R U a Great Wall Certified climber...?

No doubt that the Great Wall of China is listed as one of the wonders of the world. But it is also one of the most adventurous places at the same time. It is made to be tough, to climb otherwise it wouldn’t have served the purpose it was built for.

So, if you are sure that you are ready to take the challenge then you have two choices. If you are a "GORA" type tourist then you may opt for a real hard core trekking track alongside the wall and climb till the mountain top. Or if you are a "DESI" type tourist like me...then you may opt for a well paved path made with bricks.

If you choose to be a "DESI" type tourist then no need to be embarrassed or have some complex because you will find many actual GORA guys following you as well. It is not only the challenge because hard to climb till top but for a person like me who is in his late twenties can find some people in their late fifties taking the lead, let me tell you it is not like a single lane wall rather wide enough like a narrow street, for multiple people to climb and descend at the same time.

There are many Beacon Houses built along the wall that were used as the surveillance towers to watch for the enemy. But now a day they serve as a mid-way break point. There are also few Cafes to have a sip of a coffee, tea or some refreshment. You can buy some souvenirs as well. The most important is the CERTIFICATE that you have climbed the Great Wall of China with your name and date engraved on a metal medal or shield packed in a beautiful red box. You wouldn't be successful to bargain a penny and had to pay the asking price. If you did I would pay you the full price. Although descending is more difficult than climbing but you only get the certificate for the later. Any way I managed to get mine and how about you...R U a Great Wall Certified climber...?

...The Privilege Lost...!!!

.... since ages people used to tie a black thread across their wrist to form a wrist band as a protection from evil,s eye.It is still a practice in some rural areas.The method varies at various places and among different ethnic groups, one of  them is to be tied by a child who,s all four grand parents are alive, can only fasten.The child has to say "May the black thread band break...and May my all grand parents stay alive"..while tie the knot.

Since birth I was fortunate to have my all four grand parents to pamper me and had a reason to be privileged to tie the black thread (Ghanha). Once I visit my village to see my grand parents, some ladies from neighborhood visit our house and ask to tie the black thread for them.I used to do it for them a few times.

Although I never exercised this privilege since many years but I had LOST it when my Grand Father (my mom,s father) was no longer among us...last year...!!!

For many, it may sound baseless...useless... against their faith...but for me...a privilege that was priceless, it reminds me of the person who is very dear to me...the loss which is irrecoverable...non compensable... May his soul rest in peace and May ALLAH (S.W.T) forgive all his sins and grant him a place in heaven...Ameen...!!!

An Obligation...!

Today evening I went to a supermarket ...on the shelf I saw a daily with a headline on the from page. It says that the parents could face lawsuit if children not attending the school.I captured the below picture and could not resist to share with you.

The COLOURS DAY....!

UET Lahore...University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan...a DREAM for many and a place to accomplish the DREAMS for few chosen ones...Lol... luckily I happened to be among those few chosen ones.

I never thought that the last day at UET would be as exciting as the first day...the story goes like this...soonest we started studying pure engineering subjects...the side effects of Electronics Devices, Calculus-I & II,Engineering Drawing, Workshop Practice, Java...etc. was started appearing on our faces...and was giving a typical ENGINEER,s look. These side effects was more evident on the faces of FINAL YEARS students...by their typical ENGINEER,s look...even a lay man can figure them out in a crowded place like LIBERTY or ANARKALI...Ohh... he looks like an ENGINEER from UET.

But it hardly completed a year, one day we come out of the ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING department and entered into LALAZAAR...witnessed the strange happenings there...these FINAL YEAR seniors was behaving in a quite different manner, contrary to the outlook they have been portraying for the last four years....YES...they were celebrating something...the thing which changed their seriousness into celebration...that was the last day of their studies at UET..No more lectures to attend...no more Labs to attend...Khalas..!!!...they were enjoying by throwing colours on each other... totally free from the worries of final exams ahead.

The DAY repeated every year...and we witnessed as observers for two more years...the next year...the day was OURS...it was the turn of 02 session to celebrate their COLOURS DAY...! A day to celebrate our accomplishment...a day to cherish the time spent together...we had our share of fun and joy...!!!

No doubt the tough challenges of practical life was waiting for us but sheer joy of this day was evident from every ones faces as pictured below.

My visit to Guangzhou,China

Our next planned visit was to Guangzhou city,capital of Guangdong province of PRC.Since it was about 110 Kilometers away from our place of stay; Shenzhen, so we plan it on weekend. We started our journey from Shenzhen to Guangzhou on Saturday by car. Although there is an intercity train service connecting Guangzhou with Shenzhen and option to travel by air but we opted to go by road. It took about two hours to reach there.

Our tour guide was waiting for us outside the Guangdong Folk Art Museum. It is a historic building built as Chen Clan Academy for the preparation of Imperial examination in 1891 in Qing Dynasty and now converted into a museum. It also served a temple to worship their ancestors. The complex is an example of ancient Chinese architecture and contains a large number of Southern China art piece like wood carvings and pottery, embedded in the building structure. There were few shopping stalls inside the complex selling art work pieces. We bought few items from there, especially made from famous Chinese Jade stone and captured few photos. 

Once we finished our tour of the museum, everyone was feeling hungry and our tour guide took us to the "1001 Arabian nights restaurant", a Lebanese restaurant. We had our fill there, food was good. Since we were on one day trip so was on the mercy of our tour guide. He suggested that there is a big exhibition going on and he can take us there if we are interested. We looked at faces of each other and collectively uttered "OK". so we headed towards our next target...it was a famous a CANTON FAIR repeats in April and October of every year, I forget to mention earlier that we were lucky enough to visit in October. It is also known as China Import and Export Fair. It was hosted in 3 phases and spans over three big multistory convention centers. It was the biggest industrial exhibition I ever seem. You can meet the manufacturer or supplier of any item in the world with "Made in China" written on it.It was full of the businessmen from all parts of the world, busy in selecting the items of their interest and making deals with manufacturer.

After finishing some window shopping at the exhibition we planned to do some real shopping like clothes, shoes and some gifts etc. Let me tell you first, If you think that any item written Made in China would be the cheapest in China than you might be thinking wrong...It is a dilemma...which could be a myth or fact depending upon the item you are buying from China. The reason is if any item that is made from the raw material produced in China would the cheapest. If any item produced from the imported raw material, it would face extra sales taxes and duties if sold within China and no taxes or duties if exported back abroad...so that particular items would be expensive in China and cheapest in the rest of the world. Anyway, had to complete our shopping irrespective of cheaper or expensive

Although there were more places to visit and the most exciting event to be held there was Asian games 2010 (in November), which we couldn’t make out. Another thing, a high speed bullet train service between Guangzhou to Beijing has been started recently. You can keep in consideration if you plan to travel between these two cities. Now it was time to take dinner and we did not take risk to try any other restaurant.So we had a buffet dinner, again at 1001 Arabian nights. It was a bit expensive as compared to other restaurants there...199/- RMB per head but was worth it. Then we started our journey back to Shenzhen and thanks God we reached back safely. Although it was only one day visit but we enjoyed our trip a lot and thanks to the welcoming and friendly nature of the Chinese people.