Changsha is the capital of the Hunan province, and is probably the most modernized city in the province. We flew in to Changsha after arriving in Hong Kong. It was in Changsha I got my first taste of what China would actually be like.
Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock. The first thing I remember noticing in Changsha was the smell. Inside the airport, people were smoking. I was most certainly not used to this sort of behavior, and now really appreciate the fact that in Utah, there is no smoking allowed in public areas. Bleh. After stepping out of the airport, we were greeted by Lany and her husband, who helped us get all of our luggage onto a bus that then escorted us to Xiangtan. It was really hot and humid, and the pollution in the air was heavy. Most of China's power comes from coal power plants--which are generally quite close to the city limits.
Shortly after arriving, Lany (our Chinese liaison) offered to take us to a museum in Changsha, as well as shopping at Wal-mart. The Hunan Provincial Museum was really interesting. I took a lot of pictures of old relics dealing with the Hunan area. Below is a picture taken from the front of the museum of the China Horizons group. We're all in it, including Lany and Jacob Harlan (who started China Horizons) down on the first row.
The
main attraction at the museum was a marquess called Xin Zhui. She lived
about 2,000 years ago. And, surprisingly, when they found her tomb in the
1980s, she had moist skin and in-tact organs. Weird, huh? It's amazing the
sort of things ancient people used to be able to do. I don't think many
people today would know how to keep a body still moist for 2000 years. She
is pictured on the left. Down at the bottom of the page, you'll be able
to see a picture of what they believed she looked like in life.
Anciently, important Chinese noblemen and women were often buried with servants. The emperor would often have his servants killed so that they could serve him through the eternities. Xin Zhui's tomb had effigies of servants to keep her company in the afterlife. They're pictured on the right.
Some of the other really neat things in the museum were some silk patterns from around the time Xin Zhui was buried. Some are even older. The Hunan province was renowned for their beautiful silk embroidery and whatnot. It would've been pretty neat if we'd been able to visit the area most of the museum's 110,000 objects came from, but time was limited in Changsha.
Sorry...I just thought with the captain issue in question, I'd throw
in my name for consideration.
Pintel