Public Zone 公開區 > Travelogues 遊記相薄
Silk Road, China 絲綢之路 (18 Apr - 3 May 2003)
chin:
Ba Ling Shi (Ba Ling Temple) is famous for the Thousand Buddha Caves. Few hundred still remain after hundreds of years of building and destruction.
The three pictured here are either preserved well or was restored.
There are quite a few signs that marked the location of caves now buried underground when they built a dam in 1968.
This is the never ending sad struggle in developing countries - that given limited resources and means available, the future and the past simply cannot co-exists.
You know your future generations will mourn about the loses. But without building new ways of life, there may not be future generations to speak of.
chin:
27 meters tall, according to the information posted.
To the left of the giant Buddha is the stairs going up the the big cave on top where more stone carvings are found.
chin:
We took an overnight train from Lan Zhou to Jia Yu Guang.
During the journey the captain of the train asked me to switch to another room because "Senior Management" of the railway company is traveling on the same train and would like to have my soft sleeper.
When we arrived Jia Yu Guang the next morning, we literally got a cold reception. Not only the weather was freezing cold, no one came to the train station to pick us up.
Jia Yu Guang is essentially an one-company town. Jiuquan Steel Mill is the biggest employer complete with its own farm, nursery, etc... Nearby is the famous Jiuquen Satellite Launch Center.
chin:
During Tang, Han and the dynasties before Ming, the Chinese empire extended well beyond Jia Yu Guang further to the west, as evidenced by the pre-Ming Great Wall to the west of Jia Yu Guang.
However soon after Ming dynasty established its new capitol in Beijing, it reversed the open and expansionist policy, by sealed off trade routes and contacts with the outside world. Thus beginning of the 500-year long isolation (and decline.)
I don't quite know the reason for the reversal in policy. Story had it that the palace was hit by lighting and the Emperor took the event as heaven will and punishment, thus he started to reverse his policy to the other extreme.
As the isolation policy set on, the western border is retreated eastward to Jia Yu Guang.
chin:
This is the general's quarters inside the very large fortress.
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