China: Portrait of a People

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Her people number over 1.3 billion ...one of every five humans lives here. Fifty-six distinct ethnic groups are spread patchwork-like across the thirty-three provinces of the fourth-largest country in the world. From subtropical jungles to seemingly endless deserts, from Mount Everest to the border of frozen Russian Siberia, the people of China are as diverse as its landscapes and climates.

After two years of living in China, on the Yellow River Delta and in the capital of Beijing, photojournalist Tom Carter felt he was missing "a connection with its people." So he challenged himself to journey through all the provinces of China and "find out all (he) could about the Chinese themselves."

Photo credit: Blacksmith Books @ blacksmithbooks.com

"Tramping" across China by any means of transportation available, including walking, Carter claims to have "(visited) more than one third of China's cities and villages." That seems a bit exaggerated ...but perhaps there are far fewer villages and small cities than I realize.



Read the rest of my thoughts about China: Portrait of a People
at Epinions dot com.



...tom...
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Christmas fever redux...

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For some reason I just seem to have had a rekindling of my Christmas spirit...

Surely it could not have been finding this pic that perked up my mistletoe..?!?

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...please scroll down . . .hey, it is a cheap ploy to build some suspense...

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Picture is from the website of the Bakken Amusement Park in Klampenborg, Denmark.

Apparently each July, for forty-some years now, they have a gathering of Fathers Christmas & Christmas Elves ...to celebrate the off-season I guess. See this webpage for more information in English. Or the Danish website here, with a direct link to the Christmas pages found here.


Almost enough to make me believe in the big guy again...



...tom...
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Gaylord Texan Hotel/Resort

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When I volunteered at my workplace to travel out of state for special training I had no idea of the sweet perquisites that would come with it.

Traveling to the Dallas area and staying at the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas was the best part of the experience. If only that annoying 'workplace training' nonsense had not kept getting in the way of really enjoying myself..!!

The Gaylord Texan is one of four colossal U.S. resort facilities operated by the Gaylord Hotel corporation. At their website, the company's founding and ongoing business philosophy is said to be recognized as the "only multi-property hospitality company guided by a single focus: extraordinary meetings and conventions."

View of hotel atrium, from a ninth-floor room. Image source: tripadvisor dot com

With 1500-plus rooms it might seem it would be easy to feel that you would be lost as an individual guest. But I never felt that way. Every question or need I had was met with prompt and helpful answers or solutions. I am sure part of that was simply the fact I was but one guest sponsored by a much larger local corporation that provides hundreds of guests per year at six nights each. It surely represents a business niche worth protecting.

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...Read the rest of the review at my Epinions dot com review page.


...tom...
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