Chrysanthemum Festival in Xiaolan

Xiaolan is located in the south of China in Quandong Province and is well known for manufacture of locks, gas stoves and audio equipment. By way of contrast, chrysanthemums have been grown here since the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), festivals celebrating the flower have been held since 1814 and are now an annual event. Now the display in autumn has tens of thousands of pots laid out in gardens, on buildings and in sculptures in a vast exhibition area.

Chrysanthemums bloom in autumn and forecast the coming of winter. The blooms feature in what is known as bird-and-flower painting in Chinese art, along with plum blossoms, orchids and bamboo - collectively known as the four gentlemen and representing the four seasons (plum for winter, orchid for spring, bamboo for summer and chrysanthemum for autumn). The festival is enjoyed by many thousands of people.

This year the Festival also celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen in 1866 - a Chinese physician and revolutionary, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China in 1912.

School children admire the display

One of many hundreds of varieties

GOELIA Concept 225

China is full of surprises and this is one of them. GOELIA Concept 225 is housed in a traditional Qilou building that was transformed in 1948 into its current form. It has five floors including a flower shop, art gallery and cafe. It is located on Beijing Lu in Guangzhou. Images are from the gallery section.

Outside of the building

Staircase with mural

Inside looking out

Scooter

Quirky building-scape

How photography was done

Chimelong Ocean Kingdom - Zhuhai

Just when you think you cannot see anything new you find something where you say WOW! Such is the case with this theme park featuring marine animals and those from polar regions.

Very large aquarium with whale sharks, rays and assorted fish

Arctic wolves in the polar exhibition

Fun for everyone

Outdoor performance on the lake

Night parade

Kengkou Village, Jiangmen

Traditional villages in China have been progressively replaced by growing cities. But remnants remain such as this one. An irony is that the villages live in nearby high rise apartments and rent out their homes in the village to workers from outside the province employed on infrastructure projects in the city.

A rather toxic looking pool with reflections of the surrounding high rise apartments

Father and son working their garden

Every bit of space is used

Shelter and storage area

Children playing under a watchful eye

Kaiping

Kaiping County in Guangdong province has many diaolous mainly built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Dialous are watchtowers that were used for protection against roving bandits. Thousands of people from Kaiping travelled to and lived in other countries and bringing back with them ideas about western building styles, and then melded these with local architectural styles, both as dialous and residences. See UNESCO site and this detailed article

This post show examples of the villages, diaolous, and residences in this part of China.

Jinjianli

I like the complex outline of this building which is so different from traditional Chinese architecture.

Li Garden

This magnificent set of buildings and garden was built in in 1936 by Mr. Xie Weili, a Chinese emigrant to the United States.

Zili Village

A village set in rice fields - very picturesque 

Liang's Garden, Foshan, Quangdong Province, China

This was built by the Liang family built in the first half of the 19th century and is a good example of landscaping and gardens in southern China. At the time It would have been a marvellous place to grow up.

High Rise Living

High rise developments at Tin Shui Wai in the New Territories, Hong Kong, taken from the Tang Clan Gallery, Ping Shan Heritage Trail.

The Tang clan moved to this area of China in the early part of the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 960-1127). They have lived here ever since. At that time it was a beautiful valley with rivers flowing through it, surrounded by mountains - somewhat different now.

Looking at this scene I wondered about the people that live in these buildings - their beginnings, their families, their hopes and dreams, the dramas and moments of celebration in their lives, and their deaths.

At regular intervals trains go by. Where are the travellers going to, coming from - what are they thinking, feeling, reading?

How many stories can be told and are untold?