Can anyone here read Chinese?

[LynneSin]

https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=great+wall+of+china&data=!1m4!1m3!1d1111!2d116.5488814!3d40.4497634!2m1!1e3!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x35f121d7687f2ccf%3A0xd040259b950522df!3m8!1m3!1d410!2d116.5574958!3d40.4249463!3m2!1i1920!2i1070!4f35!4m2!3d40.432652!4d116.563955&fid=7

I love looking at Google Maps and I found this while exploring the Great Wall of China.

Anyone know what that says?


Try this shorter link

https://goo.gl/maps/Mjl5E

[Major Nikon]

1. PM Lotus if he doesn't see it

I clicked on your link, but didn't see any writing.

[LynneSin]

2. You didn't have google earth appear and see 5 chinese characters?

Just curious

[Locut0s]

4. Did you mean me? :P....

Or is there a Lotus? I actually don't read Chinese, just speak it. But I asked my father, it says

Loyalty to chairman Mao.

[Major Nikon]

5. My dsylexia is acting up again

[Locut0s]

10. I know what that's like...

I call it my slydexia.

[Locut0s]

3. It says...

Loyalty to chairman Mao.

Had to ask my father, I speak but don't read Chinese.

[LynneSin]

6. Are you serious!

OMG that's a trip!

I was just goofing off with Google Earth and wanted to look at the great wall of China and I came upon that as I traveled north along the Great Wall.

So I googled the phrase and found this:

http://www.greatwallforum.com/forum/mutianyu/1053-loyal-chairman-mao-characters-emerged-thick-brush.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g294212-d325811-i61569133-Great_Wall_at_Mutianyu-Beijing.html

[Locut0s]

8. Neat :P. nt.

[Major Nikon]

7. I've got one of those Mickey Mouse style watches with Chairman Mao on it

I paid $9 for it in Beijing although I probably could have gotten it cheaper on ebay.

Believe it or not it's still working a year later.

Amazing how they have Chairman Mao's picture plastered on everything there.

[Locut0s]

9. China during the cultural revolution was a hellish place to be...

Now Mao is seen with some mixed feelings. He's kind of a mythical figure that most young people of my age or younger don't really know a huge amount about. And care even less about. He's seen as this mythical father figure plastered on everything propaganda related. There's very little negative actually allowed to be published or spoken about him in China but that doesn't mean those who are more educated don't know most of the truth about how horrible his rein was. And many many people in China inherently don't trust anything to do with their government and would be suspicious about Mao from that perspective. The older generation are a different matter of course. Some of them still cling to him as some god like figure of perfection, others know full well his connection to the hardships they had to suffer.

[Major Nikon]

11. The newspapers printed in English were worse than Faux news

There was absolutely nothing critical of the government and quite a few things that were anti-west, especially America.

[Locut0s]

12. Most of the better educated in China don't get their news from the internal media...

And the ranks of the better educated is growing quickly. They know better than to even pick up any internal publication. Everyone knows there is no truth to be had in anything there. Instead many Chinese now get their news from micro blogs, through proxy internet connections, YouTube vids and the like. They are aware of how much is blocked. After all many of them, are business men and women who regularly travel overseas. The danger lies more in the very large uneducated and poor masses. They have few if any outlets to real news and have lived the propaganda lies their whole lives. The poorest don't even care as they are only concerned that next years rice harvest isn't a bust. Here lies the greatest danger to the communist party. If they don't keep the masses of the uneducated poor down, or distracted they face the pitchfork mobs. The key word here is distracted actually. With the huge economic boom China has seen they have largely been able to shift the discussion away from democracy and human rights. Things looked very bad for the communist regime back in the early 90s with tiananmen, but since then the economic boom as been so successful that people are now too busy making money and consuming to worry about not having any freedoms. And the promise of a better life, of gaining wealth, similarly distracts the poor and uneducated masses. They now yearn for a "Chinese dream", see American dream, that's purposefully dangled in front of them to distract them from the freedoms they lack. If China can continue its economic boom those freedoms will remain largely a back burner issue for most. When it stalls though, that's when things will get interesting.

[Major Nikon]

14. The takeaway I got was what it really means not to have a free press

When you visit the big Chinese cities it's really not much different than visiting any other modern city provided you are staying in a western hotel. From a westerner's perspective it gives you the impression that the basic freedoms are the same, but obviously they aren't.

[Locut0s]

15. As a travel snob I'd say if you are staying in a western hotel you are "doing it wrong"...

but that's just my perspective. Me and my family much prefer to immerse ourselves in a culture when we travel. That coupled with my mother's aversion to ever spending a penny more than is necessary meant that we usually stayed in cheaper places. Not true flop houses but usually places the locals would stay at as well as some westerners. To this day I feel a little uncomfortable staying at the predominate western hotel chains when traveling, I almost feel like I'm being disrespectful, but yeah that's just my own thing. I probably have a different perspective given I lived in China as a young kid in the 80s. Things were downright primitive back then but it was all home to me.

You are very right, they don't have freedom of the press in any form in China. Though it's amazing what a few brave writers and publishers will get away with at times. China is aware of the dangers of cracking down with way too much force so some stuff does slip through the cracks. And things like criticizing the government for corruption and environmental issues is becoming more accepted, so long as you don't go anywhere near political criticism.

[Major Nikon]

16. I went full tourist mode

Everything was fully inclusive and they bussed us from one thing to the next. Had I done it any other way I wouldn't have been able to see a fraction of what we saw. On the few occasions we were allowed time on our own even getting a cab was very dicey because none of the cab drivers spoke English and all of them ripped us off. I've traveled all over the world and traveling to western countries where you don't speak the language is one thing, but it's just not the same in the east where taking advantage of travelers is pretty much expected. We did the local thing in India and in spite of knowing people in country it was still pretty trying at times. If I go back to China I would be more inclined to go local, but I'm not sure I'd do it even then. If I did I would still hire a local to be with us most of the time.

[Locut0s]

17. Indeed it can be quit trying...

And you are very right about being taken left right and centre as a tourist. No where on the planet has Laissez-faire capitalism gained such a strong grip as in modern China of the past decade. To say it's an everyone for himself attitude there would be an understatement. Even the locals are extremely weary of being ripped off by other locals. No one trusts prices, proprietors, product quality etc.. People are always on the lookout for getting ripped off, and for good reason. And yes as a westerner you are 10x the target of a local. That being said a happy welcoming attitude and learning a few words of Chinese will go a long way to smoothing over some relations. Oh and fucking shit bucket loads of patience and the ability to let things slide. Hiring a local would be a good idea, assuming you did so through some agency you feel you could trust.

[Major Nikon]

18. The cab drivers were the best example

The scam they run is they will take you all over the place before they finally take you where you want to go so they can run up the fare. The hotel gave us a card with the address written in Chinese and even included a small map on how to get there. With my GPS I could tell they were taking us in the wrong direction. They would stop somewhere completely unrelated to where you were going and act stupid, then you'd point at the card and off you'd go again. They would take you to 3-4 places before you ever got to your destination. The hell of it was the cab fare was dirt cheap and I would have gladly given them a tip that was 3 times the price if they would have just take us directly to where we were going, but without any local language skills I had no way to communicate this to them.

This is a pretty common scam the world over. In other countries with English speaking cab drivers I always negotiate the price before leaving, but I couldn't do that in China.

[Locut0s]

19. Indeed that's a very common experience...

We had a few examples of that ourselves and we COULD speak Chinese, lol. Like you said though it's common to third world countries the world over. Yes prearranging the cost of the trip before hand is a great idea, and make it clear you won't spent a cent more. Yes China is a much more difficult country to experience with the language barrier. I know some who have done it though without any knowledge of the language, and gone the non touristy route and still had a wonderful time. Like I said the key as in so much of this kind of travel, is bucket loads of patience and the ability to let shit slide. And I mean bucket loads

[Locut0s]

13. Also of interest though is the tone the US projects outside its borders...

If you live outside the US, especially in Asia, you will find the tone the US uses to address its "allies" in these regions is much more forceful and condescending than many in the US may be aware of.