2012
4th January 2012
China Beyond the Great Wall by Paul Whittle
This was a most interesting slide presentation by Paul (left) which covered an unusual trip to China about 6 years ago. Not a tourist talk covering the great landscapes and well-known buildings, but a chance to view areas where very few Europeans have ventured. In fact, the highlights of a 2,000 mile journey from bustling Beijing and Xian, through industrial and mining areas, to the remote and bleak mountainous Jing Peng region of Inner Mongolia.
Paul has a special interest in heritage railways and is Vice Chairman of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society which supports the World Heritage line in north-east India. Indeed, the group he travelled with were all railway gurus hence their somewhat unusual choice of itinerary. The only downside was that contact with the locals was somewhat restricted as, apart from their guides, nobody they met in the rural areas spoke English.
Actually, Paul did have just one word –“Hello”. This rather limited any useful conversation! Moving without their guide was also a bit restricted due to the street signs being in Chinese characters, also known as a Han character - a logogram used in writing Chinese. The number of Chinese characters contained is approximately 47,000, although a large number of these are rarely used variants accumulated throughout history. Studies carried out have shown that full literacy in the Chinese language requires knowledge of between three and four thousand characters.
In the Chinese writing system, the characters are monosyllabic, each usually corresponding to a spoken syllable with a basic meaning. However, although Chinese words may be formed by characters with basic meanings, a majority of words in Mandarin Chinese require two or more characters to write but have meaning that is distinct from, but dependent on, the characters they are made from.
Hence 課程 is Alpha or see Confucius below.
With some slide maps of China (below) Paul explained that China is the third largest country (after Russia and Canada) but with a hugely larger population of over one and a half billion - and still expanding, even with the restriction of one child per family in the city and urban areas.
Paul emphasised the inequalities between rich and poor and between the cities such as Beijing/Shanghai and the remote villages. Air pollution in the cities is often bad due to the temperature variation of cold in winter requiring heat and in the summer requiring power for air conditioning, both supplied by coal burning power stations in or very near the cities. This was almost the same condition we had in the UK in the 50's with, say, Battersea power station and indeed Kingston power station plus individual coal fires and the resulting smog but only in the winters!
He mentioned that the Chinese are massively expanding their infrastructure of high speed trains and tracks, plus motorways even with toll roads, in spite of the communist political culture where all were supposed to be equal. Examples are shown below. Since Paul’s visit, virtually all the steam locomotives have been replaced by diesel and high speed aerodynamic electric trains: the few steam locos left are only to be seen in factory/mine facilities.
After leaving Beijing, Paul continued by train and mini coach over 2,000 miles through industrial and mining areas, to the remote and bleak mountainous Jing Peng region of Inner Mongolia. His many slides covered the basic life style of village life and coal mines some of which had been abandoned when the coal had all been extracted. In one place, the mine’s water pumps had been switched off and the polluted water had risen to engulf an entire village.
Coal Trains the last being replaced by Diesel
Motorway Toll Booths Tiananmen Square
Bejing Railway Station part of the new China impressive infrastructure
Paul joked do not forget where you left your bike
A fine example of a great steam locomotive in the Bejing Museum
Brick making by hand.
Village girls in Inner Mongolia –just two of China’s population of one and a half billion.
The one child policy still applies to many regions.
The few steam locos left are only to be seen in factory/mine facilities
Rural poverty –the town butcher and family at Reshui, Inner Mongolia
Freight train –Jitong Railway, Inner Mongolia
Riding the rails in Inner Mongolia –Paul Whittle tries the luxury of a freight train brake van in Inner Mongolia.
(Not recommended!)
Jitong Railway – Inner Mongolia
Paul’s talk concluded with a look at some of the principal tourist sites of Beijing, including the Mao Mausoleum and the Forbidden City –the largest palace complex in the world.
Terracotta Army
Beijing -The Mao Tse Tung Mausoleum The ‘Great Leader’ is still much revered.
The vote of thanks was given by Brian Cannel who not only worked for his Company in China but was married there, Brian said the presentation brought back very fond memories of that great land and warmly thanked Paul and the membership responded in our normal fashion, thanks a lot Paul.
More details of Paul’s other talks can be found here................more.
Photographs above are with thanks to Paul Whittle
