As Seen by TV

Think your commute is bad?  Check out a video I took of mine: People’s Square @ Rush Hour (alternate link).

I wish I could travel in some sort of style, like in this BAW (Beijing Automobile Works) BJ2022 Brave Warrior MkII, a Chinese-style Hummer (”Han Ma“, or Bold Horse in Chinese), even though a Chinese company currently owns Hummer (view American reactions here).

 

Sure, one could say it is a copy of the American HMMWV (”Humvee/Hummer”), but we would also have to mention the Hummer was copied off the Lamborghini Cheetah (built in California by Lambo for the US military) which, in turn was copied off the XR311.
Fun fact: the US Army crashed and destroyed the only prototype Cheetah and never returned it to Lambo, 3 years later the Hummer emerged.

Lamborghini eventually scrapped the Cheetah (most likely in part due to it’s nutty 3-gear 5.9L V8 Chrysler engine), then built the LM001, and in 1986 unveiled the LM002 (aka the “Rambo Lambo“) production model at the Brussels Auto Show, one of the coolest and most sought after cars of the 1980’s with it’s 42 valve 5.2L V12 engine taken out of the Countach (also undoubtedly one of the coolest cars of the 80’s).   The LM002 subsequently held the record for most horsepower in a SUV (455HP) for over 20 years until Porsche manufactured it’s most powerful engine ever and produced the Cayenne Turbo S (550HP).
Only 301 LM002’s were ever built in it’s 7 year lifespan and I have been lucky enough to see one in the flesh on the mean streets of Overschie, Holland back in the mid 90’s.  I still remember it like it were yesterday, with those custom Scorpion tires… what a beast.
Fun fact #2: Hunter S. Thompson (a hero of mine) owned one.
Fun fact #3: Iraq, 2004; not knowing it’s value or rarity, the US military (irony?) found a LM002 that had belonged to Uday Hussein and used it to “simulate the effects of a car bomb”.  Boom.  Only the engine “survived”… talk about war crimes.

Read more about the Lamborghini LM002 here.

[überholprestige- German term for the ability of a car to intimidate drivers into moving out out the way]

I have to take Friday off which means that yes, I don’t get paid for working on Christmas Day… one of the negative aspects of living in a non-Christian nation.
My job almost sent me off to Chongqing for 2 weeks (for what, I still don’t know), but I fought back.
Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas.

As feared, my whole website has been blocked here in China amidst a recent massive crackdown on… uhm, beautiful photography?   Who knows, but who cares, it is just ridiculous how the government blocks blocks blocks.

I am accessing this now via proxy, and was going to offer a link for fellow people stuck up the same creek, but considering you now need the software to even get here, it would be pointless.   In the upcoming weeks I will be researching various alternatives… Freedur, VPN, etc.

Damn you Great Firewall of China!

“Proper Management of Internet Brings About Harmony”
[ChinaDaily.com.cn - 2009-12-01]

Happy St. Nick’s Day (the real Santa)!

Random images from the week… the best damn fried dumplings in Shanghai (so far), meat piles at my local supermarket (Tesco), and among the winnings are stuffed animals or packs of cigarettes!

 

(* Taoist proverb)

Thought I’d share some stories from my days in Chongqing.  If you just want the photos, check below for the previous post.

I was picked up at the airport by a Taoist (Taoism/Daoism are the same, just difference pronunciation) volunteer/disciple/monk who although had GPS in his car, didn’t have a clue on how to get back to the monastery.  It was one of the scariest drives I’ve ever been on, considering we stopped on the highway three times.  He would then get out of the car and go running off into the bushes to ask for someone, anyone for directions.  When I say “stopped on the highway“, I literally mean that… not on the shoulder, not pulled off to the side, but in the middle of the lane (and there were only 2 lanes).  I felt like a sitting duck as cars, buses,  and trucks came whizzing past all honking and flashing their lights.  We also picked up a hitchhiker to help us part of the way (who we had to pay 20RMB for his troubles).  When we finally got into the mountains and to the monastery I understood why he couldn’t find it… there’s no way in hell I could ever find it again either.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive that time, when it should have been more like 45minutes.

The monastery itself was tranquil and beautiful, located in the Wudu (”foggy”) Mountains I understood the name immediately.  I was greeted with amazing spicy food, from chicken and beef, to liver and strange vegetables.  As well as a home-made rice wine, which was made only from local rice and fresh mountain water they collected right by the monastery.  I met many of the monks, although most keep quiet and to themselves… learning almost instantly to cup my left hand over my right with thumbs parallel, giving a slight bow and saying “wu liang shou fu” (blessings, and may peace be with us).
“Cupping of the hands represents a ‘taiji’ symbol (ying & yang), which symbolizes the whole universe in harmony, linking our sincerity and heart to the whole cosmos.”

I was there to document the monastery as a whole and to photograph the annual Ceremony of the Protector (the last several images from this post, below).  Also scheduled was a annual auction of  Chinese antiquities from pottery and statues to stamps and scrolls… all of which have been donated over the year by Taoist followers.  These followers wear white shirts, whereas the “professional” (ie-fully devoted) Taoists wear black or navy blue.

I also had the honor of meeting Mr. Lee, actually one of the most important religious figures in China.  A quiet and sweet man said to have amazing abilities including healing the sick with electrical currents.  I had been having tremendous back-pain for over a week (Chinese airline seats do not help!), had visited the hospital in Shanghai and received muscle relaxants and pain killers (did no good).  He was to administer his healing powers, but I admitted to my fears of becoming paralyzed.  Instead we opted for the more “traditional” Shaolung method… which involved a intense full-body massage with slapping, chopping, rubbing, and the release of stress through pressure points.  To say it hurt would be a understatement.  Then I was to find out what it felt like to become a human teabag (see image below).  I was put into a incredibly hot bath filled with herbs, spices, and blessed mountain-water., after which I was laid on another bed and made to rest… still covered in what I can only refer to as tea-particles.  I can not honestly say my back is healed (I still have aches to this day), but it did alleviate 80% of the pains.

Anyway, most of the trip is documented in the photos, as I could continue writing endlessly about the events that took place but hopefully my images are worth a thousand words.

The only other thing I would like to mention is CKG; Chongqing aiport… considering I spent too many hours there.  I arrived just before 5pm to find that 30+ flights were delayed (many supposed to have left between 6-11am), not to mention the fact that there were still 5 flights supposed to leave from my gate before me.  I knew what was going to happen.  What a chaos it became, people yelling and screaming… sitting/sleeping everywhere, and not a single person in that entire airport (staff included) who knew what was going on.  Sure, it was a little foggy outside and raining, but not that bad.  I have landed in typhoons, on snow, super dense fog, and this was nothing to write home about (although now, I’m writing about it on my blog ).  At just past 9pm, my 7:10pm flight was delayed 20min and said to depart at 7:30 (which was 1.5hrs ago)… so obviously no one knew what was going on.  There were also surprisingly little foreigners around, those several hours I spotted maybe 8, luckily for me I randomly met an Aussie about my age who was also trying to get to Shanghai, although he was supposed to have left around noon.   We witnessed a riot-starter, who was chanting something and then having everyone else reply… it was quite the scene, especially when both police and military police showed up to shut him down.
Well, around 1am the obvious news came that our flights were canceled… We somehow managed to get our hotel coupons and find the right bus (don’t ask me how, with all the pushing and yelling, I still do not know how we managed it so well).  More pushing and shoving later we were on the bus for almost an hour at some dodgy hotel (the lobby was on the 4th floor, the rooms were on floors 1-3 & 5-6).  To make a long story short, we were back at CKG around 8am the next morning (with double the fog density), and I finally took-off around 1pm.  I had never been so happy for a plane to leave the ground.  I have flown  1000+ hours and visited some 28 countries across the world without a single cancellation… something tells me this is just the beginning of another adventure.

Bring it on.

 

(apologies for the quality of the photos, they were all taken with my phone)

I am back from Chongqing (pronounced tchong-ching)!
I took 800+ images of a Taoist monastery in the Wudu mountains (”foggy mountains”) in the Beibei district north of the city, truly a great experience.  Not even my return flight through hell could diminish the amazing experience.  I was supposed to fly out of CKG at 19:10, but didn’t leave until 13:00 the following day… “bad weather”.  No worries however, as the verbal arguments, physical altercations, and riot-starters kept me amused.
The last couple images show the Ceremony of the Protector (the only religious ceremony I was allowed to photograph), the fog/mist mystically amplified the mysterious mood (!).

 

I am currently in the process of creating a 2010 desk calendar, roughly 500 will be printed and all proceeds will benefit the monastery.

ps- Happy Halloween!

Because I’ve been quiet for a while, thought I’d leak some of my Peruvian Panoramas taken during my 2007 trip through Peru (and Bolivia).  I took 50+ such pano’s and hope to showcase them one day, as they are stunning when viewed large.  Both these are composed out of 10 images, and you can see Machu Picchu in the center of the lower image.

I must also apologize for the watermarks, but you can thank Century 21 Real Estate for that, considering they stole several of my images a while back, photoshopping out my watermark and using them for marketing purposes (online, in-store, and even printed out copies as handouts when a good friend of mine posed as a “buyer”).  I subsequently brought them to court, and they squashed it.  You would think an international [albeit incompetent] firm like C21 could afford to support a local artist… but you would be wrong.  SHAME ON YOU CENTURY 21.

…is overrated.
But I’m far from the only one… it seems that our “week-long” holiday is in fact just a glorified long weekend considering the vast majority of people in China had to show up the weekend before the holiday as well as this weekend.  Pretty damn smart marketing.  Gimme a couple days off and gimme the weekends off would be 200% better for me, but whatever, that’s China.

I met a bunch of chill people through the Bulldog Pub, definitely a recommended hangout… they do [free] quiz nights, [free] pool tournaments (I won! I won!), and decent happy hours.  They also have free wi-fi, which sounds like nothing special, but it works better than my [paid] wi-fi at home.  I had taken some pictures last time I was there, but subsequently sat on my camera rendering it useless (yes, Timmy The Photographer finally broke his first camera… mazel tov!). Plus the Bulldog is situated right across the street from the American consulate, so if poop ever hits the fan, run across 2 lanes of traffic, scale the mean wall and you should be good (provided you have a US passport).

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of Bulldogs’ managers: “in China you could be one in a million, but that still means there are over a thousand others just like you.”