June 8, 2014 - Most Sacred Heart Church: Fill & Download for Free

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!

From fun facts to history that’s a bit heavy. Here we go.Every single giant panda in the world belongs to China. If you see one outside of China , he/she is on loan. And the rental fee ain’t cheap . Panda diplomacy - WikipediaAbove: Numbers of Pandas in different countries. Source: “国宝”的特殊使命：中国熊猫外交大盘点Chinese people don’t call “Chinese New Year”, “Chinese New Year”. They call it “Lunar New Year (农历新年)” or “Spring Festival(春节)”. In fact , many Asian countries celebrate the Lunar New Year . In Singapore, Korea, Vietnam , Malaysia, Philippines for example , Lunar New Year is an official public holiday. Do native Southeast Asians celebrate Chinese New Year? , Lunar New Year Is Actually Celebrated In Most Asian CountriesAbove: Poster of the state-run CCTV (China central Television) 2020 Lunar New Year’s Eve concert , it calls the new year “春节(Spring Festival)”China has one of the last surviving Matriarchal Societies - Mosuo - Wikipedia. Here’s a pretty good documentary about their way of life and the impact on their traditions brought by the Communist party:11th of November is the biggest online shopping day in China. This date is Commonly known as “Double 11” or “Singles' Day - Wikipedia” by the Chinese. IMO, it’s one of the most genius marketing campaigns since Coca-cola changed “Father Christmas” outfit from green to red or how “De Beers” tricked women around the world into believing that they ought have an overrated, overpriced, shiny stone on their fingers when they get engaged. This “11.11” phenomenon deserves a whole new topic on e-commerce, the consumer behaviour of the new generation Chinese, and brand marketing.Above: Sales record of “Double 11” 2019. Source: China Double 11 shopping festival statistics 2019; best-selling brandsMiddle aged Chinese women LOVE going out to dance in public at night. “广场舞” a.k.a Square dancing (China) - Wikipedia is a HUGE thing in China. Has anyone been to the Melbourne Museum lately ? I used to take my kid there every week and would see a brunch of people (all sorts of ethnicities) doing the “square dance” outside of the museum , it was mind blowing for me to see it in Melbourne (amazing city that embraces all sorts of cultures btw). Chinese Square Dancers: Melbourne Museum . “Square Dancing Aunties” use super catchy songs and how they dance like no one’s watching really makes you wanna shake your booty a little. This group dancing activity is so popular and culturally encouraged that patients in the Wuhan Quarantine centre are doing it everyday to stay fit and spiritually positive. YOU GO GIRLFRIENDS!Above：video taken in the Wuhan quarantine centre，bunch of coronavirus patients dancing together.The Chinese are very liberal towards homosexuality. Same sex marriage might not be legal in China, but that doesn’t stop them from talking about it and sharing erotic articles/Mangas related to the topic. The world’s biggest gay dating app “GRINDR” is 60% owned by “Beijing Kunlun Tech”, a Chinese gaming company. Although the U.S government is forcing Kunlun to sell. Grindr Is Owned by a Chinese Firm, and the U.S. Is Trying to Force It to SellAbove: A glimpse of some gay related posts on China’s most popular social media platform, Weibo. Source:https://www.weibo.com/u/1481250851?refer_flag=1001030103_&is_hot=1二次元腐漫营的微博_微博https://www.weibo.com/shimotsukisakura?refer_flag=1001030103_&is_hot=1男.人.之.间.用什.么姿.势.最爽？_微博It's illegal not to regularly visit parents who are over 60 years old . This law is called “中华人民共和国老年人权益保障法” or “Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly“ . Related articles:A Chinese Virtue Is Now the LawLaw of the People's Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the ElderlyCricket fighting - Wikipedia is a traditional sports and is still very popular among retirees nowadays. I think it’s silly to make/watch two bugs fight against each other, BUT many Chinese citizens will disagree with me … !Above: people watching a live “Cricket battle” on a big screen TV in a shopping mall.Beijing will be the first city in history to host both The Summer(2008) & Winter (2022) OlympicsOpen-crotch pants - Wikipedia or “开裆裤“ are still very popular in China for toddlers and babies. It’s an old “Chinese thing”, but over the years the styles of the Open-crotch pants have evolved so much better that I had purchased a few for my daughter myself - they weren’t so ugly and super convenient to use! (after consideration, I decided not to share pictures of little babies wearing OCPs because they all showing their bare arses !! lol )Above: A glimpse of the sales of “open crotch pants” on Taobao, China’s biggest online shopping platformThere are free condom vending machines on campus in China. All you need to do, is swipe your national ID card. You can get up to 20 condoms per month from the vending machine. “No Rubba, No Hubba Hubba” y’all. China’s campus condom giveaway both protects and offendsPearl S. Buck - Wikipedia is the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1938). She won it with a book written about China, called The Good Earth - Wikipedia . It was the best-selling fiction book in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. This book is indeed a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone who has interests in China’s past. It helps one to understand China from a very different prospective.China has the maximum number of neighbours touching its border. The 14 countries touching its border are: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal.During the first half of the 20th century, Shanghai was the only city in the world to accept Jews that were escaping the Holocaust without an entry visa. Related reads:https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/docs/pdf/chapter6.pdf - a study published on the UN website.Shanghai's Forgotten Jewish Past - article published by The AtlanticFILM IN REVIEW; 'Shanghai Ghetto''- NY TimesHere's a great documentary about this, “Shanghai ghetto”:Women used to grow long fingernails to show off their prestige/noble social status. The message it meant to send is quite simple: look, I don’t have to work!Along with the Egyptians, the Chinese were one of the first cultures to perfect nail art. Chinese Nail polish was coloured with vegetable dyes and flowers, mixed with egg whites, beeswax, and gum Arabic, which helped fix the colour in place. From around 600 BC, gold and silver were favourite colours, but by the Ming dynasty of the fifteenth century, favourite shades included red and black- or the colour of the ruling imperial house, often embellished with gold dust.Another advantage of Chinese nail polish was it protected the nails. The strengthening properties of the mixture proved useful because, from the Ming dynasty onwards, excessively long fingernails were in vogue amongst the upper classes. By the time of the Qing dynasty, which lasted from the seventeenth until the twentieth century, these nails could reach 8-10 inches long.The fashion for excessive nail growth was primarily a statement of status as it was impossible to grow nails so long and undertake any manual labor. Unfortunately, such long nails meant the wearer of them could not do anything much at all. It would undoubtedly have been positively dangerous to have attempted any intimate body care. Therefore, anyone with such long nails would have relied upon servants to wash, dress and feed them, to prevent them doing themselves an injury- or breaking a nail.To counteract the inconvenience of a full set of long claws, it became fashionable for the Manchu women of the Qing dynasty to cultivate just one or two talons on the hands. These nails were shaped and styled so that they looked elegant rather than unwieldy and from the nineteenth century were often protected with nail guards made of gold or silver and studded with jewels.ref: Looks that Kill: 11 Impossible Beauty Standards from HistoryAbove: Empress Dowager Cixi - WikipediaAbove: Unknown noble woman from Qing DynastyAbove: another unknown noble woman from Qing DynastyAbove: Antique fingernail protectors from Qing DynastyHistorians and scientists believe people from a village in Liqian - Wikipedia are the descendants of ancient Roman soldiers. “魏略”or “Weilüe” was a Chinese historical text written by Yu Huan between 239 and 265. The Weilue fills in many gaps in our knowledge of the extensive international contacts and trade networks at this early period.Here's a copy of the translation of “魏略“:The Peoples of the West，translated by independent scholar John Hill - Academia.eduRelated reads:Chinese villagers 'descended from Roman soldiers'DNA tests show Chinese villagers with green eyes could be descendants of lost Roman legionNote: Mr. Hill has written a few amazing books (IMO) on ancient “Silk Road” and the interaction between ancient Rome and China. They are good reads for anyone who has interests in early (Central) Asian history . John E. HillChristianity along with many other religious organisations are well protected by law in China. Given the conditions that they are legally registered with the local government and they conduct religious activities according to regulations. There’s a good church in Guangzhou (next to my hometown) which holds regular masses in different languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and English Sacred Heart Cathedral (Guangzhou) - WikipediaAbove: A picture of the Sacred Heart Cathedral Church in Guangzhou. Taken in 2015, by me, after hubby and I finished attending a mass in English.Only if I could get a dime every time someone tries to tell me “your country has no faith” or “your country suppresses religious believes” or “Chinese people have no religious freedom”, only if …Moving on …Many controversial national policies only applied to the Han ethnicity. Ethnic Minorities enjoy many “Special Treatments” in China. These policies include but not limited to:One-Child Policy was never implemented among the ethnic minorities. I once heard a joke, it goes like this: CCP doesn’t think we have too many people, it just thinks we have too many Han people … … …More than 16 provinces have special government body to ensure the supply and quality of Halal and Kosher food.Students of ethnic minorities enjoy lower entrance requirements for universities, PhD programmes, and so on. Tuition is often free for them.Most of China's 55 ethnic minorities, with exceptions such as Mongol, Tibetan, and Uygur, did not have their own written languages before 1949. Efforts have been putting into creating and improving writing systems for minority languages soon after the founding of the PRC60% of the government positions in Autonomous Regions (there are five) are guaranteed for ethnic minority citizens.Since the 80s, a special policy called “两少一宽“ or “2 Less 1 more” had been being implemented in Criminal Cases Involving National Minority Citizens. “2 less” = Less arrest and Less death penalty;;;;; “1 more” = More Leniency. This policy is currently under reviewed and will likely be called off due to a series of terrorists attacks in the past decade or so, and Han people are demanding equality in the eyes of law.Related reads:China's Ethnic Policy and Common Prosperity and Development of All Ethnic Groupshttp://www.lawinfochina.com/display.aspx?lib=dbref&id=82China has been under a series of terrorist attacks in recent years.2008 Kashgar attack - Wikipedia2008 Kunming bus bombings - Wikipedia2011 Hotan attack - Wikipedia2011 Kashgar attacks - WikipediaPishan hostage crisis - WikipediaTianjin Airlines Flight 7554 - Wikipedia2012 Yecheng attack - WikipediaApril 2013 Bachu unrest - WikipediaJune 2013 Shanshan riots - Wikipedia2013 Beijing Capital International Airport bombing - Wikipedia2013 Tiananmen Square attack - Wikipedia2014 Kunming attack - WikipediaAssassination of Juma Tayir - WikipediaApril 2014 Ürümqi attack - WikipediaMay 2014 Ürümqi attack - WikipediaIn early 1900s, China was invaded by 8 different nations at the same time . Eight-Nation Alliance - Wikipedia . Although Chinese are being taught about this, I thought this could be “mind blowing’ for some because as far as I know (by talking to people from these 8 nations, not by doing proper research), out of the 8 nations, Germany is the only country teaching school kids about this part of history. I’m not into sharing war pictures because looking at them makes me sad, I do want to share some of the cartoons that were created by artists from these countries though. see below:For about a hundred years, China was occupied by 10 different countries at the same time. They established their little “homes away from home” in China and call them “Concessions” : Concessions in China - Wikipedia . Chinese people call this period Century of humiliation - Wikipedia .Thanks for reading.

Prehistoric Philosophy (100,000 BC)Proto-Historical Philosophy (12,000 BC)Chinese Philosophy (11,000 - 9,000 BC, recently assumed much later)Ancients The Egyptians (~7000 BC)Mysticism (~7000 BC)The Maze at Knossos (1260 BC)Ancient Hebrew Philosophy (950 BC-)Oracle at Delphi (800 BC or ealier)Integrating the Pre-Socratics (604 - 470 BC)Thales (604 BC)Materialism (600 BC)Anaximander (590 BC)Anaximenes (565 BC)Xenophanes (555 BC)Pythagoras (550 BC)Parmenides (516 BC)Heraclitus (515 BC, student of Xenophanes)Democracy (507 BC)Gorgias (502 BC)The Equal Arguments (Protagoras, 480 BC)The Sophists (480 BC)Zeno of Elea (470 BC)Empedocles (470 BC)Leucippus and Democritus (Atomism, 462 BC)Anaxagoras (Real writer of the beginning of Genesis? 460 BC)Philolaus (Pythagorean, 450 BC)Melissus (mutual dest(more)