Hey, I guess I went to China or something, huh?
I never actually forgot about writing that up, but.. you know. Stuff. Lately I've been wanting to finish that off, so I'll get started on it. For now, here's a few random pictures. Unfortunately, while I was handling the camcorder, it was my mother handling the camera, and our philosophies on recording trips are different. I tend to prefer taking pictures of where I am. My mom prefers taking pictures of her (and her fellow tourists) where she is. So the still pictures tend to have my idiot face in them, or someone else, when I think y'all would much rather see the location and artifacts and so forth. I'm going to try to get some different images by taking stills out of the video I took, but these will have to do for the time being.
This was taken within the walls of one of many temples we visited. I'll remember which one when I do the write-up. You'll notice the walls are a brilliant yellow. Having red walls was reserved for the imperial palaces, red being an important color representing wealth, fortune, happiness, and so on. Yellow was also an important royal color, for divinity and authority. It was the Emperor's personal chambers that had yellow roofs. The Emperor of the time of this temple had a great respect for Buddhism and the monks, so they were allowed to use yellow for their walls.
This is the leaning tower of Tiger Hill, a pagoda built in Suzhou, along with the famous gardens of Tiger Hill. It's leaning because when they built it, it was positioned so that half of it was on stone (that's good) and half of it was on dirt (that's bad). Over time it started to tilt. It was shored up to be secure, but it's always been a bit crooked since.
Lingering in the Lingering Garden of Suzhou. This is in the penzai garden. Penzai, the practice of keeping, cultivating, and shaping trees into dwarf plants, would eventually be brought to the Japanese, who found the art fascinating. They would come to learn the art, take it very seriously, and eventually refine their own styles to be what we know today as "bonsai", the term derived from the Chinese name for it.
There's a story behind this one, I'll write about it later. Sitting in one of the Forbidden City's many courtyards, trying to get a sketch of a gate before the tour moves on. Someone seems to have taken an interest... a future artist, maybe?
Anyway, a preview using some of the pics that had something else in them that was reasonably interesting. I'll try to get more in soon, and maybe this journal will be only about 70% whining.
This was taken within the walls of one of many temples we visited. I'll remember which one when I do the write-up. You'll notice the walls are a brilliant yellow. Having red walls was reserved for the imperial palaces, red being an important color representing wealth, fortune, happiness, and so on. Yellow was also an important royal color, for divinity and authority. It was the Emperor's personal chambers that had yellow roofs. The Emperor of the time of this temple had a great respect for Buddhism and the monks, so they were allowed to use yellow for their walls.
This is the leaning tower of Tiger Hill, a pagoda built in Suzhou, along with the famous gardens of Tiger Hill. It's leaning because when they built it, it was positioned so that half of it was on stone (that's good) and half of it was on dirt (that's bad). Over time it started to tilt. It was shored up to be secure, but it's always been a bit crooked since.
Lingering in the Lingering Garden of Suzhou. This is in the penzai garden. Penzai, the practice of keeping, cultivating, and shaping trees into dwarf plants, would eventually be brought to the Japanese, who found the art fascinating. They would come to learn the art, take it very seriously, and eventually refine their own styles to be what we know today as "bonsai", the term derived from the Chinese name for it.
There's a story behind this one, I'll write about it later. Sitting in one of the Forbidden City's many courtyards, trying to get a sketch of a gate before the tour moves on. Someone seems to have taken an interest... a future artist, maybe?
Anyway, a preview using some of the pics that had something else in them that was reasonably interesting. I'll try to get more in soon, and maybe this journal will be only about 70% whining.