Lingchi 凌迟

"菜市口" means "Grocery market",Today it's a place no different than most part of Beijing-dull，polluted ,delirious and ugly.
I was on a bus and stuck in a traffic jam, the queues were seemingly endless, then I overheard two old man's conversation,This place was Beijing's execution ground during Qing Dynasty,there was an ancient way of execution called "Lingchi"(凌迟).
Tiny snowflakes falls quietly,chilling wind blows from north,the whole city softens under white glow.
Later,I watched a movie- The Warlords(投名状),I learned that a bloody ending chapter was cut off before showing in public .it was about "Lingchi".
I decided to learn more from Internet.
Links to some pics from Baidu
Links to wikilib
Back to "菜市口",according to history,Soon after the execution,soldiers and guards would cover the blood with dirt,later,people sold goods upon the layers of blood and dirt,as if nothing had happened.
That night,I had a horrible dream.

Lonely Planet Political

It's not difficult for travelers to find Lonely Planet guide books in Shanghai and Beijing,as the 'backpacker's bible',one out of three foreign visitors with a copy in hand, government-run foreign language bookstore has stacks of them,some cafe and restaurant also sells them,India Japan Egypt Nepal...the latest edition available even before it's publishing date,but,if you want to buy some copies of LP China,Tibet Taiwan or Beijing,probably it will disappoint you. the reality is ,no books store display these titles,it's banned here.
You might wondered what's wrong with these guide books?Is Lonely Planet China matters to the leaking of national secrets ?or maybe some of their writers also play role as spy?To Lonely Planet readers,It is quite possible the first chapter about history is the most read section of the book.Though just a few pages and limited words,the information is crucial for travel.
Here is a paragraph from LP China
"Since 1978,demands has been heard for a 'fifth moderni-sation':democracy,the mass memorial that followed the death of reform minded Party Secretary General.......hunders were killed in the surrounding streets as the army cleared the squares late on 3/6 and in the early hours of 4/6".
Even today,this is still among the most sensitive topics in mainland China.
Tibet and Taiwan titles are destined to be banned for more reasons, Dalai Lama wrote the preface for Tibet guide,and both books referred these territory as independent nations.Just check the maps!
If 12 edition LP China's history narrative is still kind of purposely soft on,then Bradley Mayhew 's Tibet guide is at the opposite end.Paragraph from LP Tibet.
'Unknown to the Tibetans,the comunist takeover China was probably the saddest chapter of Tibetan history. The Chinese 'liberation of Tibet' was eventually lead to1.2 million Tibetans deaths,a full assault on Tibetan traditional way of life,the flight of Dalai Lama to India and the large scale destruction of almost every history structure on the plateau'.
Certainly,most travelers have their own attitude,they known well long before came to China,then,Why forbidden sales of these tiles mainly for foreigner?or even confiscations these books at the custom?
I am not an extensive traveler,but I read these titles,even though I was prepared but my mind was still some kind of shocking.Is this true?did these really happened?then,who should I believe? I can imaging how strong other people's reaction(Especially Generation X) if they have chances of reading these.them may angry over the history or just about the book.
There are so many people believe what they learned either from textbooks or from other tightly controled media.,they seldom doubt the truth of written history.If everybody says the same,then it is eventually becomes truth. They believe there's no dobut about nowadays Tibet and Taiwan's identity as there are so much of history evidence to prove .Massive propaganda really effects on every single soul,makes they thought exactly the same .also they even don't have the chances hearing different opinions .
Back to Lonely Plant, it may plays as a 'dangerous role',provides chances of changing people's view, especially when they are traveling ,seeing and experiencing.Recently,Lonely Planet also published Chinese language guide books,like LP SE Asia on a Shoestring ,Nepal,Canada to meet the need of more and more Chinese overseas travelers.but probably,we will never see Chinese edition of LP China,Tibet and Taiwan,I understand how difficult for translators to handle the sensitive words out from Lonely Planet Vietnam.also,I can imagine the differences between Chinese edition and English one. More and more companies lured by the fast growing Chinese economy,Lonely Planet is one among them,who can't resist the lucrative market,but also have to keep a close eye on the rules.like Myspace.Google did, If not,they fate may ends up like Flickr and Wikipedia.
There's a huge post with a yellow frame hanging on a newsstand near my apartment these days,it's a promotion for National Geographic Chinese edition,but the magazine's Chinese name is "华夏地理",(simply means Chinese geographic) .
The disappearing of Lonely Plant China in China is just another sign,here,everyone have to learn how to handle the 'rules' properly and keep in mind of the "boundary".