Interesting Links

I have lots of links that I've ommited to post.

1) A fascinating post on how Joshua Bell played the violin in a DC subway station and very few people stopped to listen.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

-- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies

...If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?

...We're busy. Americans have been busy, as a people, since at least 1831, when a young French sociologist named Alexis de Tocqueville visited the States and found himself impressed, bemused and slightly dismayed at the degree to which people were driven, to the exclusion of everything else, by hard work and the accumulation of wealth.

2) Books do indeed furnish a room.

3) An easter lesson. People, think for yourselves (which reminds me how much I love Monty Python).

4) The best books under 100 pages. I've been meaning to read Candide for a long time.

5) Favorite Monteverdi.

6) Favorite Wagner. Wagner of Oscar Wilde fame "I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says."

7) Book that blows Tyler away.

8) Favorite things Italian.

9) Favorite things German/Bach.

10) Best novels about politics.

11) If you want to speak with a human.

12) How to appreciate Shakepeare.

13) Favorite things Brazil.

14) Why do Investment Bankers get paid so much?

15) Why aren't US sports fans more violent? -- It's the price of the tickets!

Wuxi - III

Chinese restaurants in China have floors of private rooms where groups of 4+ persons go to celebrate special occasions. I was taken there as part of a business dinner, and I got to eat eel, pigeon (yummy), and some of the most delicious food that I've eaten all washed down with watermelon juice.

Private rooms

Our table

An exquisite freshwater fishI also went to a gorgeous park that's a famous tourist spot
The cherry blossoms

Flowers

BambooWe ate lunch at a litle Buddhist monastary that is famous for its vegetarian noodlesThe line to get onto a bus on the way back

More snaps

Wuxi - II

Wuxi has a lot of shops, which resemble the hip trendy shops that you'd expect to see in any major city in the world. Domestic spending is increasing in China which means that the economy is not entirely dependent on exports

Hmm...I wonder where they got that sign from ...China resembles a giant construction zone with cranes dotting the sky-line and buildings being torn down

On the weekend I went to a giant film set in Wuxi

The set for the water scene

Other sets

I also went to see the Lingshan Buddha in Wuxi. At 88 meters tall he is taller than the Statue of Liberty.

They made quite the pose!

Rub his tummy for good luck

To give you an idea of the statue's height

Wuxi - I

After a week in Beijing I travelled to Wuxi in Jiangsu province. Wuxi is an industrial town, and is often refered to as a "second-tier" city in China i.e. cities after Beijing and Shanghai. Wuxi is an industrial powerhouse; a veritable united nations of manufacturers have their base in Wuxi. Driving down Wuxi one sees rows and rows of factories flying the Chinese flag and the manufacturer's home-country flag. US flags, Japanese flags, Swedish flags are all present in Wuxi.

An old tower in the market

Strolling though the market

I loved the sign on this pet store

A few old houses in Wuxi

In the market

The juxtaposition of old and new

In the market, again

A paper shop in the marketAt the base of the tower

The Tower

A walk in Lihu park in Wuxi

Hot pot! you order the raw food and cook it at your table!

Our hotpot. The red sauce was the spicy one!

Dinner. I loved the watermelon juice

On the road in Wuxi

A wedding in my hotel lobby

Another dinnerInside a Carrefour

Notice the crisps on the side of the escalator pleading for an impulse buy! Your blogger was reprimanded for taking pictures inside the shop, but succeeded in playing the dumb-tourist angle