Archive for August 12th, 2009

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Beijing Olympic – Campbell-Brown and Felix for gold in Women’s 200m

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Defending Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica led home the first Women’s 200m semifinal in 22.19 seconds to qualify for the final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Finishing second after Campbell-Brown in 22.29 in the first semifinal to qualify is her teammate Kerron Stewart – silver medalist in the Women’s 100m in Beijing.

The Jamaican sprinters will be joined in the final by Athens 2004 silver medalist Allyson Felix of the United States, who won the second semifinal in 22.33.

Sherone Simpson of Jamaica, who shared silver in the Women’s 100m in Beijing, and Muna Lee and Marshevet Hooker of the United States also advanced.

The final competition in the Women’s 200m will be held at the National Stadium at 7:30 p.m. (UTC/GMC +8) on Thursday, August 21.

Click here for a full list of the finalists in the Women’s 200m

(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)

Posted in Beijing Olympic, China Travel | No Comments »

China Travel – Site for the First Congress of the KMT

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Situated at No 215 Culture Road, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province — now the Guangdong Provincial Museum — the site for the First Congress of the KMT includes the belfry and the Revolutionary Square located in the front.

It was a place for provincial imperial examinations in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and after the Revolution of 1911, it became the Guangdong Higher Normal School. Since the first Congress of the KMT in 1924, it had been rebuilt as the Guangdong University by the order of Sun Yat-sen. In 1926, it was renamed “Zhongshan University.”

The belfry was built in 1905, with an area of 2,888 square meters. It is a building of a post and panel structure in both Chinese and western styles, resembling the Chinese character “ ” from an bird’s view. In the front of the building is a clock tower about 24 meters high, covered by a dome, which formerly included clocks on each side. Behind it is a rectangular two-storey assembly hall where the first Congress of the KMT was held. Covering an area of 18,698 square meters, the Revolutionary Square, located in front of the belfry, was then an important site for the people’s congregation. During the first Congress of the KMT, Sun Yat-sen delivered speeches there publicizing the new Three Principles of the People.

Influenced by the October Revolution and with the help of the International Communist, as well as the Communist Party of China (CPC) who were determined to reshuffle the KMT from January 20-30, 1924, Sun Yat-sen presided over the First National Representatives’ Conference of the Kuomingtang of China in the auditorium on the first floor of the clock tower of the Guangdong Higher Normal School. The conference absorbed the CPC’s proposition of opposing imperialism and feudalism, developed the old Three Principles of the People to the new ones and reshuffled the KMT into a revolutionary union of worker, farmer, the petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie. The CPC also sent representatives to attend this conference. The First National Representatives’ Conference of KMT of China marked the beginning of the first KMT-CPC cooperation, as well as the first Domestic Civil War.

(Source: chinaculture.org)

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Chinese Culture – An Early Altar Temple of Western Han Dynasty

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

The Mingtang Piyong (or Ming Hall and Emperor) in Chang’an of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD) is an important early altar temple. In the middle of each of the four sides of the peripheral square courtyard, each side 235 meters long, is a two-storied bar. It is surrounded by square ditches. Wing-rooms in level gauge shape were built on the four corners inside the courtyard; a low loam platform was built in the middle. On the platform are the ruins of a plane dais. From the restored ruins, one can see that on the inside of the corridor on the four sides of the ground floor are four halls, each consisting of three rooms. This total of “12 halls” symbolized the 12 months of the year. There is one hall on each side of the middle floor.

Outside is the flattop of the fourth corridor on the ground floor. An “earthen room” was built in the middle of the top of the platform on the upper layer. At the top of the small square terraces at each corner, there is a pavilion-type small house, representing the four rooms of gold, wood, water and fire, and together with the earthen room they form the place for worshipping the five heavenly gods. The balcony on the four sides of the five rooms was used to observe the heavenly bodies. The size of various parts has much numerical symbolic significance.

The whole group of structures is cross-symmetrical. The courtyard is spacious and the bearing is impressive, conforming to its identity encompassing heaven and earth. In the central buildings, the large room in the middle of the top of terrace was taken as the center of the structure to command the whole situation. The small rooms on the four corners are taken as foils which are magnificent and solemn. The central structures are outward-looking, echoing the surrounding structures from afar. The curved rooms on the four corners are introversive, achieving a balance with the central structures.

In this structure, the artisans had to satisfy the requirement of various usages as stipulated in the ritual system and had to take into account the various symbolic meanings. All the more, they had to use its unusual bodily form and volume combination to create an esthetic effect compatible with the architectural nature. It is indeed an architectural artistic product.

（Source: chinaculture.org）

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