31 ธันวาคม 54 วันสิ้นปีเก่า...

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งานเชียงรายดอกไม้งาม ครั้งที่ 8 ธค.54 - มค.55

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ไม่มีอะไรใหม่ในโลกใบนี้ สิ่งที่เกิดมาคือสิ่งที่มีแล้วในอดีต หรือเปล่า?

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เพียงแต่รับรู้และเข้าใจมัน เราก็จะสามารถอยู่ได้อย่างไม่เกรงกลัว หรือสะทกสะท้านต่อสถานการณ์รอบข้าง

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 18 สค. 2554

BEIJING DAY 6 and USA 1-3

David J TAN (Gmail) to Tony Yang Fei ., Li Xia (Leah) ., ZHOU Hui Chao ., WANG, Than, me, Kelvin, Payom, Vivian
show details 8:10 AM (1 hour ago)

Dear all,

BEIJING DAY 6
On Friday morning, I went together with Tony's cousins to visit Olympic Park again, but this time we went into the Bird Nest to take a look. I watched the opening ceremony before and now, was able to see the actual location itself. The stadium is quite amazing, quite big and magnificent. Took many pictures.

After going back to hotel to shower and check out, then it's off to airport to catch the 4 pm flight. The plane was delayed a while and there was no aircon in the plane while waiting for take off. Was glad when it actually took off and the flight was smooth. After flying many hours and had dinner and breakfast on plane, we landed even earlier than we took off (ie. we left 4 pm on Friday and landed 12:40 pm on Friday). How in the world did that happened?

USA DAY 1
From the airport, I took the shutter to Napa and my cousin picked me up from there. We had a brief tour around Napa Valley (the wine country, with lots of vineyards) before heading for Pacific Union College. I spent the next few hours before sunset putting the final touch to tomorrow's Gourmet Vegan Lunch to celebrate my neice's graduation.

USA DAY 2
On Sabbath, went to PUC's Sabbath School and Baccalaureate. Then went home to have the Gourmet Vegan Lunch for 18 people. After lunch, we visited the art gallery where my niece's graduation art project was displayed. She did five art pieces, one for each of the building that she studied in. Then we stayed for the Presidential Reception at the lawn. PUC's President is the first Black American lady heading our Colleges and Universities.

Everybody was too full for a good dinner, so we had snacks at my cousin's home and I went to bed early because of jet lag.

USA DAY 3
Sunday 12 Jun is the graduation! It's held in the mountain top open air surrounded by pine trees. It's near the PUC airfield. After that, we came home for lunch.

And now, I am off to Sacremento to meet Past Doug Batchelor tomorrow morning.

God bless! Please remember me in your prayers!

Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com

On 09 Jun 2011, at 5:14 PM, David J TAN (Gmail) wrote:

On 09 Jun 2011, at 5:14 PM, David J TAN (Gmail) wrote:
Dear all,

Last night again slept around 12:30 am because of discussions with Andy's brother and cousin about the work here.

Yesterday, after waiting for them at the hotel, they travelled the whole day and night to reach Beijing we proceeded to do some sightseeing. This was their first trip here to Beijing.

We first went to the Prince's Residence. It's divided into two section, the front has three rolls of houses, the right roll for residence, the center role for worship and the left role is to receive guests and officers. At the end is one long block of two storey building, it's his storehouse and where he store his treasure. Behind this long block that runs across the property like a wall is his fabulous garden.

The we pass by the National Concert Hall and then stopped at National Museum. It's newly built over old facade. Very grand and big. Basemen is where they show the permenent items and above another four floors of temporary exhibition. There are many well preserved or restored antiques that I have not seen elsewhere. Taken lots of pictures. Took me a few hours just to walk through and take pictures.

After that, we went to the Tiananmen Square to take pictures. First time I step onto it, because the last time, it was under repair.

Then we took the car through Chan Ang Street, the main street that goes east to west. Again, this is the first time I went through this street from Tianamen to east side of Beijing. Passed by many important buildings.

We had dinner at a Korean mushroom hot pot restaurant. Overpowered with mushroom and mushroom soup. This is the third time in China I tried this, I don't think it's a good concept, a waste of mushrooms.

When we got back to hotel, I changed to a family room so that the three of us can stay in one room for the same price I paid earlier. After shower and moving, we started talking and discussion until 12:30 am.

Today is the last day, will visit Olympic Bird Nest then back to hotel to shower and leave for airport. My flight to US is 4 pm.

Please remember me in your prayer. This trip to Beijing is good and a blessing. Got to revisit places and see the progress of China and look at new places that I have not been to before and had my long awaited Chinese massage and ....

Bye bye China! Tomorrow will land in a totally different world, half way around the globe.

May God bless the work in China and may He continue to bless all that we do.

Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com

On 09 Jun 2011, at 8:29 AM, David J TAN

On 09 Jun 2011, at 8:29 AM, David J TAN (Gmail) wrote:
Dear all,

Last night came home very very late. 12:30 am. Went for Chinese massage. It was very good. Did the scraping and also the cupping. Whole back is full of black round marks.

After rain the day before, the sky was blue! So I decided to go to the Olympic site to take some nice pictures. But it was very hot. Went in the Water Cube, they have a children pool with tons of slides and games! Did not have time nor energy to go in the Bird Nest though.

The weather was so hot, so instead of visiting the next place, we stopped by a Islam restaurant to have noodle. I had the egg and tomato handmade noodle. Reminded me of Tony's favourite!

The next destination was supposed to be the Botanic Garden. But because of the heat, we decided to go to Fragrance Mountain instead. I visited the temple where China's Kuo Fo's body was first brought to. From the top of the temple, can see whole of west side of Beijing at a distance.

This mountain is very lovely, with many sites to see, I think I only visited 1% of it, didn't want to climb up the mountain, ran out of time, I must visit again if I do come to Beijing again. Chairman Mou had his first residence here in the famous and five star hotel. They say come in Autumn is best.

By the time I got out of Sian San, it's almost 5:00 pm, so had to miss the Botanic Garden and went back to hotel. After shower, I decided to try the subway and visited Raffles City Shopping Mall. So so. Again had la mein there for dinner. On the way back by taxi, went to massage nearby the hotel. After massage, walked back to hotel. That's it, one long, hot day with blue sky! Rare sight for Beijing to have blue sky.

Today? Andy's cousins is coming to stay with me for the night. I hope we get to go to the Museum and visit a Gongwanfu a famous prince's residence.

Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com

Day 3..... alot of moving around.

On 07 Jun 2011, at 10:53 PM, David J TAN (Gmail) wrote:
Dear all,

Day 3..... alot of moving around.

First my friend insisted that I should visit Yonghegong Lama Temple. It's a palace turned temple. The last temple has a Guiness World tallest or largest sandle wood statue of Buddha, carved in one piece, it's around three story high, very impressive. Reflect the dedication of Buddhist of past to spend effort and money to please their gods.

Then we went to the Gulou area and took a one hour sightseeing tour on tricycle around the Hou Hai (clear water lake) and one houtong (old housing area). I learned alot from the tricycle man about how to tell what is the ranking of officers staying in the house by looking at their doors and also some of the sayings of Beijing, what was its history. We passed by past Prime Ministers' residences and also royal family houses and even Russia's Past President Goberchev's house! I also found out Beijing in the past is divided into five areas: The center is the Palace, the East is for the rich Merchants, the West is important Court Officers, the South is for general workers and North is for poor peasants. Very distinct areas.

After the nice ride, we were off to Tiantan or also known as Temple of Heaven (the famous round temple). My, lots of walking! The audio guide mentioned the history of how that temple became the Temple of Heaven. And what must the Emperor do during the spring festival. He stayed there for three days, supposed to life a simple life and sacrifice and pray for a good harvest for the year to San Tee (Hevenly God). Today is hot, can faint with all the walking, thank God, Tiantan Park has lots and lots of pine trees! I heard one tree is equivalent to 5 air-cons.

Where did we go next? Oh yeah, we drop by the space ship or egg looking Beijing Opera House to take a few pictures. It's bigger than I thought. Very impressive! But many in Beijing and China did not like it as it does not represent China. To me, neither does the Olympic Bird Next for that matter. But it's an iconic building that's very nicely done.

I wanted a little bit of art, so one of the destination that I had wanted to go is 798. It's a factory area turn artist village. It is good start, but it's still a long way to go to compare with some of the more vibrant art villages that I have visited elsewhere around the world. Almost bought an art piece for my nephew's wedding. But the owner not in for me to negotiate price. So will have to find something else or failing which, will give him an angpow.

To round off the day, another very nice meal at a vegetarian restaurant. This time, it's really gourmet food! The food is presented in very expensive, artistic and unique serving dishes. The menu weights a ton! 1 meter long, 40 cm wide and 5 cm thick! Imaging they even have a branch in Tibet, unbeliever, gourmet vegan restaurant up in the mountains! It's call Pure Lotus! The place is full! Yesterday restaurant was also full!

Tomorrow? Off to the mountains to spend time in God's nature among old temples and perhaps to the botanic garden too, if time permit!

Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com

Dear all (Day 2 in Bijing)

Dear all,

Well I thought I can get to visit a few places today. Perhaps three, if not two. But I ended up only visiting Forbidden City for the whole day. They have done up so many areas within the Palace and opened up so many side rooms and buildings since I first visited the spwaring complex. And they had turned many of them into museums exhibiting different antiques. Great idea! The most interesting of these exhibition is the clocks that the Imperial Palace has collected through the years. I was wondering why these were left behind.

Another interesting observation was, the palace where the last few Emperors lived were preserved and you can look through the glass. However, they left it with dust and dirt and dirty windows and they also did not do up the buildings either. It looks so runned down. I was wondering why the contrast. My one conclusion is, perhaps China officials do not want to glamourize the imperial dynasties. Infact, there was even one building that they opened up to visitors that was half built and the exposed stell structures were rusting badly. The audio recording said that the imperial palace could not complete it because they ran out of money to build this european style "crystal" palace.

I was so tired walking and taking picture (yes, 8 hours of walking! Come to think of it, didn't even sit down to take a rest at all). At 4:30 pm, I wanted so much to visit one very huge new section where the directional sign said the "treasures" of China. However, my camera and me both ran out of energy, so no choice. Have to wait for next trip I guess.

I had a big buffet breakfast (with lots of eggs for energy!) at hotel and skipped lunch. Was planning to have dinner after sightseeing, but the first vegetarian restaurant shifted and second one closed! After an hour or more, we were able to finally, get some direction from a nearby hotel's bell captain to direct us to a nearby vegetarian restaurant. And he directed the driver to go to the new location of the first restaurant! Ambience good, food presentation great, taste.... so so. They already shifted there 3 years! I guess that's part and parcel of locating vegetarian restaurants in cities. No wonder vegetarians are more patience ..... hahaha.

Tomorrow? The suggesting is not to go into downtown.... perhaps we will to to Olympic site and a old temple site.

Yours in Christ,
David

E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com

Hi everybody,

On 05 Jun 2011, at 10:10 PM, David J TAN (Gmail) wrote:
Hi everybody,

Thanks Payom, Vivian and Tony for sending me to airport. Thanks also Than & Prayut and Kelvin for making sure I get on the airplane. Very nice of all of you, much appreciated.

After a long flight and midnight dinner, arrived Beijing Terminal 3 in 6:30 am. The airport is new and huge.

After checking in hotel, freshened up and slept a while. Then off to Great Wall, this time my contact brought me to Mutianyu Great Wall. They have cable going up and also come down by 1.58 km Toboggan sled ride, which was quite an enjoyable experience snaking around forest for ten minutes. It's like roller coaster ride, but slower.

Then went to Red Snail Temple. A major temple in Beijing up in the mountain. It has 500 Lo Han statues in the forested area as one of the attractions.

From these two tourist sites, it again highlighted to me the intense competition in China. Even the major attractions have to think of new ways and experiences to attract tourists to their site.

On the way back, Mr Su who drove me around shared with me that the next three days is Beijing's centralized examination for college entry and how difficult it is to make it to the Universities in Beijing. What's more, from this year onwards, the student will only have one chance in their lifetime to take the exam. If they signed up and missed it for whatever reasons (like traffic jam) or did not do well. That's it! Some parents in Beijing are paying RMB 2,000/ two hours just to get the top teachers to tuition... wow!

This evening, tried out a vegetarian restaurant. Very good food, but the mushroom dish was HOT!!! Had to rush back to hotel to go to the toilet after that.

Tomorrow, I am off to Imperial Palace..... downtown.

Well.... may you enjoy the relax pace of studies at AIU while I experience the intense lifestyle of Beijing!

Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com

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