19 Comments
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Khushboo's avatar

Alexandria of the East, an interesting take. This was a fun trip! So much to take in, so much to see...really enjoyed the flowers. :)

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Looking over the trip, I wonder if there were too many temples. 😄 I'm also happy we could end with a field of flowers.

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Henry Dotta's avatar

its amazing how despite the sheer amount of destruction and suffering China has been through, there is still so much historical remnants preserved and left to be seen.

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Good point, perhaps enough emphasis is put on what was lost, now time to appreciate what is being retained.

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William John Dotta's avatar

why don't you write about 天津, you will have a lot of things you can talk about. ⌓‿⌓

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Henry Dotta's avatar

no

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William John Dotta's avatar

bro that is just mean

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Paul Dotta's avatar

It IS. 🙏

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Not giving you any options. Bro.

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Thank you! 🙏 Tianjin is coming up next!

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Debbie Liu's avatar

Paul, have you read "City of Light"? It came out a decade or so ( or two?/) ago, purporting to be a translation from a lost manuscipt in medieval italian. It's about a city called Zaitun (where this traveller goes pre Marco Polo), and was interesting enough when i read it, but has since been accused, probably correctly, of being fake. Zaitun is believed to be modern day - yes wait for it - Quanzhou!

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Debbie, I have not read but will look for it. Quanzhou was called Zayton, Zaiton, during that period and I’ve been told is still referred to as that in Pakistan? (the person who told me was writing from there) 🙂🙏

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Amour's avatar

Alexandria of the east, really puts into perspective how special Quanzhou is.

Enjoyed all the photos & spring flowers✨🌷

Glad this was another fun trip!

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Paul Dotta's avatar

It is a great and honorable name from travelers who were qualified to know. ☺️🙏

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Nico Ranng's avatar

It’s striking how much overseas Chinese investment shaped Jinjiang. The architecture reminds me of the wonderful colonial buildings of Shamian Island in Guangzhou.

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Absolutely! French and UK concessions on Shamian. Quanzhou got the Euro influence via Malaysia, Philippines, etc. 👍🏼🙏

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Janaka Stagnaro's avatar

You mentioned the Opium War, something that is little known here, where the West forced opium onto the population. Is it well-known in China? It seems like karmic payback with the fentanyl crisis here and the Chinese connection

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Paul Dotta's avatar

Hmm, it does comes up, but in my experience only in official type historical presentations such as this one. And of course the history is always partial in emphasis. I have done direct reading on the Opium War; a much more complicated series of events than surely you and I (forgive the assumption) can really know.

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Janaka Stagnaro's avatar

I'm sure. It was certainly a strange situation with the European and US interests, probably all competing.

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