Travel To China

Naveen Marasinghe asked:


 

Established in 1990, Macau Maritime Museum is located in Mage Street in Macau region pretty close to the Mage Temple. This museum covers 800 square meters of the harbor in the southwest of Macau peninsula where the Portuguese landed for the first time in 1553 and it is an enclosed structure of three levels.

 

The museum is based on typical museum layouts of Europe and the exhibits of its collection of about 2000 pieces are placed according to the major themes relevant to the history of the maritime industry of china and Portugal. Mostly it exhibits traditional ships and marine equipments of China and a variety of boats by which the Portuguese arrived to Macau. The main structure of the museum has been designed in the shape of a marine boat in full sail which make the impression of a giant boat in the Macau port.

 

The museum is composed with five main sections such as Fishing industry, Technology, Transport, and Chinese and Portuguese discoveries. The first floor of the museum is dedicated for the traditional fish-cultivation technology of fishery industry of Macau. More over not only models of fishing boats and nets but also some tactics of catching fish are also demonstrated by some scenes. The explorations and geographical discoveries of China and Portuguese are illustrated in the second stage of the establishment. Thus this section is basically focused on the important historical episodes of Macau region. The top floor of the museum houses the display of technology in fish cultivation and navigation and dredging the sea world. Apart from that, a three-dimensional model of Macau region has been put on display in this section. Also the very first light house of China “Guia light house” can also been observed in this segment.

 

Furthermore, the museums aquarium consists of four containers which are devoted for different themes of marine life. The first tank exhibits a fresh water riverbed and the second one features the Macau harbor. Amazing coral reef can be seen in the third container while forth one displays the scene of a sunken boat in the sea water. The out side of the museum is the square from which the guests have the occasion to please their eyes with scenery of the harbor and the seashore and also the guests have the opportunity to even set sail on the sea with the wide range of sailing boats offered by the museum.

 

Macau is truly a paradise for tourists and a heaven for comfort and luxury, the large number of Macau luxury hotels such as Venetian Macau is an obvious testament to this fact.



Chance

Bob Freer asked:


Recently, a trend has developed in high schools and communities around the United States. Many people want to or are now learning the Chinese language. This could be a good turn of events, but it can also be problematic. This is particularly so for those who know nothing about Chinese culture, history and the state of affairs in China today.

In mainland China they no longer use the traditional Chinese characters that go hand in hand with Chinese history. For some reason, the Chinese Communist Party decided to alter the Chinese language and thereby change the vehicle for written communication.

Traditional Chinese characters evolved naturally over a period of time from pictographs or small drawings. By contrast the simplified Chinese created by the Chinese Communist Party has watered many of the traditional characters down to the point that they no longer are rooted in more ancient traditions.

Here is an example. The traditional Chinese character for the word ‘love’ contains a picture of a heart in it. This makes sense because love is closely associated to the heart. Not so in simplified Chinese. There is no heart in the word ‘love’ in simplified Chinese. One may ponder how you can love without a heart.

Just as this example shows, in many ways the Chinese Communist Party has removed the heart of the entire language, distorting and altering it into a water downed version of its former self. In Taiwan, however, they still use traditional characters.

So if your community or children’s school is planning to teach Chinese, you may wish to ensure that you are getting the traditional variety. It more fully encompasses the rich history of China and the Chinese people. By contrast, those who teach our children simplified Chinese are from mainland China and unfortunately, they will also be passing on the values and ideas of the Chinese Communist Party. Whether they do so on purpose or automatically as a result of growing up in that environment, the end result is the same. Only you can decide if you want the influence of the Chinese Communist Party imparted to your children.

Be sure to insist that our children are taught traditional Chinese and not the simplified version. This way the richness of traditional Chinese culture can be more fully enjoyed and appreciated. There will be a more solid foundation to understand the more ancient Chinese traditions.



Gabriel