Aspirations: October 2010

      China launches world's fastest train service

   China on Saturday launched what it described as the World's fastest train covering a distance of 1,068 kms at the average speed of 350 kms an hour. The distance between Wuhan in central China and Guangzhou in the country's south was covered by the high-speed train in two hours forty five minutes.

The new service will cut the travel time between these cities by more than six hours. The train reached a maximum speed of 394.2 km per hour during trail runs that begun on December 9. The commercial operation was launched today with two trains covering the distance while passing through 20 different cities along the route.

The high speed line will use technology developed in co-operation with foreign firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom, sources said.

The new service is expected to act as a catalyst in the development of central China that includes backward areas like Xianning by linking it to the highly developed Pearl River Delhi, which is an industrial hub in south China.

Chinese railway authorities pointed out that the average speed of the high-speed railways is 243 km per hour in Japan, 232 km per hour in Germany and 277 km per hour in France.

The era of high speed railway began in China in 2004 when Guangzhou was linked to Shenzhen, both in Guangdong Province, with a train traveling at 160 km per hour. This was followed by the launch of a high-speed line linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin at the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The government recently announced it plans to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012 in order to spur economic growth amid the global downturn. China has unveiled a massive rail development program, considered to be the world's biggest plan outside the United states. The goal is to take the rail network from the current 86,000 kilometers to 120,000 kilometers.

INTERIOR OF THE TRAIN

Earth House

This unique house is located in Switzerland. It is an earth house, an architectural style characterized by the use of natural terrain to help form the walls of a house. An earth house is usually set partially into the ground and covered
with thin growth, and is often intended to have a small ecological footprint

Rondavel

This pretty amazing house is called a rondavel, a traditional African-style house. They are usually round in shape and traditionally made with materials that can be locally obtained in raw form. The rondavel's walls are often constructed from stones. The mortar may consist of sand, soil, or some combinations of these mixed with dung.The floor is finished with a processed dung mixture to make it smooth. The roof braces of a rondavel are made out of tree limbs, which have been harvested and cut to length. The roof itself is made out of thatch that is sewn to the wooden braces with rope made out of grass

Shell House
One distinct house is the Shell house. It is the most original house in Mexico or maybe in the world. It is one of the most beautiful houses you will surely enjoy. It is located in Isla Mujeres northeast of Yucatan peninsulain the Caribbean Sea.

Rumah gadang
Rumah gadang which means "big house", are the traditional homes of the Minangkabau in Indonesia.
The architecture, construction, internal and external decoration, and the functions of the house reflect the culture and values of the Minangkabau.A rumah gadang serves as a residence, a hall for family meetings, and for ceremonial activities. With the Minangkabau society being matrilineal, the rumah gadang is owned by the women of the family who live there - ownership is passedfrom mother to daughter.

Toda Hut
The peculiar hut of a Toda Tribe of Nilgiris, India is noted for the decoration of the front wall,
and the very small door.The Toda people are a small pastoral community who live on the isolated Nilgiri plateau of Southern India.Prior to the late eighteenth century, the Toda coexisted locally with other communities, including the Badaga, Kota, and Kurumba,in a loose caste-like community organization in which the Toda were the top ranking.

Korowai Tree House
This bizarre house is home to the bizarre tribe called the Korowai or also called the Kolufo. They are a people of southeastern Papua(i.e., the southeastern part of the western part of New Guinea). Until the 1970s, they were unaware of the existence of any people besides themselves and some immediately neighboring villages.Only a few of them have become literate thus far. They are one of the few surviving peoples in the world that are thought to possibly still engage in cannibalism. Others dispute this, saying that these practices ended decades ago andthat there have been no reported instances of cannibalism in over twenty years.

Trulli House
Trulli houses, distinguished by conical store roof, are traditional in the southeastern region Apulia, Italy.

Palloza
A palloza is a traditional thatched house as found in the in Galicia, Spain. They are circular or oval, and about ten ortwenty meters in diameter. These houses are built to withstand severe winter weatherat a typical altitude of 1,200 meters. The main structure is stone, and is divided internally into separate areas
for the family and their animals, with separate entrances. The roof is conical, made from rye straw on a wooden frame. There is no chimney, the smoke from the kitchen fire seeps out through the thatch.

Farmhouse
Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building wallsfor external thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature. Earth sheltering is popular in modern times among advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture, but has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelter. The picture above is Earth covered farm houses located in Keldur, Iceland.

CrannogA crannog
It is an artificial island, usually originally built in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters, and most often used as an island settlementor dwelling place in prehistoric or medieval times. The name itself may refer to a wooden platform erected on shallow floors, but few remains of this sort have been found.

Mardin Stone Houses Turkey
This Arab-style architecture is located in Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey. It is commonly recognized for its Arab-style architecture, and it also has a strategic position on a rocky mountain overlooking the plains of northern Syria.

Beehive Mud Houses: Harran, Turkey
These traditional mud houses are located in Harran. The interesting thing about them isthat they were constructed entirely without the use of wood. The design of these mud houses is believed to have stayed the same for at least 3,000 years, until about the 1980s, when they officially stopped being used as living space.

Tongkonan
Toraja People House: Sulawesi, Indonesia These distinctive wooden houses have curved roofs with tall gable ends that make them look likes boats. The houses are built on stilts and are entered by curved steps and beautifully decorated doorways.They are the homes of the Toraja peoples, who live in central Sulawesi.

House of Marsh Arabs: Iraq
The Houses of the Marsh Arabs are built from reeds. They are often constructed on floating platforms wovenfrom tips of reeds still growing up out of the swamp. The people travel around by canoe. The Marsh Arabs' lifestyle is threatened by drainage projects that are taking water from swamps, causing them to dry up.