The Master

Besides Zhu Miao, there's another special park beside the ancient chinese temple. It's the Confucius Park. What's it about? try to guess? :)

the main entrance

the special three head bird for the incense offering..

yea...they actually worship Confucius...

and there's a wishing tree in the middle of the park

full of wishes...

closer look. :)

special rock door entrance to the wishing tree.

the Confucius temple

every year, a lot of parents come and dedicate and offer their child to Confucius in this temple, wishing Confucius will bless their kids to be smart and champion in studies.

another view from the inside of the temple.

The master

Nothing much to see in the park though, but it's interesting if you know well about the Chinese history as there are plenty of interesting articles and monument inside the temple for you to enjoy. :)

Stay Healthy

As we age, health slowly becomes our main concern in life. When we were younger, sports were just something fun and there were no serious commitment to it. But now, sports have become something essential in our lives.

Besides sports, things we eat or we call it our diets everyday are very important. For example, food or ingredients we take can affect the health of our internal organs as well. We will not want to accumulate too many unnecessary and destructive elements in our bodies, will we? By being a healthy person, there are plenty of things we can observe in our daily routines including the drinks we take in as well. So, this is when the nutrition studies come in that help us to decide what food to eat and what drink to take.

There is a lot of information nowadays available on the internet, but not all of them are useful and truthful. So it is wise to test and evaluate the information that we obtain from the net and stick to some credible websites. Of course, the best source of advice is still going back to the doctors. All the best everyone!

Chinese Ancient Temple

One of the attractions in Foshan is also the Chinese Ancient Temple (Zhu Miao). A lot of people will go there for the buildings, and for the believers, they will go there for the god (Bei Di - North god). Some people get married there too! because they believe that the gods in the temple will protect their marriage as the gods there are there long enough to know what they need. :)

what do you see? :)

one of the entrances to one of the sub temples. :)

look! they still using the ancient gate! just like i saw in Kampar. haha...

the wall of Dragons. huge huh? :)

one of the statues, scared or not? :D

Stone Carving of Cloud and Dragon Stela, Stela is the column or onument placed in front of city walls, palaces, bridges and tombs. :)

look at the carvings, so lively right?

and this is so scary. LOL. they "look" at the believers when they are praying. LOL.

pray...

anyone getting married soon? :D

Renewable Energy

Everyone who appreciates alcohols will learn about Bacardi Cuba. They are not only good at producing good drinks; they are good in taking leads to protect the environment as well. One of the great efforts is to reduce the usage of non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels in the production chain.

Recently, Bacardi Cuba has announced about their wind turbine installation project in their production centre. The wind energy is going to be used for powering the company’s distillery near San Juan, replacing the use of fossil fuel as used before this in the production centre. This year around, the visitors to the centre will not only learn about the production process, but also to learn and be impressed by the company’s effort in utilizing the wind energy in their production process, especially the technology involved and the size of the turbines constructed.

Bacardi Cuba has shown a great example in leading the nation in corporate responsibility and environmental progress. Through installing the wind turbines, the company is able to help the nation to reduce the carbon footprint thus helping to protect the environment. The usage of the wind energy can help the nation to reduce the CO2 production every year by half of the original volume.

Besides, the company also shows that while protecting the environment, their business can be run as usual and in fact better due to positive public impression towards the company this the products will be highly supported by the people. Hopefully through this initiative, all the organizations can be encouraged and more serious actions can be taken towards living in a greener world.

As everyone takes part, little contribution can lead to great achievements when everyone’s efforts are combined together. Let us work together in making this world a greater place to live in! Have you started your part?

Foshan Trip (Continued)

Foshan is famous as the birth place and origins of two masters in China History, Wong Fei Hong and Yip Man.

If you are one of the big fans for Chinese Kung Fu show, you will know these two people . hehe...

So, yea, we went and visited the place, their memorial halls. :)

Yip man...so tempted to touch the head.... :P

Inside Wong Fei Hong's hall...the place for all the performance and demonstration of his martial arts. :)

Gabriel and Wong Fei Hong, both same handsome? :D

new and ancient, at the border line. :)

Bao Zhi Lin(Po Ji Lam)...the place where Wong's family sell the herbs and medicines. :)

Wong's Hall

another view of Wong's hall

Of course, too bad we didn't see the real person, they are both dead already by now. haha...but it was interesting to visit the memorial halls, to know the history and their childhood. :)

"Resurrection In May" by Lisa Samson

May Seymour was a gorgeous girl with a bright future lying in front of her when she graduated from college with 4.0. She had the intelligence and she had the looks, but somehow some where she was lost within herself. She did not know what she wanted in life.

During the night of her graduation, she wasted herself and ended up vomiting and passing out at the roadside of a country side nearby to Claudius Borne’s farm. Claudius, a seventy year-old farmer with a kind heart, took her in to the farm and let her take her time off until she was completely sober again. She fell in love with the farm and decided to stay with him for few weeks before she was off to Rwanda, for a mission trip that changed her life forever.

Civilian wars broke out in Rwanda involving two tribes in the country. May had a chance to escape the country but her love towards the villagers prompted her to stay. The ruling and cruel tribe came and wiped off everyone in the village. May survived, after being maliciously abused physically and sexually. After the army left, she survived for another three months in the village, alone with all the dead people around her. Her life was never the same again.

When she was found and brought back to the states, she took her time to heal in Claudius’ farm. She became a hermit and locked herself up in the farm. Claudius was patient and loving that he helped her in any ways to help her to heal, until the day he collapsed and passed away. He willed his farm to the church nearby but with May was allowed to stay in the farm as long as she wanted to. So May started to stay on her own in the farm, keeping the farm running with the help of few kind and friendly people in the church and also the neighborhood.

Eight peaceful years had passed and yet things started to change. The new pastor from the church who owned the farm started to put pressure on her, driving her to start her new life out of the farm. At the same time, an old friend or date of hers, Eli Campbell suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) after the military service and he killed two people during a robbery in a convenience store. He was sentenced to death. Most of the people thought he should appeal, excluding the family of the victims of course. But Eli did not want to.

While dealing with her own sorrow and wounds, she tried to reach out to Eli and to convince him to grab his life back. During the process, May was healed herself. She found God again and she found life as well. Eli died eventually during the execution, but he was not executed. Miracle happened. May moved on with her new life, transformed and renewed.

The author wrote the story beautifully with plenty of insightful conversations among the characters, and also detailed yet lively descriptions of the surroundings. Because of that, the readers were able to bath in the imagination and as if they were living among the fiction’s characters to feel and experience the main hero and heroin’s emotions and thinking at the point of time. It was an impressive story and it brought food of thoughts, unfailingly in every chapter, to the readers. Even after reading the book, one would close the book with a missing feeling in heart, pondering about the details and lessons learned from the story.

Books

I have been reading this book "Resurrection in May'' by Lisa Sampson recently and just completed it yesterday. It was a good book though, a fiction about a girl overcoming trauma she suffered from a mission trip to Rwanda in Africa. I think i will post up the review soon. After this, i guess i will finish up the book "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Hopefully it will be a good book. :)

These days i realise eveyone is reading a book or magazine or newspaper when inside the LRT. It reminds me of the Japanese that always hold a book with them whenever they are waiting at anywhere and anytime. I guess Malaysians are picking up the trend?

I suppose that is a good thing. At least people are doing something more beneficial rather than just sleep or stare into the empty spaces while waiting to reach the destinations. Reading is a good habit, no? It educates people. :)

Online Tutoring

My brother is going to have his high school examination next year. Even though it is going to be next year, I believe that he needs to start preparing even by this year itself.

He is very good in his languages but not his mathematics subjects. So I guess he needs some Math homework help or even attend some tuition sessions if he has the chance. I do not know why but he just does not like mathematics as much. But with some Free math help I am sure he can do better in his studies.

However, as my family and I realize he could use some Free homework help with his other subjects, we encouraged him to improve on the subjects that he feels less confident with. So hopefully he will have the motivation to do the revision and do well in his high school examination!

way to another level?

A new way? to another new level?

new direction?

different new level?

transition of life, new direction to new level of events. :)

Massage?

Days have been quite tiring ever since started working. There is so much work to do and they really drained all the energy from me. Besides, the work is normally physically and also mentally challenging. So, muscle pains are coming on and off most of the time.

Some of the friends suggested going for massage. However, it is not easy to find a good and clean massage in this city nowadays. Besides, I am quite scared of stranger touching me when I am wearing relatively less than normal.

Therefore, every time some of the friends invited to go for massage after listening to my complaints of muscle pains, I would use all sort of reasons to reject them. But recently, one of my friends found this foreign Massage San Diego and he recommended me to have a try. He said they are very professional and clean, and they have different packages according to client’s health. It was sort of interesting to me. But still I couldn’t get rid of the fear or shyness per se. Then he suggested again Massage Hillcrest. According to them, it is very effective for stress releasing and I should really go for it as it might help to ease my muscle pains at times. Well, I am still thinking about it. Are you interested?

Foshan Trip

A lot of people asked me what is good in Foshan that i made it a destination during our visit to GuangZhou? well, i would tell you later on! hahaa..

For those of you who knows Foshan, in order to get to Foshan from GuangZhou, it is very easy actually as Foshan is just nearby GuangZhou, perhaps 45 minutes drive? There are buses from GuangZhou to Foshan from almost every major bus station in GuangZhou.

The bus we took was from "Tian He Ke Yun Zhang" (TianHe Bus Station). In order to get there, you can take the Metro line to "Tian He Ke Yun Zhang" station. it's one of the terminals for the metro lines though. :)

20 yuan!!! Rm10 only...

i guess a bit more systematic than our Puduraya or now Bukit Jalil bus station? :D

on the way, look at the greens....and the buildings behind. LOL.

the steam rice with pork ribs plus sausage and vege for lunch! quite nice! big portion for 10 yuan! (RM5)

why Foshan is famous? because this guy originated from there...

and also this guy!

if you don't know who are the famous guys, stay tuned for the next post! (if you watch Kung Fu movies, recent and the old ones, you will definitely know these two. :D)

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Few of my friends were discussing our vacation trip for next year. As we were going through all the good deals from the local budget airlines, one of them shouted:"there are cheap tickets going to London!". It was such an awesome news! That was because most of us wanted to go to Edinburgh so much and from London, we could take cheap tickets to Edinburgh after visiting London.

Edinburgh was a special city for us. One of our friends actually studied there before and he kept telling us all the good things about the city itself. All of us were very envy at his stories.

As the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was coming soon, we decided to go there throughout the special occasion. For Edinburgh accomodation, we would go for the apartment as it was cheaper. We heard that Edinburgh apartment accomodation was relatively cheaper compared to any hotels or motels.As we were staying there for at least a month, so we would go for serviced apartments Edinburgh.

The trip was definitely a memorable one and all of us enjoyed ourselves! All of us agreed that we would make it an annual trip. Of course, every year, we would want to go to different countries or cities around Europe. First, I think we would want to finish up with the United Kingdom cities including Scotland!
Hopefully we would be able to stay at least one month or two at the cities or countryside in order to fully experience the lifestyle there. By that time, I hope we have apartments to stay!

Beijing Lu (Beijing Street)

Beijing Lu is just like the Dong Men in ShenZhen and Petaling Street in Malaysia. It's a street that is filled with shops and stalls that sell anything on earth that you can imagine. The differences from Petaling Street are, the shops are more high class and with air con! Besides, some of them sell branded stuff as well! hahaa...

In order to get there, you will need to take the Metro Line to "Gong Yuan Qian"(In front of park) station, then once you go down, just ask the people there for the directions to the Beijing Street as there are more than one exit from the station that can reach the street. Of course, you can always take a taxi to get there!

the signboard...

the street....plenty of people? :D

the special blended red bean ! they actually added fresh milk into the drink. taste quite nice too!

After the shopping trip, I bought a pair of jeans and a shirt, then my mom and bro bought themselves sport shoes. My sister bought a shirt i think....they were of very good bargains!

Lighting

Frankly, I did not know what a chandelier is until a friend of mine asked me about it. He was thinking of renovating his house and was not sure if he should change the lighting in his house. So, he was just seeking for some second opinions.

But too bad, I was not the right person to ask about all this interior design. Fortunately, this friend of mine was very internet savvy and he found out all about home lighting from the internet. It was not a bad idea at all.

There are so much things and information on the internet now! One can even order a lamp from the internet! That is so amazing. After browsing through, my friend decided to order crystorama lighting for his newly renovated house. When he received it, all he needed to do was hire some technicians to fix the light up the ceiling during the renovation process. It was so convenient and economical!

Random thoughts

Someone commented on my choices of words today. It happened during one of our very casual conversations. I was mentioning some facts about myself and he questioned it by saying "even if you do it i also won't know right?", then i replied "well, that's up to you.". Then the comment started.

According to him, from the human psychological perspective (he is from Human Resource by the way), the sentence "up to you" actually can kill off a conversation, so it is not so good to use it.

hmm....sounds logical, but I wonder does it apply to all of us? :D

Natural Medicine

Recently, I have been hearing a lot of news of people around me getting ill or getting unhealthy. Regardless of age, most people nowadays are burdened with at least one sickness or two. Be it cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure and so on, all these common diseases actually cost a fortune to suppress or control the level of the disease.

Most people go for western medicines, but there are handful of people go opt for natural herb or natural medicine to control their sickness. Surprisingly, some of the natural medicines are more effective and safer to use compared to the conventional medicine that you get from doctors. Especially among the elders, if you pay attention, you will easily get into a nutrition talk whenever you are talking to them. One of the very useful i ever heard was about the usage of the olive oil in countering some defect in our bodies. It was proven to be very useful!

Personally, I guess the wisest thing to do is to seek doctor’s opinions. Some of the doctors would recommend natural medicine too if they think is appropriate for your health condition. So, wish everyone healthy and strong!

Chen's Ancestral Lineage Hall (Chen Jia Ci)-Part 2

well, it's the Chen Clan's academy again. this time around, we explored further into the academy. :) for more info, click here.

the cravings on the story of "Water Margin", it's the part "Three attacks on Zhu Family Village". :D very skillful right?

the walk way...or corridor as u call it. :D

some snap shot of the one of the halls inside...

this is amazing. observe the white thingy behind the magnifying glass. it's an elephant bone.

they actually craved on it. they can craved on a rice! so cool!

this, is made of elephant tasks and bones...i know, someone is going to sound, but let's look at it from the art perspective? :)

that's the handsome guy, again.

yea, the front view. :)

Prom Night

I remembered having a Chinese prom night when I was in my first year in the university. It was my first prom night and I kind of enjoyed it. The prom night was of different concept and we actually gathered around together in a club and everything was done there, including all the food and dancing. We even had a price giving ceremony for the king and queen!

Then, some juniors in the university organized a masked prom night when I was in my third year. The theme of the night was masquerade custom so everyone who attended was required to themselves with a face mask. So we actually saw various Face Masks around! I even saw some Venetian Masks around! That was so amazing! Due to that, I actually had a tough time figuring out my peers and even my date because we promised to meet at the prom night instead of going there together. That was a bad idea especially in a masquerade prom night.

However, we enjoyed ourselves and the night was impressively memorable. The juniors did a great job and we appreciated it a lot. I guess that would be the last prom night I ever attended during my university life.