Aaron's Colorful Life

Merry Christmas !

The Art of Travel is not a guide to travelling but an exploration of the role of travel, broadly understood, in the lives and work of some eminent artists and writers. De Botton doesn't attempt full biographies, but provides an overview and then focuses on specific aspects of their work and ideas. He uses his own travels as a complement to this, sometimes quite directly and sometimes only tenuously, but doesn't spend too much time on himself.

The review on this book is here(URL)

and the detail information of the book is here(in Chinese).

What's this?It's easy for all of us to answer this question--it's the Temple of Heaven,which is in Beijing.It's has been the sign of Beijing for its long history and unique architecture style.Just as the Temple of Heaven,some architectures are not only themseleves,but also the symbol of the city,or even the country,which is named LandMark.It's today's topic.

First,Let's enjoy some famouse architectures we all know:

Eiffel Tower,Paris

Statue of Liberty,New York

Sydney Opera House,Sydney

The Leaning Tower Of Pisa,Pisa

I ever completed an essay on landmark about four years ago,in which I wrote:

一提起"天安门"，人们会想到中国北京，想起红墙青瓦，感到肃穆庄严；一提起"自由女神像"，人们会想到美国纽约，唤起对和平和自由的向往；一提起"金字塔"，人们会想起故国埃及，想到帝王古墓的神秘莫测．．．．．．

无论是天安门，还是自由女神像，或是金字塔，让人们联想起的不仅仅只是其建筑本身，往往还让人们很自然地联想到它的地位、作用、艺术价值，联想到与之相关的历史、文化、风俗、习惯，等等。这类建筑已经不再仅仅是砖木钢砼的简单堆积和砌筑，它的形成汇聚了某个时期的思想、精神、理念和信仰，在一定的空间区域具有独特之处，具有定位和指向作用，从而成为历史的写照，或是时代的象征，或是精神的凝聚，具有高度的代表性和现实意义，这就是标志性建筑。

I noted that almost the landmark is the largest,or the highest,or has a long history,or has special story,and in one word it's different from others by something spcial.

By the way,Here are more landmark of numbers of Chinese cities.(URL)

During the meeting at the last weekend,we——some friends and I started a topic on desirable life,and most of us hoped to have a free life without disturbance after work,but few could get for it's too busy.Thereforth,most thought it's hard to relize the dream,but I didn't agree with this opinion and gave my suggestiones.

For example,go out for a trave or watch your favorite film at the weekend ,or turn off your mobile phone back home to keep quiet,and so on.And another important thing is that just keeping the task in the office instead of bringing it back home.In one word,Keep Life and Work apart.When Working,just go all out,while going off duty,just keep free and have a good rest.

I try to do like that and always remember one notion that Be Good to Yourself, I learn from a book which named Enjoy-101 simple ways to be good to yourself.It's wonderful ,and now I recommend it to you,maybe you would get harvest from it.just click the cover of the book to learm more.

After graduation from college,we—friends and classmates go everywhere for we chose different jobs ,working as engineer,designer,editor,consultant,varies of occupation,and different cities,big or smal,north or south China,even oversea.Some keep working during the whole year with few holidays,some go abroad for the client is the foreign orporation.Different jobs,different life,just as what I said nearly two years ago——We are not only choose jobs,but also life style,and different jobs means different life,including different dwelling,different lovers,different lunch,different appearance,different traffic,and so on.Therefore,everyone's new life begins with new choice.

One of my core opinion is that we should have our life colorful and fruitful!Fortunately,we can make our decision mostly. So,Once you have dream,just go ahead!

798?
What is it?
A bus?
...
Many of my friends don't know what "798" stands for when I asked them!Now,Let me guide you to 798.

798,now is a famous art community in Beijing,where hundreds of artists have been together,opening studioes,bookstores,bars since 2000.Beforetime,it is a industry zone of Beijing with the support of Soviet Russia.(You can learn more about 798's background with the help of Google.)
Well,Let's start the tour!



Location of 798 at Beijing Map



Here,we're get into the community!



show you the directions!



A bar based on the old workshop!



A studio!



The Landscape in a Studio!



You can see doodled wall everywhere!

To Enjoy More,plesease click the titles below: Special 1 Special 2

To help one of my Amenrican friends to prepare the coming presentation about Chinese temple,I searched a lot articles and photos of temples from different places with different history and background.And then I found it's very interesting to compare the varies of Chinese temples.



The one is Xuankong Si,in Datong city,Shanxi province.The temple is also named Hanging Monastery for it is hung on the cliff of the gorge more than 50 meters above the ground.How breathtaking!Why was it hung on the cliff?It's said that in the past there were many many floods because of frequent storm,and in order to avoid being destroyed by floods,the temple was built hung on the cliff based on the wisdom of Chinese artisans.The temple was built in 491,survived more than 1500 years.How old-line!!(for more about XuankongSi- Articles,Photos )



And the other is the Potala Palace,as we all know which is the symbol of Tibet.Potala Palace serves as a famous temple,as well as the political center of Tibet.The temple is 117 meters high and 360 meters wide,covering an area of more than 130,00 square meters,which consists of two parts——the White Palace for administrate and the Red Palace for religion.The temple looks like a castle.why?After baiduing I got the reason its castle style enable the temple with Military Defensive function,maybe because of the social background,I guess.(for more about XuankongSi-Articles,Photos)

These two temples both have their specialties,which are different from the ordinary buddhist building and completely new for me,how interesting!Although I ever had classes on Chinese temple,I got few.For China has a long history with abundant culture, and wide land with different geography condition,the buildings from different place are various very much,both public and private.I made a plan to study the Chinese building deeply once I have time.I'm looking forward to finding more,I will!

By the way,I found a website about cities and sight spot of China,which is really a good travel guide!The address is here(URL).

"Bianlian", or face-changing, is one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera - Sichuan Opera,which is wonderful.I had a chance to enjoy it when meeting with friends in a famous Chuancai restaurant during the Gold week holiday.

Today is Mid-automn day,one of the most import traditional festival for Chinese people.Why is it a festival?Let's learn something background information:

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty(1066 B.C.-221 B.C.), people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty(618-907 A.D.) that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. When it becomes dark, they look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644 A.D. ) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911A.D.), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration becomes unprecedented popular. (from ChinaDaily)

When Mid-autumn Day,eating moon cakes is the most popular custom,especially for the children.There is this story about the moon-cake.

during the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to the foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Backed into each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attached and overthrew the government. Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend and was called the Moon Cake.(from ChinaDaily)

for more background please visit HERE.

Comes the Long Holiday!
it's good chance to go out for a travel or hold a party with friends,esp for those are always busy.Me too,plan to meet some friends and classmates during the holiday.Otherwise,the best choice is to read some books quietly or play basketball with friends.

Though I like tour very much,and the holiday free me to make decision,I still don't plan to go out for a visit,because of so many people、so crowded train、so expensive fare.

But generally,in the big cities of China during the vacation,there are numberless visitors from different countries and different cities.They spend their holiday in cities ,on the contrast, many Europeans in countryside,according to the impression of Eric,which maybe because of the culture differences of economic differences.