Spring is one of the most popular times to visit China, and
it’s easy to understand why. The weather is warming, the leaves are budding on
the trees, and change is in the air.
In late March to April Sakura is blooming in many places in China,
including Huangdao. The splendid sakura always impress visitors with its
beauty, in variety of collors which range from white to pink.
In China, the sakura flower is associated with female beauty
and dominance, as well as feminine sexuality. It ultimately symbolizes power
and strength. The flower also symbolizes
love, which is known as maintaining a feminized emotion.
So if you come to Huangdao in spring you will be able to
enjoy the beautiful sakura blooming in the city.
Huangdao which means "yellow island" in Chinese is a
district of Qingdao, Shandong, China, located southwest and west of the main
urban area of the city on the western shore of Jiaozhou Bay.
Recently, many of the buildings in
Huangdao are illuminated at night, giving a spectacular light show around the
bay of Tang Dao Wan. The large-scale connected LED lighting decorates the
buidings and LED-based animations are displayed on the buildings.
At night, the lights from the buildings
are reflected onto the bay and form dramatic images that captivate people
watching it. The connected LED lighting creates dynamic light effects and
images displayed on the buildings including blossoming flowers.
The beautiful lighting is also highly
energy efficient and illustrates LED leadership in connected lighting. It is
said that the LED lighting system can save up to 75% electricity as well as
reduce operational and maintenance costs.
So if you are in Huangdao, see the
buildings illumniation at night and enjoy the LED animations displayed on the
buildings.
Huangdao which means "yellow island" in Chinese is a
district of Qingdao, Shandong, China, located southwest and west of the main
urban area of the city on the western shore of Jiaozhou Bay.
Huangdao which means "yellow island" in Chinese is a
district of Qingdao, Shandong, China, located southwest and west of the main
urban area of the city on the western shore of Jiaozhou Bay.
The Tang Dao Wan Bay
Park located in Huangdao is a beautiful park around the the bay of Tang Dao
Wan, which serves as a place for family recreation, picnic, cycling and
gathering.
Huangdao's early summer
is quite an enjoyable season, although it can be humid near the sea shore. Late
summer can become hot, while other places of Northern China start to feel
cooler. The climate in late fall and winter can be harsh but snow patches can
generally last no longer than a few days. It is a fun place to bring the family
for a bike ride along the Bay.
In summer, the park is
especially beautiful with colorful flowers grown in well arranged landscape.
This coastal park perfectly blends nature, culture, and entertainment. It is
famous for its beautiful natural scenery and leisurely walkways.
You can rent bikes in
thisscenic area. The coastline involved
in the scenic area is very long, about 7 km. This place is a good place to ride
a bike ride along the scenic Bay .
Flowers have a privileged position in
Chinese culture. Chinese believe that flowers convey positive messages and play
a significant role in the day to day life. In this park during summer you can find
various flowers, roses in red , pink, white and yellow, lavenders,
chrysanthemum, lotus etc. A beautiful scenery at one time.
That
Friday morning I rushed to Le Consulat Café to meet Victor for a chat. I was so excited to meet him as I have many
questions to ask about his famous novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. When I
arrived he was already there sipping a warm une noisette coffee.
I
said:
“Bonjour
Monsieur, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule. I have abundant
questions to ask, hopefully we can discuss them all and finish the discussion
on time.”
Victor:
“Tell
me, mon amie… “
I
said:
“Monsieur,
the original title of your famous novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” is
actually “The Notre-Dame of Paris”. With this original title do you wish to
emphasise the historical Notre-Dame or rather the human drama staged in the
Notre-Dame?”
Victor:
“As
told in Book 3 Chapter 1 the Notre-Dame had been growing old due to the numberless
degradations and mutilations which time and men both caused. Time had had
notched its surface here and there, and gnawed it everywhere; political and
religious revolution had torn its rich garment, carving and sculpture, burst
its rose windows, broken its necklace of arabesques and tiny figures, torn out
its statues.
Then
the restoration efforts made it even more grotesque and foolish.The restoration had adjusted, in the name of
"good taste," upon the wounds of gothic architecture, their miserable
gewgaws of a day, their ribbons of marble, their pompons of metal, a veritable
leprosy of egg-shaped ornaments, volutes, whorls, draperies, garlands, fringes,
stone flames, bronze clouds, pudgy cupids, chubby- cheeked cherubim.
But
the Notre-Dame is also the home of Quasimodo, the ugly Hunchback-man with a
heart of gold, as well as home of Claude Frollo, the solemn priest turned to
evil, who adopted Quasimodo abandoned as a child on a bed in the Notre Dame. And
Esmeralda took refuge in Notre-Dame for a while hiding from the royal soldiers.
It was also the stage where Esmeralda, Frollo and Jehan fell to their tragic
death“.
I
said:
“The
sufferings of Quasimodo, the Hunchback-man in this novel, seem to be sogross beyond human. As a child he was
abandoned because of his ugliness, his body deformed, has only one eye, his
head placed directly on his shoulders, his spinal column was crooked, his
breast bone prominent, and his legs bowed.
The
ladies who saw the child in the bed of Nortre-Dame were so horrified that one
of them asked: “What is this, sister?", and the other lady said:
“"What is to become of us, if that is the way children are made now?"
and then the other: “it must be a sin to look at this one."
Victor:
“He
then also lost his hearing being the bellringer of the Notre-Dame, the bells
had broken the drums of his ears, he had become deaf.
But
such sufferings are not comparable with the suffering of Stephen Hawking. He
was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neurone
disease, when he was 22 and was not expected to live for more than a few years.
The disease causes weakness of either
upper motor neurons or lower motor neurons or both. He could not walk, move and
bound to a wheelchair, he also could not write and speak. He started using a
menu controlled by a computer system to communicate. “
I
said:
“But
people respect and adore Stephen Hawking for his intelligence, for his his life
spent seeking to unlock the mysteries of the universe through physics. I can imagine
it was very aggravating for him to have a disease that constraint his movement in
pursuit of the “theory of everything”.
On
Quasimodo’s case it is different, people make fool of him all the time, he was even
crowned the Pope of Fools during the Festival of Fools. “
Victor:
“The
hardest part must be the feeling of being ugly in front of Esmeralda, to be
watch by the woman whom he adored and loved so much… In Book 9 Chapter 2 he
said to Esmeralda: “I frighten you. I am very ugly, am I not? Do not look at
me; only listen to me.”
I
said:
“
Yes, it is such a heart wrenching scene, to be uncomfortable on front of the
woman he loved so much that he risked
his life saving her from execution, and brought her to the sanctuary of the
Notre-Dame as an escape. “
Victor:
“More
than that, in Book 9 Chapter 4 it tells us: “Once Quasimodo came at the moment
when Esmeralda was caressing Djali, her
pet goat. He stood pensively for several minutes before this graceful group of
the goat and the gypsy; at last he said, shaking his heavy and ill-formed
head,--"My misfortune is that I still resemble a man too much. I should
like to be wholly a beast like that goat."She gazed at him in amazement.”
Hearing
that, I was speechless fo a moment… then as if to console Quasimodo of his
unfortunate fate I said:
“I
cannot forget the scene in Book 8 Chapter 6, when Quasimodo saved Esmeralda
from execution, rush to the two executioners with the swiftness of a cat which
has fallen from a roof, knock them down with two enormous fists, pick up
Esmeralda with one hand, as a child would her doll, and dash back into the
Notre-Dame with a single bound, lifting the young girl above his head and
crying in a formidable voice,--"Sanctuary!"
And
then, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" repeated the crowd; and the clapping of
ten thousand hands made Quasimodo's single eye sparkle with joy and pride.”
Victor:
“Yes
the medieval law dictated that Notre Dame was a place of refuge from the law. Esmerelda
could not be harmed by the executioners as long as she stayed inside the walls
of Notre-Dame.”
I
said:
“But
Notre-Dame is also the home and sanctuary of Claude Frollo the solemn priest
turned into evil. This man, at first was the angel that adopted Quasimodo
despite his deformed, ugly look, for the love of his blood brother little
Jehan.”
Victor:
“And
the Book 4 also tells us:” Claude's compassion increased at the sight of this
ugliness; and he made a vow in his heart to rear the child for the love of his
brother, in order that, whatever might be the future faults of the little
Jehan, he should have beside him that charity done for his sake.
When
a little lad, it was between Claude Frollo's legs that Quasimodo was accustomed
to seek refuge, when the dogs and the children barked after him. Claude Frollo aslo had taught him to talk, to read, to write.
We will say then, that out of gratitude Quasimodo loved the priest as never a
dog, never a horse, never an elephant loved his master.”
I
said:
“Then
how on earth this compansionate priest, this angel, became an evil sorcerer?”
Victor:
“
From the cloister, his reputation as a learned man had passed to the people. He
studied medicine, astrology and hermetics. His latest obsession was alchemist
as he wanted to develop gold from stone. During the Middle Ages we ought to
mention however, that the sciences of Egypt, that necromancy and magic, even
the whitest, even the most innocent, had been considered as the act of sorcery.”
I
said:
“But
this angel really turned into evil, after he fell deeply in love with
Esmeralda, or rather after he was trapped in lust to Esmeralda.”
Victor:
“In
his mind Claude Frollo believed that Esmeralda’s destiny is faith, in Book 7
Chapter 5 it tells us how Claude Frollo said in a voice which seemed to proceed
from the depths of his being, "behold here a symbol of all. She flies, she
is joyous, she is just born; she seeks the spring, the open air, liberty: oh,
yes! but let her come in contact with the fatal network, and the spider issues
from it, the hideous spider! Poor dancer! poor, predestined fly! Let things take
their course, Master Jacques, 'tis fate! Alas! Claude, thou art the spider!”
I
said:
“I
can see that in this chapter Claude Frollo spoke about how the fly reaches to
open air, the full daylight, but did not see the window glass which opensto the other world. The fly does not have the
sense to understand the trapping of the spider’s web in front of the window and
flies head-on into the spider’s web. The fly struggles with head broken and
mangled wings in the web. Such is the fate of the fly.”
Victor:
"Further
he said: “And even couldst thou have broken through that formidable web, with
thy gnat's wings, thou believest that thou couldst have reached the light?
Alas! that pane of glass which is further on, that transparent obstacle, that
wall of crystal, harder than brass, which separates all philosophies from the
truth, how wouldst thou have overcome it? Oh, vanity of science! how many wise
men come flying from afar, to dash their heads against thee! How many systems
vainly fling themselves buzzing against that eternal pane!"
I
said:
“
It is like what happened to Esmeralda, she escaped execution as Quasimodo
released and saved her, brought her to the sanctuary of the Notre-Dame. Also, when the vagabonds raided the Notre-Dame,
she was rescued by Pierre Gringoire, “her husband on paper”, but actually she trapped
and caught again by Frollo. Sister
Gudule, her real mother, tried to free La Esmerelda from Frollo's trap, but the
attempt failed as Esmeralda suddenly noticed Phoebus, the man she loved, in the
troop and she shouted his name calling to rescue her. This gave away her hiding
place and the royalsoldiers caught her.
Then her fate was sealed.”
Victor:
“Like
the way Dante describes Beatrice as the “Beauty in white robes”, that is how
beautiful Esmeralda died, in white robes. She died because of her own act of
love, although unrecruited, rather it was an infatuation with Phoebus. They
only met a few times, like Dante and Beatrice, only a few times. But Phoebus
didn’t love Esmeralda, he just wanted to sleep her. He did not hear Esmeralda calling his name for
help from her hiding place, that let to her capture and death, in white robes.”
I
said:
“You
know, Stephen Hawking whom spent his life in pursuit of the “theory of
everything”, once
said when asked what he thinks most about during the day:
"Women. They are a complete mystery."
This
is an imaginary interview in memory of Victor Hugo.
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