Steve Jobs and An Assortment of Things

Steve Jobs passed away yesterday and people from every country are creating tributes for his memory and are remembering a man who changed the world.

China Remembers Steve Jobs

Although many are sad about Jobs' death, life goes on as usual. China's Golden Week after it's National Day on the 1st of October is bringing in a lot of tourist money! This is the Forbidden City on Tuesday:

                                                                  Pretty crazy, huh?

The Great Wall (I'm assuming at Badaling, its busiest section overall)

Beijing West Railway Station

Just thought I'd show you those pictures. China's just got a ridiculous amount of people and it's hard to believe, even when you're there, until you are confronted with situations like these. The exhibit for the Terra Cotta Warriors is ALWAYS like this. It's insane, and I don't care to go back and repeat the experience.

Raising a Thorny Issue

I'd just encourage you to read this movie review/expose - it's not something I can explain, but it'll give you some cultural insight.


In other news, 12 baby pandas have been born so far this year at the Chengdu Reseach Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Just try to tell me that this isn't cute. Just try it. You'd be a liar.

Taichi in Guilin city, Guangxi Province, China. It has started becoming more and more popular among foreigners. The man in white is from Slovenia. Who could ask for a better place to practice Taichi than Guilin? It is known as one of the most beautiful cities in China, and this picture shows you why.

However, not everything about China is going swimmingly. Other parts of Guangxi and most of Southern China is going through a huge drought. Some people have to walk for an hour or longer to get water.

Drought in Southern China

It's so sad to me that people have to live this way all over the world - including the country I love the most: China. Many people in China live very hard lives and there's not a lot we can do about it except to go there and show them some love and help, if we can. A charity's reach can only go so far. Life doesn't always turn out like it does in Disney movies. People live in poverty. People are hungry. Thirsty. They need help. Sadly, many Chinese charities have been shown to be corrupt, but international organizations do exist to help Chinese children and others.

SOS Children's Villages - I talked to a girl on Facebook from Bangladesh who was an SOS child. Now she is pursuing her Master's Degree at a great school in Dhaka, the country's capital.

Chinese Children Adoption International
Rural China Education Program
Love Without Boundaries

There is actually an entire Wikipedia page about charities operating within China - wow!
List of Charities Operation Within the People's Republic of China

The Lost Roman Legion

This is old news to some, but I think it's pretty interesting.


Pretty much every time you see the words "The Lost......." before something historical or legendary, it always ends up being really interesting. The Lost Roman Legion, the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw, the list goes on.


"The Lost Roman Legion," as legend has dubbed them, were those few Romans left standing after their defeat (or massacre) at Carrhae under Marcus Crassus (Carrhae is in present day Turkey).

After their defeat, it is said the Parthians captured about 10,000 troops and sent them to Marginia (Afghanistan/Turkmenistan today) to guard the eastern end of the empire. The Chinese eventually captured this area and it is thought to be the first contact between the Romans and Chinese. Somehow, some of these Romans were captured and made to fight for the Xiongnu (also known as Huns, but this is controversial among some).

They fought with the Xiongnu (Huns) against the Chinese, were captured by the Chinese, and are thought to have been moved to Liqian Village, in what is now China's Gansu province.


"They supposedly fought as mercenaries in a war between the Huns and the Chinese in 36BC – Chinese chroniclers refer to the capture of a "fish-scale formation" of troops, a possible reference to the "tortoise" phalanx formation perfected by legionnaries."


There is some evidence to this claim. This link - The Telegraph - shows a Chinese man from the village with green eyes. That's not something you seen in ordinary Chinese people. Tests show that some villagers have as much as 56% Caucasian in origin....that's not something that can be faked. 

The village is in a remote part of Gansu province, and until recently, was not frequented by foreigners. Skeptics would have proved long ago through provincial records or something of the like that foreigners came into the area in more recent times. Many in the village believe themselves to be descendants of the Romans.


It's not totally implausible. There are still descendants of blue-eyed and fair-skinned Alexander the Great's army in India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I even heard something (just heard) that there is a village somewhere in rural Pakistan that still speaks an ancient dialect of Greek. Cool! I can't think of any other military campaign besides Alexander's and this story's which reached so far. Maybe there's something to it, who knows?


I don't know exactly what's going on here, but it's definitely something I'm interested in looking into further. Here's some of the stuff I looked at for this blog post - feel free to continue to search!

Arch News
Xinhua
Liqian Village Wiki
UNRV