The Art Of Taichi

@ shuangtou bridge, changqiao park, Westlake, (PSed a bit at the background)

Taichi, also known as shadowboxing, know more about it, click its wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi_chuan

Taichi chuan is actually much more popular among senior citizens and foreign visitors, its soft martial technique really can calm you down, especially in such a serene environment.

There're regular group Taichi classes put on at the westlake, some of them are free of charge.

Well, my mom is "master" of Taichi, although I know nothing about it. I'm thinking to learn some solo routines (forms), so I can calm myself down as well. haha

Purification

@ Grand Canal
Typically Jiangnan view-- small towns, stone bridge, wooden achitectures.

Hangzhounese are lucky to have such laid back sites to stay away from urban anxiety.

No schorching sun,just a little wind, several passers-by, few colliers slowly moving in the canal.

Wow, that's pretty....

I wish you a happy happy weekend~

Hsin-an River

Photo taken @ Xin'an River by Eric, Nikon D200

Xin'an River is a tributary of the Fuchun River at Xin'an Jiang, close to Jiande county in Hangzhou.

The river usually impress people by a layer of fog floating above the river, creating the effect of mirage.

As for the river reservoir on this river, here's a brief introduction, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273883/Xinan-River-Reservoir#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Xin%E2%80%99an%20River%20Reservoir%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia

Blind Date--A Girl's List

@ a blind date fair by akira

They list their own qualifications of their future mates and write their own basic informations on small papers.

Then, "poking around the market", if his or her information matches your standard, ok, write down the phone number. This girl in the photo must have written down at least 5 numbers, haha, interesting, right?

Take a close look and here's a girl's information and standard:

information

Age: 29

Phone number: 131********

Monthly income: 3000yuan

Hobbies: reading, watching TV, strolling...

Personality: open, caring..

Degree: Becherlor degree

Height: 173

Weight: 60kg

(wow, she's making me want to have a date with her!)

Mate standard:

Car, house, basic monthly income: 10000 yuan......

OMG, she's so realistic! Everything she mentioned is material, but sometimes that's needed.

As for this blogger, she was not there but just received a call from a guy who said he has a great potential in curing her insanity.

Ok, let's see if it'll work.

Where Do You Live

For house renters, average cost 2500 yuan/month here.

As for apartment buyers , that's about 6000RMB(outside the main city, in the surrounding areas)-18000RMB/m2, normally 80-150 square meters for each apartment.

Living in Hangzhou is not a tough job. There're about 7.7 million permanent residents in Hangzhou, most of them are house-buyers.

But bubbles are just everywhere, sometimes the price can go up to 30000 RMB/m2 for a small apartment.

Believe It or Not

Story one:
I was at Yaojiang building yesterday and this photo was taken at the third floor when we came out of a malfunctioned elevator. Two of us got trapped, the elevator just stuck there at the fouth floor, it doesn't go down, just stuck there, so nothing scared, but both of us have the feeling of reborn after we stepped out of it.
We gave each other a hug and then left for our own homes.

Story two:
I was at Yaojiang Building's elevator waiting room, the luminare happened to be "power off", so I had to wait in, as you can see, extreme darkness, and out came my camera-- "ka-tsa", cool , good to see no ghost dancing in my photo.

Not Free For Kids

I missed the last shanghai-hangzhou morning CRH train as I arrived at 7:35, and the last one is schedualed at 7:25. So I turned to long-distance bus, which would cost me another 3 hours, but the ticket only cost 60 yuan.

I took this photo because the girl's father just had a big quarrel with the ticket chopper, you can see the chopper in the back (the guy in blue shirt).

The girl's father thought his girl is young enough to take a free ticket, but when the chopper came to them, asking for a full-charge ticket of the girl, the father seemed surprised and refused to buy another ticket for his daughter.

He sat next to me, so loud in voice that almost grated my ears. The chopper then asked for a half-charge ticket. The father soon made several phone calls, thretening something. The chopper shaked his head and then left for someone else.

I had to look out of the window to get away from his constant chatter, but I love his girl's naive smile.

Hutong Culture (2)---food

I made some name mistakes in this automatically posted article. So here I am in Hangzhou and up here to correct the name of this Hutong, not Jiumen, its name is actually Xiaoyou. And Jiumen food court is a very famous food court in Beijing, I was told it has hundreds of years of history! And this is the gate of this food court.

@ xiaoyou hutong

@ Jiumen food court, locating in the middle of xiaoyou Hutong

Ok, don't laugh at me, I ate them all...

This is sweet.. I prefer the cheese more.

Baozi, but not 'typical' baozi..

Hutong Culture(1)

@Jiumen Hutong

I was thrilled that this fly focused his attention on that little bee, not my lense.

Sun shines in the morning Jingyu Hutong

I toured lots of Hutongs in Beijing, and here are some pictures with their interesting stories. These plants' photos were taken at the gates of several Hutong households.

Emerald green

They even plant pepper oustside their house!

Cane chairs in the Hutong @ late summer of 2008

I just bought my train ticket home, 15 hours on railway would be a very tiring work, so I'll schedual the posts and then have some good sleep!

Wedding Dress

@ silk city in Hangzhou

The traditional Chinese wedding dress for a bride.

Most couples no longer wear traditional chinese wedding dress on their formal wedding ceremony, instead, the western-styled dresses are much more preferred.

Something About Shanghai

The crowded Shanghai alley by Akira ,

Look at the plates in this photo, foot massage,police station, railway ticket booth, hotels, restaurants selling all kinds of food from around China...and the crowds as well as those bicycles, all in one alley!

Take another look and you'll see this is also a residential area(starts from the second floor, the first has been occupied by these restaurants and shops), and that explains such a 'muti-functional' alley.

Take a third look at the backdrop, you'll see a totally different building, and that's the image of a metropolis.

This is typically Shanghai, also typically China.

The Fun of Bargain---100th post of HZDP!

Actually this photo was added later, it just occured to me this is the 100th post of HZDP, and it might be a little pity if we just upload two photos of other cities, so I asked my friend to send me one Hangzhou photo that he can be proud of, here it is! Hangzhou is always so beautiful, right?

@ Nanjing Road, Shanghai by Akira, most of you have been there, so I'll just save my energy for the next picture.

@ qianmen street, Beijing

I thought it's some kind of weird Italian pasta..Actually,a stall of jade bracelets.

Foreign visitors love it but probably too "rich" to cut the price..

I'll give you another example that I just 'witnessed' at Wongfujing Street.
Two foreign tourists pointed on two fans(made of wood), and typed "60" at a small calculator.(Vendors can't speak numbers in English, they only know "yes, no, you're joking, bottom, ok, thank you...")
The vendor then put on a really surprised expression and said "You are kidding, you like jokes" , typing "208" at the calculator. "Bottom"
And then goes several rounds of price typing..
(5 minutes later)
The two tourists looked at her angry face for a while as if they just did something wrong to her and said "Ok."
Well, the truth is we can buy them at 40 yuan , 40 for two.

I've guided a really good US business man before, and he was good at bargaining as we told him, "no matter what price you hear, what kind of facial expressions the vendors(mostly women) put on, just cling to your own price, you'll be mazed at your great harvest. "

Guys maybe feel losing face to bargain with a woman, but girls can stick to your own price.
And some tourists are more interested in bargaining than the product.A funny student tourist, always typing "1" at the calculator for all kinds of products, and then raise the price little by little.
He was just having fun while bargaining. Vendors' tones and facial expressions do change greatly with your price.

Funny tips:

1. the best would be asking the local people before you make your own price and dressing like a student.

2 your starting price should be lower than the real price that you have asked the local people about.

3. If the vendors say "No" to your price, you can "pretend" to leave as you move away "slowly", they will change their mind if your price is acceptable to them, if she didn't stop you, don't worry, the next stall probably has the same thing you wanted, and this time maybe you can higher your previous price a bit,but just a little bit.

(These words may not be 'distributed' as I still wish Chinese vendors good earnings. They are just normal people with poor incomes. )

Two Would Make Up For You

Er.. another piece of bad news for HZDP, Akira is in Shanghai now, so currently we only have some photos about Shanghai and Beijing.

Anyway, it's not a loss for you, you are more familiar with this two cities.

One in Shanghai 's subway by Akira and One about Beijing Roasted Duck by Zoe, actually this one is 'made' by Zoe, want to have a try?? I left this one for you haha.

Notice

Bad news: Liu has quit the game.(Ok, we are looking forward to 2012:).
My friend has sold his tickets of the final.

Good news: I'll pay another visit to my high school teacher and then go home soon, see you later

Er, sorry to say my plan gotta be changed, I'll stay at my teacher's place for another 4 days. But I just logged on your site! It seems my pc has stopped its "strike".

And Akira will continue to send me photos about Hangzhou, so everything's gonna be back to normal.

Silk Wears

@ silk road in Hangzhou.

Silk, another symbol of this city.

These silk clothes are mobile phone wears and the cloth shoes on the lower shelf are for traditional chinese dresses, soft and comfortable.

And ...HZDP off a week for Mr. Liu xiang's hurdle competition. Good luck, my friends!

Imperial Yellow Dragon

@ HZ Botanical Garden

A golden sculpture of dragon, symbol of Chinese royalty.

Dragon is definately not some evil spirits here, instead, it stands for power and authority.

I think I might have posted enough photos about HZ scenic spots,and you might have got tired with these lake views, maybe something about the Hangzhounese lifestyle would be more real and interesting .

In the meantime, wish you all a great weekend!

(but why do I have problems in logging on your site recently? Extremely slow... my poor computer is on strike again..)

This is Green

Walking along this thickly wooded path would be as if walking in a maze, you never know what is waiting for you at the next turn.

Hmmm, just seven steps and you’re welcomed by a beautiful bamboo pavilion.

My friend and I took some funny shots and then left for somewhere air-conditioned. It was actually 38 Celsius degree out there. My friend kept complaining about my insanity and said: you need a boyfriend, and he must be either extremely tolerate or as insane as you are.

…

Ok, stop laughing and back to the green bamboo.

If all you know about this plant is “food for pandas”, yeeeee, you really need to do some homework. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo, bamboo businesses have entered a relatively mature stage here in Zhejiang.

No Peeking

Photo @ Hangzhou botanical garden.

A funny shot, absolutely. Please don't mistake the guy on the bridge, he was not peeking.

(I came close to them and found they were just shooting photos of a spa magazine.)

Tough Life For a Junior College Graduate

photo @ Moganshan road, inside a taxi, confused girl

I was supposed to write something happy today, but some bad news just spoiled all that.

The girl in this photo is a junior college graduate, currently a reporter and an assistant editor of a TV channel, she has been working for that channel for two years.

Rich in experience, low in salary. ( 800 yuan/ month, that's even lower than our part-time job salaries)

"Cheap and useful", as she always says about herself.

Now she's a job-hunter, not because she's finally willing to leave that place, but because three new-comers, who are standard college graduates, just one year more study than this girl.

Experience is needed, but far more important here is the rating of your diploma and all those wire-pullings.

"Life is composed of uncertainties, you get blowed and get through, get blowed and get through...so please don't lose your original faith ." that's what we've been told all along.

Wish her next job happy and money-making! ha-ha

White Elephant

Photo by Akira, a close shot of the little shell on the beach of Peach Island. When focusing on the near object, we can't see a clear view behind.

I'm starting to think that SLR is a mistake, because you can't carry such a burden everywhere, especially with a long lens. It's no need for an ameatuer. And when you really see something interesting and take out your SLR and focus on the object....Oops, the motion has escaped your lens.

Sorry to say it's another photo out of Hangzhou, both of us have been lazy shooting pictures, Akira's is Canon EOS, also extremely heavy.

Sometimes we really need to think again before we buy some white elephants. Mmmmm....

Yue-Opera

A close shot of the actors in the Yue Opera 'Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai' , the first color picture made in China , year 1953. This one was taken this April when I was in Ningbo.

I'd like to say the Yue-opera was previously all female performances, that is to say, if you play the role of a male, you have to be a bareheaded girl...so is the girl(on the left side) in this photo, Sometimes they need to wear hats when walking on the road.

Sunrise Or Sunset

Just took at a look those online votes about cities in China, funny to find that Hangzhou is the laziest city, labeled "idle", and the third favourite tourist city in view of "foreigners".

If you want to visit China, be ready to receive attention, partly because the "openning-up" process has just started less than two decades, (mostly because this is a single race nation, so it's very different from countries by immigrate population) and that's why lots of citizens(especially senior citizens) have never seen a foreign visitor with a different skin color, please don't be ill at ease, they are just curious and I'm sure that's friendly

This is again the same sunset and sunrise. Difficult to tell which is which, I mistaked the sunset for the sunrise.

Good Luck, Beijing

I was wondering what kind of photo I should choose today, Akira send me a photo that has something to do with sports, I love it but that little guy in the photo looks a little lonely.

So I continued to browse my own album until I looked at this one, "that's it!!"

I was not there on their wedding ceremony, but I can feel the happiness of my collegues.

Today marks the opening of 2008 Beijing Olympics. I wish this begining is also the end of all those unhappiness.

Good luck to the couple and good luck Beijing!

Rosy Clouds At The Baoshi Mountain

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day!

Descend To Be Real

Sticky Kids, job-hoppings, frenzies of emotion... Here's an inflated young generation
"A tiny piece of leaf, floating in a sea of leaves, you're nothing special. " as those ancient philosophers always said.
photo taken @ last fall by Akira, he will help with HZDP's photos until I receive my D80 and know how to use it well.

Nameless Beauty

Photo taken @ Xi Xi wetland Park in Hangzhou, beautiful nameless flowering.

Check

Photo by cell-phone, a big Chinese chessboard, don't be stupid to believe that you can push these pieces by hand.

The Lion Dance

Photo taken @ the opening ceremony of the 2nd ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council) SME summit today in Hangzhou.

I believe you are all too familiar with the lion dance if you know a bit of Chinese culture. But do you know how we put together the whole dance?

One people standing to hold the head, one squating to be the tail, actually it's a very tiring work.

Know more about Lion dance, click its wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_dance

The tail in this photo almost slipped, and we catched this moment. wow...

Painting Art

Serenity can be a great illusionist.
No doubt, this is West Lake in reality.

Skywatch Friday

Photo taken @ Lotus in the Breeze at Crooked Courtyard, one of the ten views of Hangzhou.
Er..I forgot to join SWF yesterday, I'll do it right now. Seems I'm the last one to sign in..