Return Of The Son Of Dirty Laundry Blues, Trips To Historic Sites, And Engrish
Strong enough for Balding Great Wall, but made for wireless networks
Hello, everyone. I'm sorry that I've not posted anything throughout the last two weeks. I've been quite busy with my studies. Since my last posting, I have visited two historic sites and, more than anything else, I want to share some photos of these places (and the signs I've seen there) with all of you. Unlike during the preceding weeks, nothing earth-shattering happened to me; I'm quite thankful for that. While I'm writing this, however, I'm experiencing more problems with the laundry machine. Enh.
Badaling Great Wall
On 23 October, Cheryl and I visited Badaling Great Wall, a site approximately one hour's drive outside of Beijing. This is the first of a series of (approximately) monthly trips organised by the school for long-term international students. A large number of my classmates went, as well, and I encountered many of them throughout the day. We spent two hours climbing up and down the wall, which really is quite steep in places. I recommend that those who are not in good shape work-out at the gym for a couple of weeks before attempting to climb along this part of the Great Wall. I can't imagine how difficult the Great Wall Marathon is going to be for Dean and another of my classmates, Olov, a Swede who is one of my class's most talented and hard-working students.
Here's a nice photo of Cheryl. It's nice not because I snapped the shot, but because she framed it. She used to work for a wedding photographer in Toronto, so she rapidly developed a good eye for placing persons in settings. If I were less lazy, I might crop the photo for to centre the arch.
Cheryl, relaxing after a steep section of wall
A section of Great Wall which was too busy for us
An as-yet-unrestored portion of the Great Wall
The Gretag-Macbeth Colour Checker at Badaling Great Wall
Here's a photo of a cool guy named Matt. He did a Ph. D. at Harvard in Biotech, and he was, until recently, a student at BLCU. He got a good job at a biotech research company in Beijing, and decided to withdraw from school. However, before he withdrew, he had already registered for the trip, and so he had a ticket.
It's a smiling Matt! Isn't he cute?
Is this the kind of Bactrian used in yoghurt?
Another fine example of Engrish
And another
Yet another
Only the finest ingredients are used here
Bad Engrish
Conchita and I had lunch and went shopping on the day after the trip to the part of the Great Wall Which Is Losing Its Hair. She was the only one of us intending to make purchases, so I served as her 'man-bag/purse'. While we were shopping, I noticed some wonderful Britesh Engrish. Is Conchita as innocent as she looks, or is she really abetting the abuse of a camera to photograph some heinous uses of the English alphabet?
It's a smiling Conchita! Isn't she cute?
Let's get a closer look at that logo, shall we?
China's National Day
01 October is China's National Day. On 01 October 1949, Mao Zedong declared in Tiananmen Square the official founding of the People's Republic Of China, while the Guomindang was fleeing to Taiwan. Olov and a friend of his went to see the flag-raising ceremony on 01 October, but I decided to sleep-in because I'd had a bit of a cold. According to Olov, it wasn't particluarly interesting. I had lunch with Cheryl, Conchita, and Linda, who is a friend from Waterloo, and who is also a sister-in-law of my master's thesis supervisor, Steve. She is currently in Beijing visiting her parents, who live in Beijing's Chaoyang District.
Later in the day, I met someone who has since become a language partner for me, Xiaoying. She attends another university in Beijing, but she is originally from Lanzhou, the world's capital for factories. According to author Peter Wessler in his book 'Oracle Bones' (which I highly recommend), if you've got something which was manufactured in China, it was probably manufactured in Lanzhou. At least, that's one thing which I think he wrote. Anyway, she seems far more promising than SMS Girl, and far more interesting, to boot.
Yihe Yuan
Today, five of us went to Yihe Yuan to see some of the more famous structures in Beijing. Dean, Olov, a Korean classmate of mine whose Chinese name is Huizhen, and her Korean roommate, whose Chinese name is Xuanying. At one point, after a walk along the 728-metre-long Long Corridor, and approximately an hour after we arrived, we rented a motorised boat with which we could navigate Kunming Lake. We travelled throughout an hour, and saw the famous Marble Boat, the purchase of which bankrupted the (already shattered) Chinese Navy when Dowager Empress Cixi commissioned its construction. We also visited the Tower Of Buddhist Incense, in which I saw a statue of Avalokitesvara.
We had much fun, but we were all pooped by the time we left Yihe Yuan.
It's a smiling Xuanying, Huizhen, and me. Aren't we cute?
Girls
And boys
The Gretag-Macbeth Colour Checker at Yihe Yuan
The Gretag-Macbeth Colour Checker with the Marble Boat
A majestic view
I have to admit that the toilet is an important site
The meaning of this is probably not at all obvious to most speakers of English
Does this mean that persons who need wheelchairs can come hither for healing?
Is someone able to tell me exactly what I am allowed to do?
An ad for a deck of playing cards
This place apparently uses different ingredients from what are used at Badaling Great Wall
This reminds me of LLAP-Goch
posted by Jean-Guy! at 10/02/2006 07:51:00 AM
8 Comments:
Is that Cheryl's colour checker?
No, it's mine. I've had that as a bit of a gag for more than three years, since approximately a year after I took a course related to colour in computing. I took it to Japan and Halifax with me while I was TAing your iteration of CS488. Why do you ask?
S2, My theory on the bad translations is that, even though unions in China are only for window dressing, the translators' union managed to actually get in some kind of agreement that no spell or grammar checker may be used to produce signs.
Maybe it's just my monitor but I can't read what it says in the photos captions "And another" and "Yet another". The colour checker would probably help.
I think the first is "Care about the culture of relic [something]", and the second one I can't read at all.
Llap-goch rocks! Thanks for the reminder, and the great Engrish pictures.
What is a Gretag-Macbeth Colour Checker? Looks like something that would have come in handy in CS 488!
Shanmao, I think you may be right. :)
David, the first sign has 'Care about the cultural relic! No Scratching!'. The second has 'No visitor'. As any anthropologist can tell you, these are artifacts and not relics. The place where I saw 'No visitor' had more visitors concentrated in one place than on any other place on that section of the Wall. The sign was to prevent persons fromproceeding to unrestored parts of the wall, I think.
Timbley, the Gretag-Macbeth ColourChecker is used for correcting colours in photographs. The basic idea is that each pigment has a well-known set of wavelength reflectances, and the sample across all colours on the swatch are relatively well distributed, given the wavelengths to which our eyes are sensitive. The big idea is that if the colours in the photograph swatch are corrected to look, in target lighting conditions, as the real-life swatch does, then the rest of the photograph will look (approximately) correct.
While I was explaining the concept to Olov at Yihe Yuan, one Chinese student after another came to listen to my extemporaneous lecture. I don't think that any of them understood. Dean recorded it on video by using his camera; i'm still waiting for a copy of it. :)
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