Passage to China: a photo essay

Old Jun 14th, 2021, 07:03 PM
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Ade, hope that the August 2022 dateline gets reduced for you. Is Kangaroo Island ready for visitors yet, after the fire?
I am done. the koala orphans
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Old Jun 15th, 2021, 03:56 PM
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Great armchair traveling here. Micheal, wow, you were there shortly after ping pong'ed.
One of your albums confused me though as I was scrolling through and thought, that looks Mayan. It was Mayan!

Our big passage to China was 1988. One memorable sight was a guy twirling noodles in a Beijing market. Lump of dough stretched between his hand, then flipped like a jump rope. Each time the dough divided. Since I was a computer nerd I figured if he twirled it a dozen times he had 4,096 noodles.

Here are a few shots from Beijing.


Forbidden Palace


Great wall at Mutianyu


An American woman, the center of attention in Tiananmen


Wok as fashion statement


The shy smile


The moment of truth


Joyride
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Old Jun 15th, 2021, 06:54 PM
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Great armchair traveling here. Micheal, wow, you were there shortly after ping pong'ed.
One of your albums confused me though as I was scrolling through and thought, that looks Mayan. It was Mayan!


Which album? or were you scrolling from one individual picture to the other, at which point the sequence is not the same as the album's? I'm asking so that I can correct layout errors.
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Old Jun 15th, 2021, 07:17 PM
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Michael, it was here:

I got there by clicking on the photo of the kids, then going "back to photostream". Maybe that's not an album?

You have some iconic shots that probably can not be duplicated these days, for example "38 Canton Street". But plenty others.

Edit: Well that's weird. Hopefully you see what I mean.
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Old Jun 15th, 2021, 08:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Nelson
Michael, it was here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/with/4196202750/

I got there by clicking on the photo of the kids, then going "back to photostream". Maybe that's not an album?

You have some iconic shots that probably can not be duplicated these days, for example "38 Canton Street". But plenty others.

Edit: Well that's weird. Hopefully you see what I mean.
Photostream is just the sequence of all my photographs. You will se some pictures from the same topic, but eventually unrelated pictures will come up unless you go back to the album to stick to the same topic.
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Old Jun 15th, 2021, 11:10 PM
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You have some iconic shots that probably can not be duplicated these days, for example "38 Canton Street".

Iconic and also seen in Thailand and Malaysia, then but probably not now:

https://flic.kr/p/7q7hyt
https://flic.kr/p/7q78hX
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Old Jun 16th, 2021, 07:15 PM
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There are shots above from Michael, Nelson and JW that would make great 'giclees', i.e. imagery put into the surface of a fabric.
I am done. the art
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Old Jun 16th, 2021, 08:40 PM
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Travelers to China now will not see those scenes. "Now' of course whenever China opens up again, which may be a long time indeed.
And many of those photos, just like USA depression scenes of the 1930's, depict a time lost forever. Yeah, some of the Chinese public toilets are best lost forever.
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Old Jun 17th, 2021, 05:28 PM
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The Li River


A Passing Greeting


The Gentleman's Table


The insisted I take their photo before I even asked.
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Old Jun 17th, 2021, 06:17 PM
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Wow, Zebec, thank you so much for starting this fabulous thread, and everyone else for adding your images and stories. A picture tells a thousand words, indeed!

So many images evocative of people, times & places no longer existing.

On that topic, I’ve been enjoying some very old black & white and sepia photos, which have been “ colourised “ by modern techniques. It seems bring the people to life.
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Old Jun 18th, 2021, 02:16 AM
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Enjoyed all the pictures of China. You've captured their life journey, culture, traditions, religion, eating habits in a very beautiful way through your camera. It's really nice to see the portrait pictures. The babies are adorable.
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Old Jun 24th, 2021, 05:35 PM
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Yo Kathy, thx for the PM. No, those shots with the red leaves at #9 and #10 were not from the official Jiuzhaigou site. We only ever use our own original photography in TRs.
Plz feel free to post some shots from your blog here too. We didn't make it to Xian, so looking forward to your pictures here!
Do you have any video footage?
And thanks to Bok, Jobin and Zubida for joining this discussion.
I am done. the ongoing TR
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Old Jun 30th, 2021, 12:32 PM
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We have a few extra found shots from a locked-file that'd been inaccessible til recently. It has the bulk of our brief Hong Kong visit's images plus some extra Juizhaigou. Will show those here eventually.
Various & sundry
-those seeking great-value lodgings in Hong Kong may want to check out the Salisbury YMCA; same remarkable value & great location as its counterpart YWCA in downtown Vancouver
-'Thai Basil' cafe in HK serves a dessert worth crossing an ocean for: sticky bananas with honeycomb ice cream
-our poor put-upon, but ever-plucky guide, Lucy, was quite good. She actually was accosted a second time on our trip, when a deranged Tibetan guy actually punched her! She did me an extra favour by eventually turning me onto her best friend, a school teacher, so that her class and mine could commence an ongoing exchange of pen pal letters; that arrangement was something that I always sought out on our trips, as part of an extra-curricular activity at my school called 'The International Pen Pal Club'; that friend's school was soon after destroyed by the terrible Sichuan earthquake and she wrote to me about having had to bury over half of her class of her grade 4 class.
Note that a few years later, Lucy herself switched careers to become a teacher.

-just found a copy of the old letter that I'd sent ahead of departure to the Beijing travel agency whom we'd hired for this entire trip; in the note, I make brutally clear that we expected to not once, not ever, be taken by our guides to any sort of Chinese equivalent 'carpet emporium', and that any guide who ignore our wishes that way would receive exactly zero tip!

-lastly a humorous story about when Mrs Z and I got really ill in Yangshou. We suspected food poisoning but will never really know. A few fellow guests got the same sickness after eating the same dinner. We had many symptoms and ended up fairly delirious while bedbound. Finally a few days later on Saturday, we mostly recovered and packed up prepared to meet our pre-arranged transfer-driver outside in front of the lodge. We waited. And waited. But he never arrived. All the while, the aforementioned Chun Li (Angel) was watching us from the front desk our concern, shaking her head with a grin that communicated, "Those poor idiots!"
Finally, I went back inside to the front desk and asked Chun Li whether she'd heard anything about our errant driver. She shook her head then responded, "You have the wrong day. Its still only Friday."
Eedyawts!

I am done. But not really.
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Old Jul 1st, 2021, 07:04 AM
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Originally Posted by zebec
We have a few extra found shots from a locked-file that'd been inaccessible til recently. It has the bulk of our brief Hong Kong visit's images plus some extra Juizhaigou. Will show those here eventually.
Various & sundry
-those seeking great-value lodgings in Hong Kong may want to check out the Salisbury YMCA; same remarkable value & great location as its counterpart YWCA in downtown Vancouver
-'Thai Basil' cafe in HK serves a dessert worth crossing an ocean for: sticky bananas with honeycomb ice cream
-our poor put-upon, but ever-plucky guide, Lucy, was quite good. She actually was accosted a second time on our trip, when a deranged Tibetan guy actually punched her! She did me an extra favour by eventually turning me onto her best friend, a school teacher, so that her class and mine could commence an ongoing exchange of pen pal letters; that arrangement was something that I always sought out on our trips, as part of an extra-curricular activity at my school called 'The International Pen Pal Club'; that friend's school was soon after destroyed by the terrible Sichuan earthquake and she wrote to me about having had to bury over half of her class of her grade 4 class.
Note that a few years later, Lucy herself switched careers to become a teacher.

-just found a copy of the old letter that I'd sent ahead of departure to the Beijing travel agency whom we'd hired for this entire trip; in the note, I make brutally clear that we expected to not once, not ever, be taken by our guides to any sort of Chinese equivalent 'carpet emporium', and that any guide who ignore our wishes that way would receive exactly zero tip!

-lastly a humorous story about when Mrs Z and I got really ill in Yangshou. We suspected food poisoning but will never really know. A few fellow guests got the same sickness after eating the same dinner. We had many symptoms and ended up fairly delirious while bedbound. Finally a few days later on Saturday, we mostly recovered and packed up prepared to meet our pre-arranged transfer-driver outside in front of the lodge. We waited. And waited. But he never arrived. All the while, the aforementioned Chun Li (Angel) was watching us from the front desk our concern, shaking her head with a grin that communicated, "Those poor idiots!"
Finally, I went back inside to the front desk and asked Chun Li whether she'd heard anything about our errant driver. She shook her head then responded, "You have the wrong day. Its still only Friday."
Eedyawts!

I am done. But not really.
That funny. . seems that illness knocked you for a loop. At least you had another day to recover.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2021, 03:43 PM
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I recall the big Sichuan event, what 2005. Was teaching English at a big state Univ in north China, on the 3rd floor of a packed full classroom building. Staircases on each end of the building.
The hanging lamps started to sway but i was not watching. Suddenly all the students started shouting 'dizhen, dizhen' (earthquake0 and made a very unorganized dash for the door. Hundreds piled into the hallway rushing for the nearest staricase and crawled over each other down as fast as possible.
All rather new to me so i waited till the path was clear. Out on the lawn 2000 students milled about waiting for the next shake. Was talked about for days.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2021, 07:50 PM
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Jobin, Jesus, to have been working there at the time in 2008. Man oh man. Glad to hear that your school seemed to have survived. Any school-based shots to share here? Or other topics?

Change of topic: those 'Cokin' filters aforementioned, were a series of specialized, pre-digital colour filters that photographers could attach atop their lens for saturation and the like. My fave was their blue-gold. Cokin is still based in Paris. Programs such as PhotoShop, LightRoom et al, took over that technical rendering.
I am done. the nikon
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Old Jul 14th, 2021, 01:38 AM
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Looking at all the pictures it seems to me I came back from China on a short trip. All the scenarios of people, their tradition, cultures, their lifestyle, the adorable babies, sculptures you've photographed very nicely. I can't wait to visit China after the lockdown.
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Old Jul 25th, 2021, 07:43 PM
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As promised, a conclusion featuring final shots of Hong Kong plus a Jiuzhaigou bonus assortment.

Hong Kong skyscraper.

as above

British high tea @the Peninsula.

Hong Kong boatman.

Primary-aged schoolchildren on excursion with teacher.

Historic Hong Kong.

as above

A Hong Kong harbour building.

Tourists may try their hand at traditional Chinese calligraphy.

The Edward Youde Aviary had not only many different exotic birds, but also a good variety of flowers throughout.

Orchids at above-mentioned.

as above

same

Some of the more beautiful lakes at Jiuzhaigou park had become popular wedding photo locales, for both actual brides and grooms plus models doing professional shoots.

The Tibetan presence was evident at Jiuzhaigou and its surroundings.

The fall meant lots of peeling birch bark.

At Jiuzhaigou park.

Jiuzhaigou suffered from an earthquake the year after our visit and repairs took some time before the park reopened.

Autumnal lake reflection.

One of the more picturesque Jiuzhaigou lakes.

Jiuzhaigou is not a traditional trekking location but some modest uphill hikes provided great vantage points.

Spot the Zebecs. Thanks for viewing this loooooooong foto essay.

Peace Always and we hope that your first post-covid trip goes well! We are done. The end.
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Old Jul 25th, 2021, 07:48 PM
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And an extra Thank You to Zubida for their kind words and joining us all here.
I am done. The end.
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Old Jul 26th, 2021, 09:45 AM
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Thank your putting so much effort into this pictoral TR. We all reaped the benefits of your efforts!
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