Archive for November 18th, 2008

Beijing Olympic – Shanghai home price drops last month

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Shanghai home prices dropped an average of seven percent last month from October, according to Shanghai Youwin Real Estate Information Service Co Ltd.

The average price in the first 28 days of November was 10,724 yuan (1,453 US dollars) per square meter, compared with October’s 11,539 yuan and September’s 10,507 yuan, the company said.

Growing transactions in the suburbs and shrinking volume downtown pulled down the average price, said Xue Jianxiong, research head of the company.

Nearly 1.5 million square meters of housing were estimated to have been sold this month, about 10 percent less than October’s 1.64 million square meters, the company said.

In downtown Jing’an, Huangpu, Luwan and Hongkou districts, no new properties hit the market in the 28 days, which led to transactions dropping 50 percent inside the Middle Ring Road.

“A rising down payment ratio, exhausted mortgage quotas and stricter checks on land cooled off the property market, but transactions began rebounding at the end of this month (November),” Xue said.

Average housing prices in Shanghai rose 7.9 percent in October from a year earlier, the National Development and Reform Commission said.

The Shanghai government will spend two billion yuan to buy 8,000 low-rent homes for needy people and expand the market supply.

The average housing price in October in the Chinese mainland’s 70 major cities jumped 9.5 percent on a yearly basis, compared with September’s 8.9-percent growth rate.

 (Source: en.beijing2008.cn)

China Travel – Sera Monastery

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

 The Sera Monastery is located in the northeast suburb about 3 kilometers from Lhasa City, the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Created in the 17th year (1419) of the Yongle reign, the Sera Monastery was one of the famous six Gelugpa monasteries. In the seventh year (1409) of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Jamchen Chojey, a disciple of Tsongkhapa went to the capital on behalf of Tsongkhapa, and later he was conferred to the title of Sakya Yeshe. After he went back to Tibet, he built this monastery in order to offer sacrifice to the figure of Buddha and sutra. Later the monastery was increased and expanded several times. The Sera Monastery was constructed grandly and nobly, with fine sculptures and beautiful frescos.

There are three colleges(the sutra school)in the temple. Ngagpa College was established in 1559. The smallest of the three colleges, it houses its founder Jamchen Chojey’s statue in its chanting hall. The set of sandalwood Arhats granted to the monastery is housed in this college. For the sake of perfect preservation, they are encased in the bellies of a set of clay Arhats that have been authenticated as the original ones. There are a lot of fine figures of Buddha, frescos, sutras, thangkas and sutra pillars, and a tapestry portrait of Jamchen Chojey. Other valuable cultural relics conferred by the court of the Ming Dynasty include sutras, figures of Buddha and magical instruments. Capable of accommodating eight thousand abbes, the monastery is collectively called with Ganden Temple and Drepung Temple as the Big Three Temples.

(Source: chinaculture.org)

Chinese Culture – Site of the Second Capital of State of Yan

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

 

Capital of State of Yan, Warring States Period (475-221BC)

 

Location: Yixian County, Hebei Province

 

Period: 4th century- 226 BC

 

Excavated in 1929

 

Gold sculpture of human head: ornament (up, height 5.1 cm); Rectangular pottery ding (a three-legged or four-legged cauldron) with bird-shaped, column legs and painted in red: funerary object (bottom, height 15.2 cm)

Significance: It has clarified the layout of the capital of State of Yan in Warring States Period.

 

 Introduction

 

Site of the Second Capital of State of Yan, or Yan Xiadu, is the ruins of capital of Yan State during the Warring States Period. Xiadu City, the biggest in area of all the capitals in that period, was designed in the shape of a rectangle. Large quantities of production tools and daily facilities have been unearthed, such as copper and iron wares, pottery and stone articles.

 

Xiadu City was 8 kilometers long from east to west, and 4 kilometers wide from south to north, comprised of the eastern and western cities with a wall in between as the division.

 

The eastern part of Xiadu had five districts, respectively for the palace, workshops, residential areas, graveyards and rivers. This part of the city ruins contains a large variety of cultural relics that are well preserved. The western part was mainly for defensive purposes with few relics remained.

Source: chinaculture.org