Chinese in Vancouver » travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt. VI – Old Train

sn — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:04:20 +0000

Just some random snapshots…

An small railway museum in Tillamook, Oregon.

inside of the cart

Oregon Coast trip:
Oregon Coast trip Pt. I – Moolack Beach
Oregon Coast trip Pt. II – Lighhouses
Oregon Coast trip Pt III – Waves
Oregon Coast trip Pt IV – Ecola
Oregon Coast trip Pt. V – Capes
Oregon Coast trip Pt. VI – Old train

Tags: Oregon Coast, Tillamook, travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt. V – Capes

sn — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:52:36 +0000

The famous Cannon Beach. A tourists' favourite, though IMHO it isn't the best along Oregon Coast.

Cannon Beach.

Shot along the Three Capes scenic drive in Tillamook.

Three Capes.

A cape near Lincoln. Forgot the name :P

This is a historic building on Cape Foulweather， 500 ft above the sea. It's said that Captain James Cook found here then found Oregon. The building is now a gift shop.

Tags: Cannon Beach, Cape Foulweather, Captain Cook, Oregon Coast, travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt IV – Ecola

sn — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:40:12 +0000

A restored historic small town in Ecola, Oregon. This is where the famous Cannon Beach is located. The town itself is very interesting, with specialty shops and restaurants. A surprising find of this trip. :D

Tags: Ecola, Oregon Coast, travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt III – Waves

sn — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:30:34 +0000

This is a beach at Lincoln, Oregon. Didn't get its name. I've spent a lot of time shooting the waves... lucky it was sunny when I was there. It became stormy right after I took these photos.

A scene in Lincoln.

A lookout along Route 101 called Rocky Creek. Great place to watch the stormy waves.

A singer believed to be taping MTV was on the rocks. Her singing could be heard from a distance, though broken intermittenly by the roaring sound of the waves.

Tags: Oregon Coast, Rocky Creek, travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt. II – Lighhouses

sn — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:09:29 +0000

There are quite a number of historic light houses along Oregon Coast. This one is the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

Cape Meares Lighthouse is located next to a deep cliff. It was very captivating watching the waves race to hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. A lot of birds nesting there too... you can smell bird poo in the air.

Yaquina Lighthouse and the stormy coast.

The Yaquina Lighthouse. Full of history. The entire headland is designated as a national preservation site. Daily tour to the interior of the lighthouse is offered. I didn't climb it though... both because of the long lineup when I was there and I was too scared by the curling stairs.

Another look of the Yaquina Lighthouse.

A tree outside the Yaquina Light House. Just like the scene.

Neighbouring the Yaquina Lighthouse is the Quarry Cove. Harbour seals and many other wild birds are supposed to be readily seen here. However, I didn't have the luck.

Tags: Oregon Coast, Quarry Cove, travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt. I – Moolack Beach

sn — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:48:03 +0000

I went to the Oregon Coast last week and spent some really-needed relaxation time in the beautiful Pacific coast. One of the most precious moments was spent in the Moolack Beach (wiki info), which is located right outside Newport.

Moolack Beach, near Newport, Oregon. Long shoreline with unrestricted view of the Pacific Ocean. I was lucky enough to stay at a motel right on the beach. Can view the Yaquina Light House from the balcony. The Light House was built in the 1870s.

Yaquina Light House (info) is still working. The light turns on at dusk. Really cool.

It was a sunny/windy/rainy trip. When I was sitting at the the balcony waiting for the sun to set, thick clouds began to gather. Beautiful layer of mist between mountain and ocean....

The motel I stayed was Moolack Shores Motel. I later realized that I stayed at the same motel 10 years ago …. I was driving my convertible down Route 101 when I was stunned by the beautiful beach and the sunset. It was a coincident that I happened to choose the same motel this time. Well, I guess that is called consistency. :) The motel itself is very clean, carefully decorated with difference theme for each room. The boss was super nice too.

This is the motel I stayed at the Moolack Beach. Front and centre sunset view right from the balcony. No complaint. There was a Captain James Cook statue on the balcony.

Oregon Coast

sn — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:46:00 +0000

I m in Oregon Coast this week. Love the ocean. Was here 10 yes ago. The scenery has brought back so much memories. Oregon Coast is really a good place for meditation. This has not changed a bit. Am staying at a spectacular hotel right on the edge of the wild Pacific Ocean tonight. When I touch the sea water i tell myself that the other side of this same ocean is where I was born. What an amazing feeling of connection.

Will share photos when I come back!

Oh and yes, it’s fantastic to shop at a place where three are NO sales taxes at all! I am getting more convinced that the HST will kill BC s economy.

Tags: Oregon Coast, travel

Beijing, Beijing

sn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:56:03 +0000

Hello guys, just came back from Hong Kong and Beijing. What a good holiday, though it went too fast, as usual. :) Now I’m back home, should pick up writing again.

Here are some photos I took of Beijing:

beijing 2009

First of all, I’d like to talk about my Beijing trip. This is the second time I visit Beijing, the first one in 1990, right after the Tiananmen Massacre. As everyone can imagine, Beijing has changed from head to toe. From futuristic buildings, rapid transit systems, to better, less stinky toilets etc etc, all are showcasing a China that has amazed the world.

I always admire Beijingers. I always think Beijingers have all the good qualities of the Chinese race. In my previous jobs in HK in the 90s, I’ve worked with people from Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Beijingers were different. They talked more about the bettering of the nation than that of themselves or making money.

In 1990, a taxi driver likely in his early 30s touched me deeply with his words. His car was driving by the Tiananmen Square. He dared to say: “This is the place where the government killed hundreds of students and civilians last year!”

I was shocked by his frankness. “You dare to say this to a stranger? A foreigner?”

“Well, that’s us the Beijingers! We are not afraid to speak our mind! We are not like the Shanghainess who only care about making money! The government cannot oppress our will! And, we want the world to know that a massacre did happen here in Beijing!” He said with pride.

This year in 2009, almost 20 years after the June 4th massacre, things have changed.

Our tour guide is a 29-year-old young man who works two jobs because he wants to give his “future wife a good life”. He’s a talented IT specialist who participated in the making of the world’s largest outdoor LCD “roof” or “sky dome” (天幕) in Beijing. He also loves his job as a tour guide. He reads a lot and he has a lot of stories about everything to tell us.

He too told us that Beijingers are enjoying freedom of speech, “we can say whatever we want now!” But when he took us to the Tiananmen Square one day, he was very very cautious — anxious to some extent — and asked us not to say “sensitive things”. And he agreed if we wanted talk about politics we could do that on our bus.

In all, I can describe him as a typical rational, energetic, talented young individual whom will be part of China’s bright future.

He was open to share with us his political opinions. Here I share with my readers:

One-party dictatorship is good for China. It’s the right political model for China. To us the ordinary people, as long as we eat well, live well under a stable environment, we’re happy (吃得好，住的好，社會穩定，老百姓就滿足了). We really don’t want a political system that may bring any turbulence to society.

If China wasn’t under one-party dictatorship, there would be no stability. China is too big, if mainlanders criticize the rulers like you Hong Kong people do (to Chief Executive Donald Tsang) and take everything to the streets easily, there’d be RIOTS in China! Democracy may be good, but it’s not a good fit for China.

This is a topic that I’ve been contemplating for some time in recent years, especially after the Tibet riot of 2008. How the western world portrayed the obvious race-targetted riot against Han Chinese dashed the last bit of my naive belief that the west was genuine about that bringing democracy to China was good for the Chinese. I slowly realized that the term “democracy” has become a weapon to control other countries and it has become a grandiose slogan used by westerners who in their blood are prone to colonizing other peoples. First it was their weaponry and “mercantilism ideal’ during the 17-18th centuries. Now they are just replacing “weaponry” with “democracy”.

Anyway, the Tibet riot helped me think through if China really needs western-style democracy. Well, maybe democracy is good for most western peoples, but it may not be the most comfortable system the Chinese love to live in. We have a long history of subordinating to authority. The Chinese didn’t riot unless their livelihood was threatened, that their families were in hunger, their children not able to live on. Rarely through history that the Chinese revoked over a single ideology or over religious causes. We used to hate the Manchus in 1644 and the years immediately afterwards. But when the Manchus showed that they could be both a tyranny AND a provider for stable lives, Qing dynasty managed to hang on to rule China for 400 years. Just as what maestro historian Ray Huang (黃仁宇) advocates that China should be analyzed through “macro history” and not be analyzed “micro-ly” like the western academia has been treating other histories, the situation of China nowadays would also be part of the long established pattern of history of 5000 years.

That’s the part I think I can agree with our tour guide and many other young generational Chinese. i.e. China = stability.

However, I cannot agree with him 100% on his second argument — that China is too big if people take every issue to the streets there will only be riots. I think this typical perception is a despise to the intelligence of the Chinese. I agree that the one-people-one-ballot democracy is not ready for the entire China right now only because I believe not every Chinese — especially in rural and mountainous areas where education is still a luxury — is ready to apprehend and appreciate the values of democracy. But I do not believe that if everyone is well educated about democracy the Chinese don’t deserve democracy. Look at Taiwan, Hong Kong. But I strongly believe that China needs not to copy the western style democracy. China should, including Taiwan and HK, experiment a political system that embraces both freedom and stability. And what should that be? Only the Chinese are entitled to find out themselves.

Look at India. Look at Japan. Are their democracy “real” democracy as defined by the west? Nope. In order to be in politics in these countries, you’d have to be part of the a handful of influential families. An ordinary boy from Chicago would not become the president/prime minister no matter how hard he works. The cultural aspect of any political system cannot be overlooked. As long as the people of that country are OK with that system, no matter how much the west don’t like it, they still don’t have any say. The future of a country should be determined by its own people.

Tags: Beijing, democracy, travel

Chinese in Vancouver » travel

Oregon Coast trip Pt. VI – Old Train

Related posts

Oregon Coast trip Pt. V – Capes

Related posts

Oregon Coast trip Pt IV – Ecola

Related posts

Oregon Coast trip Pt III – Waves

Related posts

Oregon Coast trip Pt. II – Lighhouses

Related posts

Oregon Coast trip Pt. I – Moolack Beach

Related posts

Oregon Coast

Related posts

Beijing, Beijing

Related posts