Photo Essay - The Earthquake-Prone Mountains of Sichuan
Photo Essay - The Earthquake-Prone Mountains of Sichuan
Almost 3 years ago we moved to Chengdu from Zhengzhou, before finally moving to Chongqing. The Headmaster of a High School there who had been vice principal of the private high school in Zhengzhou where I had taught for my first 6 years in China was a good friend and we took many trips around the Chengdu area with him and his wife. On this occasion I accompanied him and a few other of his school officials on a two-day tour of the mountainous area of Sichuan Province that had suffered a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake in 2008. The death toll and destruction were huge, causing 1,000,000 people to lose their homes. It is well described in Encyclopedia Britannica:
The earthquake was so severe that I felt it while sitting at my computer in my teacher's apartment in Zhengzhou, 1000 kilometers away. Cracks were caused in the concrete walls of the school, and the students had to leave until engineers inspected it to make sure it was still sound. We spent two days in the area, and as usual it was extremely misty the whole time, as you will see in these photographs.
1. We start to see the mountains, shrouded by the mist.
2. Towns and villages still abound close to the mountains.
3. Terraced farming.
4. It got a little brighter, but the mountains were still hardly visible.
5. Possibly the remains of a mudslide at the bottom right.
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7. You can just make out that there are buildings half-way up the mountain.
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10. Before the earthquake this was a small river, but because of rocks falling into the river blocking it, it became a lake.
11. Farther down that lake, these are the lights of a town that was built on higher ground after the earthquake to take the place of the one that was completely submerged by the swollen river.
12. This huge sculptue was designed by a man who died before he saw it finished. It is to commemorate the earthquake, and the carvings depict a history of the area. The size is indicated by the people at the bottom left of the photo.
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18. We stopped at a renowned old restaurant in the mountains for a DELICIOUS lunch.
19. An ancient hamlet in high up in the mountains. Usually the gates are ornately decorated, but this one was very old, very primitive.
20. These bronze statues depict the tea farmers who carried loads of tea on their backs for many miles through the mountains to where they could sell it.
21. It is traditional to bury family members in tombs on mountain sides.
22. The close-up of another similar tomb. There is a holiday during the Spring called Ching Ming Jie, or Tomb Sweeping Day, when families visit the graves of their deceased family to clean the graves - perhaps this one has no family left.
23. A spring in the side of the mountain, water flows into the large ceramic pot to refresh the tea carriers on their journey.
24. Ancient plumbing along the trail?
25. And finally, the old man and the mountain.
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"Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship" (Tambourine Man, by Bob Dylan)
'Magic swirlin' ship' unless I've been singing it wrong my whole life.
It was "magic swirlin' ship" from Mr. Tambourine Man.
LOL. I did that from memory, but then at my age I shouldn't rely on my memory so much. I've corrected it now.
Fine Foto Fix. I love your essays since they are so comprehensive that I truly get an idea of what it's like there.
Taking, ediiting, and posting these photos "essay-style" on NT is one of the things I enjoy doing the most here.
Nice photos. Are you guided to these statues and artifacts or do you find them on your own?
In this particular case, we had met with school officials from the newly rebuilt town, and they took us around in a couple of cars to see the tea-carrier trail and the artifacts connected to it, the huge memorial Chinese junk sculpture, a newly built school up in the mountains, and treated us to the lunch pictured above at a locally renowned and historical restaurant. Most of the first mountain shots first shown above were taken on the way when we were driving into the area.
What I omitted from this newer photo-essay about the trip was the newly built school in the mountains, and most of the students there had never seen a " low-eye " (foreigner) before, and lined up to get my autograph. If I didn't want to be closer to the facilities of a larger city such as a good hospital, shopping especially for imported goods, etc. I would have loved to have taught those young children - it would have given me an altruistic self-happiness. I will do a follow-up essay of the school, but here is a photo of the school with the students lined up to listen to an address by my headmaster friend:
WOW
That kind of stuff catches my interest. I remember being told about the first time I meet (or was exposed to actually as I was so young) to a black man. (the area I grew up in at the time was predominately white, so ...I was older but still quite young but old enough evidently for it to be quite different to me,)
And somehow I"ve always had an interest in some of the native tribes that are so isolated as to have remained mainly unchanged for at least decades.
But I've lived in major cities since I was 18 and some well diversified ones at that. So maybe its the contrast of it all that catches my attention and interest. Whatever it is I Thank you for sharing this and the other stuff you share and of course your experiences add so much to the pictures and all of it to the site as well.
Again, Thank you.
And WOW Yeah, That had to be quite an experience !!
Very interesting.
The continuing photo-essay, the one of the mountain school, is now posted.
Thnks Buzz I'll check it out again,
I did I think I've seen it all.
So cool and different and wonderful, thank You !
No Steve, I thank you. Sometimes it seems that very few members bother to look at my photo essays, perhaps since they're not about American politics or religion, but comments like yours make we want to spend the time posting these photo essays.
It wouldn't surprise me if more people look than comment or that you may know. Myself I have looked at some (many) of your posts myself, enjoyed them and hadn't bothered to even thank you myself and I doubt I'm alone in this.
SO a big THANK YOU in advance for my next time of doing it too.
lol
One not need comment, I don't care if they don't but do appreciate if they do. What I would like is that they at least leave a "thumbs up" on my first comment or on anyone else's comment just to tell me in that way that they have at least dropped in to see it - just knowing that they have looked is the impetus I need to keep doing it.
Voted you up, just so you know. : )
Cool, That works !
I'm not one to hit the "thumps up" button a great deal. My own "standard" is to make sure I'm not agreeing to any part of the post I'm thumping up for the most part. LOL
I do that in part so it doesn't come back to bite me.
I'll try to remember that I need not apply that stanard everything here. Thanks
Cloudy and foggy mountains are pretty
LOL. I sure as hell have lots of photos of them - hard to find clear non-misty photos of mountains in China.
My favorites are the ones with some water in them as well.
LOL, I think I'm kinda weird like that. It seems I want some sort of lake or stream or river in what I consider beautiful landscape.
Perhaps its the instinct for water (survival) I dont know its just a strong desire to have it there to complete the "great" pictures I'm drawn most to.
I've always been that way, but now ironically I live in the middle of a desert so Now its more understandable. LOL
Misty mountains with water, as requested:
Thanks Buzz, Yep I do like them water pictures. Here is one that I took a while back myself just outside my home when I lived in Fl.
Another great photo essay Buzz....Well done and very enjoyable.
Interesting place....I do have to wonder what the water wheels were for. I love finding old things like that and try to puzzle out what they are used for.
Another wonderful sightseeing tour with you as our tour guide. Please keep it up!
SEISMIC photo essay … another one that's off the scale!
Unique, interesting to say the least, well presented …
More, more please.
Thank you. More to come, all about "The Life of Buzz" - a public diary with illustrations.