2008-10-30
Posted at 10:15 UT
by
Tamara
Great Getaways of the World
CHINA !
SEGMENT 335
This is a special compilation with short cuts from the 17 part mini-series on China which has begun its airing debut on Cable 27 this week, and which will continue airing weekly for the next 4 months into February of 2009.
Here we will meet the wonderful group of people who are working as guides throughout the various cities of China visited, and hear their opening remarks.
This segment has been posted to the Permanent Internet Archives to share with all of you the brief overview of the series, and to give everyone the opportunity to take a peek into the journey that has been covered in greater detail in the previous 17 segments.
Please visit this link to enjoy the program!
http://www.archive.org/details/Seg335ChinaCompilationTamaraLynnScott
This tour was arranged through China Spree, and you may all find information on the journey,
The Best Treasures of China, at their website, and by contacting them at info@chinaspree.com.
These programs derive all their support from you, the viewing public. I hope that you will consider contributing to these efforts through your support, should you find them to be of value.
Segment 335 in the Broadcast Cable Series: " Great Getaways of the World", Produced and Directed by Tamara Lynn Scott, features short cuts from a 14 day travel excursion through China with the touring group China Spree - China's Best Treasures, and highlights all the various tour guides and their commentary at each scenic location visited. This thirty minute Broadcast Segment is available as a DVD from the Producer, and derives its support from you, the viewing public. If you find these programs of value, please consider supporting them by making contribution through PayPal TamaraLynnScott@gmail.com
Airing Schedule
Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 335
Part 18 Compilation overview of the 17 part series on China
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Friday, February 27th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Labels: Great Getaways of the World - China
2008-10-12
Posted at 11:21 UT
by
Tamara
Segment 334
is a special compilation segment with some of the most striking visuals obtained in the previous mini-series of 16 segments filmed on China.
Upon arrival in Beijing, I could not help but notice the ringing theme of "One World" - "One Dream", lyrics to a collection of musical compositions I had created and performed as "The One World" concert Series.
In this segment, I use those musical pieces as the theme for overlaying the visuals of China .
Wo ai Zhung Guo Ren! ( I love the Chinese People!)
And pen these words reflecting my experiences there:
Hope is stronger than Fear
Love is stronger than Hate
We often live up to what is expected of us.
Put forth and remember
Your highest expectations of each other,
Your most golden dreams.
We are a spirit in making,
a soul in taking
each other,
repeat.
One World
is all
We will ever be.
SEGMENT 334
In the Broadcast Cable Series
" Great Getaways of the World
Features the original compositions,
Music, Vocals, and Visuals
of
Tamara Lynn Scott
So reminded of
the "One World" Concerts
set with some of the best visual moments
of the 16 part mini-series on
Travel in CHINA.
Everywhere,
The Olympic Spirit of Beijing,
the "One World - One Dream" theme,
reminding us all,
That there is no separation between us.
Our common souls and spirits are Always One,
Within the heart of all that is.
We walk this planet,
and live these eternities,
unfolding in each other,
our common humanity,
found in every life,
every form,
in the eternal become,
We always are
becoming more.
In the heaven of our eyes,
The spirit will rise,
the earth will blossom
into a new heaven on earth.
All that waits is our will to rise,
Our enlightened minds,
that realize
just how much a part of us all
we always arrive.
This last segment - 17 of the mini-series on China,
Celebrates that common whole
with the "One World Concert"
of
Tamara Lynn Scott
"There's a World we look for
all around us.
Find it in the Heaven of our eyes.
Happy is a place where love can find us.
Happy just to be alive.
Sunrise,
We begin again.
Sunrise!
And where our love has been
We will never die.
May our hearts find memory
of another way.
We remain,
Sweet forgiveness,
We remain
All it takes.
We remain,
All that it takes.
We remain,
All that it takes."
Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 334
Part 17 in a 17 part series on China
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Friday, February 20th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Labels: SEG 334 - " One World Concert" in CHINA
Posted at 11:18 UT
by
Tamara
SEGMENT 333
Shanghai, China -
Above the Sea
Part 16 in the 16 part series on China
Produced and Directed by Tamara Lynn Scott
Featuring Wendy, Shanghai Tour Guide for China Spree
http://GreatGetawaysOfTheWorld.blogspot.com
I will be rising early in the morning to take the morning train into Shanghai, where I will be spending the day at the American Embassy for an hour replacing a lost passport, and the remainder of the day at the Chinese consulate waiting in line for 3 hours, then told to get original paperwork from the hotel in Shanghai where I will be staying for the next two days as my temporary home in Shanghai, so will be racing by taxi back and forth to get a Visa replaced before 5 p.m.
I am fortunate to have with me, a former national tour guide who has been through this process before to assist with language, and without which I may not have succeeded in getting replaced in time the documents needed to get me safely back home in two days, when my flight is scheduled to leave China.
We have a successful day, and the Chinese Visa is being granted, but just as the office is closing, and no time to pay for the fee, my newly issued temporary passport is kept overnight, and I return in the morning at 9 a.m. to pay the visa fee and pick up my newly re-issued passport and Visa, with the remainder of the day spent filming the sights of Shanghai.
This last segment on China focuses on the spectacular vistas of endless cityscape of Shanghai, the Walk along the Bund, and the Shanghai Museum with it's great collections of Sculpture, Paintings, Ancient Costumes, and Ceramics.
Down to the wire,
with passport now locked in my room safe,
I enjoy the healing waters of the rounded swimming pool at the Skyview Landis, on my final night in China, ready to return home on the bullet train to the Beijing Pudong Airport, in the morning, documents in hand, safely delivered by our faithful national tour guide, Miss Dong Lin, who will now need a few days of vacation and quiet herself - Thankfully the week following is a national holiday for China, and she will have a few relaxing days visiting with her brother, prior to setting off with another group and another successful trip shepherded back to safe water, and return journey home.
The architecture of Shanghai is striking, but not energy efficient.
Large glass structures eat up their weight in air conditioning costs daily.
I create a series teaching the world about energy efficiency,
http://TLS.FromTheGroundUp.blogspot.com
and could help China re-think what is beautiful, by creating architecture that costs almost nothing to heat or cool.
We must, as a world, re-think our way of construction, and rethink how we are currently throwing our resources away.
If we utilize everything well, there will be enough, and none will need to think of war over diminishing energy. Energy is not diminishing, only thought, and will, and way.
Simple roofs that overhang and shade all glass, protecting it from the heat of sun, yet allowing the winter warmth of sun is a good step in this direction. Ancient Pagodas had the form more right.
Rainwater collection systems can both cool, and heat our structures, and provide all drinking and irrigation water. Be like the Buddha! Recycle everything into multiple usages.
All plantings should be useful, medicines, herbs, food. And plantings can also help cool our cities, and green our eyes, hearts, breath, and days.
All materials should be re-cycled. No foods wasted, and this includes the enormous amounts being tossed aside in our stores and restaurants.
Visit the Internet Archives and preview the award winning documentary on the California Grey Bears, to see how simple it is to feed thousands each week on what is being thrown away.
I see great might in Shanghai, and hope great vision and wisdom can help rule here, and assist in saving the world and the environment. We remain all that it takes.
Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 333
Part 16 in the 16 part series on China
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Friday, February 13th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Labels: CHINA - 16 Part Mini-Series - GREAT GETAWAYS of the WORLD
2008-10-11
Posted at 07:53 UT
by
Tamara
SEGMENT 332
Tongli, China - Part Two
Ancient water town
Part 15 in the 16 part series on China
http://GreatGetawaysOfTheWorld.blogspot.com
The ancient water village of Tongli is 1300 years old, and built up around natural canals and waterways complete with small boat taxis similar to the city of Venice. We'll be stopping along old street shopping markets, visiting an artist shop where silk is being embroidered, and visiting the wedding museum which houses the components of a traditional wedding box, seeing ancient childrens' clothing, ornaments, household goods, and a folklore museum.
An enchanting old bearded musician is captured playing his ancient music, a bemused and smiling wizard like sweet magician of pleasant music face.
Tonight I will be returning to Shanghai to re-unite with the rest of the touring group at the Skyway Landis Hotel.
You may check out this hotel on-line at
www.skywaylandis.com
Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 332
Part 15 in the 16 part series on China
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Friday, February 6th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Labels: CHINA - 16 Part Mini-Series - GREAT GETAWAYS of the WORLD
Posted at 07:47 UT
by
Tamara
SEGMENT 331
Tongli, China
Ancient Water and Garden City of China
Part 14 in the 16 part series on China
Segment 331
features the beautiful water and garden town of Tongli.
It is a small and ancient town very near Suzhou, which is the "Venice of the East", signified a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997,a 2,500 year old city famous world-wide for its traditional gardens, canals, and silk worm production mills.
We'll be filming a few of these Garden houses.
With the construction of the Great Canal, another of those huge public work projects the poorest people of China got roped into to build by imperial emperors to more easily transport the wealth of the region to Beijing, a distance of 600 miles.
This large canal project did result in increased prosperity and prestige for the area, and as merchants and artisans plied their trade, came the construction of many Classical Chinese "Garden" houses, home enclaved that sometimes housed families and extended families of 100 people surrounding a central water garden pools filled with goldfish, non-edible carp, kept strictly for their good looks and now very hungry for the tourists to buy food for them to eat. They all come swarming over when food is being dropped into the pools.
For me, it seems a waste to have a pool and not a fish to eat in it, as I would prefer lake bass, trout, and dinner stock in my self-reliant pool, but this was the household of a wealthy family who most likely had enough money to purchase fish, instead of having them nearby to catch.
The wealthy like to demonstrate their wealth
Perhaps someday, the wealthy will like to demonstrate full utilization and non-wastage of resources instead.
Located on the bank of Taihu Lake, Tongli is an ancient and scenic water town with natural canals and many quaint and beautiful stone bridges. It is like a small Venice where the locals and tourists alike boat about in wooden gondolas.
We will be visiting a traditional Chinese Garden house of Tuisi (Pondering Over After Retirement ), which has attracted many film makers as a location.
We are delighted by the performance of an ancient song by two beautiful young Chinese women, on ancient instruments, as a musical delight for the segment.
Suzhou is a city famed for it's silk production and spinning mill, and a visit is planned, but no footage is allowed shot on the inside where silk worms feed on the mulberry tree leaves, and where the cocoons are then unthreaded, and combined with other silken threads to produce a combined silk thread strong enough for weaving.
We may be featuring the famous silk factory at a later date showing the various fabrics, fashions, and other goods made from this marvelous silkworm in our sister series, the Arts of Fashion and Beauty. Stay tuned for another day.
We will be overnighting at the Nanlin Hotel in Suzhou, which can be found on-line at
www.nalin.cn
Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 331
Part 14 in the 16 part series on China
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Friday, January 30th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Labels: CHINA - 16 Part Mini-Series - GREAT GETAWAYS of the WORLD
Posted at 05:42 UT
by
Tamara
SEGMENT 329
Guilin, China
Long Sheng Rice Terraces
Part 12 in the 16 part series on China
http://GreatGetawaysOfTheWorld.blogspot.com
Segment 329 takes you to places rarely visited by the tourist buses of China, the Long Sheng Dragon Spine Rice Terraces, just prior to the rice being harvested.
The 2 hour journey through the mountains along the mountain rivers is quite beautiful, and the kind of scenery I always seek out when visiting a country. Airports always are placed in the major cities, but I am one who immediately leaves the bustle behind and seeks the quiet spectacular beauty of nature, and this trip is suited for those who appreciate the same.
Along the way we see villagers harvesting rice and laying it out to dry on their rooftops, flat patio space usable for such purposes. Locals stand in the mountain streams fishing with spears. Small horses loaded with supplies stand at construction sites, working hard for their living.
It is the short breed of horses who do best in mountainous terrain, similar to the burros used in the Americas.
We are enroute to visit one of the minority tribes in China, the Lao, whose women never cut their hair, believing they are honoring their parents and god by keeping what god has given uncut, and believeing they are more beautiful the longer their hair is.
The men have no such constraints, and keep their hair at an easy to care for length for the most part.
I am told that the modern Yao girls now choose whether or not they want to cut their hair or not, but don't see any along the walk up the mountain, where no vehicles can drive, steep steps leading upwards through the villages to a hotel and restaurant where we will be having lunch.
Unfortunately for us, we have not arrived until close to noon, when the sun is reaching it's most fierce state, and even though we are traveling here in September, Guilin is located in the southern part of China, which is almost tropical in weather pattern, hot and humid.
I am carrying a heavy broadcast camera which does not like the heat and humidity, and when my skin is sweating, so is the interior of the camera.
I am attempting to keep the camera shaded, moving from shade bush to shade bush, but both myself and the camera are rapidly heating up.
There are locals who offer a sedan chair ride up the mountain and earn a living doing so, but this is not practical for when one needs to frequently stop and film, and besides, I feel sorry for them having to carry people larger than themselves.
Some of our tour party have injured ankles and cannot walk very well, so they help to provide the local villagers with some good revenue for the day, and are sped up the hill by natives acclimated to the climate and elevation.
Many beautiful rice terraces stretch out all around us, and the homes all seem comfortable, large, and well made from bamboo, which grows fast like a weed, and is strong enough and easy to build from, and timber.
I create a series on utilizing re-cycled materials to create with, and am happy to see that here in the village of the Yao, they are also using the recycled pieces of marble that I just utilized in one of my own building demonstrations for the series " From the Ground Up", which you may visit at http://TLS-FromTheGroundUp.blogspot.com , the only other place I have seen the marble pieces used.
We can all learn about living well from groups of people who utilize everything, throw nothing away, waste none of their food, or food scraps, know how to use composting toilets, and composting materials to fertilize their fields.
On the journey up to their village I had the very unpleasant experience of stopping at a gas station restroom where human waste lays in troughs of unsightly and overwhelming reek that has everyone in line covering their noses with cloth, tissues, and shuddering from the experience. How simple it would be to utilize a natural composting toilet system instead, like these villagers use, and like the system I am encouraging Americans to remember in the " From the Ground Up" series. Simple composting systems require no water for flushing, utilize leaf, bamboo, timber shavings, garden materials to cover each usage, resulting in no smell, and no unsightly gagging wastage to look at, need not be carried about anywhere else, and in 3 months are fully usable compost. Simple structures to protect a basic hole in the ground from rain can be easily moved once the hole is filled.
We will do well on this planet to remember simple and ancient systems that work and require no expenditure of energy to utilize, but rather provide useful energy, methane, and compost in the process.
Other simple methods of gravity fed water systems, rainwater systems, rainwater cisterns, can provide all water needed, greywater providing moisture to food producing garden terraces.
I am in alignment with the simple, and self-reliant Yao peoples, and hope their simple way of life can spread itself down the mountain from whence we just came.
Our ancestors knew how to utilize well what nature provides, before the days of Power and Electric and Water companies. We would all do well to remember what we all once knew. It can help to save our environment , our budget, our world.
I have much good footage of the beautiful rice terraces by the time we reach the hotel where lunch will be served, and stop here to rest along with several others from the tour group who are suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion.
Here is a great shot from the hotel, which offers simple rooms and cooling showers!
This hike would have been best at dawns early light, and overnighting in the hotel to take advantage of this timing would be a good idea for a future tour of the area.
Outdoor showers would also be a nice touch, utilizing the flowing mountain stream which pops out along the trail in water spout areas. Certainly those tourists who try climbing in the heat of day would appreciate wearing their bathing suits and stopping to shower off, changing out of their sweat soaked clothing into fresh outfits prior to sitting down at the restaurant to lunch, and such a feature would be very easy to create, and another source of potential income for the village at 50 cents a shot. No hotel rooms are required for such.
The path up to the restaurant offers many small shops which sell handmade hats, a big seller here to protect from the heat, and other small arts, crafts, and souveneirs, but nothing sold as well as the sun hats.
For those able, another thirty minutes of walking brings one to the very crown of the mountain top where more spectacular vistas of the entire area stretch out, but for myself, greatly overheated in the intense heat, and for my camera, now flashing warning signals of condensation detected, I must take the shade and fan the camera back down to a drier and cooler state.
Here is a shot from the top of the mountain, provided by Brian Wesley Roberts
This is a stop well worth making, and tourism will bring some much needed revenues and influences into this beautiful mountain village, where if next I travel, will be in a cooler time of day, or year, having a handy hotel to overnight in midway up the mountain.
But alas, we are on a tight touring schedule with buses and airplanes to catch, and must leave this to another time and day.
Fortunately, the shade and rest and cool mountain water, has brought all the other travelors temperatures and red faces back to a walkable descent , always easier than the way up, and none have suffered fatal damage, including the Broadcast Camera, thankfully.
Guilin has come as a surprise to me, being so tropical, warm, and humid, and bathing suits and tropical clothing is certainly the norm here.
The segment is completed with a visit to the famous Elephant Rock, the symbol of the city, a walk through it's park, and several views of Buddist Pagodas on the mountain sides.
We return to our accommodations, The Guilin Park Hotel, situated on the edge of a lake and lit up like Christmas at night, making it the most beautiful setting of our hotels so far, even though not the newest. Good Wind and Water as the Chinese would say.
I am a water dragon, so I especially love water, and am delighted to find a wonderful, warm pool to swim away my troubles in this evening.
You may find more information on-line at
www.parkhil.com
Airing Schedule for
SEGMENT 329
Part 12 in the 16 part series on China
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Friday, January 16th, 2009
5:30 p.m. news primetime
and again at
2:00 a.m.
when all other programming goes off the air.
Labels: CHINA - 16 Part Mini-Series - GREAT GETAWAYS of the WORLD
