Clean Ears

One legend about Dujiangyan is that the flood control and irrigation system meant that the people of the Sichuan plain could depend on a source of water and that meant their lives became easier.  This led them into a relaxed lifestyle, particularly to a life of drinking tea.

Waiting for the train back to Chengdu, Onions and I took some time to drink tea and then were approached......

...to have our ears cleaned.

Onions always complains that my ears stink, so I went for it....even though I was a bit apprehensive.

This is what came out.....(it's an ashtray for perspective).  GROSS.

The tools needed to clean your ears.

First step, which feels really nice is that you get the hair around your ear shaved off.  Then he goes in and scrapes around and loosens any wax.  After that, he uses tweezers to go in a pick out what needs to come out.

Then with a fluff ball, he dusts anyway anything that is particle size.

Lastly, the fluff ball goes back IN and he hits a big tuning fork and then sets it on the wire and the ball vibrates while he spins the ball of fluff.  It feels weird.  But, I do have to admit that my ears felt distinctly clean when all was done.  I could definitely tell that my ears were colder and more air was getting inside.

Lastly, Sichuan cuisine.  Notice that EVERYTHING has a red sauce.  They like their food SPICY.  I don't like spicy food. 

Let's just say that when I see red, I eat with caution and ever meal in Sichuan (other than western cuisine) I took small, tentative bites.

Dujiangyan

Dujiangyan

This UNESCO World Heritage Site honors a flood control and irrigation system created without any dams that was built around 200BC.  It is so famous that Onions remembers learning about it in school, although when pressed, he really had no clue what it was about, just that he had heard about it.  You know me, I'm ALL ABOUT this kind of stuff, so I read about it before hand and spent the entire time trying to figure stuff out.

If you care, you can follow along.  The issue is that the river comes rushing down from the mountains into the plains and there were regular floods. The engineer who designed this, Li Bing built an artificial island in the river which, right here at Fish Head, splits the river into an inner channel on the right (40% of water flows into it at regular water level and 60% in times of flood), and the outer channel on the left.  This occurs because it takes advantage of the natural curve in the river AND he dug in the inner channel deeper.

The inner channel in the foreground.  The manmade island separates it from the outer channel.  The Fish Head is to the right outside the photo.

The outer channel is currently dry, because there has been a dam built in modern times. at the Fish Head to divert all water to the inner channel.

So down here at the eastern end of the island are our next features.  Near the bottom of the picture you'll see a little inlet of water.  Li Bing, using a technique of heating the mountain rock and then cracking it with cold water, excavated this area out of the mountain.  Why?  Because at high tide, the water would create a whirlpool and rocks and sediment would naturally divert into the channel that connects to the outer channel in the background.  This is part of the Flying Sand Weir.  The dam is also modern.

Looking upstream along the inner channel from the Flying Sand Weir.  Another technique to keep water where he wanted it, Li Bing raised the height of the base of the conduit connecting to the outer channel so it only accepted water when the level in the inner channel was high.  Flood control for downstream.

The narrow inner channel flowing to the left of that temple is now, rock and sediment free as well as controlled in the consistent flow of water.

The Flying Sand Weir and the inner channel.

Downstream along the inner channel, it is split again.

From right (east) to left, the Fish Head, the island, and the Flying Sand Weir.  Engineering at it's finest.

New Century Global Center

The largest building in the world by floor space.  The largest by volume is the Boeing plant in Everett and the largest by footprint is the Aalsmeer Flower Market in the Netherlands.  Thanks Wikipedia.

The basement floor and floors 1 through 4 are a shopping mall.  The upper floors must be office space.

Here's a model of the building.  Surprisingly, because it sits out on a piece of land not surrounded by other buildings, it doesn't feel extremely large or out of scale with its surroundings.

The eastern entrance.......it's HUGE.  But the one things that surprised me was that the mall was full, as in all the storefronts were occupied.  I read online that the building was half empty.  Perhaps they meant the upper office space floors?

I wonder if this big building was built with LEED certification?

What does "vigor" mean?

It felt like all the major brands were there and had stores....but none of the high end ones.  Nike, yes.  Gucci, no.

There is a full on waterpart in the building.

Alas, it was just to close when we got there around 7PM (the mall is open until midnight) but from what we read, there is a beach, and we are here looking at the back of the stadium seating that is available for concerts.  And you can see, peeding through the seats, the big screen which projects, when wanted, sunrises and sunsets.

Ice Rink, wow.

IMAX, yeah yeah.....doesn't every mall have one? I do have to say that we were at the mall on a Monday evening and the crowd of shoppers was decent.  However, the mall still has that "new" smell.  

The Korean chain, Lotte, appears to have a store that anchors the entire southern half of the mall.

One part of the mall has a Mediterranean theme.

Does your local mall have a see through skybridge?

How about a climbing wall?

Or a ropes course?

We were so happy to find a sushi boat restaurant.  Memories of Japan.  We both said that if this type of restaurant existed near up in Beijing (and at the 50 cents per piece of sushi price) we might eat there three times a week.

Onions working his phone magic.

Exiting the eastern side, currently is a big open space.  The plan is to construct a Zaha Hadid designed museum just on the other side of those flags.  When China goes big, it also goes bold.

Emei Shan

Just down the road from the Leshan Giant Buddha is Emei Shan, which is advertised in this way, showing the Golden Summit standing high about the cloud forest.

We arrived in Emei in the afternoon and went for a small hike about mid-mountain.  Being one of the holiest mountains in Buddhism, the slopes are strewn with temples and little pavilions like this one here.

Onions and I both commented on the fact that we haven't seen water this clear and pristine in China ever (for me) and a since childhood (for him).

Look at that water.....and then the rain started so we cut short our hike.

Another advertisement for the golden summit.  This was what we hoped to see at the top.

The next morning, a Monday after a three-day holiday weekend, we took a bus to the station nearest to the Golden Summit.  I include this picture to show you the lines we avoided by coming on a non-holiday Monday.

We started our hour-plus long hike to the summit.  Hoping for the amazing view and cloud forest.

And this is what we experienced at the summit.  Not above the clouds, but stuck right in the middle of the clouds.

At some 10,000 feet, it was pretty cold too.

We stayed for about a half hour before heading back down.  You win some, you lose some.

Our selfie game....is STRONG.  No selfie sticks here.