Archive for November 10th, 2008

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Beijing Olympic – Shanghai to adopt new car-plate auction system

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Shanghai is expected to adopt a new car-plate action system early next year, a city spokesman has said, according to Eastday.com Thursday.

The municipal government is now working on the new monthly auction system, Chen Qiwei, the municipal spokesman, said at a news conference on Wednesday, without elaborating.

Meanwhile, Chen said Shanghai will “strictly control” the number of new cars for government officials at all levels next year in an attempt to leave more plates for private cars.

In previous reports, the vehicle administration bureau denied the move was intended to curb surging prices for license plates.

The average winning bid for a private plate increased 3,317 yuan (US$450) from October to 54,317 yuan in November, a record high since the city introduced the auction system in 2000.

The record price was due to surging demand and speculation that plates would be more expensive in the future, according to previous reports.

Shanghai is the only city on the Chinese mainland to issue plates by auction and the average price has increased fivefold over the past seven years.

Chen also added that the government has noticed that some car sellers have deliberately put up higher offers for car plates to ensure they can sell cars to buyers, an act that may disturb the market. The authority said it will not tolerate such actions.

Shanghai will hold this month’s car plate auction on December 22 while the February plate quota will be advanced to January’s auction due to the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 7, the report said.

 (Source: en.beijing2008.cn)

Posted in Beijing Olympic, China Travel | No Comments »

China Travel – Great Hall of Hualin Temple

Monday, November 10th, 2008

The Great Hall of the Hualin Temple is located at the south piedmont of Pingshan Mountain in the north of Fuzhou City.

The Hualin Temple was built in the second year (964) of the Qiande reign in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The Northern Song Dynasty had already unified the northern part of the nation then while the King of Wuyue was taking Fuzhou as a separatist regime by force of arms. The leader of Fuzhou Prefecture established the temple, which was originally named the Auspicious Buddha Hall. In the Zhengtong reign (1436-1449) during the Ming Dynasty, it gained an inscribed plague with the name of the Hualin Temple on it. There were once some buildings other than the present palace, such as the halls, family hall for worshipping Buddha, the Huanfeng Pavilion, and the Juexue Small House, etc, which fell into disuse long ago.

The Great Hall has a single-eave roof with nine ridges. It is three bays in width and four bays in depth with eight purlins and four pillars. It is rectangular in shape with an overall height of 12.8 meters. The dougong (wooden square blocks inserted between the top of a column and a crossbeam) of the outer eave is made of gigantic materials. The application of cloud-shaped humps in the girder and square wood is rare in China. Although it has been reconstructed many times in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, the components as the main girder frame and the dougong are original. Since the temple was established in the early Song Dynasty (960-1279), we can not only make out the architecture features of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) from its framework, but also the features of the previous dynasties. The temple is the oldest timberwork construction in the south of the Yangtze River in China, and it is especially valuable in the southern area where the timberwork constructions of the Song Dynasty are rare.

(Source: chinaculture.org)

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Chinese Culture – Pits of Sacrifice at Sanxingdui

Monday, November 10th, 2008

 

Pits of sacrifice of the Shang Dynasty (17th century – 11th century BC)

 

Location: Guanghan County, Sichuan Province

 

Period: About 12th – century BC

 

Excavated in 1986

 

Significance: It has played a key role in understanding the features of the bronze civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and in exploring those of the regional bronze civilization in China. 
Bronze sculpture of human head covered with gold mask: probably the sculpture of god (left, height 42.5 cm); Bronze statue of standing man: probably the statue of god (mid, height 260.8 cm); Bronze sculpture of human head covered with gold mask: probably the sculpture of god (right, height 48.1 cm)

 

 Introduction

 

Sanxingdui Site in Sichuan province covers an area of about 6,000,000 square meters. The two pits excavated at Sanxingdui are among the most fascinating of recent findings in Chinese archaeology. They were discovered by workers at a local brick factory, just outside a walled settlement that had already been excavated, in the summer of 1986.

 

The two pits were filled with bronze objects, jades, and elephant tusks that had been buried (probably as offerings). The objects in Pit 1 had been burned before burial. The findings in Pit 2 (right) were in three distinct layers — on top were some sixty elephant tusks, next came large bronze objects (including bronze standing figure and bronze human head with gold leaf), and below were jade and stone implements, animal masks, and some smaller bronzes.

 

The objects clearly indicate the presence of a strong regional culture with sophisticated religious practices and advanced bronze-casting technology. In contrast to Shang burials, these offering pits show no evidence of human sacrifice, but they do reveal a marked interest in the human form, especially the face.

 

The Sanxingdui findings are exciting, but they remain enigmatic. No texts have been found, nor is there any mention of this culture in the records of other states. Analysis of lead and other elements in the bronzes indicates sources similar to those of other cultures along the lower Yangtze River basin.

 

（Source: chinaculture.org）

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