If I could get such a supply of sweets in Italy, I would probably make a fortune by opening a shop dedicated to serving dignitaries. But here, the prices of sweets are very cheap. Out of curiosity, Mr. Gonzalez spent a
We bought a large bag full of candies of various colors for rials. The candies were packed in small waxed paper bags, which were very beautiful. The store gave us a straw bag to put the candies in. This bag alone was also a masterpiece.
piece of art.
The most peculiar pastime is their tobacco - as you must know, this plant from the New World is now popular all over the world. People have invented various ways of using it. But in Lingao there is another one.
A new way of pastime of tobacco. They sold tobacco into long paper rolls. The white paper was rolled into a delicate paper tube, as thick as a pen, which was evenly filled with shredded tobacco. They called it "cigarette rolls". Smoking
Most people use a hollow bamboo, wooden or cardboard tube connected to the cigarette to smoke, so as to avoid burning their lips when the cigarette is about to burn out.
Ten or twenty cigarettes are sold in paper bags or cartons of various colors and patterns. Although the appearance of each cigarette looks similar to us, depending on the color and pattern of their outer packaging,
There is also a big difference in price. The most expensive box can roughly buy ten boxes of the cheapest cigarettes. Neither Mr. Gonzalez nor I can give a reasonable explanation for this. In our opinion, apart from the packaging, the two
There seems to be no noticeable difference.
What is used here is a kind of paper money called "circulation certificate". Marco Polo once said: The Tatars use paper money in China. I have always been very skeptical about this - because there is no one in the world who loves silver more than the Chinese.
——Except for very few goods, the Chinese always expect companies to pay in silver. But in Lingao, they do use banknotes. The banknotes are beautifully printed, with intricate and detailed patterns on them, especially on the base of the pattern, which is very
Exquisite lines are used to outline extremely fine shading patterns. Even as a painter, I feel that I am not capable of such exquisite drawing. As for the method they use to print the pattern on the paper in layers,
It’s even more of a puzzle. Apparently they have very skilled copperplate engravers.
All the shops here accept banknotes. Of course, the shopkeepers are also happy to accept our riyals, but when we ask for change, we can only give banknotes. For this reason, we have to buy something in riyals every time to avoid getting it.
A pile of banknotes that are worthless outside of this place. This way of shopping allowed us to return home with a lot of money.
We lingered in every store. Every store was an eye-opener for us. I can understand why the company is impatient to send businessmen here. Lingao is also a treasure house of trade. There are many things here that we have learned from.
Novel products that have never been seen or heard of.
There are even shops here that specialize in ready-to-wear clothing - which is really amazing, how can they make clothes that fit without a tailor's tailoring? Even though Australians' clothes are very shabby by our standards. Theirs
Clothing does not use woolen cloth, silk or leather, only cheap Indian or Chinese cotton and linen. The style of the clothes is so simple that it is only a little better than the natives of Batavia. At a cocktail party to celebrate the conclusion of the trade agreement, Australians attending
Almost all the senators wore such crude and crude clothes - such a custom is really incomprehensible.
The clothing sold in the ready-made clothing store has no style at all. It is said that this is the standard clothing of Australians and their subjects. Except for some details, it is almost identical, and even there are only a few colors: black, gray, and blue.
and brown.
Regarding Australians and their subjects, this is what I have observed.
Australians have clear requirements for their subjects, which is to dress the same as them: including men shaving their hair very short and women keeping their hair short. Both men and women wear "Australian style" clothing, which is what I said earlier.
——The simple clothes worn by all Australians regardless of high or low, they call it "uniform".
Whether it is the indigenous troops recruited and trained locally by the Australians, or the workers they hired, the farmers, business people and others who worked for them, they all wore the same style of clothing regardless of each other. Certain groups of people, such as the military's clothing
Be special. Others use various decorations, markings and special equipment to distinguish them - similar to our coat of arms.
Just as we see specialized police officers on duty on the streets at night, their clothes are exactly the same as those sold in ready-made clothing stores. The bamboo hat, white leggings, small piece of cloth on the collar and the patch on the chest distinguish him from other people.
, of course he also has a short wooden stick as a weapon.
I think the only advantage of adopting this method is that it facilitates mass production. Obviously, Australians feel that they have an obligation to provide clothing for all their subjects. To provide clothing for tens of thousands of people, the styles of clothing must be simplified as much as possible to facilitate
manufacture.
As for why they provide uniform clothing for their subjects, I haven't thought about it. We initially guessed that it might be to allow Australians to distinguish their subjects from the local Chinese at a glance - after all
They all had Chinese faces. However, this was rejected after Mr. Gonzalez had no difficulty in buying a suit of the same style of clothing in a clothing store. Obviously anyone can buy such ugly and crude clothing.
.And among the people we saw in Dongmen City, many still wore traditional Chinese clothes and wore their hair in buns.
Apart from the reasons we cannot understand, the obvious reason should be that Australians like to be uniform. This can be seen from the attire they require for citizens, and not only that. The various buildings we saw in Dongmen City also revealed
A sense of neatness. Although from the outside, these buildings that are closely together are scattered and of different heights. But from the perspective of details, all the buildings are built following almost the same pattern. In my opinion, the east gate
All the buildings in the city are built in different forms with the same structure and size.
Australia's largest building uses exactly the same building materials. Burnt bricks are their most commonly used building materials. The main material of all buildings is burnt bricks. Most of them are red, and some are cyan. The texture is solid and delicate, obviously
It is the result of high-temperature baking. I carefully observed several buildings facing the street. They roughly use three different sizes of bricks. The parts used for each type of bricks are different, but in each building they follow the
The windows, doors, steps and railings they use in their buildings can, according to my observation, be reduced to several identical types. Apparently, these architectural accessories are constructed according to several fixed dimensions and geometries.
The graphics are mass-produced in a workshop rather than on-site by a craftsman. Using this method should speed up the construction of houses. It should be that using this method Australians were able to build here in just a few years
Build a prosperous city.
Unlike the Chinese or European buildings I have seen, the houses in Dongmen City have almost no decoration at all. Whether it is the roof, eaves or walls, you can't see any traces of sculptures, statues or murals. The walls are covered with
They are simply painted white or black, or the brick walls are directly exposed. I saw in Batavia and along the coast of China that the Chinese love to carve various detailed bas-reliefs or apply various paintings on the beams and columns of houses, but in
The wooden structure here is only painted with the simplest layer of paint.
There is a strange sense of uniformity here. After discovering the characteristics of the buildings, I suddenly discovered that many things in Dongmen City are the same: street lamps, garbage baskets, street signs... Even the people walking on the street are the same.
Very similar. It's a feeling I can't describe.
Our walk was very pleasant, no one bothered us on the street, and the shopkeepers were very friendly. We found a holy church in Dongmen City - which really surprised us. You know, in Batavia,
The fanatical Puritans did not allow us to pray and forced us to hold their prayers. Now, in Lingao, under the rule of the Australians, there is a church of the Holy Church.
This church is both simple and elegant in appearance. More importantly, it is relatively "non-standard". Its appearance reminds me of the kind of small church in the small town in my hometown. The door of the church is open
, there were bright lights in the doors and windows - this was a sacred light that made us feel warm. We walked in immediately.
…
Wu Shimang yawned profusely, but he had to pretend to be serious because he was supervising John Dermot, a novice monk from Ireland, painting murals on the walls. The Dongmen City Church was recently renovated - stolen
Taoist priest Quanzi recently renovated an old temple that had long been abandoned in Lingao County, held a consecration ceremony, and became the official stronghold of the new Taoism. He felt competition, so he paid close attention to the construction of hardware and software. Dongmen City Church
It was built not long ago, and of course it was impossible to demolish and rebuild it, but Dean Wu felt that the interior of the church was still too simple and lacked appeal. The arrival of Jin Lige and others gave him free decoration workers to paint murals, install stained glass and use
Decorating the interior with ceramic tiles was put on the agenda. Soon after Jinlige's masters and apprentices arrived in Lingao, they devoted themselves to the painting of murals and the interior decoration of the entire monastery.
The two priests were busy from morning to night painting murals, sculpting plaster statues, and even reluctantly participated in the creation of stained glass windows. Of course, this was not only for religious services, but the cultural and architectural departments also needed new art forms to provide services.