Shamian Street, Guangzhou

We visited Shiaman Street, a beautiful, car-free heritage gazzetted zone

Built in 1862 by the British

So cool and wooded and pleasant to stroll along the mandatory family photo shoot

lots of other magazine/newspaper etc photoshoot too

can even change on the spot

model, all lanky and reed thin

wedding photo shoot!

so nice, don't you think?

little boy oblivious that his playmates are stone mute

cute, cute!

beautiful tree lined and architectuarally majestic

quaint streets without any cars

5 Star Shamian Hotel patronised by various dignitaries

more family photos inside the hotel, Auntie Moon (Guek) is missing

that's me, your dedicated blogger and crazed photographer

rare photo of me by my husband,

all photos are without me because I am the one behind the lens.

Chestnut Vendor in Yuexiu Park (Buah Berangan)

When I was a young girl living on Jalan Mohd Akil, my mother used to take me round the road corner (Batu Pahat is very very small, like Taman Midah only) to Odeon Cinema where there there were street vendors selling roasted chestnuts (see picture below)



In Malay it is called buah berangan, in fact I had to look up the Malay word first, before I know it is called chestnuts!!! To me it was called "Kau Lak"
This is the way to cook Kau Lak. Fry with with some black stuff. The above picture is actually roasted chestnuts from Melbourne.

As we were leaving Yuexiu Park to get to our bus rushing for our next venue (we were always rushing here and there even though our group consisted only of our family members!!) I saw this lady pushing a makeshift cart frying chestnuts like I used to see in my childhood. Eversince I got married and came to KL I have not seen this for more than 30 years.

This spunky lady was frying chestnuts in the middle of the busy road and if you see the picture before this, she must have dodged heavy traffic to get here manouevering her hot kuali and homemade stove.

The chestnuts are fried in some black substance (I still have not found out what that is) and I can remember the taste of childhood. It was very expensive back then, and Mum only bought it for us as a treat.

I would have loved to buy a packet from her, but like I told you, we were in a hurry.

So, even from the bus window, I took her picture. Everyone walked past her, and no one bought any.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut

Asal Usul Buah Berangan

Buah berangan ditanam di kebanyakan tempat di seluruh China, antaranya yang paling banyak termasuklah kawasan di provinsi Hebei dan Shandong. Buah berangan yang dihasilkan di Tai'an, Shandong amat terkenal kerana rasanya manis dan sedap. Buah berangan di Shandong dijadikan "makanan khusus untuk maharaja" sejak dulu kala lagi, iaitu sejak zaman Dinasti Jin dan Dinasti Yuan dalam sejarah China. Sekarang, jumlah eksportnya mencapai lebih seratus juta kilogram pada setiap tahun.

iPad and iPhone 4 for the dead on Qing Ming

When the dead go digital: Choo showing a paper replica of an iPad and electronic items at his shop in Burmah Road.


Thursday March 17, 2011
iPad and iPhone 4 among Qing Ming offerings for the dead
By FONG KEE SOON
keesoon@thestar.com.my


GEORGE TOWN: In a store here, there is an iPad going for only RM9.80, a 13.3-inch dual-core processor laptop for under RM12 and an iPhone 4 for a mere RM2.

There is one catch, though – while anyone can buy it, only the dead can use it.

Angeli Choo, 43, a Chinese prayer item shop worker in Burmah Road, said paper replicas of electronic items are getting more popular with customers buying prayer paraphernalia for the Qing Ming Festival (Chinese All Souls’ Day).

“Customers want their dearly departed to be able to keep up with the latest in information technology (IT), besides the usual ‘luxury’ offerings of bungalows with maids and security guards, watches, designer bags and gold ingots. The ‘iPad’ even comes with a USB cable for charging and syncing,” she said.


Even the specifications are literally out of this world. While the current largest storage size for iPads in our world is 64GB, the “other world” users are already using iPads with an auspiciously whopping 888GB!

Miniature luxury cars and electrical appliances are also popular items, according to James Ong, a retail supervisor at the Bee Chin Heong prayer item shop in Kimberley Street.

“The Toyota Alphard MPV, BMW 6 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class are among the favourites.

“LCD television sets are also in constant demand,” he said, adding that most paper replica products were available within two weeks after the real stuff hit the market.

“Whatever people have and enjoy in real life, they want their departed ones to have,” said Lim Say Saik, a businesswoman who has been in the prayer paraphernalia business for over 20 years.

Families will visit their ancestors’ graves and clean up the tombs during the Qing Ming Festival which falls on April 5.

Lim’s catalogue of paper replica products rivals any hypermarket, with thousands of products in various categories, including food and beverage, clothing, cars, motorcycles, consumer electronics and even boats.

“You don’t have to worry when you die,” she said.

However, no information is available on Internet solutions and pricing for the afterworld.

Perhaps the ancestors will have to figure out their own monthly plans and device commitments.

Guangzhou Yuexiu Park

Yuexiu Park is the largest park in downtown Guangzhou. Covering an area of 860,000 square meters (212.5 acres), the park is made up of three artificial lakes and seven hills of Yuexiu Mountain; hence the name Yuexiu Park.


Our whole contingent posing for a photo in from of the ram sculture.

Yuexiu Park is a perfect combination of cultural relics and ecological tourism, reputed for its pretty water and hills as well as cultural relics. The main places of interest include the stone sculpture of the Five Rams, Zhenhai Tower, the site of the Ming Dynasty City Wall, and Square Cannon Site.

While the historical traces create a serene environment, singing birds and exuberant plants add vigor and natural beauty to the park. Three artificial lakes -- Dongxiu, Nanxiu, and Beixiu-- cover an area of more than 50,000 square meters (538,213 square feet). Dongxiu Lake and Nanxiu Lake are tranquil and elegant, inviting painting and sketching artists. Beixiu Lake, surrounded by trees, is open for boating and fishing. What's more, the lakes are connected with arch bridges and decorated with pavilions and corridors in the Lingnan Style. Flower exhibitions are held here from time to time. For nature lovers who can't get to the faraway countryside or forests, Yuexiu Park is an optimum choice with modern conveniences.

The Five-Ram Sculpture is one of the most famous structures in Guangzhou. It has become the emblem of Guangzhou City. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, Guangzhou was a barren land with people who despite hard work were suffering from famine. One day five immortals in five-color garments came riding on five rams, playing their legendary music. The rams held sheaves of rice in their mouths. The immortals left the sheaves of rice for the Guangzhou people, gave blessings to the city and left. The rams turned into stone and the city of Guangzhou became a rich and populous place. Guangzhou got the name of the City of Rams and the City of Ears.

All the aunties and uncles making three rounds round the ram statue to get good luck. We were too busy posing for each other's cameras, we could not even finish one round and the guide was calling us to move on to the next attraction!!!

A coral tree

close up of coral tree

my fantastic zoom lens

awesomely beautiful coral flowers!!

above words in italics taken from here:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangdong/guangzhou/yuexiu.htm

QQ - China's answer to MSN chat

The Chinese use QQ instead of MSN or other chat sites

they are on QQ all the time



QQ - China IM Service Goes Web 2.0, With Half a Billion Registered Users!

Founded by Pony Ma in Shenzhen, China, in November 1998, Tencent is now recognized as the leading provider of Internet, mobile & telecommunications value-added services in China. QQ, Tencent's instant messaging service platform, officially launched in Feb 1999 and announced in its 2006 Q3 report that it has 221.4 million active users. What's more, the total registered user accounts has climbed to 572.3 million!
China's largest instant messaging service QQ now available in English
China's largest instant messaging service QQ now available in English QQ, China's wildly popular instant messaging service with over 690 million registered users, 360 million monthly active users and 130 million daily users, is now available in English, under the new portal IMQQ.com. As far as we understand, QQ has had an English version of QQ since 2005 but those earlier versions met with little success. With the launch of its new English portal, is Tencent Inc (the company behind QQ) finally setting its sights on the world? Well don't start scoffing at the idea because Tencent did make its millions way before MSN figured out how to monetise its Messenger service. Anyhow, for those of you that are interested, start downloading the QQ2009 Beta for Windows and the Mac version 1.0 beta to begin chatting with your Chinese friends.



Using QQ to Improve Your Chinese - Learning Chinese Using QQ

This is Tyson's website and he claims you can learn Chinese by using QQ

What is QQ?

Hi! My name is Tyson, this is my website. If you are trying to learn Chinese at the moment, whether you are a beginner or have been studying for several years, QQ will definitely give you the opportunity to improve your Chinese skills.

I started using QQ in October 2003, after I had finished my second year at university. It was holidays at the time and there was nothing to do, so I decided to study Chinese. I met a Chinese girl on ICQ who suggested that I use QQ to help my language study.

At the start chatting with people in Chinese was a little difficult. I couldn't read Chinese characters, I couldn't understand or say anything in Chinese. But I kept at it every day, using a combination of online translators to help me communicate. Looking back now, QQ really did provide a great environment to learn Chinese. People will just add you, and expecting that you can speak Chinese. They always ask the typical questions, like "Where are you from?" and "What's your name?" in Chinese, which provides a great chance to learn the basics.

On average, I probably spent about 4 to 6 hours per day using QQ, chatting in Chinese. After a year or so of learning Chinese this way I decided to test myself, to see how many Chinese characters I could recognise.

I worked out I could recognise around 800 characters, mostly the most commonly used characters in Chinese. It seemed that without even trying, just enjoying chatting with people online in Chinese, I picked up the language really quickly.

I also downloaded and watched a lot of Chinese drama series (mostly from Taiwan) which helped my pronunciation. Within 2 years I could speak fluently with other Chinese people, without even needing a dictionary.

After four years of learning Chinese, 2007 was the year of my first trip to China. It was a great experience to be able to join on conversations with my girlfriend's family, to be able to make new friends, to not have to worry about language problems.

So if you want to really learn Chinese - not just in the classroom - I really urge you to install QQ, register yourself a number, and join the Chinese online community. Even if you can only spend 30 minutes a day chatting online, using QQ will make a noticeable improvement to your Chinese fluency. Give it a go!

QQ Facts

QQ is a IM chat program like MSN, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, etc. It is the most popular chat program in mainland china. It is made by the Tencent (腾讯).

You can download the Chinese or the English version of QQ. I initially reccomend that you use the english version. After a few months, when you know your way around the program, you can update to the latest version (in chinese).

Like MSN, QQ saves your contacts on the server, so you can use it anywhere. You will need to change your page table to China (PRC) ie. GB2312 encoding. Otherwise you won't be able to see chinese characters in your chat window. You can also use AppLocale.

It's best if you have a webcam. Most chinese won't believe you if you say that you're not chinese. Trust me! Having a webcam will also make you very popular - expect to have many people add you if your details specify you as living in a foreign country (国外) and you have a webcam.

http://qq.bur.st/whatisqq.php

So, Sue, download QQ to chat with your chinese cousin, and learn Mandarin along the way!

Google Accuses China of blocking Gmail

When we were in China, we could not get Facebook, because there is no FB in China. I could enter my blog but I could not log in as I had some drafts that I wanted to publish but was unable to. Then we could not get Gmail, and when we came back we saw this in the STAR:


Mon Mar 21, 7:17 am ET
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Google Inc on Monday accused the Chinese government of making it difficult for Gmail users to access the service in the country, the latest development in a rocky relationship between the two.

Google said any difficulty users in China may have faced in the past few weeks accessing its email service was likely to be the result of government blocks, a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.

"There is no issue on our side, we have checked extensively," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Gmail users in China said they were still able to log in to their accounts, but were unable to perform tasks such as sending email and accessing their address books.

Google's run-ins with the Chinese government began in January 2010, when the company said it was no longer willing to censor search results in the country. Previously, the company included a disclaimer on its China service that searches may not be complete because of local laws.

Searches for terms deemed sensitive by Chinese censors are routinely blocked. Chinese search engines such as that offered by Baidu Inc already voluntarily filter searches.

This is not the first time Google has accused China of interfering with its services. In January, Google said it had uncovered sophisticated China-based attacks on human rights activists using its Gmail service around the world.

The months-long censorship dispute that Google had with the Chinese government was a diplomatic flashpoint in Sino-U.S. Relations in 2010.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed inquiry.

Censorship of Web content has intensified in China following calls on foreign websites for a "Jasmine Revolution," which are anti-government gatherings inspired by demonstrations in the Middle East and North Africa.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh in Hong Kong, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Lewis)


An interesting comment on the above:
US government also spies on American people. All our internet traffic is analyzed. Remember the story about the Sacramento girl who got a visit from the secret service just because of her writing on her blog. As a matter of fact, American government's spy on American people are much more extensive than any country on the earth. Under the name of anti terrorism, we have no privacy at all.
And a reply:
China doesn't hide their censorship. The US does. They hide it so well most people don't even realize it is there..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110321/bs_nm/us_google_china

China also has its own search engine called BAIDU.
Baidu has about 70 percent of China's search market by revenue
Baidu Inc is China's largest search engine

Another comment:

The average citizen knows nothing about censorship of Google and those who do know of it, have very nationalistic feelings about home grown companies such as Bai Du. I've discussed this with situation college age students and other 20 to 35 year olds. They could care less if Google is no longer available. As for licensing, don't be surprised if the Chinese government rejects Google to teach it a lesson and others who may think about taking on the government in the future. With the Chinese ability to catch up and overtake its competition in short time, look for Google to be irrelevant in China. Google blew it.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

On the second day at Guangzhou, we had a full day of sight seeing. We started off with the Sun Yat Sen Memorial. This China freedom fighter was so uncorrupted he did not amass any fortune for himself and the overseas Chinese (that's you and me) had to donate money to build this memorial for him and find a house for his wife.

note: all the words in Italic are not mine!!!

The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall was built from 1929-1931 with funds from local and overseas donors. It was designed by the Chinese architect Lu Yanzhi, and is modeled roughly after the temple of heaven in Beijing. It stands 150 feet tall and the main dome is octagonal, rather than round. The building is made of reinforced concrete and was thoroughly renovated and modernized in 1998. It is used as a cultural center for the performing arts.

Sun Yat-sen ( 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925) was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Founding Father of Republican China, a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Sun played an instrumental role in inspiring the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. Sun was the first provisional president when the Republic of China (ROC) was founded in 1912 and later co-founded the Chinese National People's Party or Kuomintang (KMT) where he served as its first leader. Sun was a uniting figure in post-Imperial China, and remains unique among 20th-century Chinese politicians for being widely revered amongst the people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial (built 1929-31)




Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, situated on the southern slope of Yuexiu Hill, was constructed between 1929 and 1931, a monument to Dr Sun Yat-sen, the forerunner of Chinese democratic revolution, by the people of Guangzhou and overseas Chinese.

The hall, a grand octagon building of typical Chinese architectural style, looks brand new because of reconstruction in 1998. The masterpiece of architecture history is created with a span of 71 meters (about 78 yards) without a pillar but significant outlooks and delicate interior designs. As an important place for conferences and performances, it can hold thousands of people with sound equipment. In the hall there is also a display gallery showing pictures and letters of Sun Yat-sen.

And there hangs a golden slab with four Chinese characters of "Tian Xia Wei Gong" written by Sun Yat-sen himself above the front door of the memorial hall.

Inside the hall, Jackson our guide tells us that no p.a. system is needed, because like the Parthenon, it is built in a parabolic shape that enhances natural sound without need for acoustics.
Boy doing finger painting in black and white....below: some of his masterpieces
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangdong/guangzhou/sun.htm

http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/china/guangzhou/sunyatsen.php

http://www.chinahighlights.com/guangzhou/attraction/sun-yat-sen-memorial-hall.htm