empty No 5\u2026 took its place. I\u00a0was impressed as the coaches
\nlooked new and comfortable –\u00a0except the one I got on. This was a local bus style
\njust like the ones that do the 354 run down Bray street\u00a0at home.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nask him if he had even done the 354 to Park Plaza run. The ride was fine, one
\ncannot complain about 42 km for Aus $1.54 The warriors are stunning to see,
\nanyway judge for yourself. These are a few of what is thought to be 8000
\nwarriors, many of which still await excavation. <\/p>\n
\n
\nteenagers learning English but for now here are a few photos. The images have
\nbeen scaled down to fit on the web page and as such do not convey the full
\nimpact. I will upload larger versions in the next few days. Rishengchang
\nExchange Bank -Pingyao
\n<Click on the photos to see a larger image><\/em\n>
\n<\/a\n>The earliest draft bank in China, Rishengchang (means that the shop would be
\nprosperous like the rising sun in Chinese) was established in 1823 during the
\nearly Qing Dynasty. It was the cornerstone of modern Chinese banking.\u00a0It was the
\nforerunner for organizing China’s early finance system, handling remittance,
\nmoney exchange, deposit, loan and other financial business. There were 35
\nbranches throughout China. Its business covered Europe, America and Southeast
\nAsia.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/a\n>This is the main courtyard of the hotel that I am staying in. Pingyao is world
\nheritage listed and is over 2,700 years old. The husband and wife who own the
\nhotel both speak excellent English which is refreshing. Interestingly there are
\nmore English speakers here in China (300 million) than in the USA (280 million)
\n <\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/a\n>Below is a typical street with a gate in the city wall at the end. The streets
\nhave a relaxed (for China) feel about them as there are limited cars allowed
\ninside the city wall. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt was a huge structure, so wide at the top one could hire bicycles or tandems
\nand ride around the top of the wall. The wall built initially during the old
\nTang Dynasty (618 – 907) and later extended, now it stands 12 meters tall, 12-14
\nmeters wide at the top and 15-18 meters thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 km
\nin length with a deep moat surrounding it. Every 120 meters, there is a rampart
\nwhich extends out from the main wall. Altogether, there are 98 ramparts, which
\nwere built to defend against the enemy climbing up. What am I? I promised you
\nearlier to relate the story of the 10 teenagers learning English and I will keep
\nthat promise. I am now on the way to Beijing at a brisk 240 km. The CRH \u2013 China
\nRail High speed is a marvelous service being clean, efficient, comfortable and
\npunctual. A real delight to a train loving youth challenged person. First, can
\nyou guess what this describes? It is word for word and capitalisation from the
\npackaging:<\/p>\n\n
\nshredded.<\/li>\n
\nhardware factory<\/li>\n
\nbottom of the page. I was out for my morning walk the other day when a group of
\n10 teenagers led by a young man called Jerry came up to me. They wanted to
\npractice English for a school project and wondered if I would mind them talking
\nto me. Of course, I agreed. Their command of English was very good using words
\nlike \u2018appreciation\u2019. First they all took a photo of me; they requested that my
\nsun hat remain on. We talked about Australia, Sydney and Perth, distances and
\nclimate. I thought about telling them about Coffs Harbour and Park Plaza
\nShopping centre but decided it would not get them any extra marks so I left that
\nout. I also took care not to include words like Bonza, struth mate etc. We spent
\na very pleasant 10 minutes chatting and I wished them all well and I left much
\nbetter for the experience.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a\n>Pingyao\u00a0has\u00a0a\u00a0wall around the city which is 6.3 km\u00a0around\u00a0the perimeter.\u00a0It\u00a0was
\nbuilt approximately 2275 \u00a0years ago, 260BC. Near one of the 8 gates there was
\nthis pair of bronze statues. <\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhours of darkness, and effectively announce the time. \u00a0One of the men had a gong
\nand the other had a \u2018clapper\u2019 and so when the men were late they would have to
\nhurry to catch up, hence the expression \u2013 \u2018To go like the clappers \u2019. I
\nparticularly want to spend time seeing the Forbidden City again in Beijing. I
\nhave seen it once before but it really worth another visit. So, I will sign off
\nfor now. By the way did you guess what I bought from the text on the package? It
\nwas a vegetable peeler. Too easy!!<\/p>\n
\ncreated and uploaded this web page to our web server whilst on EK001 from Dubai
\nto London seat 58G at 38,000 a bit to the left of Tehran. Emirates, the airline
\nwith whom I am flying, now provide a Wi-Fi connection in economy. If I get bored
\nwith the Internet I can watch over 2000 channels of entertainment.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\n
\n<\/a>
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\n
\nthem easier targets for motorists and cycle bike riders to pick off. There
\nis no concept that a person on a pedestrian crossing has any right of way.
\nIn fact, I found it easier to cross a road anywhere but on a crossing as one
\nis better able to catch the motorist\/cyclist unawares and sneak over the
\nroad before they can take aim. If you do get caught in their headlamps stare
\nthem down and defy them to run you over.<\/li>\n
\nwith anyone of any age.<\/li>\n
\nto make the subsequent stampede rather more symmetrical.<\/li>\n
\nwas not so many of the\u00a01.357\u00a0billion in China.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nthe most beautiful parts are the roofs. There are very few items on display in
\nthe palaces and any beautiful artworks in the city are in the museum and not in
\ntheir natural settings hence my images of the roof designs.<\/p>\n
\n
\nhad many, many complaints from 2 of my readers wondering why I just stopped
\nwriting. There are a few complex reasons but let me just say that here I am to
\nfinish off my trip. After leaving Beijing I flew to London and spent some 5
\nweeks in the UK. There were some great highlights inluding a wedding in Wales.
\nSadly the wedding clashed with the Wales vs Italy World Cup Rugby warm up match
\nand an England vs Austrlia one day cricket match. I am glad to say all three
\nfixtures were well attended. Two had to be watched on the repeat. Needless to
\nsay I watched the cricket live – no! no! I am joking I attended the wedding live
\nand even took some photos to prove it. I saw live the first England vs Austrlia
\none day cricket match at Southhampton. My long suffering friend Jeremy and I had
\ngreat seats and really enjoyed thge day out. Maybe I enjoyed it marginally more
\nas the Aussies won! We also spent two great days in London and saw some
\noutstanding art and architecture. A week was spent in Wallace and Grommit
\ncountry – the Yorshire Dales. This is where Wensledale cheese is made and great
\ncheese it is too. There is a famous line in the animation “A Close Shave” where
\nWallace falls for the owner of the local wool shop, the lovely Wendolene
\nRamsbottom and asks her in for tea and cheese. She does not like cheese and
\nWallace says “It’s Wensledale” it abject horror. The Wensledale creamary has
\nnever looked back since. We saw a sign advertising a Steam Fair so Jeremy and I
\nthought we would have a look. There was no clear address so we asked in our
\nvillage and found that it was at Hunton some 22 kms away. Now the strange thing,
\nduring the whole drive to the villiage there was no one sign pointing the way.
\nWhen we arrived at Hunton we asked a local man and he told us which field it was
\nin. There were 100’s of people there but it was a mystery how they all found out
\nabout it. OK, that’s all folks. See you next time, Barry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"