Dr. Mark Nan Tu

I took a train from Beijing to Zhengzhou. After spending nearly 8 hours on the train, I arrived in Zhengzhou late in the afternoon. I have booked a hotel room from ctrip.com. The Fengleyuan hotel is located in the center of the Zhengzhou city. At the check in counter, I booked a day tour to the longmen grotto for the second day.
I had a light breakfast at the hotel early in the morning and was picked up by the tour bus at 730am. The driver picked up the other 8 tourists along the way. We started off from Zhengzhou at around 8am. Longmen grotto is in Luoyang city and some 80km from Zhengzhou. The longmen grotto is connected by the newly build expressway. It was a smooth ride and we arrived at the Longmen Grotto entrance at about 10am.
The packing lot was 2km from the entrance. I decided to walk to the entrance. The stoned path was clean the well maintained. There was a huge lawn and the grass was trimmed and green. The stoned path was along the river bank of Yi River.
The weather was hot and the temperature was nearly 35C. Our guide was a local Zhengzhou resident and was very familiar with the longmen history. She led us to the scenic spots and told us the historical significance off the grotto.
Longmen grotto is one of the top three grottos in China. The other two are the Yungang Grotto in the Datong, Shanxi province and the Dunghuang Grotto in Dunghuang, Gansu province. The Longmen grotto was first build in the Wei Dynasty and most of the caves were build in Tang dynasty with the next 400 years after the first cave was build.
Among the many caves and the thousands of Buddha images, I was mostly impressed by the three caves. The first was an early cave build in the Wei Dynasty. The Wei carving was quite different than the Tang dynasty. The Buddha figure was very slim.
The second cave as the ten-thousand Buddha cave. This cave was built in the Tang dynasty. Besides the main Buddha figure, there were thousands of small Buddha figures carved on the cave wall. These Buddha figures were small and some of them were as small as 2 cm.
The three caves was the most significant cave with the main Buddha Shakyamuni figure was 17 meters tall. The main Buddha was surrounded by many protective deities. This cave was significantly bigger than the other carvings which showed that these carvings were build by emperor. The guide later told us that the carving was built in the Wuzhetian, the first woman empress in Chinese history. The cave was purposely carved on the upper level of the mountain. The visitors will climb many steps to reach the platform. The main Buddha image is very peaceful with rounded face which reflected the beauty image at the time.
We walked across a bridge to the other side of the Yi River. From the other side, we could see immerse size of the Longmen grotto. The caves were scatted along the mountain along the Yi river bank and stretched several miles. It was surely an impressive sight.
There was a small temple and the tomb of Baijuyi, a famous poet in the Tang dynasty. He spent the later years of his life with the site of great Longmen Grotto across the river. I wonder what Mr. Baijuyi thought when he viewed the magnificent Grotto.

Entrance to the Longmen Grotto

The 17 meter Buddha from the other side of the Yi River

Baijuyi Tomb

1: It has over 1000 years of history and was the capital for China for nearly 800 years. (thus many historical sites)
2: It is easily accessable with direct flights to and from every part of the world.
3: It is the host city for the 29th Summer Olympic Game which means significant infrustructure improvements such as roads, signs in English, cleaness, English speaking ability among the locals,

I went to a 798 for a bike ride. It was very pleasant at night. It rained very hard this afternoon and the roads were still wet. There were not much visitors and the whole area

Gaobeidian has an area of 2.7 square kilometers. It is located in the Chaoyang district and less than 10km from the Guomao CBD area. Gaobeidian as a village has been around for 1000 years. It was built in the Liao Dynasty (AD916-1125).

Gaobeidian is now promoted as a tourist destination for local culture, antique Chinese furniture and home decorations. Supported by the local governments of Gaobeidian Village and Chaoyang District, the Gaobeidian Classical Furniture Street was build couple of years ago. It is now the show room and warehouse for hundreds of sellers of Chinese Classical Furniture. Some of the old items were collected by the sellers from provinces that include Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Most of the items are on sale are reproductions using high-quality traditional Chinese timber. Some of these timbers were from the old Chinese furniture.

Beiquanshan means hundred waterfall mountain. It got its name from the many water falls hidden in the mountain. It is located at 20km north of Huairou County on the side of the national road 111. It is very close to the Yougushentan which I went to a few weeks before.

I just found out that one of my former Microsoft Research China college brought a house back in the US not long ago. She has been in Beijing and working for Microsoft Research China for the past 4 years.

My initial response is: What? Why would you do that?

Driving in Beijing is tough (some say it is dangerous). There are about 3 million vehicles in this city and another 1000 new vehicles are entering the streets every day. Traffic congestion is a daily life. It was so crowded that sooner or later, one will get into a traffice

The GuiXiaoShi (Laughing Ghost Stone) is at N39,58.682,E116,10.865

Fragrance Hill is the most

Big Mac Index is a Burgernomics is based on the theory of PPP purchasing-power parity, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Thus in the long run, the exchange rate between two countries should move towards the rate that equalizes the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in each country. Thus a McDonald’s Big Mac, which is produced in about 120 countries, should cost the same.

Comparing actual exchange rates with PPPs indicates whether a currency is under- or overvalued.

Using 2007 Economist Big Mac Index. US is – US 3.22
The five most expensive countries:
Iceland – US 7.44
Norway – US 6.63
Reunion Island – US 6.23
Switzerland – US 5.05
Denmark – US 4.84
The five least expensive countries:
India – US 1.40
China – US 1.41
Hong Kong – US 1.54
Malaysia – US 1.57
Venezuela – US 1.58
Egypt – US 1.60

This means that the value of the Chinese Yuan is 56% undervalued when compared to the price of a hamburger in the USA. In other words, instead of 1USD = 7.3RMB (in 2007 when the Economist published the Big Mac Index), 1USD should really be 4.01RMB.

Big Mac Index does not take into account the labor cost, (which in China is a lot cheaper than the US), the store rent, the perceived brand of Macdonald, etc. A big Mac meal is considered as cheap fast food in the US. It is considered as the expensive meal in China and only offered to kids which exceptional performance such as scored 100 points in exams. There is also possibilities that Macdonald is sourcing the materials in China thus reduces the material cost.

In 2004?The Economist published a Starbucks Tall Latte Index. The index shows how many lattes (as opposed to Big Macs) U.S. dollars buy in a given country when exchanged for the local currency.

US -US 2.80
Switzerland – US 4.54
European Union – US 3.72
Hong Kong – US 2.22
China – US 2.77
Australia – US 2.69
Canada

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