Hi Doug, Are you also visiting Beijing? If not you should at least do an internet tour of sundials in China, specifically Beijing. Two items of interest in Beijing are the equatorial dial in the Forbidden City and the Beijing ancient observatory. There are many pictures of the equatorial dial. The background of the ancient observatory is much more interesting. This observatory was started about 1441 with the Ming Dynasty. The images of the western style instruments are very familiar. These include: an armillary sphere, an azimuth theodolite, a celestial globe, a quadrant, a sextant and a theodolite. The Jesuits transplanted these western astronomical instruments to China in the early 1600's. These instruments very similar to those used by Tyco Brahe. It is interesting that this was already ancient technology when it was transferred. These were the instruments used before the Copernican revolution and the telescopic observations of Galileo. It was the astronomy of Ptolemy and Aristotle and the Pope. The earth was at the center of the universe and the sun moved, rising and setting each day.
The Chinese did not see the need this inoculation the western science of the universe according to the Jesuits. They had armillary spheres hundreds of years before, probably based based on the detailed instructions in Ptolemy. Book 5 "On the construction of the astrolabe", or their independent discovery of this classical geocentric model of the universe. The Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng even built a hydraulically powered rotating armillary sphere in the 2nd century AD. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillary_sphere The Chinese looked at the western instruments and mechanical clocks as interesting toys but they revealed nothing that wasn't already known in the "Celestial Empire". They saw no need to trade with the west or to adopt their religions. This was later forced on them during the opium wars by the British thirst for tea. How could Britain insist on pushing drugs to trade for tea. Unfortunately this is the history of Hong Kong. Things have not changed. They continue to have much more to sell to us than we can sell to them. Enjoy your trip. I certainly did when I was there 15 years ago. This was an significant cultural awakening for me. Travel can be an enlightening experience. An interest in sundials has often taken me past the regular tourist routes and encouraged a different level of exploration. Regards, Roger Bailey www.walkingshadow.info ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Bateman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 2:11 AM Subject: Sundials in Hong Kong? >I am to visit Hong Kong next week for a 6 days and will naturally look > out for sundials. > > I know of one already - a bronze armillary by Joanna Migdal at the > Royal Hong Kong Golf Club in 1989. > > I would be grateful if anyone could let me know of other dials. > > Regards, Doug > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
