Jiu Zhai Gou and Huanglong
June 23 through June 26, Bonnie and I took a trip to some places in Northern Sichuan province called Jiu Zhai Gou and Huanglong. They are not far from each other in a fairly remote area. They are known for their natural beauty among the mountains with beautiful waterfalls, ponds and lakes. The color of some of the ponds/lakes are quite intense (see pic’s) due to calcification. Since the elevation is between 6000 and 12,000 feet the temperature ranged from mid 50’s to 80 F. We were lucky to have sunny days for most of the time. We did a lot of walking, a bit of horseback riding and took in a Tibetan Culture show.
Here’s parts of an article that was published recently in “The Economic Observer” about corruption in China……amazing! “Last week the Bank of China published a report entitled “How corrupt officials transfer assets overseas, and a study of monitoring.” The report quoted statistics based on research by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Since 1990, the number of Communist Party and government officials, public security members, judicial cadres, agents of State institutions, and senior management figures of state-owned enterprises fleeing China has reached nearly 18,000. Also missing is about 800 billion yuan (more than $120 billion). It is equivalent to China’s total financial allocation for education from 1978 to 1998. Each official stole, on average, an estimated 50 million yuan (more than $7 million). Precisely because this is only an estimate, one can imagine the real numbers are actually much bigger. Some media have reported that the wife of the Deputy Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Railways, Zhang Shuguang, recently caught for corruption, owns three luxury mansions in Los Angeles, and has bank savings of as much as $2.8 billion in America and Switzerland.”
Looking forward to my trip to the states next week…………until next time!
Tags: 1, Travel
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