The Song Imperial kilns were in two main locations: at the former capital city of Bianjing (present day Kaifeng city) during the Northern Song Dynasty, and later at the city of Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty after the regime moved southward. The Northern Song Imperial kilns produced celadon, but with various shades and lustre in the glaze. The glaze colours included light greenish-blue, moon white, glossy grey and yellow-green. Though the colours were different, they all contained the common element of green or blue-green, and their beauty was heightened by the different coloured bodies. The bodies can be blackish grey, dark grey, light grey or earth yellow, and when coated in glaze, produced different greens and blues. Since the body colours were quite deep, it conveyed a sense of sophistication.

The bodies most often used for Imperial wares contained rather high concentrations of iron, producing an effect known as “purple mouth and iron feet.” At the mouth of the vessel, the glaze was thin, revealing the ground underneath and thus the purplish colour; the feet had no glaze at all, showing the iron-rich body, which turned black after being fired. Imperial porcelain also borrowed from the Ru kiln technique of decorating the porcelain with crackles, which gave the vessel extra vitality in glaze colour as well as sophistication and an antique quality. This kind of beauty occurred naturally through the glazing process, and was in accord with Song Dynasty ideologies.

Historical records describe the Imperial kilns of the Southern Song Dynasty being located at the foot of Mount Phoenix. Tons of shards from porcelain wares and kiln equipment were found at the location described, but the kilns were unknown until September 1996, when the Tiger Cave kiln was discovered by chance, at a site close to the ruins of the Southern Song Imperial city near Mount Phoenix. Among the large amounts of porcelain fragments, inscriptions in brown pigment that read “Xiuneisi” or “Imperial Kiln” were found underneath glazed porcelain fragments that formed the base parts of vessels. In an excavation by the Hangzhou Cultural Relic and Archaeology Institute that followed, more Imperial ware fragments and kiln tools were uncovered. A second Imperial kiln was built during the Southern Song Dynasty, named Jiaotan Imperial kiln. Its ruins remain today in the southern suburbs of Hangzhou City.

Imperial Guan porcelain of the Southern Song excelled in glaze colour, the crackling effect of the glaze and form of the vessels. The style was of modest simplicity, yet elegant. The glazing effect made it feel moist and smooth as jade. Minimal decorations were used. Aside from the common plant and animal motifs, there were also many types of parallel lines, the eight trigrams, cloud and thunder, geometric designs, rings, dots and so on. Techniques of decoration included engravings, mold imprints, relief, sculpturing, pierced patterns and pierced sculptures. Engraving was mostly used on bowls, dishes, and other containers for daily use. Mold imprints were widely adopted by the full range of vessels. Embossed sculptures were mostly used for vases, kettles, stoves and wine containers, which were vessels imitating ancient styles. Pierced sculpture was used to decorate lids, pedestals and stoves. With the growing number of methods of decoration and improvements in porcelain firing techniques as well as for a multitude of crafting tools, the Southern Song Imperial kilns were of the highest quality.

The Ge kilns had always been considered a mystery in the history of ceramics. Although authentic Ge wares are on display in the Beijing Palace Museum, Shanghai Museum, and the Palace Museum of Taipei and elsewhere, there is little surviving documentation from the Song Dynasty, nor have any kiln sites ever been identified. Some ancient texts mention pottery called Ge which literally means “elder brother”, because it would seem to have been made by the eldest of a family of potters in the region of Longquan. It appears that their work resembled the Guan wares of Bianjing, but the crackle in the wares was not the like the “claw marks of crabs in the sand” characteristic of Guan wares; instead they more resembled “fish eggs” in pattern.

Existing Ge ware belongs in the celadon family and includes a great variety of stoves, vases, and dishes, including tri-pod cauldrons, cauldrons with fish-shaped handles, cauldrons with glazed feet and double handles, cylindrical vases and thin-necked urns, with most imitating the designs of ritualistic bronze ware and intended for court use. It had common elements with Ru and Imperial kilns but was very different from the porcelain used by the common people.

The most distinguished feature of Ge porcelain ware is its crackling patterns. The surface of the glaze displays natural patterns such as ice-crackles, fine crackles or fish egg crackles. The areas enclosed within the cracks can vary from widely spaced pattern called “fissured ice” to speckles as small as fish eggs. The natural crackle lines also vary in width and can be filled in with different colours such as black, gold, or red. This effect is sometimes referred to as “gold and iron threads.” The crackling in the glaze is caused by differences in the degree of expansion of various components of the glaze. This was originally an imperfection in technology, but was taken advantage of by the porcelain artisans and turn into an aesthetic feature. The wares are also known to produce a pleasing, musical note when tapped.

Zhejiang, being the Land of Fish and Rice, has a wide variety of fish dishes. One of the famous fish dishes is a local delicacy from Hangzhou, which is the West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce or the Xi Hu Cu Yu. In Hangzhou, their dishes are usually named after a famous place or a famous person and usually have some fascinating stories behind them.

Xi hu Cu Yu is sometimes called as “Sister Song’s Treasure”. The interesting story behind it is about the death of the older brother, and Sister Song, the wife cooked the fish with sweet and sour sauce to stimulate the appetite of the grieving younger brother. The sauce is sweet and sour, as a symbol of the sweetness of life, and sour to remind them of the sour oppression for the commoners and for their grieving. Having eaten the fish with sweet and sour sauce, the younger brother left town. He was greatly moved by the significance of the dish he just ate and he made sure to earn fame and fortune before he went back to Hangzhou to avenge his elder brother and to look after his sister-in-law.

In other versions of the story, the younger brother became an authority several years after, and in one banquet that he attended, the same dish which is the fish in sweet and sour sauce was served. He was surprised and asked the host who cooked the dish. He found out that it was his sister-in-law who had been a helper to avoid reprisal.

This dish may be named after the beautiful and ever famous water wonderland, West Lake, but do not worry because any white fish can be used for this recipe.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 Whole Fish – approx 2 lbs (grass carp, snapper, sea bass or any white fish)
• 6 cups water
• 4 – 5 slices of ginger
• 1 stalk scallion – finely chopped
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar – or black (Chiangkang) vinegar if available
• 1/4 cup sugar – brown or white sugar can be used
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• Pinch of salt
• Chinese Celery (Qin Cai) – for garnishing

Preparation:

In the traditional way of preparing this dish, the fish is put in a basin of water and starved for 2-3 days to remove any muddy taste.

1. Wash or rinse the fish. Make sure to remove gills, and scales. Using a sharp knife, slice 2 or 3 diagonal cuts on each side of the fish.
2. If you want to make it artistic, slice 2 – 3 diagonal cuts on one side of the fish. And then on the other side, you can also slit the flesh from the tail up to the head of the fish. Do this by gently pressing on the fish while slicing from the tail, and along the backbone.
3. In a large pot, bring the 6 cups of water to a boil together with the scallion and ginger. Make sure to have enough water to cover the fish so you don’t have to turn the fish as it may break the flesh.
4. Poach the fish for about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and then set aside.

For the sauce:

1. Boil ½ cup of water. The water used to boil the fish can be used because of the added flavour from the ginger and scallion. Alternatively, chicken stock may be used.
2. Add in the soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar. Simmer over a medium heat to dissolve the sugar.
3. Mix the rice wine and cornstarch in a bowl, before pouring it in to thicken the sauce. Make sure to stir constantly to avoid lumps.
4. Remove from heat and season with salt. Black pepper is optional.

Serving:

Put the fish in a platter and pour the sauce over. For garnishing, put some slices of Chinese celery (qin cai) on top. You may also put a dash of sesame oil or minced garlic before serving.

Others have their own style of cooking this dish. They marinate the fish in lemon juice and salt before poaching it, while others use rice wine instead of lemon juice for the marinade. Some like it crispy, so they deep fry the fish instead of poaching it.

If whole fish is not available, you may also use fish fillet. However the traditional Chinese people say this it is bad luck to use chopped fish for this dish, especially during the Chinese New Year.

As reported in New Scientist, in Toronto, and many other cities around the globe, ‘smart city’ projects are underway. The concept of infrastructure interlinked by software isn’t new. Having Artificial Intelligence (AI) use data to actively improve our everyday lives seems like a worthwhile endeavour.

This is not just some futuristic concept, as for the past 12 months, the city of Hangzhou in China has collaborated with Alibaba and Foxcom to build the “City Brain” project, where AI started to run the city. For the past year AI has been sucking up every drop of data it could get its virtual hands on. Virtually every resident is tracked; their activity on social networks, their purchases, their movements, their commutes – everything is uploaded to the AI’s databases, where real-time decisions are made.

The stated goal of the project is to improve life in Hangzhou by letting artificial intelligence track traffic, crime, commutes, purchases, interactions, general movements, and much more. Residents were tracked both generally and specifically, with City Brain even plugged into local social media – it even tracks their cell phones.

The project has been considered an enormous success, and Alibaba is now packaging the system to export to other cities in China – and ultimately, the rest of the world. After a year under the new system, rush hour traffic is down 10% as the system uses hundreds of thousands of cameras dotted through out the city, tracking the movement of almost every car on the roads. It can instantly detect accidents, blockages, and can predict traffic flow 10 minutes ahead of time, then adjusts traffic light patterns to even the flow. Illegal parking is tracked in real time and the system will even contact individual commuters to offer detours and weather advisories.

Here is one the police love. If someone breaks the law, they too can be tracked throughout the city before being picked up by the police. The reality is that a fully ‘smart’ city means that pretty much every aspect of your life is tracked – the privacy issues are huge.

Why does it seem to work so well in Hangzhou? As Alibaba’s project leader, Xian-Sheng Hua stated… “In China, people have less concern with privacy, which allows us to move faster.”

“It’s easy to identify when people are not following the ‘normal’ behaviour patterns. Having identified people who are not ‘normal’, they can of course then be tracked – and who they meet with, where they go and so forth can also be quickly identified,” says Paul Bernal at the University of East Anglia, UK. “As a way to control dissident movements or anything the authorities don’t like, it’s perfect.”

According to the Gartner Group, an estimated 2.3 billion connected things will be used in smart cities this year – a 43% increase over 2016. This rise of digital connectivity also exposes a host of vulnerabilities cybercriminals will be lining up to exploit.

In the video game Watch Dogs, you can play a hacker who takes over the central operating system of a futuristic, hyper-connected Chicago. Once you have control over the city’s security system, you can spy on residents using surveillance cameras, intercept phone calls, and cripple the city’s critical infrastructure, bringing the city to its knees.

While Watch Dogs is just a game, it illustrates a scenario that could happen in today’s increasingly smart cities. It was only recently that a major hack took place that targeted Internet infrastructure in the US with one of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded. The root cause was tracked back to overlooked security vulnerabilities in hundreds of thousands of compromised connected video cameras. Similar Internet of Things (IoT) enabled cameras and sensors are driving forward the Smart City initiative that depends on these devices to manage the entire city’s infrastructure and assets. Essentially, this dependency suggests that even the smallest of security weak points within the Smart City infrastructure can escalate security exploitation to unimaginable and uncontrollable levels.

We are becoming a society that is more and more willing to have our every movement and conversation monitored for the perceived convenience of a ‘safer’ and more efficient city. We are giving up our individual rights and freedoms so that big government can better protect us.

It is a timely thought, as recently we had Remembrance Day in Canada, and Memorial Day in the US. On these days we honoured those who gave their lives to protect our rights and freedoms. The question going forward is, have we become too eager to give up those rights and freedoms that so many have died to preserve, simply to make our lives more convenient? A smart city is in reality, a surveillance city, where citizens’ privacy is the cost of the efficiency gains.

Stay tuned!

China suppliers in affected industries are diverting their focus from the EU to countries not likely to launch anti-dumping investigations.

Instead of finding ways to battle EU anti-dumping duties, many small and midsize China manufacturers are shifting their focus to other markets and implementing alternative measures to circumvent the levy. Although the majority of these suppliers do not join larger enterprises in filing countersuits against anti-dumping investigations, the fact that very few claims are won is discouragement enough.

In the bicycles industry, makers have had to contend with anti-dumping duties for the past 17 years. The levy started at 30.6 percent and has since escalated to 48.5 percent. Many companies were very active in defending their prices, but not one has won even after six appeals.

As a result, exports of finished bicycles to the EU began dwindling in recent years. Many suppliers are targeting the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea instead. Among these are Tianjin Feita Bicycle Co. Ltd and Hangzhou Great Bicycle Co. Ltd. Tianjin Feita diverted its focus to Japan and South Korea in 2000. Hangzhou Great, meanwhile, exports to South America, the Middle East, East Asia and Africa.

Those that continue to cater to the EU charge higher prices or export bicycle parts and components instead. A few manufacturers also work with their buyers to source more than 40 percent of parts and components from the EU to qualify for exemption from anti-dumping duties.

Although small and midsize companies contribute only 30 percent to China’s total overseas sales, they account for about 80 percent of the country’s export manufacturing base.

Counter measures

Regardless of product or initiating country, trying to prove China’s prices do not hurt the local industries in the affected market is the primary step suppliers take when responding to anti-dumping investigations. Companies fill out questionnaires and provide financial data to prove there is no basis for the allegations.

The ceramic industry, for instance, is facing another round of anti-dumping investigation from the EU committee. These came after five consecutive cycles of being sanctioned with duties. Lan Wei Bing, director of China Ceramic Industry Association’s Foshan office, said 30 companies attended the hearing in June and answered the questionnaires.

The committee will then determine whether the respondents will be slapped with the full duty or be levied with a weighted average tax rate.

Proving prices of China-made products are based on market forces sans governmental and any other external interference is another counter measure. At present, China is still not granted market economy status and so export prices are compared with domestic prices at a third country. For the EU, this often means the US is used as the reference country.

For the ceramics industry, this practice can result in anti-dumping duties reaching 430 percent. As such, suppliers have to prove their prices are not kept artificially low. By doing so, the EU committee would then be able to assess export prices against the company’s financial data and cost structure, and not with a reference country.

Liuhe Pagoda or Six Harmonies Tower is a tall multi-storied pagoda in southern Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. Located on the Qiantang River, at the foot of Yuelun Hill, the pagoda was built in 970 AD during the northern Song dynasty but destroyed in a war. It was then rebuilt and ruined several more times. The current wood and brick structure dates to 1152.

Being one of the impressive masterpieces of ancient Chinese architectures, Liuhe pagoda attracts thousands of tourists every year. The 196.5 feet tall pagoda has 13 stories outside and 7 stories inside. The six harmonies refers to the 6 directions (heaven, earth, east, west, north and south) as well as the six regulations of Buddhism. A bright lamp installed in the top can also served as a lighthouse.

The pagoda was originally built by the ruler of the Wuyue State (which is an area that now become a part of Zhejiang province). It is also believed that one of the reason for building Liuhe pagoda is to calm the tidal waters of Qiantang River as well as to become a navigational aid. During the night, lanterns were lit almost everywhere in the pagoda so that boats and ships on the Qiantang River could see the building and use it as a navigation tower. You can also see 104 large iron bells hung on its flying eaves as this was done to ward off harmful spirits who responsible for the heavy tides which had caused so much flooding before dykes were finally constructed.

Every story of the pagoda consists of 4 elements; the interior walls, the exterior walls, a zigzagged corridor and a small chamber. This octagonal tower also has a spiral staircase which leads to the top floor. Each of its seven ceilings are carved with painted figures such as birds, flowers, animals and characters. When the pagoda is viewed from the outside, it may appears to be layered-bright on the upper surface but dark underneath. That is harmonious alternation of light and shade.

If you climb to the top of the pagoda, you can see a beautiful and impressive view of the Qiantang River Bridge spanning the surging tides of Qiantang River. There is also an exhibition center near the pagoda that displays many details about other important ancient pagodas in China including all the information about their architectural style. That gallery is also known as the Pagoda Park.