Killing English Softly

I write very few political posts on this blog, but I couldn't pass this one up.

Whatever you think of our PM, he has some awful ways with English.

Here is the Chaser's take on Ruddspeak. Priceless!



Click on this link for a particularly egregious example, and find our where the name of this post came from at the same time. (Anyone who is interested in International Policy, the Interpreter is a good place to visit.)

The Chaser piece reminded me of the following effort on Obama, but while the Obama piece is reverential, the Rudd piece is just "taking the piss". Again, whatever you think of Obama, he has a wonderful way with words.

Our China Trip

Introduction

Margaret and I flew out of Australia on 10th June, 2009 and arrived back on 7th July, 2009.

First of all some links:

General photos here

Here is the slide show:



Photos of people, mainly those in our tour group, here .

My Google Map of our trip:


View China Tour Map in a larger map

(Use the + or - buttons, at top left, to zoom in or out. Move the map by dragging or use the arrow keys at top left. Click on the Sat button at top right to see a Google Earth version. Click on the China Tour Map link to go to the map in Google Maps.)

Our China Trip - the summary

This summary was provided by our incomparable guide - Andi.

Seven Cruises

1. Three Gorges of Yangtze River


2. Sheng Nong Stream


3. Erhai Lake in Dali


4. Li River in Guilin


5. Grand Canal in Suzhou


6. West Lake in Hangzhou


7. Huang Pu River in Shanghai

One Train Trip

Beijing to Xi'an

1200 kms

Five Long Bus Trips

Wuhan to Yichang	380 kms
Kunming to Dali (and return)	320 kms each way
Shanghai to Suzhou	80 kms
Suzhou to Hangzhou	180 kms
Hangzhou to Shanghai	200 kms
Total	1480 kms

Four Internal Plane Flights

Xi'An to Wuhan	1040 kms
Chongqing to Kunming	860 kms
Kunming to Guilin	900 kms
Guilin to Shanghai	1395 kms
Total	4195

It is difficult to quantify the distance some of our travelling - bus trips around the cities and to sites outside the cities - but such travel would add up to 200 to 300 kms.

This would mean a grand total of our travelling within China between 7,000 and 7,500 kms.


Seven of the Largest, Longest or Fastest in the World

Tiananmen Square	44 hectares
Tomb of Emperor Qin	56 kms2
Forbidden City	72 hectares
Maglev Train	431 km/h
Grand Canal	1747 km
Great Wall
Three Gorges Dam

Eight Sites of World Historical and Cultural Heritage

1. Forbidden City


2. Temple of Heaven


3. Great Wall


4. Summer Palace


5. Master of Nets Garden


6. Humble Administrator's Garden


7. Stone Forest


8. Museum of Terracotta Warriors