Scattered Notes

Tibet,Lhasa,29.657249,91.116314,13,S —
29.65716,91.11758,Potala Palace
I spent part of a brief five-day tour in Lhasa in October, 2001.

filed under: atravelmap, citymap

China,Wuhan,30.579997,114.269829,12,S —
30.59248,114.28965,The David Perry English Training Center
30.597056,114.3001,My Second Year Apartment
30.583419,114.291056,My Third Year Apartment
30.589035,114.297032,York Bar and Tea Room - (约克英式茶馆)
30.579277,114.290879,Jianghan Road - (江汉路)
30.546767,114.29715,Yellow Crane Tower - 黄鹤楼
30.547742,114.254894,Guiyuan Temple - 归元寺
30.535489,114.352618,Wuhan University - 武汉大学
Wuhan (武汉), capital of Hubei province, is not that well known outside of China, but it's the third or fourth largest city in China, and in many respects is the center of China. It was originally three separate cities—Hankou (汉口), Hanyang (汉阳), and Wuchang (武昌). It grew into one city, and is now the only Chinese city that straddles the Yangzi River (扬子江)—or the Changjiang (长江) as it is normally called in China.

Several books about China, particularly older books, may mention Hankou or Hankow (for instance, a passage in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer mentions "the dirty yellow mouth of the river, the lights going up at Hankow..."), and indeed, this has been and still is the more commercially important of the three cities. The foreign concessions were all here (including the Russian concession where the 1911 Revolution had its spark), and several of the European buildings are still standing today. Today, it is the most vibrant and beautiful part of the city, with the great pedestrian street Jianghan Lu, and the café-lined avenue and riverside park on Yanjiang Dadao. The name of this part of the city means "mouth of the Han River," and if you look on the map, you can see the thin Han River flowing from the west and emptying into the Changjiang. Hankou is the upper left of the three land-masses.

Hanyang is the lower left land-mass. I've not been able to figure out what its name refers to. According to my dictionary, yang (阳) means, among other things, "north of a river". However, this part of the city is south of the Han River. The name may have originally been applied to another part of the town that was north of the Han River, and later came to mean this area.

On the other side of the Changjiang, on the right side of the map, is Wuchang. Wuchang means "flourishing from the military", as there have been several important arsenals and military garrisons here for several centuries.

filed under: atravelmap, citymap

China,Xi'an,34.263317,108.942146,13,S — Xi'an is one of the most historical cities of China. It's one of the few places outside of Beijing where you see a lot of history around as you walk around. Notice the rectangular perimeter of the old city walls.

filed under: atravelmap, citymap

Greece,Athens,37.979928,23.729782,13,H —
37.965313,23.744861,My Apartment
37.971398,23.726606,The Parthenon (Παρθενώνας)
37.983378,23.745446,Lycabettus Hill (Λυκαβηττός)
37.975217,23.736788,Parliament Building in Constitution Square (Πλατεία Συντάγματος)
37.968192,23.741069,1896 Olympic Stadium (Παναθηναϊκό στάδιο)
I spent my last semester of college studying abroad at the Beaver College program in Athens (Αθήνα). (They have since changed their name to Arcadia University, and I'm sure you can guess why.) I ended up spending 5 months in Athens and love the city. Almost everywhere you go, you are reminded of the long history of this country—your eye might take in a modern skyscraper, a 19th century mansion, a Byzantine church, and an ancient marble column, without moving more than a few degrees. It's a bustling city, and probably the largest city in the West where the wonderful tradition of the siesta is still followed. In the late afternoons and evenings, Athenians walk in the park, or congregate at the numerous streetside cafés.

The port of Piraeus (Πειραιάς) is to the southwest.

filed under: atravelmap, citymap