My friend Holly has asking me to show her how to use her camera better.  Since my class in Hong Kong, I feel a bit more qualified showing her the basics, so we planned a morning dedicated to this end.

The great part about this whole day was that we only traveled about 15 minutes outside of where I live, but I actually felt like I was in China!  When I told this to a friend of mine, he kept repeating, you are in China… but to be honest, it simply does not feel like this sometimes.  I mean, I can head down to the store and buy Doritos and a coke, go to McDonalds for lunch, and then to Starbucks for a coffee afterwards.  Shekou is known as China-Light.  Think of Canada…

The first place we went to was a temple, but it was closed. So I suggested we sneak around the side.  Look, I am a rule follower but come on… I really wanted to see this place.  And it paid off.  Although we did not get into the actual temple itself, we were invited to view it from a three –story building by some random Chinese guy.  As we walked up the stairs and under a couple of ropes, I thought, this could get bad.  However, he was impressed that I was a foreigner visiting this temple – apparently, not many Westerners go to this place.  Plus, Holly is Chinese so she could communicate with this guy directly.

After the temple, we went to a park that is dedicated to a General who defeated the British in one battle… a long time ago?  There are stone tablets of poetry written in Chinese, which looks like art to me, lining the front entrance.  In one of the photos below, there is a poem about said General by Chairman Mao written in his own script, but then next to it is formal Chinese. It was very historical, therefore, awesome.  Then we went into this neighborhood to see another temple dedicated to a 9-year old emperor who was driven away by his enemies, which ended in his and his mother’s death at sea, and ushered in a new dynasty in China.  Too bad I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the dynasty…

Enjoy the photos below and when you have a moment, my website was updated with some new pictures, thanks to my lovely webmaster, Aaryn.  Take a look when you have a moment.

http://www.butterflyonsleeve.com/asia/index.html

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