Shangxi – Part 8
Chinese Houses [2004] by Ronald G Knapp is an excellent book to dip into after a tour of Shanxi. In his book, which has won…
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Shangxi – Part 7
Wang Family Compound. Day 5 of the tour. The Wang Family Compound, also known as the Wang Family Mansion, is the largest of Shanxi’s courtyard…
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Shanxi – Part 6
Zhangbi Ancient Castle. Day 5 of Tour. Hamas’s idea of having tunnels as a defense system in Gaza was already in use in China in…
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Shanxi – Part 5
Day 4 sees us on a 90-minute drive from Taiyuan to a well-preserved ancient city, founded in the Zhou dynasty, called Pingyao Ancient City. Pingyao…
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Shanxi – Part 4
Taiyuan is an ancient city. I visited it on my tour of Shanxi. Unfortunately, the ancient parts of Taiyuan are all gone. That said, Shanxi…
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The Temple of Heaven – Part 2
The Ming Emperor Yongle built the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. In 1420, Yongle moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing. The Temple…
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Shanxi – Part 3
Mount Wutai, ‘the five terrace mountains’, is the highest in Northern China and is remarkable for its five open treeless peaks. Mount Wutai is one…
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Shanxi – Part 2
To explore the pivotal role in the growth of Buddhism in China played by a female Dowager empress during the Northern Wei dynasty, there is…
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Shanxi – Part 1
There are three famous Buddhist grottoes in China, dating back to the dynastic era. In chronological order, you have the Mogao Caves [4th century AD],…
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Gunboat Justice v Soft Power
Douglas Clark’s magnum opus 3-volume history of Britain and American Law Courts in China and Japan is an exploration of gunboat hard power and the…
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