Pritam Rohila Travels

2011-05-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

February 26 - March 2, 2011

INDIA 11: MUMBAI

On account of my leg fracture, we canceled our reservation for travelon Feb 27 by train to Mumbai. Instead, we decided to fly, so that we could avail of wheelchair service.

At 9:25 p.m., on February 26, we boarded a Spice Jet flight at Delhi. Two hours and 10 minutes later we landed at the Mumbai Airport.

Mumbai was hot. The highs ranged around 35C (95F), and lows around 19C (66F). I had to use airconditioning in the afternoons and nights.

Roads in Mumbaiare congested. More and more new cars and motorcycles are launched every year. According to a newspaper report, in one year ending MArch 2010, in Mumbai, on the average, 200 new cars are registered, everyday. (More information about Mumbai at http://www.mumbai.org.uk/)

Traffic woes are not confined to Mumbai. The story is the same in almost all Indian cities. More and more Indians are buying cars and motorcycles. Sale of cars in India each day, in 20 years between 1991 and 2011, has increased 967 percent (although the number of air passengers per day has also increased 890 percent during the same period), according to the March 1, 2011 issue of the Hindustan Times.

Trains, however, continue to be a popular means of travel in India. Accrding to another news report, in India there are more than 17,000 trains, which carry 18 million passengers, everyday, over more than 64,000 kilometer-long, the world's fourth largest, railway track. (More information about trains in India at http://wikitravel.org/en/Rail_travel_in_India and http://www.seat61.com/India.htm)

Early on the morning of March 3, we bade Good Bye to our hosts and headed home.

We were lucky that we were flying by Korean Airlines. The cabin crew, with their special wheelchair, helped me go through the narrow aisles from my seat in the back of Economy section, to the toinet for the handicapped in front, on long flights from Mumbai to Seoul and from Seould to Seattle.

2010-11-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

ROHILAS IN CHINA

May 23 – June 10, 2010

CHINA 01: BEIJING

May 24

After 12-hour flight by Air China from San Francisco, we reached Beijing around 5:30 p.m., on Monday, May 24, for our 19-day sightseeing trip organized by China Focus, a California-based tour operator.

At the airport, we met other six members of our group. We were greeted by our local guide, Ann, 55, who had survived hardships of service on rural farms by eating raw sweet-potatoes, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Now, the wife of a military physician, and mother of a son who is pursuing college studies in the United States, she works as travel guide.

We went straight to Chan An Grand, our 5-star hotel.

Beijing was much different than what I had seen during my 1982 visit. We did not have to walk on the tarmac deplane or board the airplane this time. The airplane as well as the airport was quite big and compared well with any modern airport around the world.

Unlike in 1982, I did not see hordes of bicycles on the roads. Instead they were jammed with cars and other automobiles.

Roads and flyovers have been modernized.

And they were lined with multistory commercial and residential buildings.

2010-11-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

CHINA 02: BEIJING-SUMMER PALACE

May 25

After breakfast, next morning (May 25), we left for a visit to the Summer Palace.

Now a UNESCO’s World Heritage site, the Summer Palace was built by Emperor Qianlong for his mother’s 60^th birthday, in 1750. After being plundered & burnt by the Anglo French forces, it was renovated in 1860 with funds diverted from the China’s naval budget.

Cixi, an ambitious concubine, who ended up as Empress Dowager, lived here in luxury for almost 20 years. Also she ruled China from here, until her death in 1908. She is known as the Dragon Lady for misusing funds for China’s navy, and imprisoning her nephew.

We entered through the East Gate, and

went directly to the Hall of Joyful Longevity. It was built in 1887 for the pleasure of Cixi, who had 48 attendants in the hall, and over a thousand in the Summer Palace.

It was covered with the traditional designs and paints in red, blue, turquoise, and gold colors.

The courtyard was adorned with copper sculptures of lion,

crane and

serpent.

The Long Corridor, a covered wooden walkway, extends about one-half mile. It skirts the northern shore of Lake Kunming. More than 14,000 paintings of designs, as well as scenes from legends and nature cover almost every inch of

almost every inch of its sides,

ceiling and

rafters.

Ringed by tree-lined dikes, Kunming Lake is a giant body of water. It has bridges & gazebos.

Seen from the lake, Pagodas & Temples dot the Longevity Hill.

The most prominent among them is the Tower of Buddhist Incense.

At the foot of the Longevity Hill, and on the west bank of the lake is a unique boat – a boat made entirely of marble, which does not go anywhere.

This Marble Boat was built in 1893, by the Dowager Empress Cixi with funds embezzled from the Navy. It has colored-glass windows, and is paved with colored bricks. Four dragon heads mounted in each direction serve as drains, allowing rain water to be channeled picturesquely out of their mouths.

We enjoyed a short cruise on the lake.

Thousands of people throng the Summer Palace to enjoy its sights,

have a family get-together

have a family get-together

take pictures,

have treats, and/or

to buy souvenirs.

Our next stop in the area was a Pearl Factory, near the Summer Palace. Pearls which are harvested from oysters raised in a part of the Kunming Lake, are processed and sold at the Factory.

Under the picture of Cixi, who loved pearls, a lady, at the Pearl Factory, demonstrated how they cultured pearls are harvested from oysters.

2010-11-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

CHINA 03: BEIJING-TIANANMEN SQUARE

May 25 Continued

After lunch at a restaurant near the Summer Palace, we proceeded to Tiananmen (Heavenly Peace) Square.

We pass by Qianman Gatehouse to enter the Tiananmen Square. Before the city wall was demolished, the gate guarded entry into the inner city.

Notorious for the June 1989 massacre of many (3,000 according to one estimate) student and intellectual protesters, Tiananmen Square is reputed to be world’s largest public square.

The square is bounded by the Great Hall of the People (Parliament House) on the west, the National Museum (closed for renovations on the east).

Also the square features the 125-ft granite Monument to the People’s Heroes, and

Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum.

I was amused by the fact that there was hardly anyone at the Mausoleum, where in 1982 there were always long lines of people to get in.

Located on the square’s north is its most prominent feature, the Tiananmen Gate, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace.

A large portrait of Mao Zedong adorns the red stone wall of the Gate.

Next to the wall is an ornamental marble column and stone lions.

With temperature at 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat was really unbearable. Being there was made more difficult by the absence of trees (or shelters) for shade and benches to sit down and rest.

Still there were hundreds of people in the square.

Some photographed their friends, and family members, but particularly children.

Others sat down by the wall to have something to eat, enjoy ice cream, or just to rest their weary feet.

For a 360-degree virtual tour of the Tiananmen Square visit the site below: http://www.thebeijingguide.com/tiananmen_square/index.html