a month in taiwan, 2019 - part 1

Part 1 was in Taipei, arrived from a flight from Portland, connecting in Vancouver to Taipei via Air Canada. This series of posts are foodie photo heavy, and light on text.

asia trip, 2011 - hong kong

It is such a distant memory now. As far as I can recall this was my last top of my Asian trip in the winter of 2010 and 2011.

asia trip, 2011 - xian part 3

Most of these photos were taken in the Muslim Quarter in Xian, with many taken in the Muslim temple. The folks in the temple were camera shy but they were very kind. Muslim is one of many religious minorities in China.

asia trip, 2011 - xian part 2

The lighting conditions were most difficult at the terracotta warriors excavation sites. Given the significance and the extreme labor intensive excavation and restoration work that is on going for the decades to come, I feel each photo that I took is precious. My composition, setting of the DSLR, and the pressing of the shutter is so trivial compared to the men and women that devote their lives for the preservation of some of the most important history of humanity. Each of these clay figure is life size and uniquely made after a live person.

asia trip, 2011 - xian part 1

I cannot understate the significance of seeing many of these most historic significant sites, and recalling the Chinese history classes and text books. Of all China's provinces, Xian has to be one of the most significant.

asia trip, 2010 - Suzhou part 2

There are 75 photos in this post. I only wished we stay longer in Suzhou.

asia trip, 2010 - Suzhou part 1

Suzhou has some of the best specimens of China's architecture and gardens landscaping. Many are sublime and lucky to had escaped destructions from the Cultural Revolution.

asia trip, 2010 - Shanghai part 2

Just before leaving Shanghai via high speed train to Suzhou.

asia trip, 2010 - Shanghai part 1

asia trip, 2010 - beijing part 3

There are 74 photos so knock yourself out.

asia trip, 2010 - beijing part 2

There are 70 photos in this post.

asia trip, 2010 - beijing part 1

We were there in the mid of winter, and it was bitter cold.

asia trip, 2010 - macau

Just a short stop in Macau.

cantonese slang and underworld secret phases 廣東濁語和黑社會暗號 - part 2

Very often I am in search for Cantonese written words that are commonly used in Hong Kong and Guangdong (Canton). I have written before that Cantonese, and especially those developed in Hong Kong can be very colourful often with an undercurrent of dark humor.

cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵 - part 3

This is third installment of my recent posts on Cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵.
Part 1 is here.
Part 2 is here.

cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵 - part 2

This is a continuation of my recent post on Cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵.

Having been on a diet of Western dishes recently I begun to crave some Asian food. Most of the Asian dishes I like to make tends to provide a lighter diet. I actually dislike the word diet (to DIE with a Tease) for it's common connotations. I believe if you eat real food and eat sensible proportions cuisines from different cultures prepared from fresh ingredients can be equally healthy.

cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵

Most people that have explored Chinese food in the West know about wonton soup noodle. A very good bowl of wonton soup noodle in Hong Kong typically can be found only in stores that specialized in it, at least that was how it was during the golden era of Chinese food in Hong Kong. I would put the period between post war and the nighties. These stores typically had a very small menu.

why chinese companies use number in URL

I was very puzzled the first time I noticed numbers being used in URL in China. It turns out it is very common and there are very good reasons. For non-speakers of Western language Chinese, numbers are easier to remember than URL constructed with alphabets. For example, China Mobile uses 10086 as the base part of it's URL (www.10086.cn). For regional subsites it tacks on "sh" for Shanghai and "bj" for Beijing.

cantonese slang and underworld secret phases 廣東濁語和黑社會暗號

Chinese has many dialects. Because of Mao's decreed that Mandarin is to be a national language everyone in China can speak Mandarin which also is referred to as (普通話) common language. In the name of progress of efficiency Mao also forced the people to use the simplified written language in which many words he himself designed.

macau - 2008

I was browsing through my old photo albums today. I found some photos that I had not posted previous and here they are. These are from my trip to Macau in 2008. While Macau is very small many of these photos were taken off the beaten paths of tourists.