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Shangri-la in northern Yunnan is originated from a novel, Lost Horizon written by the British writer James Hilton in 1933. It\’d5s described as a mystical, harmonious valley somewhere near the Himalaya. Often referred to as a paradise, and a place of peace, happiness and rest. An Utopia. \
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Some ISO1600 shots from that
evening.
Sigma SD10 50MM EX
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
This utopia is about 12h with buss from Kunming. It isn\’d5t that far in reality but roads aren\’d5t super nice if I put it that way. Shangri-la is a beautiful place, mystical, harmonious plateau with a lot of drunken citizen every night. It\’d5s so bad that driving nighttime or late evening is seen as something you just don\’d5t do as a visitor. You let local people do that. They drink a lot! And I mean a lot. \
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I have some friends, some local friends that I by mistake meet in Kunming. Those friends of course wanted to eat dinner to enhance and deeper our friendship. They brought some friends too and soon we ate great food and drank nice local rice wine. \
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If a local guy wants to drink a cup with you you\’d5re supposed to drink with him. Not a zip, but the whole glass. Glasses aren\’d5t very big but when something has about 52% of alcohol inside then size really doesn\’d5t matter. If you don\’d5t they are all VERY confused about your friendship and you really do act like something the cat dragged in. \
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Everybody wants to be your friend. Everybody wants YOU to be his friend. So drinking never ends. It\’d5s tough. Very tough.\
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This is the first part of my Shangri-la story. I was there for 10 days, traveling around to many different places and bit by piece I\’d5ll make you understand more and more about this mystical place.\
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Sigma 50mm EX
Tattooed Minority women
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
Cleaning my room to some Ono Lisa songs.. I don’t think my brother would bother, but he have this girl.. hmm.. How much should I do? And 20:00 tonight I am attending a English Corner that I just have to attend. So much to learn. (culture and such things)\
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The Image to the right is from a trip I did some time ago to another place also called “shangri-la” they want it to be the real one. Mountains, ravines, majestic views and mountains with glacier tops. Most people in this part are Christians and belongs Lizu minority group.
To find this lady I had to walk far up in the mountains, and I had to pay her 50RMB to get the picture. She was not a Lizu and on the question why she had a tattoo she said, – I did it when I was young for fun. So much for walking all that way. Anyways. I’ll post some more from her later. She had some extraordinary hands. Working hard as she was/is.\
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Back to cleaning.. I chose this picture, hey look at her face! She needs some cleaning too!\
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This picture is taken at the biggest Zen temple in the world.
It’s supposted to represent the religious part in my article.
Sigma SD10, Shangrila June 2005
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
The other day I visited IDG.se and read an article about longhorn that recently been tested for the first time by IDG’s magazine PC World. ) and after the article people had participated in a free forum connected to the article in question. Reading that thread reminded me how different Chinese people often is to Swedish. \
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Read article and comments – In swedish\
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There is a hidden rule in Sweden and that is, – don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Don’t come here and. This is called \’d2jante lagen\’d3 or \’d2The law of Jante\’d3 I.e. if your neighbor buys a new car, the law of jente do not permit you to share his/her joy. (Not everybody follows it) Reading that thread made me very very tired, all the time people jumped on each other with rude comments to some ones misunderstanding or not so informative answer to some ones question. Some ones joke became another persons death. \
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This might be very Swedish behavior. I’m not sure. Being a member on the Sigma forum at Dpreview.com (linked to Dpreviews Sigma forum) since it started in 2002 I must say I never or rarely accounted this behavior. Only by trolls that was easy to mark, very few.\
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In China, where people very much act according to basic rules in Daoism; Bend to problems rather than start a fight. This is maybe why today politics are as successful as it is. To act like if you where a bamboo in the wind, if you try to stand when the wind blow you might brake. Or be as water in a flood, when a stone comes you flow around it. These are two very strong images that very much, according to my personal experience represent the Chinese personality. Some people have tried to be the standing bamboo and with the natural consequence
\f1 \’81\’42\
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\f0 This doesn\’d5t mean that everybody is religious, not many are. But these rules are deep rooted into the society and everybody expects everybody to act accordingly. \
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This would, in a thread mean that you instead of jumping on some ones not so smart comment you try to first tell how not so wrong he was but that you might have a better explanation. i.e. I work a lot with books. If I would write something negative about Chairman Mao I would have to write a lot about how good he was before coming with my \’d2real\’d3 comment. The same if you have a conversation. \
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More of this later. Now I\’d5m sitting at a teahouse enjoying nice expensive Chinese tea while the rain is pouring down. It\’d5s so cozy to sit here now with my power book on my knee. Mmm (I\’d5m not paying btw)\
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Sigma SD9 – Nikon 50 1.4
Cab driver..
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
08:30\
Went to police station to get a important \’d2I live\’d3 paper, found some bad-mannered police officers telling us that my apartment in fact didn\’d5t exist. (This part was really scary, where to live? Who am I? Meaning of life suddenly confusing) After twenty minutes another police said my home did indeed exist but that we went to the wrong station. \
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09:50\
We went there and got everything we needed, headed for the one-hour-drive-far-away place. This is where the picture of the cab makes sense. (But with a lady driver, see the legs?)\
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10:50\
The place was full of people. The day before I had a medical examination, sight, weigh and height. I was 10 cm taller then the meter. (Says something about normal height around here) I could see 2.0 on the sight scale. He wrote 1.5 saying it was my glasses fault. Indeed.\
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The hall. A big room very much like in an airport where you check in your luggage. No numbers or normal queue, but huge flocking around the poor police officers desks. And as in normal driving, bigger goes first. I did have an advantage here. :) \
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Ohh. Yeah right. My papers. That wasn\’d5t just one paper, it was; #1 the medical, #2 the living, #3 passport, #4 visa, #5 photos, #6 translation of my Swedish license, #7 translators ID, #8 #9 and some other forms that we had to fill in (it was in Chinese so I didn\’d5t care to understand) #10 #11 and some copies. \
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11:20\
Suddenly everything stopped. All personnel in charge of the computers left their desks. Some wandered around, most left the hall. They said nothing and nobody asked. About 10 computers empty, about 100 people waiting gathered around empty desks waiting for something. Somebody. I heard one of the police officer saying to another \’d0 Maybe time for lunch? Lunch break normally means two hour of extra wait. \
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Linn, my We\’d5go, my translator. Very eager to get going she asked around to find a reason. (She seamed to me to be the only one interested in knowing anything) She heard that Internet had been shutdown by unknown reason. Was it time to go home? We listen carefully to workers / police officers that where still around only to hear that they where going to have education in the afternoon so no desks open after 12:00. And nothing open until Monday for that matter.\
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That would be my fifth time going to an office far-far-too-far away just because I needed a time for a written exam in front of a computer. \
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11:45 \
We gave it all a smile feeling that we\’d5re not alone in this helpless situation (I\’d5m after all Christian). Suddenly one police officer took a seat (my guess by mistake) He turned to the others with a big grin. After 10 minutes all staff where back and soon our papers was behind on the correct side! Enormously happy we\’d5re soon out on the street again taking the bus back to the big city of Kunming, far far away.\
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Coming up: Exam scheduled the 13th of July. It\’d5s 100 questions in English and must have 90 correct to pass. Traffic rules are similar to what we have in Sweden with the only difference that we usually follow regulations. (And we honk only when necessary)\
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Blind making money..
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
Blind people has two things to do in a city like Kunming. And I’ve been told this is common reality for the rest of China. They are working as musicians or with some form of massage.
They are sometimes found sitting by the road on a small chair. You go there sit beside them and they rub your shoulder. Very nice and it cost about 2RMB.
Or they play an advance game and have there own studio where you go and get the whole body work. Often VERY professional. Normal cost is around 35RMB. The seeing is cheaper. Often not as good either.
As musicians they often look as the people on this photo from yesterday. They often come in group of three. When they walk away they form a line where the first one probably can see a little and he/she leads the others home. (or to KTV, I don’t really know)
Anyways. Click on this image to see a little more from yesterday.
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