Hong Kong Street Photography

All of the pictures here were taken from the Hong Kong Central and Mid-Level escalators.

Pedestrian traffic at the intersection of the escalators and a cross street.

In Asian cities there is no space – outside for a clothes line, or inside for a dryer. Laundry drying on a balcony is a typical sight.

The construction site on the right is protected by razor wire and construction fallout is kept from landing on the escalators by a bamboo and plastic bib.

A cross street that ran under the escalators/walkways.

Better in Black and White?

Next Chinese post: More Hong Kong Street Photography

Hong Kong by Night

After the harbour light show we walked back to the Metro (called, in English, MTR.)

What are you preparing for?

Large lighted sculpture of cartoon characters. You can see how big they are by the size of the people walking around the edges of the platform.

We had to walk up a major shopping street to get to the Metro…

A luxury shopping neighbourhood.

In tropical and sub-tropical countries, orchids abound. But to a northerner, seeing them in flower boxes or growing wild, it seems very exotic.

Urban flower pots in a hot climate.

This photo was taken before the light show as we walked back down from Victoria Peak (previous post) to get the Star Ferry (previous post) back to Kowloon.

In many cities I find the surname of my kids, and think they may appreciate a photo.

Riverside Zhongshan

Nothing on the agenda. How nice just to wander.

Our hotel in Zhongshan was near a pedestrian bridge over the river – which we crossed. We found a trade fair (no photos) and a clean peaceful neighbourhood. One wonders where all the people were.

The building design was modern but ordinary.

A working man and his boat

Next Chinese post: Street photography – aaah there are some of the people.

Watery Hotel

Lijiang Hotel, Guilin

No, the ceiling did not leak, and there was no moat around the front, but somewhere in this hotel was a mega-sized water pump.

Every night the Lijiang Waterfall Hotel holds a light and water show off its back side. After the Impressions of Sanjie Liu show the previous night in Yangshuo it seemed pretty ho-hum, but the engineering was impressive.

Left:

Right:

Centre:

 

The neon lights in the area were also interesting.  This first shot was taken outside the restaurant where we ate supper (not in the hotel.)  I like the fact that it was an ART store, and it was the the typo created by the burned out light  that caught my eye.  I really like the composition and the colours.

Behind and beside the hotel:

 

The facade of the hotel: the stripes changed colour every few seconds.

The stripes gradually changed colour every few seconds.

Only twice did I try to shoot the interior of a hotel, and the other time it didn’t work!

Next Chinese post, we move on to Guangzhou

The Tourists of Guilin

Ride the stone elephant near Elephant Trunk Hill.

Would you be hanging about this park with all its tourists if you lived here?  Though it was beautiful, clean, well maintained and cooler than the centre of a city, you’d probably wait until after the crowds had subsided.

I cringe when I look at this photo, and I was cringing as I took the photo hoping not to see the toddler crashing off the statue.

This toddler is also having fun, but safely.

It was quite hot, so lots of folks were wading in the river.

The family that wades together, gets sick together?

A close up of the previous group. I had visions of them all falling down together.

They were renting costumes (I did’t notice any for boys). We had seen this before in Beijing in the Forbidden City.

And finally today, another interesting English translation of a sign. Actually the graphic says it all without the need for either language.

Please notice the punctuation. Two commas, an exclamation mark and a period. I didn’t realize they used punctuation in China!

If I seem a bit jaded today it’s because it’s beautiful outside but I’ve been on my computer all day doing various tasks for the organizations I’m involved with, and adding blog posts for future use.

Next post: Night time in Guilin.

Chongqing Street Photography

At least one pig isn’t flying.

All flying! But no pigs.

Giant pinwheels.

At the intersection of the two major streets making up this shopping precinct was a giant monument, which also shows up in the first photo in the previous post. It must have been a meeting place, because most people were scanning the swirling crowd.

Waiting for ….

I don’t recall seeing food vendors on the high-end pedestrian streets, but there must have been at least one just beyond where our bus was parked. The next two photos were taken from the bus window before we pulled away from Chongqing. The girl with the hat caught my eye and grinned.

A style of her own!

At least the garbage was in the bin!

Next China post – Chongqing children

Final of Fengdu, China

While looking for background for some later posts, I found this web page on Fengdu which I think is a better reference than in an earlier post.

 

In an earlier post I commented on the neat flower displays that didn’t seem to get vandalized. However, Fengdu was generally dirty and scruffy. The incense container being used as an ashtray (below) is in contrast to those I saw in other sacred sites. And Chinese people smoke a lot.

In keeping with the run-down theme.

Some parts of the Ghost City were rather decrepit.
But the blue was eye-catching.

A colourful corner.

Fellow tourists on Sinorama Bus 2 may find themselves in this picture:

To the right of this line of people was the diorama about souls in hell.

Once we left the main site, we walked through vendors, and I was taken by this family preparing fruit, especially the smile on the boy’s face.

One member of this family has had enough for one day!

I thought these were rather cute and considered buying one for my 5 year old granddaughter, but didn’t think they would make it home undamaged.

The English in this one is right, for a change!

Next posts: Toronto, Canada

San Francisco – Street Photography

I was only in downtown San Francisco once during our February 2014 visit. We rode the street car past a hotel or hostel where chairs were set out on the edge of the sidewalk.

Taken from the N Judah street car from 9th Avenue to downtown.

Upon arriving on Market Street we hiked uphill to California Street. Whew.  The wait for the famous San Francisco street cars was quite short, but we needed the exercise.

Climbing uphill.

After we visited Grace Cathedral, we walked back down to Market Street. There was a three-alarm fire that day at an auto body repair shop in the Bayview District. We noticed the smoke as we walked.

Going downhill from the visit at Grace Cathedral.

Where there’s smoke…

Ironic that one of the few photos I took was of a water hydrant?

Grin.

Taken because my community theatre group in Prince Edward Island is also called ACT (a community theatre)!

We had lunch at Salt House, where we had eaten on by birthday almost exactly four years before.

Lunch, sitting at the bar at Salt House, a restaurant I would highly recommend.

Every now and then I get the opportunity to have a picture of me.

BuntyMcC self portrait with Pentax K20.

Next post: Pacifica, CA

Chinese Calligraphy and Art

Did not note the artist.

I love Chinese calligraphy and ink drawings.  I spent much of my time at the Shanghai Museum in the galleries devoted to that type of art.

Chan chun – Flowers in ink – 1544 (Ming)

Mei Qing – Scenery of the Yellow Mountain ~1650 (Qing)

Huang Shen – Peony – 1745 (Qing)

Wang Shishen – Flowers – first half of 1700’s (Qing)

Wang Shishen – Flowers – first half of 1700’s (Qing)

Wang Shishen – Flowers – first half of 1700’s (Qing)

Wang Shishen – Flowers – first half of 1700’s (Qing)

Qi Huang- Seven Cocks – 1864-1957 – Qin and after

Qi Huang- Seven Cocks (detail) – 1864-1957 – Qin and after

This last brush artist, (2 photos above) who lived into the middle of the 20th century, either used bolder colours, or, because his work is not as old, the inks have not faded. I wonder which.

Self explanatory – and applies to the last two photos.

Buddhist stele. 6th C.

Buddhist stele.

Next Post – More Shanghai street photography.

Street Photos from The Bund

Odds and ends from mid-afternoon in Shanghai.

Taken while waiting for the rest of our group to return to the bus. If I thought I could grow this at home, I’d look up the name, but I can’t so I didn’t.

Strolling on the embankment.

A group of young adults posing for a group photo. There’s one in every crowd….(she’s holding her sign upside down)

Almost makes me want to try some!

Wedding photos or a Chanel commercial photo shoot?

The guys with the hard hats were sure enjoying this.

Next post: Fishing in Pudong