Sanya: Picturize ALL the things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Behold ... Kanuckistani on walkabout.  It's often a lonely business, picturizing ALL the things; one has a tendency to fall behind when part of a group...



Happily, I am now picturizing ALL the things with my heart's delight by my side, as you see us here - being awesome.

I shall begin with sniblets from the folder I like to call "Cultural Tourism ZONES" ...



It's creepy.  It's arresting.  It's the kind of shit I LIVE for when clicking the shutter.  It's also a prime indicator that one has entered a "Cultural Tourism ZONE" ... o_O.  We did not don the "Cultural Tourism ZONE" uniform, and may have been somewhat ostracized as a result - at least by those who did so don it in matching herds. No matter.  We soldiered on, picturizing the cultural tourism undaunted.



... we searched madly for the door of non-duality, because HE thought the Leafs might actually have a shot at the Stanley Cup this year if we walked through it thinking happy blue and white thoughts.  As it turned out, we'd already gone through it and just hadn't noticed it at the time.  Life and doors of non-duality are funny that way.  Little does HE know that the Buddha was referring to the kind of non-duality that occurs when both the Leafs AND the Habs win the cup after an infinite number of over-time periods and drink from it in riotous celebration of freedom from suffering for all sentient beings - together... 
... LOL.





I have never seen a gigantic disembodied hand situated so exquisitely in all my born days.  Never.







The central pillar of this particular cultural tourism zone - a 108 metre tall Buddha with four faces.  Pretty impressive.  The clouds really got together to help out with the picturizing of the drama.  Thanks, clouds.



Just a few of the 33 Buddhas ... or one Buddha of many moods. 



Buddhist supplies conveniently arrayed amidst frequent opportunities to pray.  Why not?  Buy ALL the things.  Perhaps this is more of the non-duality heralded by the aforementioned door.  I don't quite know what to make of the endless quantities of Buddhist supplies on offer, but it was all very shiny.



Thus ends this picturized slice of Cultural Tourism ZONE#1.

I will take a short break to head out in search of a pot of yogurt and with any luck a vegetable or an orange, although I'm not counting on it.  CQ ren really like to put their feet up during the week of relentless explodings and I can't blame them.  They work hard.  Yesterday we subsisted on some cheese and a delicious heap of our gan ma's homemade dumplings, and we'll do it again if we have to.  Woe is us 

"picturizing" ?? What next? Kipling? Do you like Kipling? "I don't know. I've never Kippled!"
Anyway, as far as picturizing goes, you"ve nailed it, Maifeilan.   

  Hey thanks, George! 

All hail the transitive verb 'picturize'! Credit for this choice of word goes to my mister's brain. We had come upon some rather amusing signage and himself pulled out his phone and said, "I'm going to picturize THAT." It caught on with us you might say... without further adieu then:

天涯海角 - Tiānyá Hǎijiǎo - "Edge of Heaven, Corner of the Sea"















As it happens, I too love me some rocks. Visiting a temple complex in Chengdu (I think it was) a couple of years ago, I was as delighted as anyone by a pile of stones collected entirely because of their striking resemblance to bite-sized pieces of raw meat. A park devoted to really big rocks and touching them to insure a variety of happy circumstances is right up my street. Throw in a blue sky and a warm breezy shoreline; I'm there.  That last one simultaneously reminds me of a tulip and the giant sand worms in Asimov's Dune novels.



Already a huge fan of the gentlemanly willingness of Chinese dudes to carry the wife/girlfriend's handbag (around their necks even), I was no less charmed to discover that in sun drenched cultural tourism ZONES where towering stacks of ridiculous sunhats are sold by the hundred, when a lady is insufficiently shaded by her maozi and needs to break out the sunbrella, her fella will happily serve as full-on ambulatory coat rack.  Bless 'im.



This seems like the right spot to end this chapter ... there are a few other shots of historic personages rendered in stone on the other side of the park.  If we've seen one of those we've seen 623,000 of them, eh? The one of the infamous monk Jian Zhen is pretty good I guess ...



The Tang dynasty monk Jian Zhen gained his place in history by investing some 10 years of his life in 6 attempts to reach Japan. He had been invited to do missionary work there by a delegation of Japanese monks. Accounts say he was beset by government interference as well as natural disaster. His third effort was thrown off course by heavy winds, and the ship drifted for 14 days. Those aboard survived on rice and water, finally landing on Hainan island. Jian Zhen stayed awhile and helped to rebuild a temple before resuming his mission to Japan which finally succeeded with his 6th attempt in 754 AD... I think this sculpture is a particularly fine example of working with the local stone - great colours.

   





 

Maifeilan, thanks for taking the time to "picturize" all the things!   As I look at the technology now, I wonder how things will progress over the next 50 years? My husband used to love taking photos which ended up as slides and we would spend time with other family members and have slide nights when they would be shown on the slide projector. These are now stored in my shipping container and I wonder what my grandsons and great grand children will make of them when they are eventually unearthed if they survive the storage. I think it is really great and important to be able to look back on photos because life goes by much too quickly.

Hi Mae ... you know - my Dad was also a fanatic slide wheel filler in the sixties and early seventies when our generation of the family was young. The projector and screen were set up in the living room every Christmas ... we went through the wheels in the customary order, from the first when my older sister was the central focus down to the last one or two in the mid-seventies. I recall quite vividly the sound of the projector fan and the wheel turning to the next slide... stock responses to certain slides evolved. I was the baby and had to wait what felt like a thousand years for my fat little baby face to appear. My mother would say, "Awww, there's little Feilan" EVERY TIME.  My brother and sister would yell out "Dent-head!" - their nickname for me when I was a baby (something to do with the softspot on my noggin)... it was a funny ritual, reliving and retelling stories... I miss that.  It's a nice memory.

chapter 3 - THE BEACH:

We walked all over it. We laid about on it. We dug in it. We conducted a few experiments with rum and coconuts with straws in them ... these, alas, were costly.  We reverted to deliciously chill local beers. We swam in the warm salt of the South China sea marveling like only those who have only swum in the North Atlantic marvel at such tepid waves...



WHAT the...? o_O ... beach rabbit? Dude in a rabbit suit, unaffiliated with any business of any sort as far as you could tell, not handing out brochures, appeared out of NOWHERE. His pelt was well worn but well kept. As he strolled along he waved at everyone and shook hands with anyone. He didn't ask for money.  He wasn't selling anything. He was - perfectly - random.

We like to imagine that every day, as the golden hour unfolds, this fellow finishes his tea, climbs into his rabbit suit, and sets out on his evening constitutional. The strangest thing was - we never saw him again ...O_o.



This was my first of two diggings ... great fun! I was delighted with how many folks would stop to chat, critique, advise - even pitch right in! This was such a different experience from any I've had playing on an east coast beach. A woman with two kids hunkered down to help build a couple of the sun's rays, the kids peppering me with questions ... "Aiyi,...? Aiyi,...?" They didn't stick around to see it finished, so I didn't get their picture. Even that struck me - just putting a hand in it for awhile, having an encounter, then carrying on with their walk - was enough.





This couple were really sweet. Her English was pretty darn polished, and we had a good ol' chat.





The nose garnered lots of discussion and more than one person got their picture taken touching or pointing at it



Our last day finally landed and we spent it beach side. When the sun had passed it's zenith, I went looking for the snake.









Of course, I wasn't the only kid playing in the sand ...





... quite a bit of carefully orchestrated zaniness ...







... the squid kite ...





... and sunsets ...













 

Great to see the things you are showing me. Thanks!   Perhaps the bunny is a "missing person" who does not want to be found, but who still wants to have fun.

Your "whyfor random beach rabbit?" theory is very compelling - if true - random beach rabbit and I have a LOT in common ...  o_O I need to visit a tailor ....!

I'm glad to share my pictures with anybody who cares to gander at them.  Without an outlet like this, I might become one of those insufferables who corners their friends on a couch and forces them to squirm politely through a picturized monologue about their trip to ______ ...  ...

chapter 4 - Sanya Streets: coming SOON (...presently downloading an adobe plug-in so I can play with some shots I took yesterday ... *someone* just put an extra squeeze on the intranet choke hold... it's sloooooooooooooooooooooooooo-ow.  )

Maifelan, when you took the photo of the "ambulatory coat rack" guy, I'll bet you never thought that some older ladies in a Casino in Brisbane would be talking about it.   The ladies found it amusing and almost unbelievable that an Asian man would actually do something like that. I wasn't able to show them the photo because I am technologically incompetent. This was sparked by our seeing a young Islander looking bloke with huge muscles, walking around in the Casino yesterday carrying a single red rose. Yeah, he had a bird in tow and we were trying to figure out if he was holding it for her, or if she gave it to him.