One of the standout works at the 2006 Shanghai Biennale was a pile of cheap Chinese export products that flowed from an open shipping container grafted to a wall in the Shanghai Art Museum. “Yiwu Investigation,” as designed by Liu Jianhua, reflected upon the unsteady relationship between the developed world and China. By choosing products from Yiwu, a thriving manufacturing center in Zhejiang Province, Liu suggested that the developing world’s consumer tastes had a mediating role in China’s emergence. According to an essay on the Biennale’s website:
“Although these commodities are known for their low design, usefulness, popularity, low cost and high added labor, they resonate with China’s connection to the world and symbolize the transitional position of Chinese society.”
On Thursday, Liu’s follow-up work, “Export - Cargo Transit,” opened at the Shanghai Gallery of Art. The new installation is also a meditation on the relationship between the developed world and China as expressed via trade. But the new work differs in that it focuses the developed world’s trade with China, and specifically shipments of hazardous “foreign rubbish” to Guangdong Province. Liu’s point is not subtle: today’s foreign scrap exports to China are the moral and economic equivalent of the 19th century opium trade. Or, as the printed materials distributed at the opening put it: “…past opium is today’s ‘foreign’ rubbish.“
First, a description of the work.
Upon entering the gallery visitors confront several large bales of scrap plastics and foil-covered paper. Other bales of similar materials are scattered throughout the space. To the left, the wall is covered with excerpts from articles describing the devastation wrought by the large-scale trade and processing of smuggled electronic waste (computers, televisions, air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigeration equipment) in China, including articles published by Spero, China Daily, and the New York Times.
At the back of the room, and winding along the large windows overlooking the Huangpu River and Pudong, a haphazard pile of scrap plastics mixed with some scrap paper, is piled against the wall. Nearby, a scrap baler is frozen in the process of disgorging a bale of scrap plastics. Beside it, a clear plexiglass case labeled “Art Export,” contains a colorful variety of scrap plastics. Additional “Art Export” containers are scattered throughout the exhibition.
For Liu, the “Art Export” component of the exhibition is key:
First “export” means importing “foreign rubbish” into China from foreign countries. For outsiders, it is export. If this export is taken by a collector from the west, the artwork is then being re-exported from China.
In an essay composed to accompany the exhibition, Cao Weijun suggests that the export of “foreign rubbish” reveals a moral failing on the part of the developed world, alone:
… we realize clearly that developed countries consider their national interest as paramount, which in fact reflects different political viewpoints. From economy, finance, culture to art, no matter how the imperial powers vary themselves, they are always the one who gain at the end. At least, so the colonizer is hoping.
All of this is predicated upon the idea that the “foreign rubbish” exported to China is unwanted, hazardous, and non-recyclable. As Liu notes in an interview with Rebecca Catching of That’s Shanghai:
Most of the garbage imported to China has to be incinerated or buried in China - only a mere 20 per cent of it can be recycled, which poses a big problem for the environment. Western countries have done a good job at handling their own environments, but I can’t help but think that has something to do with China.
Unfortunately, none of the “foreign rubbish” that Liu has installed at the Shanghai Gallery of Art is prohibited under Chinese or international law. That is, none of it is e-scrap. In fact, 99% of it is highly recyclable scrap plastic that fetches strong prices on the open market in China and the developed world.
In a May 2007 speech delivered to the China International Recycling Conference in Tianjin, Tan Yiwu, Vice-President of the Plastics Recycling the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, explained that production of “virgin” plastics from petrochemicals produced far more pollution than production of recycled plastics, and thus the Chinese government was strongly encouraging the development of the recycled plastics industry. In fact, according to Tan, the Chinese recycled plastics industry comprises 40,000 - 60,000 “related industries” employing more than 10 million workers. In 2006, China recycled 5.86 million metric tons of imported plastics … and approximately 10 million metric tons of domestically-generated plastics.
Liu, however, doesn’t seem to know or want to acknowledge the scale of China’s recycling industries, nor the fact that there is significant value in the 40 million metric tons of scrap materials imported into China each year. The material in the gallery, for example, ranges in value from the hundreds to thousands of US dollars per metric ton. Some grades of imported scrap metal are worth more per ton than the selling price of Liu’s past works. If, as Liu incorrectly said to Rebecca Catching, only 20% of this material is recyclable, the economics of the importation business would not work, and there would have been no imported scrap plastic for Liu to purchase in Guangdong (though there would have been plenty of Chinese scrap plastic). That is to say, Liu has no idea that scrap/waste imports into China are largely driven by Chinese buyers and manufacturers that use imported waste as a raw material in lieu of virgin materials.
What he also doesn’t realize - and should - is that valuable commodities tend to have global markets. So, for example, the imported scrap plastics exhibited in the Shanghai Gallery of Art were not necessarily destined for China. Instead, they might very well have stayed in their countries of origin (best as I could tell, the United States and Germany) where local companies would have re-processed them. Indeed, in almost all cases, China competes with scrap processors in developed countries for the “foreign rubbish” that Liu assumes is being dumped in China as a means of colonial control. In recent years, in fact, several of those developed countries have either imposed (Russia) or proposed (the United States) export bans on scrap to protect local processors from the competition of Chinese processors.
Liu’s confusion is at least partly semantic in origin. Most governments, including China’s, tend to categorize imported and exported waste/recyclable materials - legal or not - into a single category called “waste.” So, for example, the United States Customs Service would classify much of the plastic in Liu’s show as “Waste, Pairings, and Scrap of Plastics; of Polymers of Ethylene” despite the fact that it is mostly recyclable and non-hazardous. As a result, genuine waste - say, a stripped computer circuit board - is often lumped into the same category as a clean bale of scrap plastics. Though officials in the United States, Europe, China and elsewhere have spent years trying to change the definitions, the psychological barrier is high: most people outside of the recycling industry have a hard time believing that a bale of scrap plastic has value or minimal environmental impact (for an excellent discussion of this issue, see the position paper of the US-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries).
I don’t want to minimize Liu’s concern for the negative environmental effects caused by the processing of imported and domestic e-scrap in China. At Shanghai Scrap, and elsewhere, I have been very critical of US and European shippers of e-scrap to China and other developing countries. Liu’s problem is that he confuses the relatively small amount of hazardous e-scrap currently being smuggled into China (likely, in the thousands of tons) with the tens of millions of tons of legal, non-hazardous recyclables. His exhibition, meanwhile, confuses viewers by conflating the hazardous e-waste described on the gallery walls with the non-hazardous totally legal scrap recyclables on the floor. yiwu china
So let’s clarify.
Typically, e-scrap looks something like this:
Or this:
But not like this:
As I’ve acknowledged, the environmental consequences of the improper processing of e-scrap - or any other kind of scrap - can be devastating. In an interview that accompanies the exhibition, Liu recalls the recycling towns of Guangdong:
I saw with my own eyes that the rivers [were] so black that it was impossible to see through the water and the workers, without any protection gears, were picking up rubbish along the river.
With all due respect to Liu, I have seen this and much, much worse. But unlike Liu, I don’t see an analogy between the environmental devastation caused by improper recycling processes, and the opium scourge of the 19th century. First, the environmental devastation caused by imported waste materials has nothing to do - implicitly - with the materials themselves. Instead, the pollution caused by these materials is entirely predicated upon how they are processed. What Liu fails to appreciate is that there are environmentally-sound methods of processing most types of scrap materials, and those methods are used in the developing world and - increasingly - in China (which produces much more e-scrap domestically - about 150 million individual pieces annually - than it imports). Where they are not used in China, the fault is not with the foreign exporters but with Chinese importers who choose to subject their workers and the environment to dangerous and unsafe practices. Equal blame, too, might be leveled at local Chinese governments that allow the flaunting of China’s industrial safety and environment laws. Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Chinese recyclers could and should make the investments to make their plants environmentally safe. But most of them don’t. And that is not the fault of the developed world - colonialists or not.
The final conceptual errors in Liu’s show are the “Art Exports” that he plans to send back to the developed world via wealthy art buyers. Implicit in this act, I think, is Liu’s certainty that “foreign rubbish” sent to China makes a one-way trip, only. But this is so totally incorrect as to suggest that Liu has only the most tenuous grasp of how China’s economy has developed over the last two decades. As it happens, “foreign rubbish” prices are at record highs over the last five years largely due to China’s demand for raw materials to feed its manufacturing sector. And that manufacturing sector is focused on exports. For example, in the following photo a workers dismantle American scrap paper bundles at a state-owned recycling plant in Shandong Province:
That ugly bundle of garbage will ultimately be processed and manufactured into new paper products that will be sold to box manufacturers who supply containers to China’s exporters.
Similarly, in this photo workers in Shanghai sort shredded imported automobiles into constituent metals:
Later, the processed metal - now transformed into high-quality ingot - will be exported to Japanese automobile manufacturers. export from yiwu welding wire
Ironically, “Export-Cargo Transit” would have been rendered conceptually stronger if Liu had just installed his 2006 “Yiwu Investigation” into the Shanghai Gallery of Art instead of creating his silly “Art Export” containers. After all, many of the products manufactured in Yiwu contain parts and pieces manufactured from “foreign rubbish” imported into the nearby scrap markets of Taizhou and Ningbo. Cost-conscious art lovers unable to afford a Liu Jianhua Art Export, but still interested in taking a slap at colonialism, need only buy a Japanese manufactured aluminum Toyota car part.
Ultimately, “Export - Cargo Transit” fails as a work of conceptual art because - quite simply - Liu gets the conceptual foundations totally wrong. Likewise, it fails as a social commentary because the facts underlying the commentary are misrepresented and misunderstood. In the end, though, “Export - Cargo Transit” fails because Liu Jianhua committed himself to a political claim without being open to an honest assessment of its truth. And that approach is the essence of a diatribe, not art.
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2007年9月17日星期一
2007年9月16日星期日
Yiwu Huafeng Hotel Yiwu, Chine
Huafeng Hotel is the first three-star rate hotel for tourist and business men in the city of Yiwu, and had been honoured to receive country leaders such as Premier Zhu Rongji , Premier Wen Jiabao , Wu Xueqian, Li Desheng etc. Huafeng hotel is a very important window for oversea reception in YIWU . Deeply rooted in a tradition of hospitality which has been fostered over a decade, we are trying to serve you honestly every day. Region de serviced: It is located just in the downtown. It is Only 10 kilometers from railway station,3 kilometers from exhibition center,10 kilometers from airport. Information sur les tarifs: All rates indicated are for search purposes only; check availability to verify rate. Recreation info: The entertainment club is on the third floor. 2000 square meters include sauna center yiwu market,playing card rooms and barber here. Chinese traditional foot and body massage are served and you can relax yourself thoroughly. Restaurant: Restaurant is on the second floor and is right place to taste China food. You can enjoy chuancai , tanjiacai, hangzhoucai by way of its elegant Chinese decor and exquisite meals prepared by our Chef. It can cater 500 persons at the same time. Salle de conferences: Meeting rooms centralize on the fourth floor and the facilities are complete. There are three meeting rooms including large, medium and small ,which can accept 160 person. They are idea places to hold business negotiation, product show, news release and banquet. Deeply rooted in a tradition in hospitality which has been fostered over a decade, we well understand the uncompromising expectations of our guests and will try every possible way to meet and exceed them. From the moment you step into our elegant lobby, graciousness and style will mark your stay.
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One of the New Seven Wonders of the World
The Great Wall of China was selected as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World in a global poll announced on July 7, 2007. “If you haven’t climbed the Great Wall, you haven’t seen China." Many of your friends who visited China before might have told you this. It is, indeed, an experience of lifetime. The Great Wall of China, one of the most magnificent man-made projects in the world, lies across the northern part of China like some great sleeping dragon, winding its way through the vast territory of China. With a history of over 2,500 years, the Great Wall is still active to attract visitors from all over the world. In 1987, the Great Wall was inscribed on the World Heritage List by the UNESCO.
History & FunctionThe construction of the Great wall began during 770-476 BC. Ducal states at that time built walls to defend their own territories. In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang conquered the six kingdoms and unified China to become its fist emperor. To consolidate the country and ward off invasion by ethnic minority tribes in the north, he had the separate walls joined together and extended to form a united defensive system. Construction continued up to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when the Great Wall became the world's largest military structure.
Construction-He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a real hero!The Great Wall is coagulated with Chinese labors' wisdom, sweat and toil. Ancient records report that at least one million slaves and prisoners of war were conscripted to build the great wall which followed the contour of the land, taking advantage of natural defenses. As many died from exhaustion and starvation while working on this colossal task, the Wall was also known as "the longest cemetery in the world."
The bricks, rocks and lime used to build the wall had to be carried up to the mountains by bare shoulders. Those who succeeded in climbing the wall today are often regarded as "real heroes", from this we should realize the difficulty in climbing the wall, and can imagine how difficult it is to build the Great Wall without modern machinery at that time. Chairman Mao proclaimed that any person who wanted to be a real hero must climb the Great Wall, which has inspired many ambitious visitors. All tourists now know Chairman Mao’s famous words, “He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a real hero!”
Legend-Meng Jiangnu bringing down a section of the Great Wall with her tearsMany beautiful legends and tales have left in China about the construction of the Great Wall. Among them, the most popular would probably be the one about Lady Meng Jiangnu.
On the night of their wedding, Meng Jiangnu's husband was conscribed to build the Great Wall by the Qin soldiers. Before he went away, Lady Meng broke her white jade hairpin into two halves and gave her husband one half as a token of love. One day, lady Meng dreamed that her husband was constantly yelling: "Cold, cold!" She recalled that her husband was wearing very thin clothes. Very soon, she made some padded clothes and left home to look for her husband. She didn’t expect that her husband had already died of exhaustion and she burst into tears. The Great Wall was moved and it collapsed for more than 20 Km, revealing the dead bodies of her husband and many others. On seeing this, she committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
Now, a temple can be found at Shanhai Pass near the sea in memory of this loyal lady.
LengthThe Great Wall is said to be the only man-made project visible with the naked eye from outer space. The current measurement of this defensive wall, which stretches from Shanhaiguan Pass in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west, is 7300 kilometers. Its thickness ranges from about 4.5 to 9 meters (15 to 30 feet) and is up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) tall.
StructureThe Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty in Chinese history when large scale construction of the Great Wall took place, and most of the walls we see today were built in the Ming Dynasty, starting around 1368 and lasting till 1640.
Its historic and strategic importance is matched only by its architectural significance. It is constructed of locally available materials – stone, adobe or rammed earth and also large blocks of granite and bricks. The Great Wall comprises walls, passes, beacon tower, watchtowers, castles and fortresses.
Beacon TowerAlong the 3,600 miles long wall, there are countless beacon towers that were used as signal tower to deliver messages from one place to another. When the enemy invaded in the daytime, heavy smoke was lit as a signal; while at night, big fire would be lit up, because fire was easy to see in the distance. Moreover, the scale of the smoke and fire signals could reveal the number of invading enemies.
Watch TowerThe watchtowers are built at intervals of 1,500 feet except where the terrain is more complicated, and then they are even closer. In ancient time, everyday thousands of soldiers were there to make sure the whole nation was safe. And at night, they slept inside the towers too.
the Great Wall near Beijing Factors, such as season, accessibility, safety, health condition, should be taken into account when visiting the Great Wall. The view as you climb to the top is stunning. Badaling and Juyong Pass is the most visited and most easily accessible part of the Wall. The section between Jinshanling and Simatai requires more physical stamina to climb. The scenery of Mutianyu Great Wall is extremely beautiful in golden autumn.
Juyong Pass Juyong Pass, located in a valley more than 50 kilometers from Beijing City, is one of the three greatest passes of Great Wal. (The other two passes are Jiayuguan Pass and Shanhai Pass)
The wall we can see today was built in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The valley where Juyong Pass lies is steep and precipitous. Thus, Juyong Pass won the reputation of the most steep and dangerous pass. Juyong Pass and Badaling in the south are vital gateways in the northwest region of Beijing City.
Badaling Great WallThe best-preserved and most imposing section of the Great Wall is at Badaling, 45 miles away at the northwest of Beijing. In Chinese, ‘Bada’ means ‘giving access to every direction’. The name itself suggests its strategic importance. The section is made of large blue bricks, with an average height of 24 feet, 19 feet wide of the bottom, and 16 feet at the top. It is wide enough to allow ten soldiers to march side by side along the wall. The highest point here is more than 2,400 feet above sea level.
Mutianyu Great WallThe great Wall from a different view! Mutianyu Great Wall, located 70km from the center of Beijing, is much steeper than Badaling Great Wall, and a more challenging climb. This section, older than Badaling, is considered by Chinese and foreign tourists as the best part of the Great Wall. There are fewer people about because the location is less accessible than Badaling. Surrounded by woodland and streams, this section takes on different looks in different seasons, blossoming flowers in spring, flowing streams in summer, red leaves in autumn and white snow in winter at this photogenic spot. Fiberglass Window Screening
SimataiThe Simatai Great Wall, 120 kilometers from the city center is often described with the following three words: perilous, diverse and peculiar. This section has not been restored as much as Badaling and much of the section is in a state of ruin with exposed bricks and incomplete structures. A famous specialist of Great Wall says: “The Great Wall is the best of the Chinese buildings, and Simatai section is the best of the Great Wall." This section was said to be "people's excellent cultural relics of the world" by UNESCO.
JinshanlingThe Jinshanling Great Wall, 140 km at the northeast end of Beijing City, features complicated and well preserved fortification systems. The walls are more solid, and the watchtowers taller and it retains its original Ming Dynasty outlook. Here you can see the Wall relatively undisturbed and in its slightly more original condition. The wall goes up and up along the ridge and stretches on endlessly. The wall is slightly in ruins and thereby has a special beauty. It is the section that foreign visitors like most.
Jiayu PassJiayu Pass, located in northwestern part of Gansu Province, was a pass of strategic importance in the Ancient Silk Road. This section, first built in 1539, is the representative of the part of Great Wall in western China, and also the west starting point of the Ming Walls. It enjoys reputable names as "the most important pass in the world" and "the most strategically significant pass in Hexi".WOW Gold
Great Wall
History & FunctionThe construction of the Great wall began during 770-476 BC. Ducal states at that time built walls to defend their own territories. In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang conquered the six kingdoms and unified China to become its fist emperor. To consolidate the country and ward off invasion by ethnic minority tribes in the north, he had the separate walls joined together and extended to form a united defensive system. Construction continued up to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when the Great Wall became the world's largest military structure.
Construction-He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a real hero!The Great Wall is coagulated with Chinese labors' wisdom, sweat and toil. Ancient records report that at least one million slaves and prisoners of war were conscripted to build the great wall which followed the contour of the land, taking advantage of natural defenses. As many died from exhaustion and starvation while working on this colossal task, the Wall was also known as "the longest cemetery in the world."
The bricks, rocks and lime used to build the wall had to be carried up to the mountains by bare shoulders. Those who succeeded in climbing the wall today are often regarded as "real heroes", from this we should realize the difficulty in climbing the wall, and can imagine how difficult it is to build the Great Wall without modern machinery at that time. Chairman Mao proclaimed that any person who wanted to be a real hero must climb the Great Wall, which has inspired many ambitious visitors. All tourists now know Chairman Mao’s famous words, “He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a real hero!”
Legend-Meng Jiangnu bringing down a section of the Great Wall with her tearsMany beautiful legends and tales have left in China about the construction of the Great Wall. Among them, the most popular would probably be the one about Lady Meng Jiangnu.
On the night of their wedding, Meng Jiangnu's husband was conscribed to build the Great Wall by the Qin soldiers. Before he went away, Lady Meng broke her white jade hairpin into two halves and gave her husband one half as a token of love. One day, lady Meng dreamed that her husband was constantly yelling: "Cold, cold!" She recalled that her husband was wearing very thin clothes. Very soon, she made some padded clothes and left home to look for her husband. She didn’t expect that her husband had already died of exhaustion and she burst into tears. The Great Wall was moved and it collapsed for more than 20 Km, revealing the dead bodies of her husband and many others. On seeing this, she committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
Now, a temple can be found at Shanhai Pass near the sea in memory of this loyal lady.
LengthThe Great Wall is said to be the only man-made project visible with the naked eye from outer space. The current measurement of this defensive wall, which stretches from Shanhaiguan Pass in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west, is 7300 kilometers. Its thickness ranges from about 4.5 to 9 meters (15 to 30 feet) and is up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) tall.
StructureThe Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty in Chinese history when large scale construction of the Great Wall took place, and most of the walls we see today were built in the Ming Dynasty, starting around 1368 and lasting till 1640.
Its historic and strategic importance is matched only by its architectural significance. It is constructed of locally available materials – stone, adobe or rammed earth and also large blocks of granite and bricks. The Great Wall comprises walls, passes, beacon tower, watchtowers, castles and fortresses.
Beacon TowerAlong the 3,600 miles long wall, there are countless beacon towers that were used as signal tower to deliver messages from one place to another. When the enemy invaded in the daytime, heavy smoke was lit as a signal; while at night, big fire would be lit up, because fire was easy to see in the distance. Moreover, the scale of the smoke and fire signals could reveal the number of invading enemies.
Watch TowerThe watchtowers are built at intervals of 1,500 feet except where the terrain is more complicated, and then they are even closer. In ancient time, everyday thousands of soldiers were there to make sure the whole nation was safe. And at night, they slept inside the towers too.
the Great Wall near Beijing Factors, such as season, accessibility, safety, health condition, should be taken into account when visiting the Great Wall. The view as you climb to the top is stunning. Badaling and Juyong Pass is the most visited and most easily accessible part of the Wall. The section between Jinshanling and Simatai requires more physical stamina to climb. The scenery of Mutianyu Great Wall is extremely beautiful in golden autumn.
Juyong Pass Juyong Pass, located in a valley more than 50 kilometers from Beijing City, is one of the three greatest passes of Great Wal. (The other two passes are Jiayuguan Pass and Shanhai Pass)
The wall we can see today was built in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The valley where Juyong Pass lies is steep and precipitous. Thus, Juyong Pass won the reputation of the most steep and dangerous pass. Juyong Pass and Badaling in the south are vital gateways in the northwest region of Beijing City.
Badaling Great WallThe best-preserved and most imposing section of the Great Wall is at Badaling, 45 miles away at the northwest of Beijing. In Chinese, ‘Bada’ means ‘giving access to every direction’. The name itself suggests its strategic importance. The section is made of large blue bricks, with an average height of 24 feet, 19 feet wide of the bottom, and 16 feet at the top. It is wide enough to allow ten soldiers to march side by side along the wall. The highest point here is more than 2,400 feet above sea level.
Mutianyu Great WallThe great Wall from a different view! Mutianyu Great Wall, located 70km from the center of Beijing, is much steeper than Badaling Great Wall, and a more challenging climb. This section, older than Badaling, is considered by Chinese and foreign tourists as the best part of the Great Wall. There are fewer people about because the location is less accessible than Badaling. Surrounded by woodland and streams, this section takes on different looks in different seasons, blossoming flowers in spring, flowing streams in summer, red leaves in autumn and white snow in winter at this photogenic spot. Fiberglass Window Screening
SimataiThe Simatai Great Wall, 120 kilometers from the city center is often described with the following three words: perilous, diverse and peculiar. This section has not been restored as much as Badaling and much of the section is in a state of ruin with exposed bricks and incomplete structures. A famous specialist of Great Wall says: “The Great Wall is the best of the Chinese buildings, and Simatai section is the best of the Great Wall." This section was said to be "people's excellent cultural relics of the world" by UNESCO.
JinshanlingThe Jinshanling Great Wall, 140 km at the northeast end of Beijing City, features complicated and well preserved fortification systems. The walls are more solid, and the watchtowers taller and it retains its original Ming Dynasty outlook. Here you can see the Wall relatively undisturbed and in its slightly more original condition. The wall goes up and up along the ridge and stretches on endlessly. The wall is slightly in ruins and thereby has a special beauty. It is the section that foreign visitors like most.
Jiayu PassJiayu Pass, located in northwestern part of Gansu Province, was a pass of strategic importance in the Ancient Silk Road. This section, first built in 1539, is the representative of the part of Great Wall in western China, and also the west starting point of the Ming Walls. It enjoys reputable names as "the most important pass in the world" and "the most strategically significant pass in Hexi".WOW Gold
Great Wall
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Lithium batteries, providing a life of up to four years under ideal circumstances are used, and every transmission incorporates a battery-condition indicator. Receivers may be programmed to require a regular "supervisory transmission" every hour, and signal strength is monitored on every transmission. Detectors and transmitters are common across the entire Express and Gemini ranges. Receivers however, are divided into an eight-zone model for the three-wire keypad bus of the Express XP400/600 and Gemini P400/800 range, and eight, sixteen and ninety-six zone models for the four-wire keypad bus of the Gemini P816/P1632/3200/9600 panels. Transmission devices are programmed into each receiver by means of unique serial numbers - to install a detector, the serial number is entered and "associated" to a specific zone by entering the required zone-number. Thus for example, the eight zones of an eight-zone receiver may be used to provide wireless coverage of any eight zones which need not be contiguous in position. The serial number sent with each transmittion is monitored by the alarm control panel (together with the battery condition indicator) - this makes for very quick, easy installation.To the user, there is no difference in operation between a "hard-wired" detector and a Napco Gemini wireless device. Zones are bypassed, activated, and indicate exactly as if they were hard-wired!For trouble-free, no-nonsense wireless coverage of difficult sites, the Napco Gemini wireless range cannot be bettered!
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RK410PRW Wireless PIR Motion Detector is another ROISCOK's special design for luxurious residential installation. smoke alarm PIR detector It has features as strong ability to catch signal, low false & lost alarm, low power consumption and true temperature compensation, high technology and smart manufacture and elegant appearance with stable performance and long use life. Main Features: ? Coverage is 12M ? Dual Passive Infrared Detective Technology ? Microprocessor Design Improves False Alarm Immunity ? True Temperature Compensation ? Dual Polarity Pulse Count is Adjustable ? Resist Interference of White Light ? Power Consumption is Low ? High RFI Immunity for False Alarm Prevention (25V/M - 1GHz) ? Professional Optical Pigmented Lenses ? Installed on Wall, Ceiling and/or Corner Mounting ? Convenient for Installation ? Pulse Count is Selectable ? Resist Fluorescent Interference ? Memory and Form-C Relay ? Compact and Attractive Design is Ideal for Residential installations Specification: ? Operating Voltage:9-16VDC ? Current: 20uA ? Contact of Alarm: NC, 12VDC, 100mA max ? Contact of Tamper: NC, 12VDC, 100mA max ? Time to Alarm: 2.2s ? Time to Warm: 2 minutes ? RFI characteristic: 25V/m,10Mhz ~ 1Ghz ? Operating Temperature: -10ºC~ 55ºC ? Storage Temperature: -20ºC ~ 60ºC ? Size: 107×58×39mm ? Height of Installation: 2.0-2.5Msmoke detector
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2007年9月15日星期六
How We Ended Up With the Great Wall of Waterfront Blight
Given the acrimonious political debate over the Alaskan Way Viaduct's replacement, leading to—but certainly not ending with—Tuesday's mail-in advisory ballot, you'd think the elevated eyesore was controversial evenbefore its 1953 opening. Not true. Everyone loved it then, in part because the duplex waterfront highway was an entirely native solution to the downtown gridlock caused by U.S. Highway 99 dumping cars into both ends of town. It wasn't a new, forced mandate from Olympia or Washington, D.C., but the fruition of almost three decades of municipal planning—mostly forgotten now, and poorly documented then.
The great bypass route was actually conceived during the 1920s, well before there was any need for it. Seattle still had streetcars; private automobiles were rare; the north–south Pacific Highway 99 was new and clear; and the Depression would soon empty the streets of all but the most necessary traffic. It was then, on a 1927 visit to the Midwest, that local engineer J.W. "Arch" Bollong beheld the majesty of Chicago's new bilevel Wacker Drive, which still roars today along the shore of theChicago River (and which is best known from the final chase sequence in The Blues Brothers). Though his exact words—and indeed most of his biographical details—are lost to the sands of time, he essentially declared, "Damn, we gotta build us something like that back home on Elliott Bay." And build it we did.
It took another 26 years, basically the rest of the young traffic engineer's career, for the northern third of the viaduct to open on April 4, 1953, and it's unclear whether Bollong lived to see it. His presence isn't chronicled at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, and I was unable to locate any of his descendants. But he would have been the happiest man in Seattle that day. Arch Bollong's story is one of triumph—a cheerful, optimistic, partisan's view of how problems could be solved with careful planning, popular support, the cooperation of public officials, and sound financing. All of which the viaduct originally enjoyed. In the words of 97-year-old former Washington Gov. Al Rosellini, whose political memory goes back to that era, "I don't recall there was any particular fuss about it."
Of course, that may also be because the city approved the project on Christmas Eve during a newspaper strike.
The secret history of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is one of little opposition and even less public scrutiny. The documents I followed through our city library and municipal archives aren't even remotely complete, and the gaps and literally X-Actoed-out pages hint at a broader problem that haunts us still: a lack of government transparency and accountability. No one can fully account for how the viaduct was built. No one seems able to clearly explain how it ended up under the control of the state. No one appears capable of stopping or starting its successor. Is it any wonder our long-fought clusterduct battle has such long roots?
Following his 1927 visit to Chicago,Bollong drew up an elaborate scheme of highway corridors throughout the city, of which the eventual viaduct was just one."A double-deck roadway should be built on Railroad Avenue," Bollong wrote in an official report to his superiors at the City Engineer's office. At the time, Railroad Avenue ran alongside Elliott Bay, following the route that's now called Alaskan Way. It was basically composed of offshore pilings and wooden decking topped with a maze of railroad tracks and interspersed with open "man traps" through which unlucky souls occasionally fell into Puget Sound. Bollong proposed that the mounds of inconvenient dirt then being blasted off Denny Hill be used as fill to widen and stabilize the avenue and build the viaduct above.
He bolstered his presentation with many photos and impressions of his recent trip. "This Wacker Drive in Chicago and the Riverfront Plaza in St. Louis hold a very close relation to our own Railroad Avenue," he wrote, "where plans have already been brought forth for the erection of a two-deck roadway, the lower deck to be used for commercial vehicles and the upper for fast-moving passenger traffic." The viaduct would also provide 5,000 parking spaces beneath it, he noted, "as business and the automobile go hand-in-hand."
Then, page 42 of his viaduct proposal reads: "See sketch attached." The next page has been neatly sliced out, like the centerfold in a vintage Playboy someone desperately wanted to keep.
At the time, Bollong's plan to build a highway over a rail-choked apron of rotting pilings was far-fetched and risky, not to mention that there was no money. Moreover, Railroad Avenue was still somewhat disputed turf. The region's two great rail monopolies, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific, had dominated the waterfront since the late 19th century, when young, weak Seattle was desperate to move freight eastward. Their properties and wide rights of way were gradually diminished by the 1905 completion of the rail tunnel (removing a tangle of waterfront tracks from Washington to Stewart streets) and the 1911 creation of the Port of Seattle, which wrested most of the piers away from railroad ownership.
In the mid-'30s the city built a new seawall (yes, the same gribble-infested structure that needs replacing today), which essentially allowed Seattle to push its boundary west and claim the new dry ground beneath Railroad Avenue. The whole area became ripe for development—tabula rasa for certain old transportation plans rolled up in a desk drawer.
With the seawall in place, Bollong's dusty blueprint was now unfurled. That new land naturally drew the gaze of Mayor William F. Devin, a Democrat and stalwart FDR supporter who held office in consecutive terms from 1942 through 1952. While manpower and federal largesse were tied up during the war years, the city began a stealthy program of condemnation, clearing warehouses, businesses, and other obstacles to the viaduct's future path. Ultimately, the city spent $1.2 million, or 10 percent of the initial viaduct costs, on securing land for the right of way. None of this money was subject to public vote or any kind of special levy.
Indeed, concerned about a lack of oversight for these expenditures, the Seattle Municipal League, a good-government watchdog group founded during theProgressive Era and still around today, actually sued the city in 1940 for excessive borrowing for its condemnation program. Which halted exactly nothing. People were paying attention to the war in the Pacific during those years, not the war alongElliott Bay. But as Allied troops steadily advanced eastward toward Japan, politicians including Devin began strategizing how to pillage the Federal Highway Aid Act of 1944, which promised a postwar bounty of funding.
The Muni League was particularly irate about the closed-door planning of the viaduct. "As far as we can determine, the only study given to the viaduct was at a meeting on October 19, 1944 at which the City Engineer [Charles L.] Wartelle discussed 25 items in his department's postwar program," the Muni League complained in a letter to the city, written after the condemnations were over and officials had begun angling for federal money. According to the League's letter, Wartelle had admitted in an October '44 meeting with the City Planning Commission that the viaduct project "may not be needed in the five-year period following the war. However, to play it safe, it was included in the program." Basically, the viaduct was being placed on the city's wish list in order to be eligible for the Federal Highway Aid Act. As with the officials who promoted Sound Transit in the '90s, a primary goal was to not miss out on available federal funds.
Viaduct planning continued through World War II. A few months after the Japanese surrender, a map appeared in the Nov. 18, 1945,Seattle Times that included Mayor Devin's plan. Shortly thereafter, a curious thing happened: The city's printers went on strike, effectively putting the Times, P-I, and now-defunct Seattle Star out of business. All that was left was the weekly Municipal News, whichreported on Dec. 22, "Approval of construction of an elevated four-lane arterial on Alaskan Way has been recommended to the city council by the council's streets and sewers committee."
The strike didn't end until Jan. 12. But the next day the Times reported that a formal council vote on the viaduct had taken place during the news blackout. In the city archives, confirmation comes in the form of council Resolution No. 14138, which recommends that "the necessary preparatory measures be taken immediately for the construction of an elevated structure on Railroad Way" and that "the City Engineer is directed to proceed at once with the necessary steps to secure federalaid matching moneys for this project."
And what was the date for this resolution? Christmas Eve, 1945. Some gift.
The middle stage of viaduct history proceeded quickly and without much interest, like some vaudevillian brought on to juggle balls between acts. On Aug. 19, 1946, the council passed Ordinance No. 75292, creating a funding authority for the roadway. Costs escalated repeatedly, more ordinances condemned property and cleared rights of way, a new mayor was elected, the Times and P-I predictably cheered the project, and the Muni League continued to protest the planning process—or lack thereof. A 1948 editorial from the League decries the city's "cursory study" of the project. TheMunicipal News continues: "The viaduct was never approved as a project separate from the many other items in the public works program. Rather, the [City Planning] Commission gave a broad endorsement to the entire public improvements program."
Too little, too late. Hot air wasn't about to stop the concrete from pouring. Construction on the first third of the viaduct, from Battery to Pike, lasted from 1949 to 1953. It opened on April 4, with sled dogs, a beauty queen, and the ritual ribbon cutting. (The fake oversize scissors didn't work, and a pocket knife had to be employed. Prophetic?) The state Department of Highways had its own magazine at the time, Highway News, which includes the following piquant observation: "At this point it is interesting to note that unlike the Aurora Bridge [completed in 1932] and the Lake Washington Bridge projects [1940], the Alaskan Way Viaduct met no organized opposition and had very little fanfare. It seems practically everyone in the area agreed this was the route to take through the city."
Everyone, perhaps, except prominent modernist architect Paul Thiry (designer of KeyArena and other local landmarks), who told the Times, "It will block off all bordering buildings from the bay." And the city archives include a few prescient protest letters from citizens, like R.S. Hawley of the Central Building Company, who warned of the viaduct: "It would always remain an unsightly structure. It should not be many years before Seattle wakes up to the desirability and the need of redeveloping its waterfront in a high-grade manner, and when that time comes, it will be unfortunate to have a viaduct of the nature proposed encumbering our very valuable waterfront." Greg Nickels couldn't have said it better.
Two more sections were built by 1959, connecting U.S. Route 99 to its southern arm in our present-day stadium district. The state estimated that some 32,000 vehicles daily were diverted from city streets. (Today, the viaduct carries three times that amount.) For its first dozen-odd years of highway supremacy, the viaduct stood unquestioned and majestic along the waterfront, a marvelous concrete garland for a can-do age. As Bollong optimistically wrote in a 1947 traffic division report to his bosses, "Now—new worlds to conquer!"
Ramps at Seneca and Columbia streets were added in the '60s. This made the viaduct less of a thoroughfare and more a means of getting to downtown for residents of the North End and West Seattle. The trend was made more pronounced with the 1965 completion of I-5, which reduced traffic along 99 by two-thirds. Thus Bollong's original vision of a bypass route was subverted. I-5 became the bypass and 99 the back door to the city, where people mostly worked and didn't reside. By the 1970s, it came to be seen as a barrier to the waterfront; and by the '90s, with I-5 increasingly clogged, a bypass of the bypass, and an impediment to downtown living.
Still, since the state now owns the viaduct and high-handedly lectures us about its fate, it's ironic to note that the city actually paid the lion's share of the structure's cost. In a proud 1952 overview of the project in Civil Engineering magazine, City Engineer Ralph Finke itemized the $10.6 million tab thusly: $2.3 million in federal aid, $2.5 from the state, and $5.8 million from the city. This included the city's condemnation and right-of-way costs—though not, of course, the potential value of that waterfront land in the future.
Today one might reasonably ask, how did Seattle, the instigator and major partner in building the viaduct, lose control of its future destiny? How did Bollong's innocent Wacker Drive dreams get subsumed into a morass of interagency transportation planning? Therein lies a continuing mystery.
The viaduct, 50 percent funded by the city and 100 percent built on city land, was originally part of the U.S. highway system when it opened. Yet at the same time, the state was considered operator and owner of the highway, even before 99 was downgraded from a federal to state route in the late '60s. Basically, city and federal involvement with the highway ended with the ink drying on the checks. Seattle appears to have granted the viaduct's aerial right of way to the state in perpetuity. Where the specific city ordinance or state legislative act may lie within some forgotten archive, no one at WSDOT or SDOT has been able to tell me. Remember the vast warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? It's something like that.
And this, too, is consistent with the viaduct's murky origins. "Washington's Highway Department has been regarded for years as a sort of dynasty that ran itself from within. And a rather expensive one, too," the Times' Ross Cunningham wrote in 1953. "The internal organization has helped elect and defeat several governors. One result has been that the Highway Department 'ins' stayed in power despite the outcome of elections."
We're about to see that confirmed once again. Fiberglass Window Screening
I wish I could report a Rosebud, or even a lost ark, amid the musty troves of viaduct birth records, but they belong to the incomplete era of tattered carbons and faded mimeographs. (Which still smell better after 60 years, I might add, than the CD-ROMs and PDFs of today.) Over and over, I heard the same response from well-meaning city and state officials—"Records aren't so good from the 1940s." In part, obviously, this is because there was a war on: The press, public, and government workers weren't so concerned with observing every bureaucratic nicety. Not every meeting note made it into a file; not every document was filmed onto microfiche. The monument that lasted was the viaduct, not its paper trail.
And Arch Bollong was no Robert Moses, the legendary "Power Broker" who built New York City's great transportation grid—arguably ruining much of the city in the process—by collecting his own tolls and spending them as he saw fit. And our Department of Highways never had the nefarious clout of the Los Angeles Water Department under William Mulholland. There's no great villain in the viaduct saga, no single individual who can be charged with killing the waterfront, or at least planning its murder, during the prewar era. Because the waterfront as we conceive it now, a desirable public space to be integrated with the rest of the city, simply didn't exist in those terms back then.WOW Gold
Great Wall
The great bypass route was actually conceived during the 1920s, well before there was any need for it. Seattle still had streetcars; private automobiles were rare; the north–south Pacific Highway 99 was new and clear; and the Depression would soon empty the streets of all but the most necessary traffic. It was then, on a 1927 visit to the Midwest, that local engineer J.W. "Arch" Bollong beheld the majesty of Chicago's new bilevel Wacker Drive, which still roars today along the shore of theChicago River (and which is best known from the final chase sequence in The Blues Brothers). Though his exact words—and indeed most of his biographical details—are lost to the sands of time, he essentially declared, "Damn, we gotta build us something like that back home on Elliott Bay." And build it we did.
It took another 26 years, basically the rest of the young traffic engineer's career, for the northern third of the viaduct to open on April 4, 1953, and it's unclear whether Bollong lived to see it. His presence isn't chronicled at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, and I was unable to locate any of his descendants. But he would have been the happiest man in Seattle that day. Arch Bollong's story is one of triumph—a cheerful, optimistic, partisan's view of how problems could be solved with careful planning, popular support, the cooperation of public officials, and sound financing. All of which the viaduct originally enjoyed. In the words of 97-year-old former Washington Gov. Al Rosellini, whose political memory goes back to that era, "I don't recall there was any particular fuss about it."
Of course, that may also be because the city approved the project on Christmas Eve during a newspaper strike.
The secret history of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is one of little opposition and even less public scrutiny. The documents I followed through our city library and municipal archives aren't even remotely complete, and the gaps and literally X-Actoed-out pages hint at a broader problem that haunts us still: a lack of government transparency and accountability. No one can fully account for how the viaduct was built. No one seems able to clearly explain how it ended up under the control of the state. No one appears capable of stopping or starting its successor. Is it any wonder our long-fought clusterduct battle has such long roots?
Following his 1927 visit to Chicago,Bollong drew up an elaborate scheme of highway corridors throughout the city, of which the eventual viaduct was just one."A double-deck roadway should be built on Railroad Avenue," Bollong wrote in an official report to his superiors at the City Engineer's office. At the time, Railroad Avenue ran alongside Elliott Bay, following the route that's now called Alaskan Way. It was basically composed of offshore pilings and wooden decking topped with a maze of railroad tracks and interspersed with open "man traps" through which unlucky souls occasionally fell into Puget Sound. Bollong proposed that the mounds of inconvenient dirt then being blasted off Denny Hill be used as fill to widen and stabilize the avenue and build the viaduct above.
He bolstered his presentation with many photos and impressions of his recent trip. "This Wacker Drive in Chicago and the Riverfront Plaza in St. Louis hold a very close relation to our own Railroad Avenue," he wrote, "where plans have already been brought forth for the erection of a two-deck roadway, the lower deck to be used for commercial vehicles and the upper for fast-moving passenger traffic." The viaduct would also provide 5,000 parking spaces beneath it, he noted, "as business and the automobile go hand-in-hand."
Then, page 42 of his viaduct proposal reads: "See sketch attached." The next page has been neatly sliced out, like the centerfold in a vintage Playboy someone desperately wanted to keep.
At the time, Bollong's plan to build a highway over a rail-choked apron of rotting pilings was far-fetched and risky, not to mention that there was no money. Moreover, Railroad Avenue was still somewhat disputed turf. The region's two great rail monopolies, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific, had dominated the waterfront since the late 19th century, when young, weak Seattle was desperate to move freight eastward. Their properties and wide rights of way were gradually diminished by the 1905 completion of the rail tunnel (removing a tangle of waterfront tracks from Washington to Stewart streets) and the 1911 creation of the Port of Seattle, which wrested most of the piers away from railroad ownership.
In the mid-'30s the city built a new seawall (yes, the same gribble-infested structure that needs replacing today), which essentially allowed Seattle to push its boundary west and claim the new dry ground beneath Railroad Avenue. The whole area became ripe for development—tabula rasa for certain old transportation plans rolled up in a desk drawer.
With the seawall in place, Bollong's dusty blueprint was now unfurled. That new land naturally drew the gaze of Mayor William F. Devin, a Democrat and stalwart FDR supporter who held office in consecutive terms from 1942 through 1952. While manpower and federal largesse were tied up during the war years, the city began a stealthy program of condemnation, clearing warehouses, businesses, and other obstacles to the viaduct's future path. Ultimately, the city spent $1.2 million, or 10 percent of the initial viaduct costs, on securing land for the right of way. None of this money was subject to public vote or any kind of special levy.
Indeed, concerned about a lack of oversight for these expenditures, the Seattle Municipal League, a good-government watchdog group founded during theProgressive Era and still around today, actually sued the city in 1940 for excessive borrowing for its condemnation program. Which halted exactly nothing. People were paying attention to the war in the Pacific during those years, not the war alongElliott Bay. But as Allied troops steadily advanced eastward toward Japan, politicians including Devin began strategizing how to pillage the Federal Highway Aid Act of 1944, which promised a postwar bounty of funding.
The Muni League was particularly irate about the closed-door planning of the viaduct. "As far as we can determine, the only study given to the viaduct was at a meeting on October 19, 1944 at which the City Engineer [Charles L.] Wartelle discussed 25 items in his department's postwar program," the Muni League complained in a letter to the city, written after the condemnations were over and officials had begun angling for federal money. According to the League's letter, Wartelle had admitted in an October '44 meeting with the City Planning Commission that the viaduct project "may not be needed in the five-year period following the war. However, to play it safe, it was included in the program." Basically, the viaduct was being placed on the city's wish list in order to be eligible for the Federal Highway Aid Act. As with the officials who promoted Sound Transit in the '90s, a primary goal was to not miss out on available federal funds.
Viaduct planning continued through World War II. A few months after the Japanese surrender, a map appeared in the Nov. 18, 1945,Seattle Times that included Mayor Devin's plan. Shortly thereafter, a curious thing happened: The city's printers went on strike, effectively putting the Times, P-I, and now-defunct Seattle Star out of business. All that was left was the weekly Municipal News, whichreported on Dec. 22, "Approval of construction of an elevated four-lane arterial on Alaskan Way has been recommended to the city council by the council's streets and sewers committee."
The strike didn't end until Jan. 12. But the next day the Times reported that a formal council vote on the viaduct had taken place during the news blackout. In the city archives, confirmation comes in the form of council Resolution No. 14138, which recommends that "the necessary preparatory measures be taken immediately for the construction of an elevated structure on Railroad Way" and that "the City Engineer is directed to proceed at once with the necessary steps to secure federalaid matching moneys for this project."
And what was the date for this resolution? Christmas Eve, 1945. Some gift.
The middle stage of viaduct history proceeded quickly and without much interest, like some vaudevillian brought on to juggle balls between acts. On Aug. 19, 1946, the council passed Ordinance No. 75292, creating a funding authority for the roadway. Costs escalated repeatedly, more ordinances condemned property and cleared rights of way, a new mayor was elected, the Times and P-I predictably cheered the project, and the Muni League continued to protest the planning process—or lack thereof. A 1948 editorial from the League decries the city's "cursory study" of the project. TheMunicipal News continues: "The viaduct was never approved as a project separate from the many other items in the public works program. Rather, the [City Planning] Commission gave a broad endorsement to the entire public improvements program."
Too little, too late. Hot air wasn't about to stop the concrete from pouring. Construction on the first third of the viaduct, from Battery to Pike, lasted from 1949 to 1953. It opened on April 4, with sled dogs, a beauty queen, and the ritual ribbon cutting. (The fake oversize scissors didn't work, and a pocket knife had to be employed. Prophetic?) The state Department of Highways had its own magazine at the time, Highway News, which includes the following piquant observation: "At this point it is interesting to note that unlike the Aurora Bridge [completed in 1932] and the Lake Washington Bridge projects [1940], the Alaskan Way Viaduct met no organized opposition and had very little fanfare. It seems practically everyone in the area agreed this was the route to take through the city."
Everyone, perhaps, except prominent modernist architect Paul Thiry (designer of KeyArena and other local landmarks), who told the Times, "It will block off all bordering buildings from the bay." And the city archives include a few prescient protest letters from citizens, like R.S. Hawley of the Central Building Company, who warned of the viaduct: "It would always remain an unsightly structure. It should not be many years before Seattle wakes up to the desirability and the need of redeveloping its waterfront in a high-grade manner, and when that time comes, it will be unfortunate to have a viaduct of the nature proposed encumbering our very valuable waterfront." Greg Nickels couldn't have said it better.
Two more sections were built by 1959, connecting U.S. Route 99 to its southern arm in our present-day stadium district. The state estimated that some 32,000 vehicles daily were diverted from city streets. (Today, the viaduct carries three times that amount.) For its first dozen-odd years of highway supremacy, the viaduct stood unquestioned and majestic along the waterfront, a marvelous concrete garland for a can-do age. As Bollong optimistically wrote in a 1947 traffic division report to his bosses, "Now—new worlds to conquer!"
Ramps at Seneca and Columbia streets were added in the '60s. This made the viaduct less of a thoroughfare and more a means of getting to downtown for residents of the North End and West Seattle. The trend was made more pronounced with the 1965 completion of I-5, which reduced traffic along 99 by two-thirds. Thus Bollong's original vision of a bypass route was subverted. I-5 became the bypass and 99 the back door to the city, where people mostly worked and didn't reside. By the 1970s, it came to be seen as a barrier to the waterfront; and by the '90s, with I-5 increasingly clogged, a bypass of the bypass, and an impediment to downtown living.
Still, since the state now owns the viaduct and high-handedly lectures us about its fate, it's ironic to note that the city actually paid the lion's share of the structure's cost. In a proud 1952 overview of the project in Civil Engineering magazine, City Engineer Ralph Finke itemized the $10.6 million tab thusly: $2.3 million in federal aid, $2.5 from the state, and $5.8 million from the city. This included the city's condemnation and right-of-way costs—though not, of course, the potential value of that waterfront land in the future.
Today one might reasonably ask, how did Seattle, the instigator and major partner in building the viaduct, lose control of its future destiny? How did Bollong's innocent Wacker Drive dreams get subsumed into a morass of interagency transportation planning? Therein lies a continuing mystery.
The viaduct, 50 percent funded by the city and 100 percent built on city land, was originally part of the U.S. highway system when it opened. Yet at the same time, the state was considered operator and owner of the highway, even before 99 was downgraded from a federal to state route in the late '60s. Basically, city and federal involvement with the highway ended with the ink drying on the checks. Seattle appears to have granted the viaduct's aerial right of way to the state in perpetuity. Where the specific city ordinance or state legislative act may lie within some forgotten archive, no one at WSDOT or SDOT has been able to tell me. Remember the vast warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? It's something like that.
And this, too, is consistent with the viaduct's murky origins. "Washington's Highway Department has been regarded for years as a sort of dynasty that ran itself from within. And a rather expensive one, too," the Times' Ross Cunningham wrote in 1953. "The internal organization has helped elect and defeat several governors. One result has been that the Highway Department 'ins' stayed in power despite the outcome of elections."
We're about to see that confirmed once again. Fiberglass Window Screening
I wish I could report a Rosebud, or even a lost ark, amid the musty troves of viaduct birth records, but they belong to the incomplete era of tattered carbons and faded mimeographs. (Which still smell better after 60 years, I might add, than the CD-ROMs and PDFs of today.) Over and over, I heard the same response from well-meaning city and state officials—"Records aren't so good from the 1940s." In part, obviously, this is because there was a war on: The press, public, and government workers weren't so concerned with observing every bureaucratic nicety. Not every meeting note made it into a file; not every document was filmed onto microfiche. The monument that lasted was the viaduct, not its paper trail.
And Arch Bollong was no Robert Moses, the legendary "Power Broker" who built New York City's great transportation grid—arguably ruining much of the city in the process—by collecting his own tolls and spending them as he saw fit. And our Department of Highways never had the nefarious clout of the Los Angeles Water Department under William Mulholland. There's no great villain in the viaduct saga, no single individual who can be charged with killing the waterfront, or at least planning its murder, during the prewar era. Because the waterfront as we conceive it now, a desirable public space to be integrated with the rest of the city, simply didn't exist in those terms back then.WOW Gold
Great Wall
Provisions on Guiding the Orientation of Foreign Investment
Article 1 In order to guide the orientation of foreign investment, to keep the orientation of foreign investment in line with the national economy and social development planning of China, and to protect of the lawful rights and interests of investors, these Provisions have been formulated according to the laws and provision on foreign investment and the requirements of industrial policies of the State.
Article 2 These Provisions shall be applicable to the projects of investment and establishment of Chinese-foreign joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures and foreign-funded enterprises (hereinafter referred to all as foreign-funded enterprises), and foreign-funded projects in other forms (hereinafter referred to as foreign-funded projects) within the territory of China.
Article 3 The Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance and the Catalog of Foreign-funded Dominant Industries of the Mid-west Region shall be formulated by the State Development Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation jointly with other relevant departments under the State Council, and shall be promulgated upon the approval of the State Council;
When it is needed to partly adjust the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance and the Catalog of Foreign-funded Dominant Industries of the Mid-west Region in light of the actual situation, the State Economic and Trade Commission, the State Development Planning Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation jointly with the relevant departments under the State Council shall make the revision and promulgation timely.
The Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance and the Catalog of Foreign-funded Dominant Industries of the Mid-west Region shall be the basis of the application of relevant policies in directing and examining and approving foreign funded projects and foreign-funded enterprises.
Article 4 Foreign-funded projects fall into 4 categories, namely encouraged, permitted, restricted and prohibited ones.
The foreign-funded projects that are encouraged, restricted and prohibited shall be listed in the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance. And the foreign-funded projects that don¡¯t fall into the categories of encouraged, restricted or prohibited projects shall be the permitted foreign-funded projects. The permitted foreign-funded projects shall not be listed in the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance.
Article 5 A project in any of the following situations shall be listed as the encouraged foreign-funded projects:
1) Being of new agriculture technologies, agriculture comprehensive development, or energy, transportation and important raw material industries;
2) Being of high and new technologies or advanced application technologies that can improve the product performance and increase the technology economic efficiency of the enterprises or those that can produce the new equipments and new materials which the domestic production capacity fails to produce;
3) Meeting the market needs and being able to improve the product level, develop new markets or increase the international competitive capacity of the products;
4) Being of new technologies and new equipments that can save energy and raw material, comprehensively utilize resources and regenerate resources, and prevent environment pollutions;
5) Being capable of bring into the advantages of human power and resources of the mid-west region into full play and being in conformity to the industrial policies of the State;
6) Other situations as provided for by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 6 A project in any of the following situations shall be a restricted foreign-funded project:
1) Being of technology lagged behind;
2) Being adverse to saving resources and improving environment;
3) Engaged in the prospecting and exploitation of the specific type of mineral resources to which the State applies protective exploitation;
4) Falling into the industries that the State opens step by step;
5) Other situations as provided by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 7 A project in any of the following situations shall be a prohibited foreign-funded project:
1) Harming the State safety or impairing the public interests;
2) Polluting the environment, damaging natural resources or harming human health;
3) Occupying too much farmland and being adverse to the protection and development of land resources;
4) Harming the safety and usage of military facilities;
5) Using the particular techniques or technologies of China to produce products;
6) Other situations as provided for by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 8 The Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance may provide that a foreign-funded enterprise is limited to joint venture, cooperative venture, with Chinese party at the holding position or with Chinese party at the relatively holding position.
Limited to joint venture and operative venture shall refer to that only Chinese-foreign joint ventures and Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures are allowed; with the Chinese parties at the holding position shall refer to that the total investment proportion of the Chinese parties in the foreign-funded project shall be more; with Chinese parties at the relatively holding position shall refer to that the total investment proportion of the Chinese parties in the foreign-funded project shall be higher that the investment proportion of any foreign party.
Article 9 Apart from enjoying the preferential treatments according to the provisions of the relevant laws and administrative regulations, the encouraged foreign-funded projects that engage in the construction and operation of energy, transportation, municipal infrastructure (coal, oil, natural gas, electric power, railways, highways, ports, airports, city roads, sewage disposition, and garbage disposition, etc.) that needs large amount of investment and long term for recovery may expand their relevant business scope upon approval.
Article 10 The permitted foreign-funded projects of which the products are all directly exported shall be regarded as the encouraged foreign-funded projects; the restricted foreign-funded projects of which the export sales accounts for more than 7072653640f their total amount of sales may be regarded as the permitted foreign-funded projects upon the approval of the People’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under State Planning or the competent department under the State Council.
Article 11 The conditions may be eased for the permitted and restricted foreign-funded projects that really can bring the advantages of the mid-west region into full play; among which, those listed in the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance may enjoy the preferential policies for the encouraged foreign-funded projects.
Article 12 Foreign-funded projects shall be examined and approved, and put on record respectively by the departments of development planning and the economic and trade departments according to the limit of authority for examination and approval; the contracts and articles of association of foreign-funded enterprises shall be examined and approved, and put on record by the departments of foreign trade and economic cooperation. Among which, the foreign-funded projects under the limit for restricted foreign-funded projects shall be subject to the examination and approval of the corresponding competent departments of the People’s governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under State Planning, and shall be reported to the competent departments at the next higher level and the competent industrial departments, the power for examination and approval of this kind of projects may not be granted to the authorities at lower levels. The foreign-funded projects in the service area that are opened to the outside world step by step shall be subject to the examination and approval according to the relevant provisions of the State.
The foreign-funded projects involving quotas and licenses must apply to the departments for quotas and licenses first.
Where there are otherwise provisions of laws and administrative regulations on the procedures and measures for the examination and approval of foreign-funded projects, those provisions shall be observed. yiwu yiwu market
Article 13 With respect to the foreign-funded projects examined and approved in violation of the present provisions, the organ of examination and approval at the next higher level shall cancel it within 30 workdays from the day of receiving the documents for record of that project, its contract and articles of association shall be void, the department of enterprise registration shall not register it and the customs shall not handle the procedures for import and export for it.
Article 14 Where the applicant of a foreign-funded project manages to obtain the approval for the project by deceiving or other illicit means, his legal liabilities shall be investigated for according to law regarding the seriousness of the circumstances; the organ of examination and approval shall cancel the approval for that project and the relevant competent organs shall deal with it correspondingly according to law.
Article 15 Where any of the personnel of the organ of examination and approval abuses his power or neglects his duties, criminal responsibilities shall be investigated for according to the provisions of the criminal law on the crime of abusing powers or the crime of neglecting duties; where the circumstances are not serious enough for criminal punishment, administrative punishment of recording a special demerit or more severe punishment shall be given.
Article 16 With respect to the investment projects established by overseas Chinese and the investors from the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, Macao Special Administrative Region or Taiwan Area, these Provisions shall be applicable by reference in implementation.
Article 17 These Provisions shall come into force on April 1, 2002. The Interim Provisions on the Guidance of Foreign Investment Directions approved by the State Council on June 7, 1995 and promulgated by the State Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation on June 20, 1995 shall be nullified simultaneously.
china toys
Article 2 These Provisions shall be applicable to the projects of investment and establishment of Chinese-foreign joint ventures, Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures and foreign-funded enterprises (hereinafter referred to all as foreign-funded enterprises), and foreign-funded projects in other forms (hereinafter referred to as foreign-funded projects) within the territory of China.
Article 3 The Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance and the Catalog of Foreign-funded Dominant Industries of the Mid-west Region shall be formulated by the State Development Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation jointly with other relevant departments under the State Council, and shall be promulgated upon the approval of the State Council;
When it is needed to partly adjust the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance and the Catalog of Foreign-funded Dominant Industries of the Mid-west Region in light of the actual situation, the State Economic and Trade Commission, the State Development Planning Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation jointly with the relevant departments under the State Council shall make the revision and promulgation timely.
The Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance and the Catalog of Foreign-funded Dominant Industries of the Mid-west Region shall be the basis of the application of relevant policies in directing and examining and approving foreign funded projects and foreign-funded enterprises.
Article 4 Foreign-funded projects fall into 4 categories, namely encouraged, permitted, restricted and prohibited ones.
The foreign-funded projects that are encouraged, restricted and prohibited shall be listed in the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance. And the foreign-funded projects that don¡¯t fall into the categories of encouraged, restricted or prohibited projects shall be the permitted foreign-funded projects. The permitted foreign-funded projects shall not be listed in the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance.
Article 5 A project in any of the following situations shall be listed as the encouraged foreign-funded projects:
1) Being of new agriculture technologies, agriculture comprehensive development, or energy, transportation and important raw material industries;
2) Being of high and new technologies or advanced application technologies that can improve the product performance and increase the technology economic efficiency of the enterprises or those that can produce the new equipments and new materials which the domestic production capacity fails to produce;
3) Meeting the market needs and being able to improve the product level, develop new markets or increase the international competitive capacity of the products;
4) Being of new technologies and new equipments that can save energy and raw material, comprehensively utilize resources and regenerate resources, and prevent environment pollutions;
5) Being capable of bring into the advantages of human power and resources of the mid-west region into full play and being in conformity to the industrial policies of the State;
6) Other situations as provided for by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 6 A project in any of the following situations shall be a restricted foreign-funded project:
1) Being of technology lagged behind;
2) Being adverse to saving resources and improving environment;
3) Engaged in the prospecting and exploitation of the specific type of mineral resources to which the State applies protective exploitation;
4) Falling into the industries that the State opens step by step;
5) Other situations as provided by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 7 A project in any of the following situations shall be a prohibited foreign-funded project:
1) Harming the State safety or impairing the public interests;
2) Polluting the environment, damaging natural resources or harming human health;
3) Occupying too much farmland and being adverse to the protection and development of land resources;
4) Harming the safety and usage of military facilities;
5) Using the particular techniques or technologies of China to produce products;
6) Other situations as provided for by laws and administrative regulations.
Article 8 The Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance may provide that a foreign-funded enterprise is limited to joint venture, cooperative venture, with Chinese party at the holding position or with Chinese party at the relatively holding position.
Limited to joint venture and operative venture shall refer to that only Chinese-foreign joint ventures and Chinese-foreign cooperative ventures are allowed; with the Chinese parties at the holding position shall refer to that the total investment proportion of the Chinese parties in the foreign-funded project shall be more; with Chinese parties at the relatively holding position shall refer to that the total investment proportion of the Chinese parties in the foreign-funded project shall be higher that the investment proportion of any foreign party.
Article 9 Apart from enjoying the preferential treatments according to the provisions of the relevant laws and administrative regulations, the encouraged foreign-funded projects that engage in the construction and operation of energy, transportation, municipal infrastructure (coal, oil, natural gas, electric power, railways, highways, ports, airports, city roads, sewage disposition, and garbage disposition, etc.) that needs large amount of investment and long term for recovery may expand their relevant business scope upon approval.
Article 10 The permitted foreign-funded projects of which the products are all directly exported shall be regarded as the encouraged foreign-funded projects; the restricted foreign-funded projects of which the export sales accounts for more than 7072653640f their total amount of sales may be regarded as the permitted foreign-funded projects upon the approval of the People’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under State Planning or the competent department under the State Council.
Article 11 The conditions may be eased for the permitted and restricted foreign-funded projects that really can bring the advantages of the mid-west region into full play; among which, those listed in the Catalog of Foreign-funded Industry Guidance may enjoy the preferential policies for the encouraged foreign-funded projects.
Article 12 Foreign-funded projects shall be examined and approved, and put on record respectively by the departments of development planning and the economic and trade departments according to the limit of authority for examination and approval; the contracts and articles of association of foreign-funded enterprises shall be examined and approved, and put on record by the departments of foreign trade and economic cooperation. Among which, the foreign-funded projects under the limit for restricted foreign-funded projects shall be subject to the examination and approval of the corresponding competent departments of the People’s governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under State Planning, and shall be reported to the competent departments at the next higher level and the competent industrial departments, the power for examination and approval of this kind of projects may not be granted to the authorities at lower levels. The foreign-funded projects in the service area that are opened to the outside world step by step shall be subject to the examination and approval according to the relevant provisions of the State.
The foreign-funded projects involving quotas and licenses must apply to the departments for quotas and licenses first.
Where there are otherwise provisions of laws and administrative regulations on the procedures and measures for the examination and approval of foreign-funded projects, those provisions shall be observed. yiwu yiwu market
Article 13 With respect to the foreign-funded projects examined and approved in violation of the present provisions, the organ of examination and approval at the next higher level shall cancel it within 30 workdays from the day of receiving the documents for record of that project, its contract and articles of association shall be void, the department of enterprise registration shall not register it and the customs shall not handle the procedures for import and export for it.
Article 14 Where the applicant of a foreign-funded project manages to obtain the approval for the project by deceiving or other illicit means, his legal liabilities shall be investigated for according to law regarding the seriousness of the circumstances; the organ of examination and approval shall cancel the approval for that project and the relevant competent organs shall deal with it correspondingly according to law.
Article 15 Where any of the personnel of the organ of examination and approval abuses his power or neglects his duties, criminal responsibilities shall be investigated for according to the provisions of the criminal law on the crime of abusing powers or the crime of neglecting duties; where the circumstances are not serious enough for criminal punishment, administrative punishment of recording a special demerit or more severe punishment shall be given.
Article 16 With respect to the investment projects established by overseas Chinese and the investors from the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, Macao Special Administrative Region or Taiwan Area, these Provisions shall be applicable by reference in implementation.
Article 17 These Provisions shall come into force on April 1, 2002. The Interim Provisions on the Guidance of Foreign Investment Directions approved by the State Council on June 7, 1995 and promulgated by the State Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation on June 20, 1995 shall be nullified simultaneously.
china toys
Foreign Trade Council: accompanying measures are crucial for Morocco-US FTA success
Foreign Trade Council: accompanying measures are crucial for Morocco-US FTA success
Morocco-USA, Economics, 6 May 2005
Although the Morocco-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) offers considerable opportunities to Moroccan textile exporters and an outlet to some agricultural produces, accompanying measures are crucial to benefit the most of the accord, believes Mohamed Benayad, head of the National Council for Foreign Trade (CNCE). export from yiwu
Morocco has to double the pace of the restructuring process and to identify the sectors that are able to compete and be of interest to American consumers, he said recently in Casablanca during the presentation of Mars edition of "Conjoncture" magazine, published by the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (CMC).
Morocco, Benayad explained, has undoubtedly competitive farm products destined to nearly 350 million Americans, but it should first address the challenge of a market composed of 50 States, especially with the presence of two kinds of legislations, state legislation and federal legislation.
Comparing between the FTA and the accord signed in 1995 with the European Union (EU), Benayad noted that the first one is a global accord comprising all products, while the second one only concerns certain products.
The FTA, signed on June 15, 2004, eliminates tariffs on 95 percent of all bilateral trade between the United States and Morocco. All remaining tariffs are to be eliminated within nine years.china gifts
yiwu china
Morocco-USA, Economics, 6 May 2005
Although the Morocco-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) offers considerable opportunities to Moroccan textile exporters and an outlet to some agricultural produces, accompanying measures are crucial to benefit the most of the accord, believes Mohamed Benayad, head of the National Council for Foreign Trade (CNCE). export from yiwu
Morocco has to double the pace of the restructuring process and to identify the sectors that are able to compete and be of interest to American consumers, he said recently in Casablanca during the presentation of Mars edition of "Conjoncture" magazine, published by the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (CMC).
Morocco, Benayad explained, has undoubtedly competitive farm products destined to nearly 350 million Americans, but it should first address the challenge of a market composed of 50 States, especially with the presence of two kinds of legislations, state legislation and federal legislation.
Comparing between the FTA and the accord signed in 1995 with the European Union (EU), Benayad noted that the first one is a global accord comprising all products, while the second one only concerns certain products.
The FTA, signed on June 15, 2004, eliminates tariffs on 95 percent of all bilateral trade between the United States and Morocco. All remaining tariffs are to be eliminated within nine years.china gifts
yiwu china
2007年9月14日星期五
The Great Wall
The most commonly told fact about the Great Wall - that it is the one man-made structure visible from the moon - is perhaps the most impressive. But other statistics are close rivals. The wall was begun in the fifth century BC, continued until the sixteenth century and stretches some 6000km across China. Today's surviving sections, placed end to end, would link New York with Los Angeles, and if the bricks used to build it were made into a single wall 5m high and 1m thick, it would more than encircle the earth. Even at ground level, and along the small, most-visited section at Badaling, constantly overrun by Chinese and foreign tourists, Wan Li Changcheng (The Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li), is clearly China's most spectacular sight.
As the closest section of the wall to Beijing, Badaling is by far the most popular part of the site to visit and, perhaps for this reason some find it the most disappointing. The best time to visit is early morning, before the tour buses arrive. If you make it past the hoards and hustlers and make the climb itself, the views are quite spectacular. The Great Wall is a symbol of Chinese traditional culture and the pride of the Chinese nation. It's worth taking a hike and reflecting on this incredible feat of mankind.
Of course, if we take a look at history, the wall did not succeed in its main function; to keep out foreign invaders. Those who wanted to break through the fortifications all those years ago, found an alternative method. The Chinese Empire did not allow for human weakness. Attackers bribed their way past the wall where they had failed to break through with physical force.
Simatai
Simatai A wilder and less crowded option is to go to the section known as Simatai. This section is much farther away, over 100 kilometers northeast of Beijing, so you will have to make a whole day of a trip to go there. You can also take a bus or rent out a taxi for the day, but if you do this, ask a Chinese friend for help so you don't get ripped off.Simatai (daily 8am-4pm; ￡16), 110km northeast of the city, is the most unspoilt section of the Great Wall around Beijing, and, as it snakes across purple hills that resemble crumpled velvet from afar, with blue mountains in the distance, it's easily the most beautiful. Uncrowded, peaceful and semi-ruined, it fulfils the expectations of most visitors more than the other sections.
At the entrance, merely a booth in a car park, there is only a handful of souvenir stalls, and none near the wall itself, though a cable car is under construction, so no doubt Simatai's underdeveloped status will not last long.The only vendors around are local villagers. Make it understood from the outset that you are not interested in what they have to sell, otherwise it is quite likely that some poor kid with two cans of soft drink and a few postcards will follow you all afternoon.
Most of this section is unrenovated, dating back to the Ming dynasty, and sporting a few late innovations such as spaces for cannon, with its inner walls at right angles to the outer wall to thwart invaders who have already breached the first defence. From the small car park, a winding path takes you up to the wall and regularly spaced watchtowers allow you to measure your progress uphill along the ridge. The walk over the ruins is not an easy one, and gets increasingly precipitous after about the tenth watchtower, with sheer drops and steep angles. The views are sublime, though. After about the fourteenth tower (2hr), the wall peters out and the climb becomes quite dangerous, and there's no point going any farther.
Mutianyu Great Wall WOW Gold
Mutianyu Mutianyu Great Wall (daily 8am-4pm; ￡10), 90km northeast of the city, is more appealing to most travellers than Badaling as it's somewhat less developed. A two-kilometre section of the wall, well endowed with guard towers, built in 1368 and renovated in 1983, it passes along a ridge through some lush, undulating hills. From the entrance, steep steps lead up to the wall; most people turn left, which leads to the cable car (￡30, students ￡15) for an effortless trip down again. Turn right and you can walk along the wall for about 1km until you come to a barrier - unlike at Badaling, you can't get on to the unreconstructed sections. Mutianyu Great Wall Guesthouse (010/69626867; ￡¤100-150), situated in a reconstructed watchtower 500m before this barrier, is a good place for a quiet break.
To get to Mutianyu, minibuses leave from the street just south of the Great Hall of the People off Tian'anmen Square every morning (￡10) and include four photo stops along the way. You can buy tickets, and check on departure times, the day before from a ticket booth on the pavement. Otherwise there are minibuses from Dongzhimen bus station early every morning. Getting there on regular buses won't save you any money, and involves several changes. Returning to the city shouldn't be a hassle provided you don't leave it too late, as plenty of minibuses wait in the car park to take people back to Beijing. If you can't find a minibus back to Beijing, get one to Huairou, from where you can get a regular bus back to the capital - the last bus back from Huairou leaves at 6.30pm.
welding wire
As the closest section of the wall to Beijing, Badaling is by far the most popular part of the site to visit and, perhaps for this reason some find it the most disappointing. The best time to visit is early morning, before the tour buses arrive. If you make it past the hoards and hustlers and make the climb itself, the views are quite spectacular. The Great Wall is a symbol of Chinese traditional culture and the pride of the Chinese nation. It's worth taking a hike and reflecting on this incredible feat of mankind.
Of course, if we take a look at history, the wall did not succeed in its main function; to keep out foreign invaders. Those who wanted to break through the fortifications all those years ago, found an alternative method. The Chinese Empire did not allow for human weakness. Attackers bribed their way past the wall where they had failed to break through with physical force.
Simatai
Simatai A wilder and less crowded option is to go to the section known as Simatai. This section is much farther away, over 100 kilometers northeast of Beijing, so you will have to make a whole day of a trip to go there. You can also take a bus or rent out a taxi for the day, but if you do this, ask a Chinese friend for help so you don't get ripped off.Simatai (daily 8am-4pm; ￡16), 110km northeast of the city, is the most unspoilt section of the Great Wall around Beijing, and, as it snakes across purple hills that resemble crumpled velvet from afar, with blue mountains in the distance, it's easily the most beautiful. Uncrowded, peaceful and semi-ruined, it fulfils the expectations of most visitors more than the other sections.
At the entrance, merely a booth in a car park, there is only a handful of souvenir stalls, and none near the wall itself, though a cable car is under construction, so no doubt Simatai's underdeveloped status will not last long.The only vendors around are local villagers. Make it understood from the outset that you are not interested in what they have to sell, otherwise it is quite likely that some poor kid with two cans of soft drink and a few postcards will follow you all afternoon.
Most of this section is unrenovated, dating back to the Ming dynasty, and sporting a few late innovations such as spaces for cannon, with its inner walls at right angles to the outer wall to thwart invaders who have already breached the first defence. From the small car park, a winding path takes you up to the wall and regularly spaced watchtowers allow you to measure your progress uphill along the ridge. The walk over the ruins is not an easy one, and gets increasingly precipitous after about the tenth watchtower, with sheer drops and steep angles. The views are sublime, though. After about the fourteenth tower (2hr), the wall peters out and the climb becomes quite dangerous, and there's no point going any farther.
Mutianyu Great Wall WOW Gold
Mutianyu Mutianyu Great Wall (daily 8am-4pm; ￡10), 90km northeast of the city, is more appealing to most travellers than Badaling as it's somewhat less developed. A two-kilometre section of the wall, well endowed with guard towers, built in 1368 and renovated in 1983, it passes along a ridge through some lush, undulating hills. From the entrance, steep steps lead up to the wall; most people turn left, which leads to the cable car (￡30, students ￡15) for an effortless trip down again. Turn right and you can walk along the wall for about 1km until you come to a barrier - unlike at Badaling, you can't get on to the unreconstructed sections. Mutianyu Great Wall Guesthouse (010/69626867; ￡¤100-150), situated in a reconstructed watchtower 500m before this barrier, is a good place for a quiet break.
To get to Mutianyu, minibuses leave from the street just south of the Great Hall of the People off Tian'anmen Square every morning (￡10) and include four photo stops along the way. You can buy tickets, and check on departure times, the day before from a ticket booth on the pavement. Otherwise there are minibuses from Dongzhimen bus station early every morning. Getting there on regular buses won't save you any money, and involves several changes. Returning to the city shouldn't be a hassle provided you don't leave it too late, as plenty of minibuses wait in the car park to take people back to Beijing. If you can't find a minibus back to Beijing, get one to Huairou, from where you can get a regular bus back to the capital - the last bus back from Huairou leaves at 6.30pm.
welding wire
3&3 Phoenix International Bilingual Kindergarten-YIWU, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA -SORROWFUL - ESL school review
3&3 Phoenix International Bilingual Kindergarten-YIWU, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA -a sorrowful experience
Yiwu is a ludicrous place where beggars in the downtown area practically attack you. There is a big Muslim community and many Muslim restaurants, so you can find decent food. The Turkish restaurant is the place where we had our best meals in China. If you need western ingredients and eat bread, forget about it. You can, although, find (almost) everything you might need in Hangzhou (a three hour train ride northward). The unemployment in the city is very high, so watch your back. Also, marvel at the use of bars on the 7th floor windows and mansards around this gritty city. The kindergarten is situated next to the municipal courthouse and employment center, giving you the ability to gauge the level of employment by the crowds. Exiting the compound in which the kindergarten is enclosed presents three option: the beforehand-mentioned crowds of urbanized peasants, the bus station (you know how these are in China) or a brisk walk outside the gates and onto a tertiary roadway. Unsurprisingly, the third was our more frequent choice. The decorations inside the kindergarten itself are incredibly kitsch, on the same wall you can find Leonardo de Vinci’s portrait next to that of Placido Domingo’s, and other “famous western faces”. Einstein is written as “Einstain”, spelling mistakes abound. In other words: an occidental miscellany borne of conceitedly smug and contentedly oblivious Chinese minds. Our saga with this Taiwanese-owned outfit began, of course, through email and phone conversations. We were assured that the school was in perfect legal right to offer us all proper documents pertaining to our employment. As you can guess, things were not as advertised. Although our main grievances were engendered by their inability to provide legal status, we must mention the teaching conditions. Remember, this is a kindergarten destined for children of the extremely well-to-do parents in Yiwu, mostly involved in the exportation of goods. The kids, of course, have to do their business by squatting over the ditch/ traditional Chinese trench. Some of them are too small, so they put their hands in the filthy canals. As you probably know, hand-washing in China is treated with disdain, and the personnel in this school are no exception. The food that is not finished during a meal or that slops onto the tables is collected and used later or the next day by the kitchen staff. The living conditions in the apartment they provide (which is located on the roof of the school and adjacent to the Chinese teachers’) can be described as “adequate” at best. Adequate, that is, if you happen to be a Chinese peasant. There is no kitchen (he had to plead for two months to get a gas burner), so forget about cooking something at home. Every morning you have some children’s music blaring. Forget about getting some decent rest when you have to listen to the same CD 4 hours a day. You are subject to auditory torture every day. These were by far the most unpleasant living conditions we ever experienced. At times, the temperature reached 5C in our living area: we could see our breath. Of course, we tried to heat and were handed huge electricity bills. Even with the heat on full blast 24/7 we couldn’t keep the place warm. For some reason it is hard to heat a concrete room with 11 feet ceilings and inch thick tile flooring. The air conditioner provided and the heater that we bought were not enough to heat the rooms, and as you can surmise, it was impossible to take a shower. We slept with two pairs of trousers, winter socks, tuques, sometimes even gloves. We were ill all the time, coughing and sneezing. The conditions in the school were similar. We were teaching in our winter coats and gloves/mittens. Living next to the Chinese assistants was another extremely unpleasant aspect. They used to come back from pubs late in the night (midnight) while talking loudly and making noise stomping up the steps like wildebeest. One afternoon, a group of teachers burst into our apartment (we were told that we had the only key!), literally opening the door and walked into out bedroom by “mistake”. We were shocked. For many weeks, we simply couldn’t get rid of their image (four people!) in our apartment, while for them, this was funny. Payday was always a hassle. We had to ask for the salary all the time, because it was never ready on the day of the payment. Usually, they were completely shocked that we demanded remuneration for our work. Someone had to “rush to the bank” to get the money owed to us. One very wise thing that we did is absolutely INSIST that we receive our money each two weeks instead of each month We had to ask for the holiday money before the holiday, because they wanted to give it to us after we returned. Even so, they gave us only part of our wage. Our contact with this school began as such: a certain F. contacted us and she assured us that the school can provide legal documents. We sent her our resident permits and passports in order to start the procedures and we sent our belongings in about 30 boxes. When we arrived in Yiwu, we saw nothing of the city that she had described (you can find foreign food here, she ensured us) and soon found out how they had treated the renewal of our residence permit: our documents were kept in a drawer!!! Never mind that we insisted on the fact that we will not work without legal status and send out documents through EMS so that they can begin the processing, the school didn’t do anything. Upon our arrival, we met the owner, A. (who speaks not a word English) and that moment A. found out that we had sent the documents before our arrival and that our permits were to expire the next day. It was afternoon and we went to a school to try to do something (what? we never really understood). Eventually, they gave us a solution: we would go to Hong Kong and get a tourist visa, to give them time to process the documents. They paid the plane tickets and we had to take care of all the other expenses. We were incredibly frightened about these illegal proceedings. We went to Shangahi and our permits were expired already (5 days). The Chinese officer was kind and said that next time, we must be careful. We’ll never forget those moments. But those moments were only the beginning of what was to come! We came back to Yiwu with a one month visa, gave them the passports and waited, waited, waited. Waited. They kept telling us that the documents were being processed, and that everything was almost ready. Before the winter holiday, we were told that only the health check must be done, all the rest was ready. Like people with good will (or like idiots), we believed them. After the winter holiday, we had to go to Hong Kong again. This time, we got a 3 months visa and came back. In March, the police caught school and discovered that they hire foreign teachers illegally. We were detained and interrogated at the police station for 12 hours. After 12 hours, we were given a 1,000RMB fine each (the maximum fine permissible by law) and the school got a 20,000RMB fine (the minimum). The next day, one of us was asked to leave China in 10 days!!! Why? We don’t know. According to the Chinese law, the owner of the school has to pay all the expenses incurred by the repatriation of the foreigner. The school didn’t pay anything!!! The day after our episode with the law, the school was suddenly able to get Foreign Expert Certificated for us. Presumable, they had always had the ability to grant us the proper documents, just that is was cheaper for them to shell out a few thousand yuan for our tickets than bribe the right person.
Completely disgusted by their behaviour and of course sill untrusting, we were fed up and expressed our desire to leave they country. We were asked to vacate the apartment immediately. We gathered our most important belongings and send them back home via China post. One of us made frequent runs to the post office while the other sorted our things at home. At one point, there were quite a few objects waiting outside our door, some of which our honourable Chinese neighbors proceeded to loot. What we could not send through the mail (the majority of nearly three years worth of living), we transported down four flights of stair to the local rubbish heap. Soon thereafter the local hyenas swarmed upon of mound of stuff (clothing, beddings, pillows, an oven, pots and pans, electric kettle, DVD, tape recorder with CD player, decorative objects, expensive foreign food bought in Hangzhou, shelves, bamboo furniture, electric blankets, curtain, arts and crafts material, dishes and many, many other things) We wanted to leave NOTHING to the school. We worked like this all day until 3 a.m., went to a hotel, left Yiwu the next day, bought our plane tickets and left China. Things like this happen because such schools are not afraid of anything. The foreigners are being used and punished, while the real wrongdoers are being tolerated. Our last months overshadowed our previous period of living in China. To leave a country in such conditions is a shame for those who are responsible for this. The local PSB doesn’t care about the school’s legality. But if they catch you, the foreigner, than watch out unless your boss is not a very close friend of the PSB officer… And this wasn’t our case. The officer didn’t enforce the law to its full extent (the school pays for all the expenses determined by the expatriation of the foreigner). He didn’t care about the history of the school and he didn’t ask for information about the F. person who contacted us, in the name of the school, that person KNOWING that the school is illegal and being responsible for our presence in the school. There was one decent person in that school, a person called Mary. She was ashamed of what the school did to us and felt guilty. The person called A. kept asking us, until the last moment, to stay. Who could continue living in a place like that? After all the obstacles we had to go through? We ended up by thinking that she is mentally unbalanced… What is beyond our understanding is that, after the whole situation was revealed to the PSB, the school was not requested to cease its activity. Frequently, when a school turns into one with a flawed reputation, they change their name and continue with their uncivilized scheme. When is this masquerade going to end?
china toys
yiwu
Yiwu is a ludicrous place where beggars in the downtown area practically attack you. There is a big Muslim community and many Muslim restaurants, so you can find decent food. The Turkish restaurant is the place where we had our best meals in China. If you need western ingredients and eat bread, forget about it. You can, although, find (almost) everything you might need in Hangzhou (a three hour train ride northward). The unemployment in the city is very high, so watch your back. Also, marvel at the use of bars on the 7th floor windows and mansards around this gritty city. The kindergarten is situated next to the municipal courthouse and employment center, giving you the ability to gauge the level of employment by the crowds. Exiting the compound in which the kindergarten is enclosed presents three option: the beforehand-mentioned crowds of urbanized peasants, the bus station (you know how these are in China) or a brisk walk outside the gates and onto a tertiary roadway. Unsurprisingly, the third was our more frequent choice. The decorations inside the kindergarten itself are incredibly kitsch, on the same wall you can find Leonardo de Vinci’s portrait next to that of Placido Domingo’s, and other “famous western faces”. Einstein is written as “Einstain”, spelling mistakes abound. In other words: an occidental miscellany borne of conceitedly smug and contentedly oblivious Chinese minds. Our saga with this Taiwanese-owned outfit began, of course, through email and phone conversations. We were assured that the school was in perfect legal right to offer us all proper documents pertaining to our employment. As you can guess, things were not as advertised. Although our main grievances were engendered by their inability to provide legal status, we must mention the teaching conditions. Remember, this is a kindergarten destined for children of the extremely well-to-do parents in Yiwu, mostly involved in the exportation of goods. The kids, of course, have to do their business by squatting over the ditch/ traditional Chinese trench. Some of them are too small, so they put their hands in the filthy canals. As you probably know, hand-washing in China is treated with disdain, and the personnel in this school are no exception. The food that is not finished during a meal or that slops onto the tables is collected and used later or the next day by the kitchen staff. The living conditions in the apartment they provide (which is located on the roof of the school and adjacent to the Chinese teachers’) can be described as “adequate” at best. Adequate, that is, if you happen to be a Chinese peasant. There is no kitchen (he had to plead for two months to get a gas burner), so forget about cooking something at home. Every morning you have some children’s music blaring. Forget about getting some decent rest when you have to listen to the same CD 4 hours a day. You are subject to auditory torture every day. These were by far the most unpleasant living conditions we ever experienced. At times, the temperature reached 5C in our living area: we could see our breath. Of course, we tried to heat and were handed huge electricity bills. Even with the heat on full blast 24/7 we couldn’t keep the place warm. For some reason it is hard to heat a concrete room with 11 feet ceilings and inch thick tile flooring. The air conditioner provided and the heater that we bought were not enough to heat the rooms, and as you can surmise, it was impossible to take a shower. We slept with two pairs of trousers, winter socks, tuques, sometimes even gloves. We were ill all the time, coughing and sneezing. The conditions in the school were similar. We were teaching in our winter coats and gloves/mittens. Living next to the Chinese assistants was another extremely unpleasant aspect. They used to come back from pubs late in the night (midnight) while talking loudly and making noise stomping up the steps like wildebeest. One afternoon, a group of teachers burst into our apartment (we were told that we had the only key!), literally opening the door and walked into out bedroom by “mistake”. We were shocked. For many weeks, we simply couldn’t get rid of their image (four people!) in our apartment, while for them, this was funny. Payday was always a hassle. We had to ask for the salary all the time, because it was never ready on the day of the payment. Usually, they were completely shocked that we demanded remuneration for our work. Someone had to “rush to the bank” to get the money owed to us. One very wise thing that we did is absolutely INSIST that we receive our money each two weeks instead of each month We had to ask for the holiday money before the holiday, because they wanted to give it to us after we returned. Even so, they gave us only part of our wage. Our contact with this school began as such: a certain F. contacted us and she assured us that the school can provide legal documents. We sent her our resident permits and passports in order to start the procedures and we sent our belongings in about 30 boxes. When we arrived in Yiwu, we saw nothing of the city that she had described (you can find foreign food here, she ensured us) and soon found out how they had treated the renewal of our residence permit: our documents were kept in a drawer!!! Never mind that we insisted on the fact that we will not work without legal status and send out documents through EMS so that they can begin the processing, the school didn’t do anything. Upon our arrival, we met the owner, A. (who speaks not a word English) and that moment A. found out that we had sent the documents before our arrival and that our permits were to expire the next day. It was afternoon and we went to a school to try to do something (what? we never really understood). Eventually, they gave us a solution: we would go to Hong Kong and get a tourist visa, to give them time to process the documents. They paid the plane tickets and we had to take care of all the other expenses. We were incredibly frightened about these illegal proceedings. We went to Shangahi and our permits were expired already (5 days). The Chinese officer was kind and said that next time, we must be careful. We’ll never forget those moments. But those moments were only the beginning of what was to come! We came back to Yiwu with a one month visa, gave them the passports and waited, waited, waited. Waited. They kept telling us that the documents were being processed, and that everything was almost ready. Before the winter holiday, we were told that only the health check must be done, all the rest was ready. Like people with good will (or like idiots), we believed them. After the winter holiday, we had to go to Hong Kong again. This time, we got a 3 months visa and came back. In March, the police caught school and discovered that they hire foreign teachers illegally. We were detained and interrogated at the police station for 12 hours. After 12 hours, we were given a 1,000RMB fine each (the maximum fine permissible by law) and the school got a 20,000RMB fine (the minimum). The next day, one of us was asked to leave China in 10 days!!! Why? We don’t know. According to the Chinese law, the owner of the school has to pay all the expenses incurred by the repatriation of the foreigner. The school didn’t pay anything!!! The day after our episode with the law, the school was suddenly able to get Foreign Expert Certificated for us. Presumable, they had always had the ability to grant us the proper documents, just that is was cheaper for them to shell out a few thousand yuan for our tickets than bribe the right person.
Completely disgusted by their behaviour and of course sill untrusting, we were fed up and expressed our desire to leave they country. We were asked to vacate the apartment immediately. We gathered our most important belongings and send them back home via China post. One of us made frequent runs to the post office while the other sorted our things at home. At one point, there were quite a few objects waiting outside our door, some of which our honourable Chinese neighbors proceeded to loot. What we could not send through the mail (the majority of nearly three years worth of living), we transported down four flights of stair to the local rubbish heap. Soon thereafter the local hyenas swarmed upon of mound of stuff (clothing, beddings, pillows, an oven, pots and pans, electric kettle, DVD, tape recorder with CD player, decorative objects, expensive foreign food bought in Hangzhou, shelves, bamboo furniture, electric blankets, curtain, arts and crafts material, dishes and many, many other things) We wanted to leave NOTHING to the school. We worked like this all day until 3 a.m., went to a hotel, left Yiwu the next day, bought our plane tickets and left China. Things like this happen because such schools are not afraid of anything. The foreigners are being used and punished, while the real wrongdoers are being tolerated. Our last months overshadowed our previous period of living in China. To leave a country in such conditions is a shame for those who are responsible for this. The local PSB doesn’t care about the school’s legality. But if they catch you, the foreigner, than watch out unless your boss is not a very close friend of the PSB officer… And this wasn’t our case. The officer didn’t enforce the law to its full extent (the school pays for all the expenses determined by the expatriation of the foreigner). He didn’t care about the history of the school and he didn’t ask for information about the F. person who contacted us, in the name of the school, that person KNOWING that the school is illegal and being responsible for our presence in the school. There was one decent person in that school, a person called Mary. She was ashamed of what the school did to us and felt guilty. The person called A. kept asking us, until the last moment, to stay. Who could continue living in a place like that? After all the obstacles we had to go through? We ended up by thinking that she is mentally unbalanced… What is beyond our understanding is that, after the whole situation was revealed to the PSB, the school was not requested to cease its activity. Frequently, when a school turns into one with a flawed reputation, they change their name and continue with their uncivilized scheme. When is this masquerade going to end?
china toys
yiwu
China International Trade City - Yiwu, Zhejiang
....China International Trade City is the largest wholesale "small goods" market on the planet, and the consensus starting point for anyone hoping to take advantage of the famed "China price" on display at the market's 19,000 booths. Once famous for being the place where half the world's socks are made, Yiwu now bears a new distinction: China's latest national tourist attraction.
In January, this market earned a AAAA rating from the China National Tourism Administration - a distinction that ranks it alongside the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors, and the Forbidden City. The Yiwu market is the first shopping destination to be given that honor.
The market may merit its new status on size alone. Four stories high and covering 10 million square feet, it is the equivalent of 175 football fields, 74 average-sized Costcos, or two-and-a-half Malls of America, all stacked to the rafters. No space is wasted on ice rinks, food courts, or other unnecessary distractions.
There are 320,000 different goods for sale in this town, most of which can be had at the market. Fake rotating Christmas trees with pine cones and fiber-optic lights: $12. A sheet of four fake tattoos, 1 cent. Masks from the movie "Scream," 30 cents ($1.20 with "blood" pump).
The prices - at least on orders of 1,000 items or more, are so low as to defy the laws of economics. Some goods are for sale in single units to tourists, presumably to get the AAAA rating, but the savings are unspectacular.
Gargantuan as the market is, the enjoyment available for tourists is debatable. But as a symbol for China, the market is apt. Despite efforts to cool the country's economy,GDP is still growing at 11 percent. (Much of that is thanks to Yiwu, where trade hit $5 billion last year.) With the country famous for its cheap goods, many visitors, like businessmen, seem to view China less as a vast historical wonder and more as one gigantic shopping mall.
Last year, foreign tourists spent more than $6 billion on shopping. That's roughly what they spent on hotels and food combined, according to the China National Tourist Office. In Beijing, and even more so in Shanghai, the crowds are bigger at markets selling shoe and ski-vest knockoffs and black- market DVDs than at cultural attractions like the Summer Palace or the Shanghai Museum.
For a city of 1 million, Yiwu - which is more vibrant than China's more planned economic centers - is strangely cosmopolitan. About 100,000 people from more than 100 countries came through its airport on business last year, a local newspaper claims. Some 7,000 foreigners have set up permanently in the city. Of those, 3,000 come from the Middle East, making Yiwu the largest Arab and Persian bazaar in Asia.
Indeed, after the workout that getting through the market's 27 sections represent, shoppers often recharge at a triangle of restaurant-lined streets in Yiwu's Muslim quarter, near another huge market called Binwang.
Marian David, a Malay dentist, sits in a restaurant next to tables of Han Chinese, French-speaking Africans, and Pakistani traders.
Ms. David says she's a devout Roman Catholic who originally came here to buy religious goods for her diocese back home. This is her third trip in two years. This time she's brought her son; next time, her husband will be her traveling companion.
She ticks off a list of incredible deals that she's found: 10,000 rosaries in multiple colors for 50 cents a piece; two dozen three-dimensional Last Supper clocks for $12 each.
Most of Yiwu's goods are produced in clusters of small family factories run by former peasant farmers. Explosion in the demand for these goods has transformed the countryside in Zhejiang Province into the richest area in China outside the major cities - the sort of economic uplift globalization was originally supposed to produce.
But behind the shiny Yiwu storefront - a symbol of "capitalism with Chinese characteristics" - the reality is different. Increasing competition has squeezed the smaller factories. Now, some merchants worry if the local economy will last. yiwu china export from yiwu
Shengzhou, 90 miles to the north, is the kind of single-industry town that has made Zhejiang famous. Its factories specialize in neckties. But the town's main market, Tie City, was somewhat desolate, its second floor boarded up. Genuine silk ties sell for as little as $2 apiece.
One small factory owner wants to get out. Her profits have fallen from 50 cents a tie to 6 cents in less than a decade. "This place used to be full of people," she says. "Now ... everyone has gone."
Golden times for Yiwu - for nowAt the restaurant in Yiwu, no one seems to worry about the future. Outside, the restaurant's amicable dervish of a manager, Musa, switches between Arabic, Mandarin, Turkish, and mangled English. "The most important thing in Yiwu is cheapness," he says, "so prices in restaurants are all low. You have to have good relations with your customers, otherwise they'll go somewhere else."
It's a tense life, he acknowledges, but there's at least one major advantage to living in China's factory showroom: "Everything is business. No one talks politics here."
china gifts
In January, this market earned a AAAA rating from the China National Tourism Administration - a distinction that ranks it alongside the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors, and the Forbidden City. The Yiwu market is the first shopping destination to be given that honor.
The market may merit its new status on size alone. Four stories high and covering 10 million square feet, it is the equivalent of 175 football fields, 74 average-sized Costcos, or two-and-a-half Malls of America, all stacked to the rafters. No space is wasted on ice rinks, food courts, or other unnecessary distractions.
There are 320,000 different goods for sale in this town, most of which can be had at the market. Fake rotating Christmas trees with pine cones and fiber-optic lights: $12. A sheet of four fake tattoos, 1 cent. Masks from the movie "Scream," 30 cents ($1.20 with "blood" pump).
The prices - at least on orders of 1,000 items or more, are so low as to defy the laws of economics. Some goods are for sale in single units to tourists, presumably to get the AAAA rating, but the savings are unspectacular.
Gargantuan as the market is, the enjoyment available for tourists is debatable. But as a symbol for China, the market is apt. Despite efforts to cool the country's economy,GDP is still growing at 11 percent. (Much of that is thanks to Yiwu, where trade hit $5 billion last year.) With the country famous for its cheap goods, many visitors, like businessmen, seem to view China less as a vast historical wonder and more as one gigantic shopping mall.
Last year, foreign tourists spent more than $6 billion on shopping. That's roughly what they spent on hotels and food combined, according to the China National Tourist Office. In Beijing, and even more so in Shanghai, the crowds are bigger at markets selling shoe and ski-vest knockoffs and black- market DVDs than at cultural attractions like the Summer Palace or the Shanghai Museum.
For a city of 1 million, Yiwu - which is more vibrant than China's more planned economic centers - is strangely cosmopolitan. About 100,000 people from more than 100 countries came through its airport on business last year, a local newspaper claims. Some 7,000 foreigners have set up permanently in the city. Of those, 3,000 come from the Middle East, making Yiwu the largest Arab and Persian bazaar in Asia.
Indeed, after the workout that getting through the market's 27 sections represent, shoppers often recharge at a triangle of restaurant-lined streets in Yiwu's Muslim quarter, near another huge market called Binwang.
Marian David, a Malay dentist, sits in a restaurant next to tables of Han Chinese, French-speaking Africans, and Pakistani traders.
Ms. David says she's a devout Roman Catholic who originally came here to buy religious goods for her diocese back home. This is her third trip in two years. This time she's brought her son; next time, her husband will be her traveling companion.
She ticks off a list of incredible deals that she's found: 10,000 rosaries in multiple colors for 50 cents a piece; two dozen three-dimensional Last Supper clocks for $12 each.
Most of Yiwu's goods are produced in clusters of small family factories run by former peasant farmers. Explosion in the demand for these goods has transformed the countryside in Zhejiang Province into the richest area in China outside the major cities - the sort of economic uplift globalization was originally supposed to produce.
But behind the shiny Yiwu storefront - a symbol of "capitalism with Chinese characteristics" - the reality is different. Increasing competition has squeezed the smaller factories. Now, some merchants worry if the local economy will last. yiwu china export from yiwu
Shengzhou, 90 miles to the north, is the kind of single-industry town that has made Zhejiang famous. Its factories specialize in neckties. But the town's main market, Tie City, was somewhat desolate, its second floor boarded up. Genuine silk ties sell for as little as $2 apiece.
One small factory owner wants to get out. Her profits have fallen from 50 cents a tie to 6 cents in less than a decade. "This place used to be full of people," she says. "Now ... everyone has gone."
Golden times for Yiwu - for nowAt the restaurant in Yiwu, no one seems to worry about the future. Outside, the restaurant's amicable dervish of a manager, Musa, switches between Arabic, Mandarin, Turkish, and mangled English. "The most important thing in Yiwu is cheapness," he says, "so prices in restaurants are all low. You have to have good relations with your customers, otherwise they'll go somewhere else."
It's a tense life, he acknowledges, but there's at least one major advantage to living in China's factory showroom: "Everything is business. No one talks politics here."
china gifts
2007年9月13日星期四
Motion Detectors
Our motion detectors ultrasonically measure distance to the closest object and create real-time motion graphs of position, velocity and acceleration. Motion is illustrated graphically, making it easy for students to experience the way real scientists collect data. All three models can measure objects as close as 15 cm and include a sensitivity switch making them the perfect complement to our Vernier Dynamics Track. gas detector PIR detector
Do you want to collect motion data using a computer without the interface? The Go! Motion plugs directly into the USB port of your Mac or PC. The included Logger Lite software is ideal for elementary, middle school, and beyond.
For current users of LabPro or CBL 2 interfaces, we recommend the Vernier Motion Detector 2. This motion detector comes with everything you need to connect to your LabPro or CBL 2.
Are graphing calculators your favorite tool to collect data? If so, we recommend the CBR 2 by Texas Instruments. This motion detector comes with everything you need to connect to most TI graphing calculators. Unlike older models, the CBR 2 can connect to a TI-84 Plus or TI-84 Plus Silver Edition through the USB port on the calculator.smoke detector
motion detector
Do you want to collect motion data using a computer without the interface? The Go! Motion plugs directly into the USB port of your Mac or PC. The included Logger Lite software is ideal for elementary, middle school, and beyond.
For current users of LabPro or CBL 2 interfaces, we recommend the Vernier Motion Detector 2. This motion detector comes with everything you need to connect to your LabPro or CBL 2.
Are graphing calculators your favorite tool to collect data? If so, we recommend the CBR 2 by Texas Instruments. This motion detector comes with everything you need to connect to most TI graphing calculators. Unlike older models, the CBR 2 can connect to a TI-84 Plus or TI-84 Plus Silver Edition through the USB port on the calculator.smoke detector
motion detector
History of the Great Wall :
No one can tell precisely when the building of the Great Wall was started but it is popularly believed that it originated as a military fortification against intrusion by tribes on the borders during the earlier Zhou Dynasty. Late in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC), the ducal states extended the defence work and built "great" structures to prevent the attacks from other states. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that the separate walls, constructed by the states of Qin, Yan and Zhao kingdoms, were connected to form a defensive system on the northern border of the country by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (also called Qin Shi Huangdi by westerners or the First Emperor). After the emperor unified the country in 214 BC, he ordered the construction of the wall. It took about ten years to finish and the wall stretched from Lintao (in the eastern part of today's Gansu Province) in the west to Liaodong (in today's Jilin Province) in the east. The wall not only served as a defence in the north but also symbolized the power of the emperor.
From the Qin Dynasty onwards, Xiongnu, an ancient tribe that lived in North China, frequently harassed the northern border of the country. During the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu (Han Wu Di), sent three expeditions to fight against the Xiongnu in 127 BC, 121 BC and 119 BC. The Xiongnu were driven into the far north of the Gobi. To maintain the safety of the Hexi Corridor (today's Gansu Province), the emperor ordered the extension of the Great Wall westward into the Hexi Corridor and Xinjiang region. The ruins of the beacon towers and debris of the Han Wall are still discernible in Dunhuang, Yumen and Yangguan. A recent report shows that ruins of the Han Wall have been discovered near Lopnur in China's Xinjiang region.
Further construction and extensions were made in the successive Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Sui dynasties. Great Wall History
The present Great Wall in Beijing is mainly remains from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). During this period, bricks and granite were used when the workers laid the foundation of the wall and sophisticated designs and passes were built in the places of strategic importance. To strengthen the military control of the northern frontiers, the Ming authorities divided the Great Wall into nine zones and placed each under the control of a Zhen (garrison headquarters). The Ming Wall starts from Yalujiang River (in today's Heilongjiang Province), via today's Liaoning, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia provinces, to Gansu. The total length reaches 12,700 li (over 5,000 kilometers). The Shanhaiguan Pass and the Jiayuguan Pass are two well-preserved passes at either end. WOW Gold Today, the Wall has become a must-see for every visitor to China. Few can help saying 'Wow!' when they stand on top of a beacon tower and look at this giant dragon. For centuries, the wall served succeeding dynasties as an efficient military defence. However, it was only when a dynasty had weakened from within that invaders from the north were able to advance and conquer. Both the Mongols (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368) and the Manchurians (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911) were able to take power because of weakness of the government and poverty of the people but never due to any possibility of weakness of the Wall.
welding wire
From the Qin Dynasty onwards, Xiongnu, an ancient tribe that lived in North China, frequently harassed the northern border of the country. During the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu (Han Wu Di), sent three expeditions to fight against the Xiongnu in 127 BC, 121 BC and 119 BC. The Xiongnu were driven into the far north of the Gobi. To maintain the safety of the Hexi Corridor (today's Gansu Province), the emperor ordered the extension of the Great Wall westward into the Hexi Corridor and Xinjiang region. The ruins of the beacon towers and debris of the Han Wall are still discernible in Dunhuang, Yumen and Yangguan. A recent report shows that ruins of the Han Wall have been discovered near Lopnur in China's Xinjiang region.
Further construction and extensions were made in the successive Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Sui dynasties. Great Wall History
The present Great Wall in Beijing is mainly remains from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). During this period, bricks and granite were used when the workers laid the foundation of the wall and sophisticated designs and passes were built in the places of strategic importance. To strengthen the military control of the northern frontiers, the Ming authorities divided the Great Wall into nine zones and placed each under the control of a Zhen (garrison headquarters). The Ming Wall starts from Yalujiang River (in today's Heilongjiang Province), via today's Liaoning, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia provinces, to Gansu. The total length reaches 12,700 li (over 5,000 kilometers). The Shanhaiguan Pass and the Jiayuguan Pass are two well-preserved passes at either end. WOW Gold Today, the Wall has become a must-see for every visitor to China. Few can help saying 'Wow!' when they stand on top of a beacon tower and look at this giant dragon. For centuries, the wall served succeeding dynasties as an efficient military defence. However, it was only when a dynasty had weakened from within that invaders from the north were able to advance and conquer. Both the Mongols (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368) and the Manchurians (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911) were able to take power because of weakness of the government and poverty of the people but never due to any possibility of weakness of the Wall.
welding wire
ZhengDa Imp & Exp Co.,ltd
Yiwu Zhengda Import and Export Co., Ltd is Establishment in 1998 ,located in Yiwu City. As the famous China Commodity City, and the largest commodity distribution base in Asia, Yiwu is well developed in commerce. Yiwu owns business area of 2.6 million square meters, 58 thousand booths. There are 1.9 thousand commodities in 40 categories, more than 200 thousand practitioners. 200 thousand customers visit the market daily. Since 2005, the market amounted to 28.8 billion yuan turnover in 15 consecutive National Market ranked top. Yiwu Industry is developing very rapidly. Presently it has formed many advantaged industries in Yiwu, whose market share is high over the whole country, including garments, knitting, toys, zippers, ornaments, arts & crafts, ribbon, household ware, daily use commodities, rain gears, cases & bags, small hardware, stationery and printing etc.Due to the unique geographical location, we are furnished with complete commodity resources and we are surrounded by quality products in various kinds with favorable prices. Yiwu Zhengda Import and Export Co.,Ltd is a professional import and export company based on yiwu market. Mainly in the business of purchasing as a export and importing agent, products design and exploitation,, cost control and all the service that customer needed service. With the 8-years hard working in the part of import and export and supported by the professional E-Commerce platform: export from yiwu and yiwu china , we have got abundant supplier and products resources meanwhile we have obtained a good reputation in the nations or regions of the Southeast Asia, Europe and America. Our company mainly deals in Jewelry, hardware, gift, daily commodities, electronics &electrics , toys and textiles etc.. we have a professional working group and strictly on products quality and purchase cost control system. ZHENGDA company manage tenet is ??Clients First , Service Effective?? . we are welcome all the worldwide purchasers to visit Yiwu and Yiwu ZhengDa Import and Export Co.,Ltd.TO be trusted in us because we are professional!china gifts
Yiwu: springboard for "small commodity" sales
China's vast domestic market is becoming increasingly attractive to Hong Kong companies, now that China has gained access to the WTO and, with that move, is decentralising its foreign trade rights. A Hong Kong business group visited Yiwu in Zhejiang province, to search out just what business opportunities are there. Group members say the city can serve as an excellent domestic sales channel for Hong Kong traders.
Yiwu in central Zhejiang is only two hours' drive from Hangzhou and there are regular flights to and from Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is a small-to-medium-sized city with a population of about 600,000.
Stalls in the City: a host of products. A large number of traders are engaged in the wholesale and export of small commodities in Yiwu - items like ties, socks, stockings, zippers and clothing accessories (but that list is by no means exhaustive).
The city's wholesale market consists of the China Small Commodities City, together with specialised markets and streets - but Commodities City is the most significant.
China Small Commodities City combines production and marketing
China Small Commodities City grossed Rmb19.3 billion in turnover in 2000, and the figure is expected to reach Rmb21 billion this year; in fact, it has been the country's top-billing specialised market for the past 10 years.
Textiles on display. Besides clothing and accessories, the China Commodities City deals in a wide variety of other wholesale sectors, including ornaments, toys, hardware, household items, electrical appliances, shoes, handicraft articles, and cosmetics.
Some wholesalers have factories in neighbouring areas, typically entering trade and manufacturing after building up a steady stream of customers. Xinguang, a famous local ornament manufacturer, is a case in point. So, Yiwu crosses the line from wholesale centre to also being a production base.
Not just clothing, but commodities. Most of the businesses in Yiwu are private, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Some are no more than township enterprises: for example, a small ornaments company may operate simply by outsourcing its production to households in townships and villages. There are also operations that have created their own brand names, such as Dinghao neckties and Langsha socks.
The bulk of commodities sold in Yiwu are low-end products. In addition to those made locally in the city and other parts of Zhejiang, many of the goods sold in the market come from coastal areas such as Guangdong. For example, some of the toys are sourced from Chenghai. The proprietor of a local manufacturer of electronic watches notes that watches made in Hong Kong are higher-end products with price quotes higher than his export prices.
Keen competition, easy accessibility
Local businesses are joined by merchants from outside the city, who come to Yiwu to set up stalls or stores to wholesale their own products or act as distributors. At present, the China Small Commodities City charges a monthly rental of Rmb80 (HK$75.4) for a 2 sqm stall, but tenants may sublet the space at a profit. The China Small Commodities City can apply for the relevant business licences on behalf of its tenants.
Specialist street in Yiwu. Some of the wholesale stalls are also retailers. Minimum wholesale quantities can be quite small. For example, toys can be sold in batches of a dozen or so pieces.
The relationship between wholesalers and suppliers may take different forms. Some wholesalers "buy out" the goods with cash while others make purchases by "periodic payment" or on credit. Some manufacturers offer "progressive" incentives to their dealers on the basis of annual sales, that is, the higher the sales value, the bigger the incentive payment. Dinghao Neckties uses this method. On the whole, prices are very competitive because all wholesalers are adopting a "low profit margin, high sales volume" strategy.
Good transportation is essential for a wholesale and distribution centre. Since most of the buyers go for spot stocks, wholesalers must first ship the products from the production point to Yiwu. Besides originating in Yiwu and other parts of Zhejiang, most of the goods are sourced from the coastal areas. The producers are sometimes asked to deliver directly to buyers where big orders are concerned, but this is rare.
The Yiwu City Multi-modal Transportation Corporation is the only enterprise authorised by the government to handle different transport modes at the same time. The company has an extensive distribution network, with over 130 routes serving more than 250 cities. Hong Kong is reachable in two days.
The city's international transport services include consolidating cargoes, bookings, storage, transit, container handling and customs declarations. Shipping is mainly through the port of Ningbo. As for air transport, a logistics centre has been built at the airport and cooperation developed with customs, as well as inspection and quarantine authorities.
Opportunities for Hong Kong export from yiwu
Yiwu is an active trade centre, and one that appears to be readymade for Hong Kong companies prepared to plan carefully if they want to break into the domestic market. Although goods sold in Yiwu are lower end and prices are very competitive, some Hong Kong companies that have visited the city regard Yiwu as a natural springboard into the domestic market.
A number of local wholesalers have also expressed interest in purchasing higher-end products from Hong Kong, and there is room for cooperation between SAR companies and local wholesalers in parts and components production.
Other than selling goods, some Hong Kong companies are considering purchasing materials from Yiwu for production or trading because of their attractive prices. A Hong Kong trading company says it started trading with Yiwu at the request of a Greek client who asked specifically that purchases be made there.
Yiwu may be a small city, but its uniqueness as a wholesale market has attracted many foreign investors who see the future becoming even brighter.china gifts
yiwu china
Yiwu in central Zhejiang is only two hours' drive from Hangzhou and there are regular flights to and from Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is a small-to-medium-sized city with a population of about 600,000.
Stalls in the City: a host of products. A large number of traders are engaged in the wholesale and export of small commodities in Yiwu - items like ties, socks, stockings, zippers and clothing accessories (but that list is by no means exhaustive).
The city's wholesale market consists of the China Small Commodities City, together with specialised markets and streets - but Commodities City is the most significant.
China Small Commodities City combines production and marketing
China Small Commodities City grossed Rmb19.3 billion in turnover in 2000, and the figure is expected to reach Rmb21 billion this year; in fact, it has been the country's top-billing specialised market for the past 10 years.
Textiles on display. Besides clothing and accessories, the China Commodities City deals in a wide variety of other wholesale sectors, including ornaments, toys, hardware, household items, electrical appliances, shoes, handicraft articles, and cosmetics.
Some wholesalers have factories in neighbouring areas, typically entering trade and manufacturing after building up a steady stream of customers. Xinguang, a famous local ornament manufacturer, is a case in point. So, Yiwu crosses the line from wholesale centre to also being a production base.
Not just clothing, but commodities. Most of the businesses in Yiwu are private, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Some are no more than township enterprises: for example, a small ornaments company may operate simply by outsourcing its production to households in townships and villages. There are also operations that have created their own brand names, such as Dinghao neckties and Langsha socks.
The bulk of commodities sold in Yiwu are low-end products. In addition to those made locally in the city and other parts of Zhejiang, many of the goods sold in the market come from coastal areas such as Guangdong. For example, some of the toys are sourced from Chenghai. The proprietor of a local manufacturer of electronic watches notes that watches made in Hong Kong are higher-end products with price quotes higher than his export prices.
Keen competition, easy accessibility
Local businesses are joined by merchants from outside the city, who come to Yiwu to set up stalls or stores to wholesale their own products or act as distributors. At present, the China Small Commodities City charges a monthly rental of Rmb80 (HK$75.4) for a 2 sqm stall, but tenants may sublet the space at a profit. The China Small Commodities City can apply for the relevant business licences on behalf of its tenants.
Specialist street in Yiwu. Some of the wholesale stalls are also retailers. Minimum wholesale quantities can be quite small. For example, toys can be sold in batches of a dozen or so pieces.
The relationship between wholesalers and suppliers may take different forms. Some wholesalers "buy out" the goods with cash while others make purchases by "periodic payment" or on credit. Some manufacturers offer "progressive" incentives to their dealers on the basis of annual sales, that is, the higher the sales value, the bigger the incentive payment. Dinghao Neckties uses this method. On the whole, prices are very competitive because all wholesalers are adopting a "low profit margin, high sales volume" strategy.
Good transportation is essential for a wholesale and distribution centre. Since most of the buyers go for spot stocks, wholesalers must first ship the products from the production point to Yiwu. Besides originating in Yiwu and other parts of Zhejiang, most of the goods are sourced from the coastal areas. The producers are sometimes asked to deliver directly to buyers where big orders are concerned, but this is rare.
The Yiwu City Multi-modal Transportation Corporation is the only enterprise authorised by the government to handle different transport modes at the same time. The company has an extensive distribution network, with over 130 routes serving more than 250 cities. Hong Kong is reachable in two days.
The city's international transport services include consolidating cargoes, bookings, storage, transit, container handling and customs declarations. Shipping is mainly through the port of Ningbo. As for air transport, a logistics centre has been built at the airport and cooperation developed with customs, as well as inspection and quarantine authorities.
Opportunities for Hong Kong export from yiwu
Yiwu is an active trade centre, and one that appears to be readymade for Hong Kong companies prepared to plan carefully if they want to break into the domestic market. Although goods sold in Yiwu are lower end and prices are very competitive, some Hong Kong companies that have visited the city regard Yiwu as a natural springboard into the domestic market.
A number of local wholesalers have also expressed interest in purchasing higher-end products from Hong Kong, and there is room for cooperation between SAR companies and local wholesalers in parts and components production.
Other than selling goods, some Hong Kong companies are considering purchasing materials from Yiwu for production or trading because of their attractive prices. A Hong Kong trading company says it started trading with Yiwu at the request of a Greek client who asked specifically that purchases be made there.
Yiwu may be a small city, but its uniqueness as a wholesale market has attracted many foreign investors who see the future becoming even brighter.china gifts
yiwu china
2007年9月11日星期二
Motion detector set-up
Lots of people have asked me how I set up my camera system to capture these pictures. It's really simple. There are plenty of commercial packages available to do exactly what my system did. Try a Google search for webcam motion detection for example, and you will find lots of links. gas detector PIR detector
For hardware, pretty much any kind of webcam will do. I use a small video camera with composite video output, along with a TV tuner card in my PC to grab the images. You can get that sort of camera for about £50 from placed like Maplin. TV tuner cards are only about £30. Alternatively, you could use a USB or Firewire camera.
The software I use requires a bit more computer knowledge than some other systems. My computer runs the Linux operating system, and on it I run a program called motion (motion.sourceforge.net), which does the motion detection, and saves the captured images. The saved images are uploaded to an FTP server using some simple Python scripts I wrote.
Although this set-up led to the criminal being caught, it didn't prevent him from stealing some very valuable things, which have not been recovered. My recommendation would be to use a camera system like this as a second line of defence after a burglar alarm, rather than as the only defence. I have an alarm now as well as the camera.
Back to the burglar page.smoke detector
motion detector
For hardware, pretty much any kind of webcam will do. I use a small video camera with composite video output, along with a TV tuner card in my PC to grab the images. You can get that sort of camera for about £50 from placed like Maplin. TV tuner cards are only about £30. Alternatively, you could use a USB or Firewire camera.
The software I use requires a bit more computer knowledge than some other systems. My computer runs the Linux operating system, and on it I run a program called motion (motion.sourceforge.net), which does the motion detection, and saves the captured images. The saved images are uploaded to an FTP server using some simple Python scripts I wrote.
Although this set-up led to the criminal being caught, it didn't prevent him from stealing some very valuable things, which have not been recovered. My recommendation would be to use a camera system like this as a second line of defence after a burglar alarm, rather than as the only defence. I have an alarm now as well as the camera.
Back to the burglar page.smoke detector
motion detector
A Long Line of History - The Great Wall
The Great Wall of China is the longest structure ever built by man. It stretches 4,500 miles, winding along the mountains of Korea, the Gobi Desert and across five provinces like a medieval dragon and it is the only manmade structure which can be seen from the moon.
The construction of the Great Wall began with the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC) and finally ended with the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The later dynasties such as Han, Sui and Tang also reconstructed and restored many parts of the Great Wall, making it one of the Wonders of the World. The Great Wall is basically divided into two parts, the Qin Wall and the Ming Wall. The Qin dynasty made their walls out of sticky rice and compressed dirt and parts of this wall can still be seen in remote parts of China. However, what most visitors today see of the Great Wall is what has been restored in the Ming dynasty, when stone slabs and bricks were used to create the formidable barrier.
Originally built to keep foreigners out of China, the Great Wall now brings them in by the busloads as a major tourist attraction.
History
For over 2000 years, the Great Wall was used as a form of defence for China. It started off as a series of walls built to protect the Zhou dynasty from attacks from the north. More walls were then added during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and some parts were connected to form a bigger defensive structure along the borders.
It was not until the Qin dynasty unified China in 221 BC, when the walls were joined to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north. Emperor Qin Shi Huang also ordered the extension of the wall to more than 10,000 li (3,000 miles), giving the structure its original name 'Wan Li Chang Chen' (the 10,000-li Great Wall). Emperor Qin ruled the country with an iron fist and he was notorious for banishing and executing many dissenting Confucian scholars. By unifying the warring states, the Qin dynasty created much of what constitutes modern China.
However, the present Great Wall we see today is largely the work of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), during which the watch towers in strategic areas were restored and strengthened as a form of deterrence to the Mongols, whom the Ming emperors had a long standing feud with.
Visiting the Great Wall today
Crafted by one great dynasty after another, the Great Wall of China today stands as a testament to Chinese history.
From Beijing, visitors to the Great Wall flock to Badaling Great Wall, which lies just 40 miles north of the capital and is one of the most well preserved parts of the structure. Some parts of the road atop the wall are wide enough for six horses or ten soldiers to march side by side. This part of the Great Wall has seen about 80 million visitors from all over the world, including 300 heads of state and other celebrities from foreign countries.
Simatai Great Wall is known as "the best of the Great Wall" and is located 80 miles northeast of Beijing. Built on a steep mountain range, many structures found here are unmatched by any part of the Great Wall. A perfect example of this is the Sky Bridge, a 110-yard long passage that is just over one foot wide, just enough space for one brave soldier to cross from one tower to the next.
Deciding on the part of the Great Wall to visit will depend on your schedule. If you only have a day then Badaling or Mutianyu are your best bet as they are the closest to Beijing. They are also the most restored and the most popular. Both are served well by cable cars so you can have a fairly relaxed wall experience. If you have more time or if you want to do some hiking then you can start early in the morning and get a driver to drop you off at either Jinshangling and to pick you up at Simatai, or vice versa. It's about a 4-5 hour hike and the scenery is spectacular.
Tours and accommodation LPG cylinder Great Wall History
If you start at Simatai and end up in Jinshangling, check if you can make a deal with the IWNC Group to rent their guesthouse, which is located just at the foot of the wall. They are an interesting management counselling group and their dormitory-style guesthouses can accommodate up to 23 persons. They also have an excellent in-house chef! Check out their website, listed below. WOW Gold welding wire
Another option is to tour the Wild Wall, which takes you to parts of the Great Wall not usually frequented by day-trippers. Contact Mark Yen, a great guide who has been trekking the wall since he was five. He knows the wall really well and can customise the perfect trip for you, for more information, take a look at his website.
WOW Gold
The construction of the Great Wall began with the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC) and finally ended with the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The later dynasties such as Han, Sui and Tang also reconstructed and restored many parts of the Great Wall, making it one of the Wonders of the World. The Great Wall is basically divided into two parts, the Qin Wall and the Ming Wall. The Qin dynasty made their walls out of sticky rice and compressed dirt and parts of this wall can still be seen in remote parts of China. However, what most visitors today see of the Great Wall is what has been restored in the Ming dynasty, when stone slabs and bricks were used to create the formidable barrier.
Originally built to keep foreigners out of China, the Great Wall now brings them in by the busloads as a major tourist attraction.
History
For over 2000 years, the Great Wall was used as a form of defence for China. It started off as a series of walls built to protect the Zhou dynasty from attacks from the north. More walls were then added during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and some parts were connected to form a bigger defensive structure along the borders.
It was not until the Qin dynasty unified China in 221 BC, when the walls were joined to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north. Emperor Qin Shi Huang also ordered the extension of the wall to more than 10,000 li (3,000 miles), giving the structure its original name 'Wan Li Chang Chen' (the 10,000-li Great Wall). Emperor Qin ruled the country with an iron fist and he was notorious for banishing and executing many dissenting Confucian scholars. By unifying the warring states, the Qin dynasty created much of what constitutes modern China.
However, the present Great Wall we see today is largely the work of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), during which the watch towers in strategic areas were restored and strengthened as a form of deterrence to the Mongols, whom the Ming emperors had a long standing feud with.
Visiting the Great Wall today
Crafted by one great dynasty after another, the Great Wall of China today stands as a testament to Chinese history.
From Beijing, visitors to the Great Wall flock to Badaling Great Wall, which lies just 40 miles north of the capital and is one of the most well preserved parts of the structure. Some parts of the road atop the wall are wide enough for six horses or ten soldiers to march side by side. This part of the Great Wall has seen about 80 million visitors from all over the world, including 300 heads of state and other celebrities from foreign countries.
Simatai Great Wall is known as "the best of the Great Wall" and is located 80 miles northeast of Beijing. Built on a steep mountain range, many structures found here are unmatched by any part of the Great Wall. A perfect example of this is the Sky Bridge, a 110-yard long passage that is just over one foot wide, just enough space for one brave soldier to cross from one tower to the next.
Deciding on the part of the Great Wall to visit will depend on your schedule. If you only have a day then Badaling or Mutianyu are your best bet as they are the closest to Beijing. They are also the most restored and the most popular. Both are served well by cable cars so you can have a fairly relaxed wall experience. If you have more time or if you want to do some hiking then you can start early in the morning and get a driver to drop you off at either Jinshangling and to pick you up at Simatai, or vice versa. It's about a 4-5 hour hike and the scenery is spectacular.
Tours and accommodation LPG cylinder Great Wall History
If you start at Simatai and end up in Jinshangling, check if you can make a deal with the IWNC Group to rent their guesthouse, which is located just at the foot of the wall. They are an interesting management counselling group and their dormitory-style guesthouses can accommodate up to 23 persons. They also have an excellent in-house chef! Check out their website, listed below. WOW Gold welding wire
Another option is to tour the Wild Wall, which takes you to parts of the Great Wall not usually frequented by day-trippers. Contact Mark Yen, a great guide who has been trekking the wall since he was five. He knows the wall really well and can customise the perfect trip for you, for more information, take a look at his website.
WOW Gold
When the Twin Towers Fell
When New York City's giant World Trade Center towers plunged to earth following successive suicide terrorist attacks on September 11th, the world was confronted with one of most shocking梐nd sickening梥ights of modern times. The mechanisms by which these huge and seemingly solid edifices suddenly collapsed, snuffing out the lives of thousands, was the subject of a preliminary postmortem conducted last week in Cambridge, Mass. A panel of Boston area-based civil and structural engineers convened to discuss the fate of the superskyscrapers, struck by hijacked passenger planes, in front of an overflow audience on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their starkly sobering analyses highlighted the vulnerabilities of ultra-tall buildings to fire and pointed out steps that could be taken to lessen them.
After first describing the highly redundant structural system that kept the 110-story twin towers standing for decades despite hurricane-force winds and a terrorist truck bomb, the engineers then delineated how that system was breached and finally overcome on that fateful day when America was attacked. The main culprits in bringing the famously lofty buildings down, they concluded, were the two intensely hot infernos that erupted when tens of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel spilled from the doomed airliners. Once high temperatures weakened the towers' supporting steel structures, it was only a matter of time until the mass of the stories above initiated a rapid-sequence "pancaking" phenomena in which floor after floor was instantly crushed and then sent into near free fall to the ground below. Significantly, the panel stated that any mitigating reinforcements and redundancies added to these buildings could have only delayed the inevitable failure, though they would have bought more time for the evacuation of the occupants. No existing or foreseeable economically viable skyscraper structure, they agreed, could have withstood this kind of cruel onslaught. Clearly, prevention is the best defense against this kind of assault.
"Though the twin towers were not much taller than their famous uptown predecessor, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center rose during the late 1960s, a new era of construction characterized by rapidly erected, lightweight steel structures rather than heavy masonry walls," explained Robert Fowler, senior engineer at the structural engineering firm of McNamara and Salvia. Fowler was then a junior member of the WTC's engineering firm of record, Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, later renamed Skilling Helle Christiansen Robertson. "As the Trade Center was so much lighter in comparison to earlier designs, it was a watershed building in the history of skyscrapers," he added. Leslie E. Robertson, then the project manager, was the engineer most responsible for the superskyscraper's design, Fowler noted. He is currently principal partner at Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the current structural consultants to the WTC. The late Seattle-based architect Minoru Yamasaki designed the World Trade Center.
How the Towers Kept Standing
As with all large buildings, the main structural engineering design criteria for the facility's 1,362-foot-tall south tower and 1,368-foot-tall north tower centered on two things: ensuring resistance to the gigantic gravity loads of the buildings themselves as well as to sideways or lateral forces caused by high winds and earthquakes, which can generate huge overturning forces at the bases. The former condition, Fowler explained, depends on specifying strong vertical columns that can efficiently transmit the mass of the building to the ground. The latter consideration concerns not only structural integrity but also "requires developing an acceptable comfort level for the occupants" by avoiding too much swaying. Opposition to lateral motion is controlled by "the design's structural mass [weight], the stiffness of its lateral members and the degree of structural damping employed," Fowler said.
"Though the WTC towers stood over 1,360 feet above the street level, the structures' bases were actually set 70 feet into the ground, and one had a 100-foot-tall antenna atop it, so with 205-foot widths, they had a lot of [exterior] area facing the wind," the engineer stated. He calculated that the approximate maximum wind shear force that a single face needed to withstand to be somewhere around 11,000,000 pounds. The gravity loads (weight) produced by the towers at their bases were on the order of 500,000 tons, Fowler said.
To handle these immense forces, the engineers "designed the World Trade Center essentially as a large beam section," explained another panel member, Robert McNamara, president of the engineering firm McNamara and Salvia. Called structural tubes in the business, each twin tower was strongly framed in structural steel. The frame comprised inner and outer rectangular box tubes consisting of closely spaced steel box columns connected by steel spandrel members or truss beams that supported 40,000-square-foot cross-braced floors, each nearly an acre in area, the empaneled engineers said. This configuration created a complete exterior tube around the building and a center tube down the middle.
The 90-foot-long central core, formed of massive vertical steel columns that held most of the building's weight, contained elevator shafts, stairways and utility spaces, they said. The core's columns were thicker toward the base to support huge accumulated gravity loads. The outer perimeter tube, a tight prefabricated latticework with 61 14-inch steel box columns (spaced 39 inches on center) on each building face, provided all the bracing resistance against lateral and twisting forces from wind and seismic action. This exterior grid served as a moment frame, providing a large moment arm (of torque) against overturning and deflection forces. The outer tube bore part of the gravity-induced downward load as well as, they noted.
The huge inner and outer rectangular tubes "needed to be protected to maintain their structural integrity, so the floors acted as reinforcing diaphragms or bulkheads [the term used in shipbuilding]," said panel member Jerome Connor, professor of civil and environmental engineering at M.I.T. The office floors, which each comprised a 35- to 60-foot clear span from the core to the exterior grid, were panelized structural members supported by open web joists with steel decks above them, he said. The horizontal truss struts, bolted and welded to the exterior grid and the core column structures, included viscoelastic stringers that provided increased damping to help make the structure less lively in the wind, according to Connor. Each steel floor deck was covered with four inches of concrete. "With almost an acre of area for each floor and figuring about 100 pounds per square foot of area," he estimated that "each floor system weighed about 3,200,000 pounds."
Why the Towers Fell
With all of its structural redundancies, "the World Trade Center was probably one of the more resistant tall building structures," McNamara said, adding that "nowadays, they just don't build them as tough as the World Trade Center." His statement is bolstered by the fact that the support structures of both twin towers withstood the initial hits of the two kamikaze airliners despite the breaching of many levels of framing. After the deletion of key structural members from about the 90th to 96th floors on the north face of the north tower, One WTC, and from about the 75th to the 84th floors of the south, east and north faces of the south tower, Two WTC, the buildings' skeletons found alternative paths to take the loads. Each impact and following explosion imparted first a large local lateral force and then an omnidirectional force to the structures, together causing massive initial damage to the columns and floor systems at the elevation of the crash.
Despite shocks and explosions estimated to be equivalent to that of the 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (about 400 tons of TNT), the towers remained upright. "The buildings displayed a tremendous capacity to stand there despite the damage to a major portion of the gravity system, and for an hour or so they did stand there," McNamara said. "The lateral truss systems redistributed the load when other critical members were lost. It's a testament to the system that they lasted so long."
Newspapers and TV newscasts reported that the twin towers had been designed to withstand a collision with a Boeing 707. The events of September 11th show that this was indeed the case. "However, the World Trade Center was never designed for the massive explosions nor the intense jet fuel fires that came next梐 key design omission," stated Eduardo Kausel, another M.I.T. professor of civil and environmental engineering and panel member. The towers collapsed only after the kerosene fuel fire compromised the integrity of their structural tubes: One WTC lasted for 105 minutes, whereas Two WTC remained standing for 47 minutes. "It was designed for the type of fire you'd expect in an office building梡aper, desks, drapes," McNamara said. The aviation fuel fires that broke out burned at a much hotter temperature than the typical contents of an office. "At about 800 degrees Fahrenheit structural steel starts to lose its strength; at 1,500 degrees F, all bets are off as steel members become significantly weakened," he explained.
Some have raised questions about the degree of fire protection available to guard the structural steel. According to press reports, the original asbestos cementitious fireproofing applied to the steel framework of the north tower and the lower 30 stories of the south were removed after the 1993 terrorist truck bombing.
Others have pointed out the possibility that the aviation fuel fires burned sufficiently hot to melt and ignite the airliners' aluminum airframe structures. Aluminum, a pyrophoric metal, could have added to the conflagrations. Hot molten aluminum, suggests one well-informed correspondent, could have seeped down into the floor systems, doing significant damage. "Aluminum melts into burning 'goblet puddles' that would pool around depressions, [such as] beam joints, service openings in the floor, stair wells and so forth...The goblets are white hot, burning at an estimated 1800 degrees Celsius.燗t this temperature, the water of hydration in the concrete is vaporized and consumed by the aluminum. This evolves hydrogen gas that burns. Aluminum burning in concrete produces a calcium oxide/silicate slag covered by a white aluminum oxide ash, all of which serve to insulate and contain the aluminum puddle. This keeps the metal hot and burning. If you look at pictures of Iraqi aircraft destroyed in their concrete shelters [during the Persian Gulf war], you will notice a deep imprint of the burned aircraft on the concrete floor.
Though the Boeing 767s airliners that hit the towers were somewhat larger than the Boeing 707 (maximum takeoff weights:?95,000 pounds versus 336,000 pounds) the structures were designed to resist, the planes carried a similarly sized fuel load as the older model梐bout 24,000 gallons versus 23,000 gallons, according to Kausel. "Most certainly," he continued, "no building has or will resist this kind of fire." The sprinkler system, which was probably compromised, would have been are useless against this kind of fire, he said, adding, "The World Trade Center towers performed admirably; they stood long enough for the majority of the people to be successfully evacuated."
Kausel also reported that he had made estimates of the amount of energy generated during the collapse of each tower. "The gravitational energy of a building is like water backed up behind a dam," he explained. When released, the accumulated potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. With a mass of about 500,000 tons (5 x 108 kilograms), a height of about 1,350 ft. (411 meters), and the acceleration of gravity at 9.8 meters per second 2, he came up with a potential energy total of 1019 ergs (1012 Joules or 278 Megawatt-hours). "That's about 1 percent of the energy released by a small atomic bomb," he noted.
The M.I.T. professor added that about 30 percent of the collapse energy was expended rupturing the materials of the building, while the rest was converted into the kinetic energy of the falling mass. The huge gray dust clouds that covered lower Manhattan after the collapse were probably formed when the concrete floors were pulverized in the fall and then jetted into the surrounding neighborhood. "Of the kinetic energy impacting the ground, only 0.1 percent was converted to seismic energy," he stated. "Each event created a (modest-sized) magnitude 2 earthquake, as monitored at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Observatory, which is located about 30 kilometers away from New York City." Kausel concluded that the "the largest share of the kinetic energy was converted to heat, material rupture and deformation of the ground below."
Despite the expert panel's preliminary musings on the failure mechanisms responsible for the twin towers' fall, the definitive cause has yet to be determined. Reportedly, the National Science Foundation has funded eight research projects to probe the WTC catastrophe. The American Society of Civil Engineers is sponsoring several studies of the site. Meanwhile the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Structural Engineers has established an investigative team to analyze the disaster and learn from the failure. W. Gene Corley, senior vice president of the Construction Technology Laboratory in Skokie, Ill., is said to be heading the ASSE study team through its initial phase of data gathering, and then William Baker, a structural engineer at the Chicago-based firm of Skidmore Owings & Merrill in Chicago, will lead the following analysis phase. The Structural Engineering Institute is to partner with the American Institute of Steel Construction, the National Fire Protection Association and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been invited to join as well.
How the Towers Fell
Given the lack of firm conclusions regarding how the collapses occurred, the M.I.T. panel participants asked their audience to consider various theories they put forth. In general, it was agreed that as the structure warped and weakened at the top of each tower, the frame, along with the concrete slabs, furniture, file cabinets and other materials, became an enormous consolidated weight that eventually crushed the lower portions of the structure below. The details of how the frame members failed remain under contention.
Professor Connor's theory focused on weaknesses in how the vertical and horizontal structural members were tied together. During construction, he explained, each prefabricated floor system was lifted into place by a crane and "supported at the ends like a hinge, where they were bolted and welded to the inner and outer framing tubes" so that part of the gravity load went through the core and the other part through the exterior structure. "The floor trusses sat on beams and were tied down so the core was locked to the exterior," he said. "It was an unusual system and very lightweight. If you lose the connection between them, however, you lose the ability to carry the floor loads and allow the floors to slide back and forth under stress. If a damaged floor system were to fall, it would break the end connections in the lower floors and down and down the floors would go."
"In my theory, the hot fire weakened the supporting joint connection," Connor continued. "When it broke, one end of a floor fell, damaging the floor system underneath, while simultaneously tugging (pulling) the vertical members to which it was still attached toward the center of the building and down." This phenomenon started a parasitic process that accelerated until total failure and the structure fell in on itself, he said.
Eduardo Kausel proposed an alternative failure explanation that he acknowledged was independently developed by Zdenek Bazant, a professor at Northwestern University. "I believe that the intense heat softened or melted the structural elements梖loor trusses and columns梥o that they became like chewing gum, and that was enough to trigger the collapse," he said. "The floor trusses are likely to have been the first to sag and fail. As soon as the upper floors became unsupported, debris from the failed floor systems rained down onto the floors below, which eventually gave way, starting an unstoppable sequence. The dynamic forces are so large that the downward motion becomes unstoppable."
Via two simple models, Kausel was able to determine that the fall of the upper building portion down onto a single floor must have caused dynamic forces exceeding the buildings?design loads by at least an order of magnitude. He also performed some computer simulations that indicate the building material fell almost unrestricted at nearly the speed of free-falling objects. "The towers' resistive systems played no role. Otherwise the elapsed time of the fall would have been extended," he noted. As it was, the debris took about nine seconds to reach the ground from the top.
"It's difficult to judge which of these failure mechanisms occurred first; probably all occurred and interacted," said panel member Oral Buyukozturk, professor of civil and environmental engineering at M.I.T.. "The prolonged effect of high heat is likely to have led to the buckling of the columns, collapse of the floors, as well as to the shearing of the floors upon the failure the joints." He noted that videotapes of the catastrophe showed some tilting of the top portion of the south tower before it collapsed. "This indicates the buckling of one building face while the adjacent face was bending [placed into tension]." After that, the upper portions of the tower are shown disintegrating, with "a dynamic effect and amplification process" following that led to a progressive collapse?a kind of pancaking or deck of cards effect"梔own to ground zero, Buyukozturk stated.
Kausel addressed the oft-asked question of why the towers did not tip over like a falling tree. "A tree is solid, whereas building is mostly air or empty space; only about 10 percent is solid material. Since there is no solid stump underneath to force it to the side, the building cannot tip over. It could only collapse upon itself." Robert McNamara said his failure mechanism theory "focuses on the connections that hold the structure together," but he cautioned that "we really need to wait for a detailed investigation, before we decide if we have to up the code ratings for these connections in signature structures."
Protecting Skyscraper Occupants
The expert panel then turned its attention to changes for future tall structures in the wake of what has been learned. Though the recent "disaster couldn't be envisioned as a design scenario in the 1970s, it means we have to change the way we design and construct tall buildings in the future," Buyukozturk said. yiwu china gifts
Existing skyscrapers should probably be retrofitted with some additional safety measures, but the professors say that it doesn't make sense economically梐nd aesthetically梩o protect them all physically from similar catastrophes. "Retrofitting is very expensive and is therefore usually done only for monumental buildings," Connor said.
"There will never be a building that won't fall," Kausel noted. "The best we can do is to ensure that it will stand long enough for all the people to escape." Back when the WTC was built, no one seems to have anticipated the need to evacuate an entire large building at once. To do so successfully means boosting a building's structural redundancy梩he provision of additional means to assist system function. Panel members discussed providing improved fire protection for the structural elements, alternative load paths to stand in for damaged structures and fixing diaphragm floor beams more strongly to vertical members. Also mentioned was the idea of installing blast-resistant, energy-absorbing materials such as concrete-encased steel exterior columns and/or cavities (reinforced concrete cores) in future large structures that could help them survive or at least promote failure in certain slower, less deleterious sequences.
One audience attendee, a West Coast-based structural engineer who did not give his name, created a provocative moment when he claimed that it would cost about 10 percent more than the original building cost to install floor joint reinforcements for greater redundancy. "According to our analysis, it could add several more hours to the evacuation period," he stated. "If each tower cost about $1 billion to build, then an extra hundred million dollars could have saved most of the occupants. Though it's horrible to contemplate," he continued, "a human life is valued for insurance purposes at about a million dollars apiece, so this helps put the extra investment into perspective. After all, the World Trade Center was retrofitted with 10,000 viscoelastic dampers to reduce its swaying, so safety improvements can't be ignored. Building clients have to become more demanding, even if the probabilities of a repeat disaster are very slim...."
The panel also considered the need to improve the effectiveness of building safety systems. Kausel pointed out problems with the twin towers' emergency communications systems ("just when coordination was most critical, the people didn't know what to do"), the emergency illumination system and protection against smoke ("the great killer in building fires is smoke inhalation"). He also suggested that more effort should be expended to create "alternative escape routes, so evacuees aren't faced with a wall of smoke. If two stairwells are close together," he noted, "one explosion could block them both." Other ideas floated included installing better fire-suppression systems, using the aqueous film-forming foams employed in aviation fires, and creating protected access ways for firefighters. There was also mention of the need to harden stairwells and egress pathways, and perhaps develop "deployable evacuation systems" for building occupants. Beyond robotic stairway evacuation devices, deployable systems might include escape tubes deployed out windows, exterior people-lowering machines, flying platforms or even parachutes."
One audience member asked the assembled experts whether a reinforced concrete skyscraper such as the current height record-holder, the 452-meter Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, would have better resisted a collision with a fuel-filled airliner. Their response indicated that a concrete structure would have probably lasted for a couple of more hours than did the steel World Trade Center towers. Robert McNamara stated that many of the more recent superskyscrapers were constructed of reinforced concrete mainly because of the high cost of steel in Asia. He also mentioned that the Petronas Towers contain "safe refuge floors" to allow building occupants to reach fresh air during fires. McNamara said that this concept was now somewhat discredited, as similar refuges in the WTC would not have ultimately saved anyone. yiwu Translation Service yiwu china export from yiwu
A lively discussion then ensued about whether the terrorist pilots knew where to hit the buildings for maximum effect. McNamara opined that the position of impact seems significant. "They hit them at just the right place梐bout two thirds to three quarters of the way up. The earlier [truck bomb] attack showed that the explosion at bottom had little effect and that it's much easier to collapse a building from the top than the bottom. If they had hit the very top of the building, the fire damage wouldn't have had such a catastrophic effect. At the bottom, the columns are much heavier and stronger and so they would have taken a much larger load." Connor offered that one would "need graduate-level engineering training to choose the prime target location."
In the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, questions arose whether superskyscrapers should be built in the future. Clearly, these top engineers would reply in the definite affirmative. Inevitably, they said, new tall towers will rise.
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After first describing the highly redundant structural system that kept the 110-story twin towers standing for decades despite hurricane-force winds and a terrorist truck bomb, the engineers then delineated how that system was breached and finally overcome on that fateful day when America was attacked. The main culprits in bringing the famously lofty buildings down, they concluded, were the two intensely hot infernos that erupted when tens of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel spilled from the doomed airliners. Once high temperatures weakened the towers' supporting steel structures, it was only a matter of time until the mass of the stories above initiated a rapid-sequence "pancaking" phenomena in which floor after floor was instantly crushed and then sent into near free fall to the ground below. Significantly, the panel stated that any mitigating reinforcements and redundancies added to these buildings could have only delayed the inevitable failure, though they would have bought more time for the evacuation of the occupants. No existing or foreseeable economically viable skyscraper structure, they agreed, could have withstood this kind of cruel onslaught. Clearly, prevention is the best defense against this kind of assault.
"Though the twin towers were not much taller than their famous uptown predecessor, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center rose during the late 1960s, a new era of construction characterized by rapidly erected, lightweight steel structures rather than heavy masonry walls," explained Robert Fowler, senior engineer at the structural engineering firm of McNamara and Salvia. Fowler was then a junior member of the WTC's engineering firm of record, Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson, later renamed Skilling Helle Christiansen Robertson. "As the Trade Center was so much lighter in comparison to earlier designs, it was a watershed building in the history of skyscrapers," he added. Leslie E. Robertson, then the project manager, was the engineer most responsible for the superskyscraper's design, Fowler noted. He is currently principal partner at Leslie E. Robertson Associates, the current structural consultants to the WTC. The late Seattle-based architect Minoru Yamasaki designed the World Trade Center.
How the Towers Kept Standing
As with all large buildings, the main structural engineering design criteria for the facility's 1,362-foot-tall south tower and 1,368-foot-tall north tower centered on two things: ensuring resistance to the gigantic gravity loads of the buildings themselves as well as to sideways or lateral forces caused by high winds and earthquakes, which can generate huge overturning forces at the bases. The former condition, Fowler explained, depends on specifying strong vertical columns that can efficiently transmit the mass of the building to the ground. The latter consideration concerns not only structural integrity but also "requires developing an acceptable comfort level for the occupants" by avoiding too much swaying. Opposition to lateral motion is controlled by "the design's structural mass [weight], the stiffness of its lateral members and the degree of structural damping employed," Fowler said.
"Though the WTC towers stood over 1,360 feet above the street level, the structures' bases were actually set 70 feet into the ground, and one had a 100-foot-tall antenna atop it, so with 205-foot widths, they had a lot of [exterior] area facing the wind," the engineer stated. He calculated that the approximate maximum wind shear force that a single face needed to withstand to be somewhere around 11,000,000 pounds. The gravity loads (weight) produced by the towers at their bases were on the order of 500,000 tons, Fowler said.
To handle these immense forces, the engineers "designed the World Trade Center essentially as a large beam section," explained another panel member, Robert McNamara, president of the engineering firm McNamara and Salvia. Called structural tubes in the business, each twin tower was strongly framed in structural steel. The frame comprised inner and outer rectangular box tubes consisting of closely spaced steel box columns connected by steel spandrel members or truss beams that supported 40,000-square-foot cross-braced floors, each nearly an acre in area, the empaneled engineers said. This configuration created a complete exterior tube around the building and a center tube down the middle.
The 90-foot-long central core, formed of massive vertical steel columns that held most of the building's weight, contained elevator shafts, stairways and utility spaces, they said. The core's columns were thicker toward the base to support huge accumulated gravity loads. The outer perimeter tube, a tight prefabricated latticework with 61 14-inch steel box columns (spaced 39 inches on center) on each building face, provided all the bracing resistance against lateral and twisting forces from wind and seismic action. This exterior grid served as a moment frame, providing a large moment arm (of torque) against overturning and deflection forces. The outer tube bore part of the gravity-induced downward load as well as, they noted.
The huge inner and outer rectangular tubes "needed to be protected to maintain their structural integrity, so the floors acted as reinforcing diaphragms or bulkheads [the term used in shipbuilding]," said panel member Jerome Connor, professor of civil and environmental engineering at M.I.T. The office floors, which each comprised a 35- to 60-foot clear span from the core to the exterior grid, were panelized structural members supported by open web joists with steel decks above them, he said. The horizontal truss struts, bolted and welded to the exterior grid and the core column structures, included viscoelastic stringers that provided increased damping to help make the structure less lively in the wind, according to Connor. Each steel floor deck was covered with four inches of concrete. "With almost an acre of area for each floor and figuring about 100 pounds per square foot of area," he estimated that "each floor system weighed about 3,200,000 pounds."
Why the Towers Fell
With all of its structural redundancies, "the World Trade Center was probably one of the more resistant tall building structures," McNamara said, adding that "nowadays, they just don't build them as tough as the World Trade Center." His statement is bolstered by the fact that the support structures of both twin towers withstood the initial hits of the two kamikaze airliners despite the breaching of many levels of framing. After the deletion of key structural members from about the 90th to 96th floors on the north face of the north tower, One WTC, and from about the 75th to the 84th floors of the south, east and north faces of the south tower, Two WTC, the buildings' skeletons found alternative paths to take the loads. Each impact and following explosion imparted first a large local lateral force and then an omnidirectional force to the structures, together causing massive initial damage to the columns and floor systems at the elevation of the crash.
Despite shocks and explosions estimated to be equivalent to that of the 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (about 400 tons of TNT), the towers remained upright. "The buildings displayed a tremendous capacity to stand there despite the damage to a major portion of the gravity system, and for an hour or so they did stand there," McNamara said. "The lateral truss systems redistributed the load when other critical members were lost. It's a testament to the system that they lasted so long."
Newspapers and TV newscasts reported that the twin towers had been designed to withstand a collision with a Boeing 707. The events of September 11th show that this was indeed the case. "However, the World Trade Center was never designed for the massive explosions nor the intense jet fuel fires that came next梐 key design omission," stated Eduardo Kausel, another M.I.T. professor of civil and environmental engineering and panel member. The towers collapsed only after the kerosene fuel fire compromised the integrity of their structural tubes: One WTC lasted for 105 minutes, whereas Two WTC remained standing for 47 minutes. "It was designed for the type of fire you'd expect in an office building梡aper, desks, drapes," McNamara said. The aviation fuel fires that broke out burned at a much hotter temperature than the typical contents of an office. "At about 800 degrees Fahrenheit structural steel starts to lose its strength; at 1,500 degrees F, all bets are off as steel members become significantly weakened," he explained.
Some have raised questions about the degree of fire protection available to guard the structural steel. According to press reports, the original asbestos cementitious fireproofing applied to the steel framework of the north tower and the lower 30 stories of the south were removed after the 1993 terrorist truck bombing.
Others have pointed out the possibility that the aviation fuel fires burned sufficiently hot to melt and ignite the airliners' aluminum airframe structures. Aluminum, a pyrophoric metal, could have added to the conflagrations. Hot molten aluminum, suggests one well-informed correspondent, could have seeped down into the floor systems, doing significant damage. "Aluminum melts into burning 'goblet puddles' that would pool around depressions, [such as] beam joints, service openings in the floor, stair wells and so forth...The goblets are white hot, burning at an estimated 1800 degrees Celsius.燗t this temperature, the water of hydration in the concrete is vaporized and consumed by the aluminum. This evolves hydrogen gas that burns. Aluminum burning in concrete produces a calcium oxide/silicate slag covered by a white aluminum oxide ash, all of which serve to insulate and contain the aluminum puddle. This keeps the metal hot and burning. If you look at pictures of Iraqi aircraft destroyed in their concrete shelters [during the Persian Gulf war], you will notice a deep imprint of the burned aircraft on the concrete floor.
Though the Boeing 767s airliners that hit the towers were somewhat larger than the Boeing 707 (maximum takeoff weights:?95,000 pounds versus 336,000 pounds) the structures were designed to resist, the planes carried a similarly sized fuel load as the older model梐bout 24,000 gallons versus 23,000 gallons, according to Kausel. "Most certainly," he continued, "no building has or will resist this kind of fire." The sprinkler system, which was probably compromised, would have been are useless against this kind of fire, he said, adding, "The World Trade Center towers performed admirably; they stood long enough for the majority of the people to be successfully evacuated."
Kausel also reported that he had made estimates of the amount of energy generated during the collapse of each tower. "The gravitational energy of a building is like water backed up behind a dam," he explained. When released, the accumulated potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. With a mass of about 500,000 tons (5 x 108 kilograms), a height of about 1,350 ft. (411 meters), and the acceleration of gravity at 9.8 meters per second 2, he came up with a potential energy total of 1019 ergs (1012 Joules or 278 Megawatt-hours). "That's about 1 percent of the energy released by a small atomic bomb," he noted.
The M.I.T. professor added that about 30 percent of the collapse energy was expended rupturing the materials of the building, while the rest was converted into the kinetic energy of the falling mass. The huge gray dust clouds that covered lower Manhattan after the collapse were probably formed when the concrete floors were pulverized in the fall and then jetted into the surrounding neighborhood. "Of the kinetic energy impacting the ground, only 0.1 percent was converted to seismic energy," he stated. "Each event created a (modest-sized) magnitude 2 earthquake, as monitored at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Observatory, which is located about 30 kilometers away from New York City." Kausel concluded that the "the largest share of the kinetic energy was converted to heat, material rupture and deformation of the ground below."
Despite the expert panel's preliminary musings on the failure mechanisms responsible for the twin towers' fall, the definitive cause has yet to be determined. Reportedly, the National Science Foundation has funded eight research projects to probe the WTC catastrophe. The American Society of Civil Engineers is sponsoring several studies of the site. Meanwhile the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Structural Engineers has established an investigative team to analyze the disaster and learn from the failure. W. Gene Corley, senior vice president of the Construction Technology Laboratory in Skokie, Ill., is said to be heading the ASSE study team through its initial phase of data gathering, and then William Baker, a structural engineer at the Chicago-based firm of Skidmore Owings & Merrill in Chicago, will lead the following analysis phase. The Structural Engineering Institute is to partner with the American Institute of Steel Construction, the National Fire Protection Association and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been invited to join as well.
How the Towers Fell
Given the lack of firm conclusions regarding how the collapses occurred, the M.I.T. panel participants asked their audience to consider various theories they put forth. In general, it was agreed that as the structure warped and weakened at the top of each tower, the frame, along with the concrete slabs, furniture, file cabinets and other materials, became an enormous consolidated weight that eventually crushed the lower portions of the structure below. The details of how the frame members failed remain under contention.
Professor Connor's theory focused on weaknesses in how the vertical and horizontal structural members were tied together. During construction, he explained, each prefabricated floor system was lifted into place by a crane and "supported at the ends like a hinge, where they were bolted and welded to the inner and outer framing tubes" so that part of the gravity load went through the core and the other part through the exterior structure. "The floor trusses sat on beams and were tied down so the core was locked to the exterior," he said. "It was an unusual system and very lightweight. If you lose the connection between them, however, you lose the ability to carry the floor loads and allow the floors to slide back and forth under stress. If a damaged floor system were to fall, it would break the end connections in the lower floors and down and down the floors would go."
"In my theory, the hot fire weakened the supporting joint connection," Connor continued. "When it broke, one end of a floor fell, damaging the floor system underneath, while simultaneously tugging (pulling) the vertical members to which it was still attached toward the center of the building and down." This phenomenon started a parasitic process that accelerated until total failure and the structure fell in on itself, he said.
Eduardo Kausel proposed an alternative failure explanation that he acknowledged was independently developed by Zdenek Bazant, a professor at Northwestern University. "I believe that the intense heat softened or melted the structural elements梖loor trusses and columns梥o that they became like chewing gum, and that was enough to trigger the collapse," he said. "The floor trusses are likely to have been the first to sag and fail. As soon as the upper floors became unsupported, debris from the failed floor systems rained down onto the floors below, which eventually gave way, starting an unstoppable sequence. The dynamic forces are so large that the downward motion becomes unstoppable."
Via two simple models, Kausel was able to determine that the fall of the upper building portion down onto a single floor must have caused dynamic forces exceeding the buildings?design loads by at least an order of magnitude. He also performed some computer simulations that indicate the building material fell almost unrestricted at nearly the speed of free-falling objects. "The towers' resistive systems played no role. Otherwise the elapsed time of the fall would have been extended," he noted. As it was, the debris took about nine seconds to reach the ground from the top.
"It's difficult to judge which of these failure mechanisms occurred first; probably all occurred and interacted," said panel member Oral Buyukozturk, professor of civil and environmental engineering at M.I.T.. "The prolonged effect of high heat is likely to have led to the buckling of the columns, collapse of the floors, as well as to the shearing of the floors upon the failure the joints." He noted that videotapes of the catastrophe showed some tilting of the top portion of the south tower before it collapsed. "This indicates the buckling of one building face while the adjacent face was bending [placed into tension]." After that, the upper portions of the tower are shown disintegrating, with "a dynamic effect and amplification process" following that led to a progressive collapse?a kind of pancaking or deck of cards effect"梔own to ground zero, Buyukozturk stated.
Kausel addressed the oft-asked question of why the towers did not tip over like a falling tree. "A tree is solid, whereas building is mostly air or empty space; only about 10 percent is solid material. Since there is no solid stump underneath to force it to the side, the building cannot tip over. It could only collapse upon itself." Robert McNamara said his failure mechanism theory "focuses on the connections that hold the structure together," but he cautioned that "we really need to wait for a detailed investigation, before we decide if we have to up the code ratings for these connections in signature structures."
Protecting Skyscraper Occupants
The expert panel then turned its attention to changes for future tall structures in the wake of what has been learned. Though the recent "disaster couldn't be envisioned as a design scenario in the 1970s, it means we have to change the way we design and construct tall buildings in the future," Buyukozturk said. yiwu china gifts
Existing skyscrapers should probably be retrofitted with some additional safety measures, but the professors say that it doesn't make sense economically梐nd aesthetically梩o protect them all physically from similar catastrophes. "Retrofitting is very expensive and is therefore usually done only for monumental buildings," Connor said.
"There will never be a building that won't fall," Kausel noted. "The best we can do is to ensure that it will stand long enough for all the people to escape." Back when the WTC was built, no one seems to have anticipated the need to evacuate an entire large building at once. To do so successfully means boosting a building's structural redundancy梩he provision of additional means to assist system function. Panel members discussed providing improved fire protection for the structural elements, alternative load paths to stand in for damaged structures and fixing diaphragm floor beams more strongly to vertical members. Also mentioned was the idea of installing blast-resistant, energy-absorbing materials such as concrete-encased steel exterior columns and/or cavities (reinforced concrete cores) in future large structures that could help them survive or at least promote failure in certain slower, less deleterious sequences.
One audience attendee, a West Coast-based structural engineer who did not give his name, created a provocative moment when he claimed that it would cost about 10 percent more than the original building cost to install floor joint reinforcements for greater redundancy. "According to our analysis, it could add several more hours to the evacuation period," he stated. "If each tower cost about $1 billion to build, then an extra hundred million dollars could have saved most of the occupants. Though it's horrible to contemplate," he continued, "a human life is valued for insurance purposes at about a million dollars apiece, so this helps put the extra investment into perspective. After all, the World Trade Center was retrofitted with 10,000 viscoelastic dampers to reduce its swaying, so safety improvements can't be ignored. Building clients have to become more demanding, even if the probabilities of a repeat disaster are very slim...."
The panel also considered the need to improve the effectiveness of building safety systems. Kausel pointed out problems with the twin towers' emergency communications systems ("just when coordination was most critical, the people didn't know what to do"), the emergency illumination system and protection against smoke ("the great killer in building fires is smoke inhalation"). He also suggested that more effort should be expended to create "alternative escape routes, so evacuees aren't faced with a wall of smoke. If two stairwells are close together," he noted, "one explosion could block them both." Other ideas floated included installing better fire-suppression systems, using the aqueous film-forming foams employed in aviation fires, and creating protected access ways for firefighters. There was also mention of the need to harden stairwells and egress pathways, and perhaps develop "deployable evacuation systems" for building occupants. Beyond robotic stairway evacuation devices, deployable systems might include escape tubes deployed out windows, exterior people-lowering machines, flying platforms or even parachutes."
One audience member asked the assembled experts whether a reinforced concrete skyscraper such as the current height record-holder, the 452-meter Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, would have better resisted a collision with a fuel-filled airliner. Their response indicated that a concrete structure would have probably lasted for a couple of more hours than did the steel World Trade Center towers. Robert McNamara stated that many of the more recent superskyscrapers were constructed of reinforced concrete mainly because of the high cost of steel in Asia. He also mentioned that the Petronas Towers contain "safe refuge floors" to allow building occupants to reach fresh air during fires. McNamara said that this concept was now somewhat discredited, as similar refuges in the WTC would not have ultimately saved anyone. yiwu Translation Service yiwu china export from yiwu
A lively discussion then ensued about whether the terrorist pilots knew where to hit the buildings for maximum effect. McNamara opined that the position of impact seems significant. "They hit them at just the right place梐bout two thirds to three quarters of the way up. The earlier [truck bomb] attack showed that the explosion at bottom had little effect and that it's much easier to collapse a building from the top than the bottom. If they had hit the very top of the building, the fire damage wouldn't have had such a catastrophic effect. At the bottom, the columns are much heavier and stronger and so they would have taken a much larger load." Connor offered that one would "need graduate-level engineering training to choose the prime target location."
In the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, questions arose whether superskyscrapers should be built in the future. Clearly, these top engineers would reply in the definite affirmative. Inevitably, they said, new tall towers will rise.
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