Three Layers of Security to See This WARSHIP in China
That ladies and gentlemen is the Zhongshan gunboat, or warship as they're calling it here Sun Yat-Set folks, also known as the father of modern China. Interesting guy in that he is celebrated both here in the mainland and also over in Taiwan with the Nationalists are so yeah Interesting guy. This whole park we're standing in is named after him it's called Zhongshan Park, here in Wuhan Chinese call him Sun Zhongshan so "Zhongshan" rather than Sun Yat-Sen as he's more commonly known in the West Who was this guy if you haven't heard of him, he was essentially a big time believer that the Qing Dynasty which was the reigning Dynasty at the end of the Chinese Imperial period needed to go. Power to the people, democracy and republicanism and all that good stuff none of this, monarchy Throughout China and other parts of the world actually there's multiple places named after him I know here in Wuhan aside from this park which is named Zhongshan Park, there's also a, one of the main streets is called Zhongshan Avenue and believe it or not after his death in 1925 I believe, he even had a boat named after him and that boat it's a gun boat, a military vessel saw action in the second world war and it's on display here in Wuhan in a museum. So let's head from Zhongshan Park to the Zhongshan Gunboat Museum. Let's go Now this museum we're heading to which has got the old gun boat on display is kind of miles out of town so before we jump on the subway we'll grab ourselves a cool drink, then we head off Right we've got our drink let's head on to the subway. Just by the by, actually
to work in that building back there many years ago. Alright, subway transfer, bus that's the plan Alright we're here on Line Two jump onto Line Five all the way to the end and then onto the bus We just missed it. Next one comes in a minute and a half, line two is busy Well that was my first time taking line number five and half of it was above ground that's cool much nicer view than just I don't know underground tunnels so this area looks pretty nice, again looks to be kind of on the outskirts of town we need to get our bearings and find where the bus stop is here but the bus doesn't leave for half an hour and that'll get us to 12:00 12:00 before we even get on the bus and then the bus is almost an hour. Okay I might want to find something to eat before we get
there oh man are we going to go to KFC? are we really going to get KFC? okay no there might be other food we're not going to get KFC there's a bunch of restaurants here I don't trust myself to not get soup all over my clothes so, black jacket on, we got 20 odd minutes so, wolf this down head to the bus stop everyone uses those QR codes on the table to order but I'm being an old man I just ordered at the counter Right... God hot bowl of noodles on a hot day wearing a hot jacket so I didn't get bloody broth all over my clothes was not ideal but let's see if we can find this bus I think it should be just over there Yeah first stop we're going all the way here it's going to be a long bus ride That guy is asking me for directions, I couldn't understand that much of what he was saying but I know he said he's looked that way but the phone says it's that that way and I can see a bus. We've been here 15 minutes so yeah I hope that guy finds his way if he's asking me for directions he must be pretty desperate One of the streets we just passed was called like Chevrolet Ave, so guessing that bill Chevies out here Chevies, baking in the sun Holy moly that's the longest bus ride I think I've ever taken in Wuhan jeez that was an hour but here we are. There's the old Yangtze River they've even got a bridge across it out this way, right thank goodness I brought my passport because I'm pretty sure that's going to be required for entry for this place but yeah let's see if we can get in, The place has only open till 5:00 entries close at 4:00 and it's now 13:10 so we still got plenty of time but jeez that was a long trek Zhongshan Warship Natural Monument, I've been calling it a gunboat, warship.. right here we go
she says I have to go over here cos I'm a foreigner, maybe I don't need to use this Right can't use the app, which is kind of normal because everything in China tends to be linked to your ID card, and uh because I don't have an ID card they had to manually put me in with my passport so yeah Right, there might be some kind of security check up ahead as well? There's certainly a big park around the place What I wanna see, is in there okay two layers two layers of uh entrance... this is pretty uh secure stuff Inside here is going to be a boat, a warship ordered by the Qing Dynasty back at the end of their reign in about 1910 but then when their dynasty came to an end, they ordered it from Japan they bought the boat from Japan, uh Japanese ship makers made it for them just like as a kind of uh Coastal Patrol vessel. Gunboats are especially important with all the rivers in China so smaller than kind of ones that you would expect to be kind of out at sea but mostly along the coast and um yeah, it was handed over in 1913 upon completion but by that point the Qing Dynasty had ended so it was handed over to kind of the Republic of China but China at that point was still a real mess Warlords with the different factions and whatnot China was very kind of far from a uniform unified State at that point so yeah the ship had a bit of a uh interesting start to life and an interesting end but we'll get to that The reason we came was to see...
that bad boy. That ladies and gentlemen is the Zhongshan Gunboat or warship as they're calling it here. Now here's our guy is the guy the ship was named after Old Sun Yat-Sen, now they named they renamed the ship after his death because kind of to honor him as the father of modern China but also because he at one point was on this ship I mentioned that China was kind of a divided place at that time one of the Warlords essentially tried to put a hit out on our man Sun Yat-Sen at his residence in Guangzhou, which you might know as Canton but he escaped he escaped on this boat and then went onto a British boat where they took him to Hong Kong the scene behind us commemorates the moment that Sun Yat-Sen had to flee for his life after his residence was under attack and he had to get on the boat, to get out of dodge Sun Yat-Sen himself he spent a lot of time in Japan which is interesting because as he was a revolutionary trying to bring down the Qing Dynasty he was always on the run every time there was a failed kind of Uprising he had to head back to Japan where it was safe and he was a big proponent of pan asianism that the Asian Powers who kind of been dominated by the European powers at that time should work together to stop this European dominance so it's kind of ironic that a ship bearing his name ended up being sunk by Imperial Japan The Battle for Wuhan itself, the city proper, only lasted about 3 days but the preceding campaign in the surrounding provinces and surrounding areas much like this one where we are now like quite far removed from the city took a lot longer that's when the ship was sunk. On kind of Shore bombardment
and defense duties as the Japanese both sailed their ships out the river and brought their land forces along too. Air power was certainly a big difference as much as those Soviet pilots and the Chinese Pilots with their obsolete aircraft tried, they didn't have control of the skies There's more damage there there was a note next to the ship down there which said there were six, six holes found in the ship so it was probably sunk from from multiple explosions In 1986 planning began to salvage this thing from the depths of the Yangtze and they finally brought it out in 1997 and restored it to the condition you can see it's in now I guess the museum is partly having the desired effect because I can hear some of the kids asking their parents about what happened and how you need to be kind of strong to protect yourself because this was bombed by the Japanese, again the Chinese haven't forgotten any of that, here's a reminder The other day we walked down that road going past all the concession buildings again that stuff hasn't been forgotten Interestingly they've gone for kind of full authenticity, the ship is flying the flag of of the Republic of China, which is the one that would have been flying at the time they haven't switched it to a PRC flag so authentic Most of the places I've gone on this trip I don't feel like would have been that interesting for the kids but I reckon my son would love this I'll bring him next time but I might have to find a friend who's got a car cos that was a long drive Since 1913 Zhongshan Warship witnessed many historical events including when the counterrevolutionary Guomindang (Nationalists) plotted to usurp against the forefathers of the Chinese Communist Party, Battle of Wuhan, against Japan etc Sounds like the Nationalists use this boat against the Communists which they also haven't forgotten if I'm not mistaken that's celebrating China getting the nuclear bomb My Chinese ain't that great but I think that's what it is "Yuan Zi Dan" should be nuclear bomb Right um that's pretty much all I came to see, we'll do a quick walk around see if there's anything else interesting apart from the big boat, there jet looks like a MIG what is it a MIG 21 somebody help me out here... nope not a MIG Chinese Plane surely it's a variant of some kind of MiG I don't mean to give Chinese aircraft designers any grief but surely that's Mig Generation stuff like 60s 50s 60s migs Right, light tank some artillery, some kind of radar truck and some basketball courts and some exercise equipment I love how that lady was looking at the plane and she's like "oh look at all the dandelions" Girls huh? Kiddies playground I really should have brought my kids today shouldn't I? there's something over there which is kind of piquing my interest, it looks pretty far there's a monument that says 1945 that'll be when Japan surrendered The rejoicing of the people. Victory 1945 they're dating it back to 1931. When They seized Manchuria I think that was
I'm thinking 1937 when the kind of endless war stopped, because between 31 and 37 there was a break but Japan certainly occupied parts of of China like the the mainland since long before 1937 when they set up their puppet state in, in Manchuria On September 18th 1945 a surrender ceremony of the Japanese Army in central China was held in Zhongshan Park Hankou, Zhongshan Park, that's our guy again Sun Weiru, commander of the sixth war zone of China accepted the surrender of the Senior General, Naozaburo Okabe Commander of the Sixth Front Army, of the Japanese Army. Okay so there I guess there were a lot of surrender... is it a ceremony? Because there's the main one which all the big wigs attended but then I guess all around the country there would have been smaller ones it's a nice view Looking at how high that thing, is if you can in fact get to, it I'm assuming there are some stairs in my future under this beating sun I'm not that enthusiastic but I'm curious Battle of Wuhan was at a time of the Second Guomindang / Communist Corporation, Chinese Communist party propagandized and called upon all walks of life to raise anti-Japanese campaigns all over Wuhan anti-Japanese torch parades contributions of capital performances newspapers and periodicals for anti-Japanese war displayed on grand scenes of anti-Japanese and the participation of all the people That's right, come together despite your own differences to fight your mutual enemy the Japanese That's it's always so easy when you've got a common external enemy to look at right everything within your own borders seems much more trivial when you've got someone else to to worry about The guys didn't exactly sell it to me. I asked them what's up here and they said nothing much but get some exercise into ya alright, let's go Okay even if that's crap, that's a nice view okay here's the memorial the guy talked about Battle for Wuhan lasted 5 months, it did start with an air attack.... yeah history of the
the boat nothing really we didn't even know although it does talk about how the battle for Wuhan was kind of longer than the 3 days, 3 days was the city itself Well, there you go folks... a bunch of white rods... I don't actually know what that signifies but cool, cool for white rods the view, more impressive yeah that guy didn't seem too sure about what these are about either... but yeah Well folks that's it the end of the road from the Zhongshan Warship Museum oh I'm not sure if I'm allowed out this way might be walking the wrong way How's your English? um not bad not bad oh good good good I should speak to you in English uh how to say uh uh what should I say? Do you have English class now? Yeah. At University? Yeah Is it important? Does every student at your school have to study English? Yeah Even in university...
uh even even in uh High School yes or middle school yes English English English yeah oh we need we need... we need learn a lot a lot of classes in China. Yes I know it's difficult uh how to say every uh term or maybe semester uh more than 8 classes. Really? Yeah. Computer Science. English. English uh politics, yeah. uh maths yeah okay. P.E. P.E? Ok uh that's five history no uh no no history no history okay uh what else uh Chinese no no no no how you physical? physics physics yeah uh I uh too many too many uh oh wow too many Well folks that was the gunboat museum we're now back off the bus getting ready to get on the subway but I've de decided to stretch my legs a little bit went to buy a coffee and then I'll head home. Happily just bumped into a couple of University students who were also out to see the gun museum for the day so they've gone off to buy some food downtown but I'm going to head home they've offered to give me a tour of their University at some point which is kind of also out in the middle of nowhere so maybe we'll take them up on that offer before we head back to New Zealand but um yeah if you're ever in Wuhan the Zhongshan Gunboat Museum especially if you have access to a car I would highly recommend it and don't be like me take your children there seems to be plenty there for the kids to do who wouldn't like to see a big old gunboat and go on some little rides we are heading directly.... into... a tunnel....
I hope she's not going to rob me
2023-10-20 10:29
