Mandarin In The Museum My Top 5 What Are The 5 Items You: Fill & Download for Free

I wrote my bucket list while on my sabbatical in 2013, travelling alone across South America. I was inspired by the film with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Both suffering from terminal cancer, they are each given a matter of months to live; so they decide to go off together and experience the world. Their bucket list includes a mix of each of their ideas, from the more material skydiving, getting a tattoo, kissing the most beautiful woman in the world on the one hand, to the more poetic, like witnessing something majestic, on the other.Writing this list gave me the inspiration and spark to start being more adventurous and working towards my goals; but I must admit that I look at it less these days, now that adventure and goal setting has become such an integrated part of my life. There’s also a lot of travel on there, which is inevitable given the context in which I was writing it!Here’s my list of 100 things to do before I die, as it stands at the moment:1. Visit the Great Wall of China2. Visit the Taj Mahal3. Visit the Victoria Falls4. Visit the Niagara Falls5. Visit Iguazú Falls *DONE July 2013*6. Fly over the Grand Canyon *DONE June 2015*7. Visit Mount Rushmore (“Oh, and by the way: There is no Count Rushmore!”) *DONE July 2016*8. Go on a romantic trip to Venice. WITH A MAN. *DONE in July 2015 – not with a man, though, SNIFF*9. Visit Moscow10. Visit St Petersburg11. Witness the Northern Lights *DONE March 2015*12. Take the Orient Express13. Visit Slovenia14. Eat sushi and sing karaoke in Japan *DONE April 2016*15. Visit Pompeii *DONE September 2015*16. Go to Hobbiton and visit Weta in New Zealand *DONE November 2014*17. Do a Thelma-and-Louise style US road trip. Without the suicidal ending. *DONE November 2014 – sort of! In New Zealand… and DONE again June 2015 in California/Nevada/Arizona*18. Visit Nepal19. Visit Tibet20. Go on a yoga retreat in India21. See the Pyramid of Giza22. Visit Wat Phra Si Sanphet in Thailand23. Visit Petra in Jordan24. Visit Mexico25. Go to Rio de Janeiro26. Dance salsa in Cuba27. Visit Mongolia28. Travel to Timbuktu29. Eat pizza in Naples *DONE September 2015*30. Cycle across Gotland, Sweden31. Take the boat down Göta Kanal, Sweden32. Go to Alton Towers33. Go back to Yorvik (Best. Museum. Ever.)34. Climb Kilimanjaro35. Go hiking in Switzerland (still haven’t been after nine years in Geneva!)36. Visit the reconstructed Amber Room37. Visit Jerusalem38. Visit the glowworm caves in Waitomo *DONE November 2014*39. See the Panama Canal40. Sleep in a Scottish castle41. Sing Evita songs in Buenos Aires *DONE July 2013*42. Go driving in Tuscany43. Leave the gun and take the cannoli in Sicily44. Spend Christmas in New York, Home Alone 2 style (minus the criminals)45. Visit Iceland *DONE January 2016*46. Travel on the Trans-Siberian railway47. Travel to 100 countries48. Visit NASA49. Learn to identify and name all 88 constellations50. Drive an Aston Martin51. Go on a Harley Davidson52. Ride a jet ski53. Go paragliding *DONE August 2013*54. Fly in a hot air balloon *DONE June 2015*55. Gallop across a field (on a horse. Not with coconuts à la Monty Python) *DONE July 2013*56. Climb to the top of a climbing wall57. Run a marathon58. Walk on hot coals59. Learn archery60. Get my sailing licence61. Do a watercolour course62. Learn to knit63. Have a garden64. Have an ocean view65. Kiss a Swedish man *DONE August 2015*66. Learn to ice skate67. Go kayaking in the Stockholm archipelago68. Meet Andrew Lloyd Webber69. Meet Cameron Mackintosh70. Meet Leonardo DiCaprio (yes, I know, but the teenage me would be really happy)71. Read the Bible72. Read the Quran73. Watch all three Lord of the Rings films back to back *DONE January 2016* (over three days! I decided that 12 hours is too much to watch in one day…)74. Watch all eight Harry Potter films back to back75. Attend a film premiere (on the red carpet, not from behind the fence)76. Have a walk-in wardrobe77. Learn to juggle with three balls78. Learn to salsa (important for #26)79. Learn to swim properly!80. Learn to dive (as in, off the edge of a pool. Nope, can’t do it)81. Receive a bunch of roses *DONE February 2017*82. Get a tattoo83. Reach 1,000 Twitter followers *DONE May 2015*84. Get 1,000 subscribers to my blog85. Learn the names of all the countries in the world, and their capitals86. Own a hammock87. Fall in love *DONE June 2017*88. Learn to play guitar89. Learn to play Somewhere over the Rainbow on the ukulele *DONE December 2015*90. Speak fluent Spanish (I’m getting there!)91. Learn Mandarin. Or possibly Japanese (I did start Japanese *ahem*)92. Learn Latin93. Have an article published in a known publication *DONE January 2016*94. Have a book published *DONE June 2016*95. Have a lead role in a musical *DONE directed and starred in Starlight Express in Geneva October 2013*96. Do a French cooking course97. Find a snow globe of St Paul’s Cathedral like the one Mary Poppins has *DONE October 2014*98. Voice a cartoon character99. Have a dog100. Watch a tennis match at Wimbledon (hmm that feels like an anti-climax…)It’s not rocket science but I did also write a blog post on how to write your own :-) Here >>

I can only answer this question as a tourist from Taiwan. This is my personal observation of "life in Xinjiang", it may not be a total picture of the life of ordinary citizens in Xinjiang, it’s just a small part of it.Xingjiang is a mysterious place to me and is a place I always wanted to visit.Most of the western media on Xingjiang these days is full of negative news such as "concentration camp" like facilities that locked in a million Uyghurs; police patrolling every corner of the street; and some violent clashes between ethnic Uyghur and Han people in the past. All of this suggests that Xingjiang seems to me is not a very peaceful place.China is not new to me. I have traveled and worked in China from time to time since late 1980's but mostly in the eastern regions. Never been to Xinjiang, I finally decided to take a look at life in Xinjiang for myself.In a trip to Xingjiang in August of 2019, I arrived Urumqi from Moscow in a leg of my 3-week journey started from Taiwan, to a few Eastern Europe countries (that I have never been to but wanted in order to continue my quest for visiting as many countries as possible) first, then St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia, and finally arrived in Urumqi before I return to Taiwan.I traveled alone, and can speak Chinese so I blend into the crowd very easily in China, and hopefully in Xinjiang as well, I hoped. I wanted to personally observe what ordinary people's life in Xinjiang like in a few days that I planned to stay there. During those few days, I tried to visit as many places as I could including tourist spots, museums, book stores, shopping malls; wondered around the streets and have taken buses, taxi, subway around the city of Urumqi, and high speed train to Turpan in a day trip.The following is a pictorial story of my observation of "Life in Xinjiang". There are quite a few people in pictures I took without asking permission, which I apologize. But I have no ill intentions. Most of the pictures of people are nice and warming occasions that I think represent the life in Xinjiang. I find all the places I visited in Xinjiang to be peaceful, with very few police or soldiers on the streets except places such as subway and train stations, etc. which is normal in all other cities in China. It seems to me that all locals and tourists regardless of ethnicity live harmoneously, people tending their own business and go about their own lives just like any other cities in the world. I did not see any signs of things that made me feel negative or uneasy. Again, I have to say that this may not be the full pictures of life in Xinjiang as I have only a few days and visited only two cities, Urumqi and Turpan.Finally, I need to clarify myself to the readers of this post. I am from Taiwan, and I believe that most of Taiwanese recognize that historically and culturally, Taiwan is related to China. The difference is the political systems in which Taiwan is democratic and China is authoritarian. To stay as a democratic society is the main stream political consensus in Taiwan. With that in mind, the tremendous progress that China made in the past 30 years or so is a fact that we have to face it objectively.So, here comes my observation of life in Xinjiang:1. Arrived in Urumqi in a warm, sunny day in August of 2019, checked in at the Hilton Hotel, Urumqi. This is one of the up scale hotels in Urumqi, with a very pleasant room, surroundings and friendly staff like most of the Hiltons around the world.The Hilton Hotel, Urumqi.Look out of my room across the street, I saw modern buildings, at right side is probably an office building, and residential buildings on the left side. Very nice, neat and modern buildings and wide streets.One evening, I wondered across the street from my hotel to the residential area. There was a street vendor selling various kinds of fruits. The vendor was a young man. He had a couple of very simple baskets of fruits laid on the street side a piece of cloth to display his fruits. Nice looking fruits with many different kinds of grapes that Xinjiang is famous for. I asked him why he is selling fruits on side walk. He said he is from country side and the evening is the only time that he can do it without being chased by police. I bought my daily ration of fruits from him for RMBY7, about US$1. The grapes are so sweet!In the parking lot of the hotel, I spotted this trailer home being towed by a SUV/Van. As middle class of ordinary Chinese citizens getting more affluent and they want to travel, by every which means they can think of. In this case, the license plate on the back of this trailer home says it is from Guangxi Autonomous Region (桂) in southern China, about 3,000 kilometers from Urumqi! Trailer homes are becoming popular in China, just like America or every where else in the world.2. Tour of Urumqi City. Grand Bazaar, Urumqi Museum, Sweat Blood Horse Breading Base, Shopping Malls, Subways and restaurantsI took the subway to visit the Grand Bazaar (大巴札) in southern Urumqi.Urumqi Subway is newly built, it's clean, bright and modern rivals any subway systems around the world.An Urumqi Subway Station.Different ethnic group people on the subway train. On the Subway train, you see people minding their own business just like any other cities around the world.3. The Grand Bazaar is one of the top tourist attractions of Urumqi, hundreds and thousands of tourists as well as locals come here to shop, eat, stroll, and just enjoy the place.The Grand Bazaar is a closed area with security check points at entrances. Security check points are common in China, at subway, train, major bus stations, large shopping malls, museums, public buildings, and tourist spots. This is no exception.Inside the Grand Bazaar, full of Uyghur flavors. I found the place is very lively, and peaceful with people from all walks of life, tourists and ethnicity mingle and even dance together.Locals and tourists dancing in the court yard, seems to be happy and enjoying themselves.The food court. All Xinjiang local flavors you can think off.This is a special picture that I waited and took the shot at the right moment. It shows a local food vendor scans the mobile phone of a customer for the payment of the food she bought. You may already know that digital payment and transaction systems like AliPay, Wechat Pay are accepted every where in China, here in Urumqi, Xinjiang is no exception.Lady shoppers at the bazaar.Everything you need bazaar.I was hungry and went to a noodle shop in the Grand Bazaar for lunch. This is what I had:1) a bowl of beef noodle, RMB17 ~ US$2.502) cucumber salad, RMB5 ~ US$0.71Total RMB22 ~ US$3.214. During one of the days, I visited a very interesting place right in downtown Urumqi. It is a combination of two huge parks. One is the Xinjiang Ancient Ecological National Park with collection of precious ancient silicified wood, fossil plants, and black iron meteorites, and neighboring horse breeding base (Ferghana Horse Center, Akhal-Teke Horse Base) with an art gallery featuring painting about horses, as well as a museum of General Zuo Zongtang (which by the way, has no exhibitions except empty buildings unfortunately.) If you don’t know General Zuo, I have some description of General Zuo in the Xinjiang Museum section below.There are hundreds of silicified wood dating back to millions of years in the Ancient Ecological Park.A Uyghur couple strolling around the Ecological parkNext to the Ecological Park, is the Akhal-Teke Horse Base. The horse, Akhal-Teke ( 汗血馬 in Chinese, it literally means Sweat Blood Horse because when the horse gallops, her blood vain pops like sweat flowing down her body) is a majestic, magnificent looking big horse. The horse is very rare and can be found only in central Asia is said to be used in battles as war horses in the past. This horse breeding base has many different kind of horses but is specifically set up to preserve this beautiful Akhal-Teke horse. The Base has an Art Gallery that exhibits hundreds of giant oil paintings of horses. Should be a very enjoyable experience for both local and visiting tourist alike.The horses in the horse base.A father and son pair watching the horse.The horse gallery is full of large oil painting that are real life-like. I followed a group of tourist with a Gallery Guide. She looks like a young Uyghur lady but speaks perfect Mandarin Chinese with such abundant knowledge of horses and the paintings. It was a pleasure to listen to what she has to say.After a few hours touring the Ecological Park and the Horse Breeding base, it’s about time for lunch. I walked into a pleasant looking restaurant right next to the park in a hotel building. As a lone traveler having lunch by myself, I was led to a nice booth with drapes the staff closed off so I can have lunch in complete privacy.The name of the restaurant is Horse Wisperer (馬語者) . I guess it named so as it is located right next to the horse breeding base. Very nice western decor which of course, serves western food.This is my private booth.I ordered a salad, salmon fish (must be imported, we are at least 4000 km away from the sea), and a beer. The food is pretty good, and I enjoyed my meal and the environment very much.It costs me RMB116, about US$17. it is probably on the expensive side for locals, but I think it is OK for a tourist. I paid my food using AliPay, which is on record with my Alipay account. I actually checked it using my cell phone and found out how much I paid when I was doing this post months later in Taiwan. ( You can see on the upper left corner of the picture the Telco service company is Zhong Hua Telecom 中華電信 which is a Taiwan telco service provider. ) The digital payment systems are so convenient and efficient, I totally enjoyed the convenience of using it.5. Xinjiang Museum. Like many other major cities around the world Urumqi has a Museum that displays and exhibits Xinjing's history, culture and the evolution of life in the region, from the Chinese point of view, of course.The Xinjiang Museum. Many locals and tourists were seen touring the museum that day.A grand view of the ancient Silk Road, the Eastern most City is Changan ( Today's Xian), the western most city is Consitantinople ( Todays's Istanbul ), and Xinjiang is right in the middle.This placard says that the Han Chinese had settled in Xinjiang as early as 327 B.C. during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and established a Han-majority Kingdom of Gaochang (高昌國) in the Turpan area.The Turpan basin has become the political, economical, cultural and military center during the time Gaochang. Buddhism becoming to spread from India to China and the Xinjiang is the first point of entry for Buddhism. Buddhist relics of Xinjiang.Cultural relics of Xinjiang displayed at the Xinjiang MuseumFull of visitors from all over in the Xinjiang MuseumThe map of Xinjiang during Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 BC), the last dynasty of China before Sun-Yet Sen led revolution that overthrown Qing and established the Republic of China in 1911.Picture of General Zuo Zongtang. General Zuo is well known is America and some parts of the world nowadays other than China because of a very popular dish in Chinese restaurant all over known as General Zuo's Chicken. However in China, General Zuo is known as one of the most respected officials in the Qing Dynasty. General Zuo is a great politician, statesman, military strategist, a patriot. Gen. Zuo was instrumental in preserving the integrity of Xinjiang as part of China by fighting off and defeating British and Russian supported aggression of Xinjiang during a very difficult time in the Qing Dynasty when China has lost millions of square kilometers of land in the far east to Russia in unequal treaties. Because of General Zuo, Xinjiang was preserved as an integral part of China and continued through the years of Republic of China and People’s Republic to this date.6. Across the street not too far from the Xinjiang Museum is a large modern shopping mall. Yes, it is called the United States Shopping Mall in English, but Mei Mei (美美百貨商場) in Chinese. It is obviously an up-scale shopping mall with mostly stores with global brand-names and luxury goods, on par with any malls can find around the world.A very well dressed lady, was about to take a picture in the mall.This was what the lady is taking a picture of. In the background is the US fashion brand Coach store.I also wondered into a large book store, the Xinhua Bookstore (新華書店) which is a national chain of state-run bookstore. There was a big pile of books as you enter the store in the most prominent spot, you do not need to know the language to know what the book is about.7. The Hong Guang Shan Buddist park (紅光山). Right next to the Hilton Hotel, here sits a massive buddist park called Hong Guang Shan. Buddhism used to be the dominate religion in Xingjiang and central Asia region, as Buddhism spread from India to China via Afghanistan and Xinjiang into central China then to Korea and Japan. Xinjiang still has many Buddhist temples, some old, some new because many old temples were destroyed during the Cultural revolution in the 1960's. Dunhunag area in the Xinjiang and Gansu is famous for many caves full of ancient buddhist relics. The Urumqi Hong Guang Shan is a massive, 15,000 acre Buddhist park which was built and completed in 2010.9. A Day-trip to Turpan.Turpan is of special interest to me because of its geological, historical and cultural aspect. Turpan basin is the only place in China that sits below sea level, and has the hottest spot in all China. The Turpan grapes are so famous that it is well known in Taiwan.This is the highlight of my Xingjiang trip. I booked in advance a round trip high speed train ticket to Turpan. I did a little research and planned my trip to visit these places of interest, hopefully in about 4-5 hours in Turpan: The Flame Mountain, Turpan Museum, Grape Valley, and the Imin Minaret Tower.The Urumqi High Speed Train Station. The security is very tight. It’s a thorough body search and full search of bags which takes a long time resulting in a long queue to enter the station, I almost missed my train.Inside the modern Urumqi High Speed Train StationThe first class car of the high speed train from Urumqi to Turpan. Some Chinese high speed train has higher class car called “Business Class”, which has very luxurious seats like first class of airlines with spacious seat shelled seats that can lay flat. This train has only First Class as the highest class car.The Turpan High Speed Train StationOut side the Turpan train station at the taxi stand, I negotiated with this taxi driver for a half a day private car-hire to tour the Turpan area. We finally settled at RMB450, about US$65. The taxi driver, Mr. Su (he has a long name so I just call him Su for short) is a Uyghur who speak Chinese with some accent, sometimes I have to listen very hard to understand him. But we had no trouble communicating with each other. I had a very pleasant trip, Mr. Su suggested a most efficient route to my planned places that I wanted to visit. In between, He took me to a Turpan local restaurant for lunch, that was a great experience.First stop, the Flaming Mountain, which is about 40 km from Turpan city.The highway near Turpan. it is divided, paved highway. very smooth ride, not the first class express way, but good enough for driving at 100 km/h. The Street sign says Turpan 30km, Turpan Dabancheng 133km, Urumuqi 209km.A local street side super market, the sign says "Super market & Urea”!The Flaming Mountain Tourist Park. The entrance to the park has a giant banana leaf shaped fan (A item in a Chinese Fairy tale “Journey to the West”), the with thermometer in it. It reads 40 deg. C. this is the foot hill of the mountain.Walked to the Hill top of the Flaming Mountain. The camels are waiting for customers in the hot sun.I have reached the hottest point in China, the sign says.The giant thermometer on the left in the picture reads: 59 deg. C!There is an ultra-light aircraft operator near the Flame Mountain offering tourist flying pleasure.We drove back to the city where the Turpan Museum is located. When driving around the Turpan city, I took some shots from the taxi the street scene, and some low and high rise residential buildings.Turpan street. Looked nice and neat. Note the solar panels on the roof top of the residential buildings.A high residential building I took while in the taxi driving through the city of Turpan.The buildings and streets looked very nice and neat, not bad for a city like Turpan which is considered a fourth line city in China. By the way, Urumqi is considered as third line city. The 5 mega cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are the first line, and some more developed provincial capital cities are second line.We stop by for lunch. At the suggestion of Mr. Su, we had lunch at a local restaurant called the Hamuzhar Restaurant (哈木札爾) . The sign on top says Evening Show, fashion KTV, Bar as you can see.In side the Hamuzhar, a large Projection TV screen, a stage for the band, and a keyboard on the stage. Looks like a night club setting.Our lunch, featured the local Grab Rice (抓飯) which is a combination rice dish with lamb and some vegetable, a typical local quick lunch choice.Mr. Su and I had altogether two Grab Rice, one for each, and two dishes, one stewed vegetable, one salad dish, and one beer for me (Su is driving, no alcohol for him). Total tab for two of us: RMB98, about US$14. Mr. Su and I had a nice talk over lunch. I asked about his family. His wife works at a local bank, has two children, one boy and one girl. He seems to feel pretty good about his family and I am happy for him.After lunch we head out to the Turpan Museum.Before we head out to the Turpan Museum, we made a brief stop at the Imin Minaret Tower (蘇公塔) which I have seen it in pictures and really liked the architecture and I wanted to see for myself. This Tower was built in 1777 or Qing Dynasty Qian-Long (乾隆) emperor year 42 by Imin Haja who was the head of Turpan prefecture subject to the rule of the emperor Qian Long. This beautiful, striking architecture has a distinctive Uyghur theme. I was pleased to come to visit and to pay my admiration.The Turpan Museum. The museum displays large number of relics of the area, and the history of Turpan. If you are interested in dinosaurs, Xinjiang is the place to visit.The last stop in my tour of Turpan is the Grape Valley Park. It is an Valley along a stream that is perfect environment for growing grapes.This park is rated by Chinese Tourism Athority as a AAAAA (the highest) tourist attractions. This place is huge and would take hours to see the place. Mr. Su suggested me to see it as the last stop, which I find he is absolutely right. The park offers shuttle bus from the entrance to the part to the center tourist area which takes 15 mins drive.As the name implies, the Grape Alley is for growing grapes.There is a beverage stall selling freshly squeezed grape juice and water lemon juice for RMB5 (US$0.7) a cup. I tried the grape juice, it was so fresh and sweet.Some scene at the park.Stage performance - Uyghur dance for the tourists.The oasis in the desert.Time to head back to Urumqi. Mr. Su drove me back to the Turpan Station just in time for the train. Again I paid him the RMB450 we agreed for his taxi service with my Alipay and we bid farewell.Turpan is located about 250 km east of Urumqi, so the high speed train travels to the east from Urumqi. I had a left side seat on the train. There is not much of a view facing north because there is a sand barrier along the north side of the rail tracks which blocked the view. However, on the high speed train back to Urumqi, I was on the left side of the car again but this time facing south I had mostly open view. I spotted a large wind turbine farm in mostly desert terrain.Back to Urumqi, this concluded my travel to Urumqi. I must say that I had a fairly pleasant trip to Xinjiang. Again, as a tourist, I realize that this is just a small sample of the “life in Xinjiang”. I just hope that all people everywhere in this world can live peacefully as I witnessed.[Thank you!]

Living in China for more than two decades, I took many photos from which you can get an insight into China. The following photos ( 2013~2017) range from big cities to rural villages, from day to night, from factories to religious architectures, from daily life to special moments. The logic of the photos is mainly based on time.Hongkong. Jan 23, 2013. Disneyland.Hongkong. Jan 24, 2013. Hongkong Ocean Park.Guilin, Guangxi. Feb 5, 2013.Guilin, Guangxi. Feb 6, 2013.Guangzhou. Feb 23, 2013. Shishi Sacred Heart Cathedral:Most people who go to this church for religious reason are from Africa. There are many people from the south of Africa living in the northwest of Guangzhou.Zhongshan, Guangdong. Apr 6, 2013. My junior high school, as well as my parents and sisters’:This is a blackboard for homework.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Apr 6, 2013. This is my little town.Zhongshan, Guangdong. May 1, 2013. LRT from Zhongshan to Guangzhou.Let’s have a look at the various trains running on the ground.On the way back to Guangzhou from Chongqing. August 5, 2015. Red-covered train (红皮车) is a kind of slow train.Train to Tonghua from Shenyang, Liaoning. March 10, 2017. Green-covered train (绿皮车) is a kind of slow rain too.Anren, Chenzhou, Hunan. May 3, 2017.Okay, now back to 2013.Guangzhou. June 20, 2013. A classroom in my university.Guangzhou. Dec 25, 2013. Also a room in my university.Guangzhou. July 24, 2013. View from the classroom.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Jan 29, 2014. My grandma’s village.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Jan 29, 2014. My grandma’s house. People in the village usually stick the spring festival scrolls.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Jan 30, 2014. View from my old home. Most of people living at my little town are from other provinces. They come here for work but usually go back home for Spring Festival once a year. So the town is a bit quiet that time.This is the same street! It will flood every time when it rains hard. Every time! Pic taken on Apr 4, 2016.Just a day later on Apr 5, 2016. View from my new home at the same town.The same home, the same town. May 28, 2017.Okay, back to 2014:Guangzhou. Feb 27, 2014. There are various kinds of dormitories in my university but you cannot choose where you want to live. This one is very broken, without elevators or air conditioners ( they installed air conditioners in 2016). The old desks and chairs are just changed.Guangzhou. June 26, 2014. Spicy Sichuan food. Tasty but not good for stomach.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. August 25, 2014. Dishes cooked by my mother. These are the dishes we usually eat.Guangzhou. Sept 13, 2014. A canteen in my university. At lunch or dinner time, it is rather hard to find a seat.Guangzhou. Nov 19, 2014. Huadiwan of line 1 of Guangzhou Metro. This station is actually very special because most of the metros cannot be seen from high place. You’ll know what I mean after seeing the photos below.Guangzhou. Dec 28, 2014. Lijiao of line 3 of Guangzhou Metro. The most usual kind with screen doors and running under the ground.Guangzhou. Oct 4, 2015. Jiaokou of line 5 of Guangzhou Metro. This kind goes in the sky.Guangzhou. Nov 21, 2014. Inside the metro. Don’t ask me why there are so few people. Because I can’t even breathe when it’s crowded during rush hours, let alone take a photo!Guangzhou. June 8, 2015. How about this one?Liantang village, Guangzhou. Nov 15, 2014.Some place between Zhongshan and Guangzhou. Nov 21, 2014. Taken on a bus.Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou. Nov 30, 2014.Lijiao, Guangzhou. Dec 4, 2014. City psoriasis. Actually I find it kind of good-looking there haha.Gangding, Guangzhou. Jan 18, 2015. A famous place to buy and repair electronic products.Zhuhai, Guangdong. Feb 22, 2015. Jintai temple (金台寺).Guangzhou. March 8, 2015. Let’s take a photo!Guangzhou. May 5, 2015. The ‘legendary’ Guangzhou railway station. It is said that the station is very dangerous with lots of thieves and robbers. I've not met one but I experienced a crazy delay of 7 hours!Pic taken on July 31, 2015. It says, delayed about 6 hours and 58 minutes (约晚点6小时58分).Guangzhou. July 2, 2015. This one is epic! It says, I won’t wash my car. I’m just waiting for the rain（哥不洗车，哥等下雨）.Zhongshan, Guangdong. July 22, 2015.Guizhou. August 1, 2015. Taken on a slow train.A meal on train. Too spicy for me but it was tasty.Unknown. August 1, 2015. A place in the southwestern of China.Chongqing. August 2, 2015.Chongqing is a mountainous city where there are many ‘layers’ in the city so GPS map of 2D is useless. The front door of a building is on the first floor and the back door is very likely to be on about the 10th floor, even though both doors are on the same horizontal line. Always very confused when taking an elevator, I’ve also lost my way quit a few times. So, Chongqing earns a title of ‘ 3D magical city (3D魔幻城)’.Chongqing. August 3, 2015.The piano stairs.Spicy food again.Shantou, Guangdong. August 8, 2015.Xiamen, Fujian. August 8, 2015. Typhoon just arrived.Guangzhou. August 30, 2015. Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. I guess they like the books with similar colour being together.Dongguan, Guangdong. Oct 24, 2015. A cloth factory.Huangpu port, Guangzhou. Nov 28, 2015.Guangzhou. Dec 15, 2015. A 3D printing rose.Hongkong. Dec 27, 2015.Dafen, Shenzhen. Dec 28, 2015. Dafen village is famous for its commercial oil paintings. The price is low as many of the painters are actually the ‘workers’ who are hired to paint the same paintings selling well repeatedly every day at a small house. One of them told me he was made to learn painting only for a month by his boss before painting the paintings sold to others.Guangzhou. Jan 1, 2016. New year’s concert by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at Guangdong Performing Arts Theatre.Zhongshan, Guangdong. Jan 18, 2016.The same street. May 28, 2017. Building more.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangzhou. Feb 2, 2016. Also my grandma’s village.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Feb 5, 2016.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Feb 8, 2016. A traditional food named Jiandui (煎堆).Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Feb 9, 2016.A sunset at a village named Qifenghuan.Dachong, Zhongshan, Guangdong. Feb 9, 2016. Some sacrifices for spring festival. The two fish will be released to the river, Xi River.Dachong, Zhongshan. Feb 10, 2016. My sister’s hamster :DDachong, Zhongshan. Feb 12, 2016. My town is famous for mahogany industry.Guangzhou. Feb 23, 2016. Suddenly curious about eBay, though I couldn't and cannot live without Taobao and Tmall. And when I tried to create an account of eBay, wow, Droste effect! !Guangzhou. March 26, 2016. A night bus.Pingyuan, Meizhou, Guangdong. June 14, 2016. It stormed every day when I stayed there. But I really love this quiet and clean place. Also the food, haha.Guangzhou. June 23, 2016. On my graduation from South China Normal University.Haizhu District, Guangzhou. June 24, 2016. The 8th Guangzhou International Buddhist Items Fair and Incense Culture Expo.Guangzhou. July 7, 2016. A factory of facial masks.July 11, 2016. ‘You have to love something meaningless to live a meaningful life’ on a package box.Guangzhou. July 20, 2016. Ice ballet by Imperial Ice Stars of the UK in Guangzhou Opera House.Shenzhen. August 11, 2016. The headquarters of Huawei.Zhongshan, Guangdong. August 27, 2016. Pizza cooked by my mother. Before & after:Zhongshan, Guangdong. Aug 30, 2016. Dashi, one of the most crowded metro stations. In rush hours, people have to queue outside the station to get in.Guangzhou. Sept 11, 2016. A meeting for the 4th international photography biennial of Guangzhou.Guangzhou. Sept 11, 2016. Sean Scully’s artworks exhibited at Guangdong Museum of Art.Dachong, Zhongshan. Sep 15, 2016.Guangzhou. Oct 21, 2016.Zhongshan. Oct 29, 2016. Birthday celebration.Shenzhen. Nov 5, 2016.Huizhou, Guangdong. Nov 5, 2016.Huizhou, Guangdong. Nov 6, 2016.Pati, Haizhu, Guangzhou. Nov 20, 2016. A place full of bars and cafes.Nov 21, 2016. This is the back cover of a collection of Yingchun Zhu’s modern poems, The Designing Wordsmith (朱赢椿《设计诗》). Just like the style of his poems, the prices are quite humourous and poetic, listed in various currencies: 3.69 UK dollars; 4.22 Euro; 4.67 Swiss franc; 5.63 AU dollars; 5.83 Canadian dollars; 6.06 US dollars; 36.42 Egyptian pound; 43.24 ZAR… 127360.28 VND.Guangzhou. Dec 3, 2016. A new book launch at a book shop named Fangsuo (方所).Shenzhen. Dec 4, 2016. The headquarters of Tencent.Guangzhou. Dec 27, 2016. A shopping mall.Macau. Feb 2, 2017.Guangzhou. Feb 10, 2017. Milk is on the top of tea.Guangzhou. Feb 18, 2017. A movie cinema in Yuexiu District.Guangzhou. Feb 22, 2017. A supermarket in Baiyun District.Guangzhou. Feb 26, 2017. Inside the Guangdong Provincial Museum at Zhujiang New Town.Guangzhou. Feb 28, 2017. At a halal restaurant. This kind of halal restaurant is usually named ‘Lanzhou beef lamian restaurant’. Besides noodles, they serve rice too. In fact, the lamian restaurants are so popular that you can find them even at a small town.This is the menu. Taken on May 19, 2017.Have dinner there again haha.Panyu District, Guangzhou. March 1, 2017.This photo was also taken in Panyu District on Feb 28, 2016.Zhongshan, Guangdong. March 5, 2017. Building asphalt roads.Ningbo, Zhejiang. March 10, 2017.Yantai, Shandong. March 10, 2017.March 10, 2017. Failed to see the location. Just some place above the northeast.Shenyang, Liaoning. March 10, 2017.On the way to Tonghua, Jilin by slow train. March 11, 2017. Sunrise above the snowy field.Ji’an, Tonghua, Jilin. March 11, 2017.Ji’an, Tonghua, Jilin. March 13, 2017. The river is Yalu. And the hills over there belong to North Korea. The local of Ji’an told me that Chinese ( from mainland China) can go sightseeing in NK without passport or visa but you have to stay there for more than one day, while mobile and camera are not allowed to be carried with you. Actually I felt very surprised by the convenience of Chinese visiting NK. I don't think that's good news lol.Benxi, Liaoning. March 14, 2017.That's ginseng field.And the cuisines in the northeast of China are soooo amazing!Panyu, Guangzhou. March 26, 2017.Guangzhou. March 29, 2017. A fire station.The same fire station. This was taken on May 27, 2017.Kashgar, Xinjiang. Apr 7, 2017. This pic was sent by my Uyghur friend, Abdu, to me. Not taken by me. Not sure if he likes being seen, I put an A there.He sent me this pic too, taken in his hometown Ili, Xinjiang.No matter what religion they believe in, all the students of universities of Urumqi, Xinjiang cannot pray in university. If found, he will have troubles but things are different in different areas of Xinjiang. I asked him whether they felt angry about the restriction but he said no. Besides, some names actually cannot be used yet he himself doesn't know why either.This is his notebook. He can speak Uyghur, Mandarin and a little Turkish. Three of his roommates are Han and the other two are from Kashgar and from Hotan respectively. He teaches his Han roommates Uyghur and I learn a little Uyghur from him too.Jiedong, Jieyang, Guangdong. Apr 14–15, 2017.Tea fields.Tea processing.A grumpy cat!Shanwei, Guangdong. Apr 16, 2017.Guangzhou. Apr 25, 2017. ‘My mummy won't worry any more that I don't have a seat lol (妈妈再也不用担心我没座位了哈哈哈）’. He carried his own chair to take a metro. Maybe he bought it just now.Anren, Chenzhou, Hunan. May 3, 2017. Anren is a national-level poor county (国家级贫困县).An abandoned house.Anren, Chenzhou, Hunan. May 6, 2017. A temple for Shennong.So many languages on the board at this small town where lots of old people even cannot speak Mandarin. I bought a bottle of water from an elder vendor with the help of a seemingly younger vendor over the street.There are some China’s flags hung with the religious flags.Anren, Chenzhou, Hunan. May 7, 2017. Nature time.Anren , Chenzhou, Hunan. May 7, 2017. A train station! The population of this small town is so low that even on Sunday it is still so empty.Panyu, Guangzhou. May 16, 2017. Recently I often go for a walk along the river bank after dinner. People jog, dance, fish or walk a dog here.Huangpu, Guangzhou. May 17, 2017. The advertisement at a bus stop is being changed.Guangzhou. May 17, 2017. A metro station. Almost everything can be paid through Wechat and Alipay by mobile. I don't really remember when I withdrew money from ATM last time. Half a year ago?Shenzhen. May 18, 2017. China Smart Home Expo and IC Expo.On the sea.Compared with Guangzhou and Hongkong, Shenzhen is kind of a new-built city full of dazzling skyscrapers and green trees where most of the people are young and open minded from different parts of China and even the world struggling for their dreams so that you can blend into this city as a member of it immediately without facing much discrimination. Meanwhile, it gives me a feeling of ‘floating in the air’ as the city lacks a ‘root’ like duckweed. Tourists may barely find its unique historical architectures travelling through the most parts of the city so that what they remember is usually new skyscrapers and busy traffic.Building modern architectures does not ruin a culture, but the old classical ones should be protected. Building a skyscraper is easy, but creating a civilisation is not. Shenzhen can be such an excellent city not depending on its tall buildings but on the people, on the location.Now China is developing too rapidly, building this and that, here and there. Several years ago when I studied in university and went home once a month, I got lost at my hometown! On a new street only about 2~3 km away from my home. The bus had changed its route. The buildings looked both familiar and strange. I even asked the way! After I told that incident to my parents, they felt surprised, amused and a bit angry while my father said: ‘laugh die people (笑死人, extremely laughable)! Nobody will believe it if I tell them!’. Many eastern towns get addicted to new skyscrapers and wide roads but fail to preserve its unique place so different towns look similar (actually the central government has realised that problem and put forward some policies about 特色文化小镇). It does enhance the living standard of people but that may make the people from the certain place confuse who they themselves really are. Especially now the level of globalisation is so high and also it seems globalisation is a kind of westernisation (now I realise modernisation doesn't mean westernisation). I’m afraid I will feel very confused about my identity as I’ve not studied my culture deeply but got exposed to western culture too much. To balance that, I’ve been trying learning more about my own culture and other different cultures. It sounds a bit ridiculous but it’s true. BTW, till now, I’ve not been abroad. Hopefully I will go sightseeing abroad this year to feel more various cultures in person and also see how brainwashed I am LOL.Guangzhou. May 20, 2017. Higher Education Mega Center South metro station. 8:10 AM on Saturday.Panyu, Guangzhou. May 21, 2017. Tear down and rebuild.Panyu, Guangzhou. May 22, 2017. After a Sunday.Guangzhou. May 24, 2017. I feel safe, warm and happy in China.May 27, 2017. I bought the books online in the afternoon of May 25 and got the package today. Actually at some other online shopping websites, if you buy in the morning, you will get in the afternoon.Guangzhou. June 2, 2017. The oldest operating pharmaceutical factory in the world.It build its own museum near the factory. Now the factory mainly produces traditional Chinese medicine.Guangzhou. June 4, 2017. Xinguang bridge.Guangzhou. June 4, 2017. Bachelor’s degree show of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.Guangzhou. June 5, 2017.Sharing bikes. There are Mobike, Ofo, Xiaoming, Bluegogo and many other competitors. You can find a bike by GPS of app and park the bike wherever you like.Guangzhou. June 6, 2017.Guangzhou-Zhongshan. June 24, 2017.Zhongshan. June 24, 2017. At night.Zhongshan. June 25, 2017. Day time.Huangpu, Guangzhou. June 28, 2017.Zhongshan. July 9, 2017. Went back home to see a doctor.Infusion is very common here. People say it'll do harm to health. I don't know. Yet I prefer to take that rather than have a painful fever over and over again and cough for a month.Yuexiu, Guangzhou. July 15, 2017. A shop for haute couture.Anren, Hunan. July 18, 2017. Arrived at this poor county for work again.Anren, Hunan. July 19, 2017.More buildings.Anren, Hunan. July 20, 2017.Conghua, Guangzhou. July 29, 2017.There's a town named Hot Spring Town (温泉镇) in Conghua. Yes, well-known for hot springs, attracting lots of people here for vacation.Day & night:Zhongshan. August 26, 2017. Cantonese morning tea.Taken at balcony from dusk to dark.Zhongshan. August 28, 2017. Zhongshan North Station.Huizhou. Sep 19, 2017.That teapot is 360k yuan.Changzhou island, Guangzhou. Sep 25, 2017.Pazhou, Guangzhou. Dec 28, 2017. Medicine trade fair.Hezhou, Guangxi. Dec 7, 2017.Guiyang, Guizhou. Dec 7, 2017. Guiyang North railway station.Guizhou is one of the most underdeveloped provinces in China. Before visiting it, I thought it was impossible to see so many modern buildings and most people were living at huts on hills. Apparently, I was wrong.Sour and spicy.Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (黔南布依族苗族自治州), Guizhou. Dec 8, 2017.It says:‘Take targeted measures to help people lift themselves out of poverty (精准扶贫); uproot the poverty (拔穷根); build well-off society in every place (同步小康); compose a new piece of music (谱新曲)’.Huishui, Qiannan, Guizhou. Dec 8, 2017.Rice processing machine.Huishui, Qiannan, Guizhou. Dec 9, 2017.‘Fire is disab!ed’Guiyang, Guizhou. Dec 9, 2017.Qiannan, Guizhou. Dec 9, 2017.Huangshan, Anhui. Dec 26, 2017.Fuzhou, Fujian. Dec 28, 2017.Zhanqian Road, Guangzhou. Dec 30, 2017.A road full of cargo delivery companies of the destination to the countries using Cyrillic alphabet.On that road, there's an amazing Caucasian restaurant, though the menu is a bit funny because mistakes can be found in Chinese, English and Russian names. Later it turns out the boss is Georgian.‘Ciknstraqanov’…Thanks for reading the long answer! I have more photos of various topics actually but now feel too tired to upload. Maybe I will upload again, if you think I should.I've been uploading more photos I took with my phone in China. Both old and new. Thanks!