China '05 Pics

[JBMoney]

Kind of a weak batch of photos, compared to the '04 China trip. Unfortunately, a lot of the best stuff I did I never took pictures of... they just seemed like real inappropriate places to break out a camera, like some urban commando tourist. For example, walking through a four foot wide hutong alley surround by Chinese and probably being the only white guy to come through there so far this year. Meh... just keep walking... for the love of God, don't slow down!

Anyhow, there's a lot of pictures of me, so possibly some updated photoshop source material, at a minimum. There's text below most of the pictures.

http://bressler.org/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=30

[RicardoHead]

Totally cool pics JB. Awesome.

But what's up with the swastika in pic #16 (http://bressler.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=3094&c=30)? Does it have anything to do with the fact that this (http://bressler.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=3090&c=30) looks vaguely like this (http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/Bilder/Arbeit-macht-frei.jpg)?

And notice the similarities between this dude (http://bressler.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=2961&c=30) and Lawgiver from Planet Of The Apes (http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Planet_Apes-lawgiver-statue.jpg)? Or that this (http://bressler.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=2995&c=30) looks just like the missile God scenes from Beneath The Planet Of The Apes? Face it man, the Forbidden City is really Ape City. :Poke:

And where're all the pics of the hot 90 pound hotties in the hotel?

[JBMoney]

Oh good, i didn't know I got one of those in. Quite a few of the big golden Buddhas actually have big swastika's on their chest.

The swastika is an archetypal, universal human religious symbol. It appears on every continent and is as old as humankind. A marker of the sun's travels, it can be seen on Pictish rock carvings, adorning ancient Greek pottery, and on ancient Norse weapons and implements. It was scratched on cave walls in France seven thousand years ago. A swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures, and is often inciused on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. In the Jain religion, it is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. To Native Americans, the swastika is a symbol of the sun, the four directions, and the four seasons.

...The swastika used in Buddhist art and scripture is known as a Manji, and represents Dharma, universal harmony, and the balance of opposites. When facing left, it is the Omote (front) Manji, representing love and mercy. Facing right, it represents strength and intelligence, and is called the Ura (rear facing) Omoje. Balanced Manji are often found at the beginning and end of buddhist scriptures. You can read more about Manji here.

I believe the official Nazi swastika is tilted 45 degrees.

[JBMoney]

And where're all the pics of the hot 90 pound hotties in the hotel?

Yeah, I'm just not a very good person for taking pictures. If I didn't have a website I probably wouldn't take any at all.

The staff of the hotel was... stunning.

The staff of the restaurant was... amazing.

The "staff" at the nightclub on the bottom floor was... fairly inexpensive by American standards, but probably pricey by Chinese standards. Nightclub has kind of a different meaning in China.

[RicardoHead]

So nightclubs there are like in Tijuana? What's it roughly cost over there?

[Pistol Pete]

One time I was looking at a Chinese Mauser and it had a lot of swastikas stamped on it. I asked about them and the guy said that was common for some areas of China. They were intended for good luck.

BTW, the Nazi version points towards the right. The US 45th Infantry had the swastika for their emblem until 1940. Now it's the Thunderbird.

Strange, that the year the patch was introduced, Hitler was arrested for trying to overthrow the German government. :worry:

[JBMoney]

I don't think like Tijuana. For the most part they are Karaoke clubs and you pay for gals to spend time with you in the Karaoke rooms... or more depending on the club.

I've been to one in Shanghai where three guys could spend time with three girls, for the night, in the karaoke room for 800 yuan (100 bucks). As far as I could tell, the Chinese take the karaoke pretty seriously (even beyond the nightclubs). Karaoke, dance, etc. I didn't stick around long enough to see how far it went, if it did.

I guess it never registered to me that 'nightclub' is a pretty standard term in China, which is much different than here. One night I got to my hotel late, but wasn't too tired, so instead of ordering a beer through room service I went to the nightclub... figured it would be cheaper and more interesting to drink at the bar there. It was. It was like the Shanghai setup, although MUCH nicer. I had one of the gals show me all over the place and the karaoke rooms were freaking awesome.

Anyhow... this place was pretty expensive being attached to a nice hotel. From my recollection 4-5 hours in a karaoke room was 800 yuan... and, not that I'd know, but less the usual negotiations, I'd guess that an hour back up in your room would be 1200 yuan and for the whole night 2000 yuan. Just a rough guess of course. I think pretty pricey by Chinese standards.

[DMS]

Great pictures JB. How long is the flight to Bejiing, and was it non-stop?

[RicardoHead]

1200 Yuan or 150 bucks for an hour? I don't know if that's cheap or not even in the western world.

Last time I was in Vegas I was handed a flyer and discount coupon by some illegal on the Strip for a visit for $85. Some other dude wanted my flyer because his had $95.

Over in Munich the going rate for some hot looking Czech sex slave immigrant was about $65 including the room (a friend and I drove down hooker alley and asked), and if you find the right crackwhore in Amsterdam I'm told you can probably get it for $50 or so - DMS would know for sure. :Poke:

Still, what's with 800 Yuan for karaoke? I thought karaoke would be free. Do you pay to go to a private room and sing so no one can hear you croaking away, but cute girls hang out and act like you're a rock star? Did you get all dolled up like Freddie Mercury for the babes, JB?

[Ojive]

I thought karaoke would be free.
When I lived in Japan and that has been a while, you'd get either a 5K-10K (50-100 bucks)yen card to use for each song, they were like 250 (3.00 bucks)yen per song, the more they drank the better singer they had become and thus hella money spent. So it could very easily get very expensive with drinks and singing!

[JBMoney]

Great pictures JB. How long is the flight to Bejiing, and was it non-stop?

It's non-stop from San Francisco, naturally. But I did take an "express" flight from Sacramento as I made arrangements with very short notice. There are non-stops from Sacramento though.

They take different routes, for reasons not specified to me. Sometimes they go very far north. On the way there, I actually got to fly over Alaska and parts of Kamchatka during sunset. It was sunset for pretty much the whole trip as I departed and arrived at pretty much the exact same time, but one day later. It was some awesome scenery!

On the way back, I flew over Japan. So we basically went straight over the pacific, instead or arcing over the northern route. I got back to Sacramento, before I left China.

I believe the northern route was approx 13 hours. The Pacific route was approx 12 hours.

[JBMoney]

1200 Yuan or 150 bucks for an hour? I don't know if that's cheap or not even in the western world....

Still, what's with 800 Yuan for karaoke? I thought karaoke would be free. Do you pay to go to a private room and sing so no one can hear you croaking away, but cute girls hang out and act like you're a rock star? Did you get all dolled up like Freddie Mercury for the babes, JB?

Wow. Ricardohead concerned over price. Whoda thunk it? :)

As I said, it was an expensive place. It's attached to one of the best hotels in the city. Also, that's pre-negotiation. Everything here is negotiable. Did I shop around for a product I wasn't interested in buying? No.

Like I also said though, the one place in Shanghai (which is also an expensive city) was 800 yuan for the whole night for three gals in the Karaoke room. So I imagine if you're trying to save $25-$50 on a piece of ass, and want to get involved with arranging transportation, leaving the hotel, etc., you could easily do so. You could also go to Thailand instead.

The karaoke thing is a fairly elaborate production. You get the use of, in this case, a very nice room, the karaoke equipment (tv, mike, etc), you get drink service while you are there, snacks (?), you get the girls while you are there (and they do more than just dance). I'm not entirely sure what else, as I did not partake.

However, even outside of the 'nightclub' setting, Karaoke is a huge deal here. I never got around to seeing your typical Chinese karaoke place, although Wei Wei is apparently a frequent Karaoke-ist (?). I have no idea how much it is if it costs at all.

[RicardoHead]

The karaoke thing is a fairly elaborate production. You get the use of, in this case, a very nice room, the karaoke equipment (tv, mike, etc), you get drink service while you are there, snacks (?), you get the girls while you are there (and they do more than just dance). I'm not entirely sure what else, as I did not partake.

However, even outside of the 'nightclub' setting, Karaoke is a huge deal here. I never got around to seeing your typical Chinese karaoke place, although Wei Wei is apparently a frequent Karaoke-ist (?). I have no idea how much it is if it costs at all.
Is this (http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=video&file=money_money_money.wmv)what you mean by an elaborate huge deal? :cool:

[RicardoHead]

Some insanely beautiful pics of China (http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~fj102/photo/beautiful%20china.htm) (not to take away from yours, JB)

[JBMoney]

I believe those are from Guilin (seen them before), a bit North of Hong Kong. Wei Wei's (http://bressler.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=2908&c=30) family is from there and she went down for Spring Festival. A 27 hour train ride from Beijing. :o

[Spotter]

They take different routes, for reasons not specified to me. Sometimes they go very far north...
...
On the way back, I flew over Japan. So we basically went straight over the pacific, instead or arcing over the northern route. I got back to Sacramento, before I left China.

I believe the northern route was approx 13 hours. The Pacific route was approx 12 hours.
It is because of two things. One is the rotation of the earth. Two, and most importantly, is the jet stream.

[JBMoney]

and the Gremlins right?

[Spotter]

and the Gremlins right?Naturally. I didn't want to mention it and scare you.