Xi'an

 Xi'an (pronounced shee-AHN' and meaning "Peace in the West" in English) is a Chinese city in the middle of the country on the central plateau.  It is China's oldest city and its first capital.  

An ancient city wall surrounds the original part of the city.  It was built under the rule of the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang,  the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), as a military defense system.

In 1974 farmers in the countryside outside Xi'an were digging for a well.  They struck big terra cotta objects.  The farmers reported them to the government, which sent in archaeologists, who discovered a huge group of buried terracotta figures.  Come back tomorrow for more about the Terracotta Warriors.  

Acrobats

 We went to an acrobat show.  It was dazzling.  Because of the darkness and the fast movement, I tried only a few iPhone photographs.  They barely scratch the surface of the talent of the acrobats. 

A man on a trapeze performed many moves with a woman before lowering her into the water.  She swam for a bit, then he picked her up and they continued the performance together.

A dancer performed at first with two white birds.  By the end she had eight birds .

Capturing the action was too blurry, but their final line-up is clear enough to show.

Two acrobats balanced and performed a variety of leaps on flexible boards, each held by a pair of big men.  In this image, one of the acrobats was propelled into the air from one board, where he completed a forward roll before successfully landing on the other board.

Six acrobats rolled and threw rings and dived through them in increasingly difficult maneuvers.  

Those images were blurred by the fast action, so I am showing their stances as they took applause.

Thank you.  Great show.

Zhujiajiao Canals

 

Zhuijiajiao is maybe 45 minutes out of Shanghai.  It is an old town with many winding stone pathways and bridges, and homes, cafes, and shops lined up on the riverbanks.  We took a boat ride with a man who propelled us by pushing a long pole.

Zhujiajiao dates back about 1700 years.

Many of the old residences have been converted to shops, which we explored after the boat ride.  

Before the boat ride, we visited a garden created a long time ago by a wealthy resident of Zhujiajiao.

After lunch, we visited the site of a former opera house.

Sailing the South China Sea

 Sailing last week off Guangdong Province between Hong Kong and Xiamen on a cloudy day, the horizon was lined for miles with dozens of windmills between the ship and the shore.  These are just a few.

Later in the same day, we moved on from the wind farms.  The sun poked through a bit and the clouds were more interesting.

The theme for October for City Daily Photo participants is "Blue."  Click here to see other interpretations.

Shanghai Harbor

The colorful skyline of Shanghai from the balcony of my stateroom.  Pretty, isn't it?

Daishan Performances

 

We watched a segment of a Chinese opera.  A woman in a yellow dress was the protagonist.  She was very loud and seemed angry.

The most fun was watching a one woman puppet show.

As we left, three men performed to music in front of large rectangles with blue digital displays.

The local people had not seen Westerners in years.  We were only the second group to pass through since China partially re-opened to tourism after the pandemic, so locals stood on the side of roads and took cellphone photos of us.  I asked this man if I could photograph him, and he kindly consented.

Daishan

 Zhoushan is the largest island in an archipelago with nearly 1400 islands.  Daishan is a smaller island connected to Zhoushan by long bridges and tunnels.  Daishan is a major fishing port in the East China Sea.

We were greeted by red lion dancers.  After a while we were invited to join the dance, which I did.  (Fortunately, there is no photographic record.)

We visited a museum displaying some fish and marine mammals found offshore.  A sturgeon and a seal.

Walking from the museum to our next destination, we passed some streets with red lanterns above, then we passed a building with a mural illustrating a night scene with red lanterns.  

Donghai Beidiao Art Museum

 When we reached the post of Dongtou, an island off Wenzhou, China, on the South China Sea, it had been raining for two days.  I was glad to be inside, visiting the Donghai Shell Carving Art Museum.  It turned out to be a fun and fascinating place.

 The museum displays a variety of objects with shell carvings, objects using mother of pearl for inlays, and objects with other materials as inlays.  This very big and intricately carved shell shows five fierce  dragons around the perimeter and another inside.  Zoom in to enjoy it up close.

Here is a second intricately carved shell of similar size.  Both are at least two feet wide.

Isn't this a gorgeous piece?

How about this one?

This is a smaller round piece with lovely iridescent inlay.

There are four or five large rooms displaying classical wood furniture with wonderful inlays.

When the museum tour ended, we went into an adjoining workshop.  On the tables there were small black boxes with line patterns already etched, with flower shapes carved out, and with small pre-cut shell pieces.  We brushed gold paint into the lines and hunted the shell pieces to glue into the flower patterns.  We then rubbed the surface carefully with alcohol to remove the excess.  This is my box.  How did I do?

Haitan Not-So-Ancient City

 Pingtan Island is on the far eastern edge of Fujian Province, projecting into the South China Sea.  It is the closest point to Taiwan on the mainland.  Settled back in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), it had an important military and maritime role for China in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912).

We visited Haitan Ancient City outside Pingtan expecting, oddly enough, an ancient city.  Wrong.  It was constructed in 2015 as a tourist destination.   Admittedly, some elements like this main gate are attractive and impressive.

As is a tower at the end of a long walkway past shops.

But, all was not lost.  There is a good museum -- the Haitan Coastal Defense Museum -- with artifacts relating to Pingtan's role as an important base for the Chinese navy.  This huge replica warship occupies three floors in the center of the museum.

Departing Xiamen

The port of Xiamen at night is wonderfully colorful.  The bridge is lit.  Excursion boats compete for color.  

The buildings along the way are brilliantly lit with changing scenes of birds, trees, balloons, Chinese characters or just brilliant colors.

Small still photographs can't convey how exciting and jazzy the constantly moving color displays were.