Spirited Away
Howl’s Moving Castle
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Avatar
Winged Creatures
Interception
Babel
So, we are on vacation right now. The Chinese Lunar New Year is approaching on Februrary 14, which is like the equivilent of the Western world’s Chirstmas. My friend Sam from Britian and I have been skateboarding every day. I brought my skateboard to China and he bought one here. He’s a decent skater, has been for his whole life, and he’s teaching me the ways of a skater.
First, you have to learn the language: Ollie, Shove It, Fakie, Nollie, Frontside Shove It, Switch, Backside Shove It, Fakie 180, Backside 180, Kickflip, Heelflip, Manual, Riding Goofy, Riding Regular, etc. Second, you have to learn the technique. Skating is all about technique: balance, foot placement, and focus. Third, you have to practice. Practice, practice, practice. Every day, practice.
The cool thing about skating is that you actually get better. There is a Chinese saying that reminds me of this. Every Chinese student knows this. It is posted in all the classrooms, and if you begin to say the phrase, they will chime in. It goes:
好好学习，天天向上
Hao Hao Xue Xi, Tian Tian Xiang Shang
Translation: “Good Good Study, Day Day Up”
My intrepretation: everyday use your mind and be productive.
Skating is about the mental game. You have to be sharp, focused, on point, ready to take risks. You have to be able to trust your body and mind. You have to use your judgement, and think fast. You have to be confident. You have to be cool. You have to be disciplined, and well-trained. You have to be yourself. You have to know yourself. You have to push yourself. You have to be somebody else. You have to wear a helmet. You have to be in shape. You have to exercise. You have to see your skateboard as a tool. You have to know your tool. You have to use the tools you have. You have to respect the tools you have. You have to love being outside. You have to love wasting time. You have to drink water. You have to keep a mean face. You have to keep a game face. You have to love being a superstar. You have to love being yourself. You have to love what you are doing. You have to love skating.
Peace.
Honestly, I eat a shitload of peanuts everyday. I found out by reading Wikipedia that China is the world’s largest producer of peanuts, and because they are so readily available, cheap, and most importantly, taste familiar, I eat a lot of them each day.. I’d sayon average about 50 peanuts. In China, they come in all sizes and flavors. My friend from Australia said the ones I was eating this past weekend tasted like garlic. I prefer the cheap ones 5 yuan/half-kilo. So about $1.50 for a kilo (big ass bag) of shelled, roasted peanuts. You can buy them anywhere, but I ALWAYS taste one from each bag because like I said they taste different. Sometimes, when I’m eating them, the peanut was cracked open in the ground and I get a big mouthful of dirty instead of a peanut. Now, I’ve learned to be selective by actually looking at the nut before I eat it.
Anyways, peanuts are very nutritious. You should eat more nuts!
I went to Emei Shan (Emei Mountain, 峨眉山 ) during the Spring Festival holiday. I had a good feeling for good weather…. needless to say, we arrived on the clearest and most beautiful day!
Wayne and I took the 19:30PM bus from Chengdu to Emei. We arrived in Emei at night.
Woke up at 06:30 and took a bus half-way up the mountain. This was the gate to buy tickets. 150元
After about 1.5 hours, we suddenly broke above the clouds and were surrounded by blue sky in every direction.
This was the moment of decision we had been waiting for, cloudy or not. Beautiful beyond your wildest dreams.
Looking straight down!
Above the clouds!
Vertical cliff. The birds are flying UP
A sea of clouds
A monkey, Don’t fall!
Icey steps, had to purchase cramp-on spikes for our shoes.
Close to 2000 meters elevation
Me standing at a large temple before the trail begins.
Chris taking a few pictures before we start.
Wayne took the chairlift (can’t see him here)
We met Michael along the way
Ice-covered Path. Be Careful of Slippery.
Some roosters
A Buddhist monastery along the way
Gorgeous woods
Chris and Michael. Almost there!
Me and Wayne at the top
Friends
We are the best
Awesome
Mt. Gongga, the tallest mountain in China
Me posing for a picture
Some cool trees
A Red Panda! Incredible!
Getting tired
ME at the top
A glimpse of the Golden Summit!
WOW
Elephant
On top of the world
The Golden Summit
Some cool people from Chongqing
Buddha
The Silver Palace
Amazing View!
Amazing
A sea of clouds
Michael and Chris
The Golden Summit
At the top of the world
Me Excited
Relaxing for a bit
Relaxed
A monastery where the monks pray
Awesome Elephants
The view of a temple
Looking Down on the Mountains
At Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
Morning
Sunrise
Sunrise
Mission Accomplished. Emei Shan was spectacular.
I know a woman who runs a popular backpacker’s hostel in Chengdu, Sim’s Hostel. After the quake, because of its convenient location, Sim’s Hostel became a meeting and working place for many of the organizations offering relief to the disaster area. Maki invited me to come visit some friends who live in the disaster area, after I had expressed some interest in the earthquake. I was curious to know more, and since I had never experienced an earthquake, she invited me to go with them one Saturday. You can read about the actual earthquake on wikipedia.org. The town we visited was in Mianyang City, about 2.5 hours from Chengdu via minibus. For the most part, the highways were very clear, it was only when we got into the country that the roads became bumpy and unpredictable.
When we arrived, the family we were visiting had prepared us a large lunch. We spent most of the day outside, lighting fireworks with the kids and staying warm near a fire. I was feeling adventurous and did a little hiking on the terraced hills that had been cultivated to grow all sorts of vegetables. The small village probably only had 500-1000 people and was located in a valley, surrounded on both sides by large mountains, that were generally unhabited, except for the first 500 meters was had been turned into farm land. The soil in the valley was wet, and agriculture was very important.
The houses had almost all been rebuilt. Maki and a few others that went with us had helped them enormously with the rebuilding process. They had stayed in the village and worked there for weeks with the local families. The new houseses were very nice and seemed comfortable. Our host’s house had a tv, stereo, a nice leather furniture and glass coffee table, and tiled floors. Most other houses seemed the same. They had constructed a brick factory for making bricks, because of the demand for bricks. Most of the old houses were wooden with slate roofs, all the new houses were brick with tiled walls and floors. The focus of the village was still farming though. Here are some of the pictures. I would like to learn more about the familiy, personally, and would like to go back some time.
Mountain terrain
Hill side temples
An old bridge
Rubble
A warm welcome
Looking at pictures
Daily life
Family
这个是鸭子 “Zhege shi yazi” (this is a duck)
Annie and Old man
认识你很高兴 “renshi ni hen gaoxing” (it’s very nice to meet you)
Family
The school I work for in Chengdu is called SanYuan WaiGuoYu XueXiao （三原外国语学校） which means SanYuan Foreign Languages School. It is located in a ’suburb’ of Chengdu city（成都市）called XinDu Qu （新都区）. The school has Primary, Middle, and High School and is very famous and many kids from Sichuan come here. It is a private school, and the students stay in dorms on campus. From my understanding of college education, the dorms are probably bunkbeds with about 8 students per room with a sink and area to hang their clothes. The girls and boys dorimtorys are strictly seperated. There is a school cafeteria that is between the primary and middle/high school campus. The students will eat all their meals there, and spend the rest of the day in the classrooms. They have a 2 hour lunch/nap break at noon. Sometimes they will be in class untill 22:00. Here are just a few pictures I have taken recently of the school.
Primary School. I teach on the 3rd on 4th floors, almost every classroom
On top of my apartment building, can dry your clothes or plant vegetables
A view of the construction accross the river from us
The road our school is on, about a 10 minute walk
The view from my apartment
Cafeteria ahead, middle/high school dorms on the right
Dorms on the right, Middle/high school classrooms ahead
Bridge, reflection
Big leaves on a tree
San Yuan
Wayne, Anna, Bob, Me (Anna is Bob’s wife, she is chinese)
Wayne, Anna, Bob, Me (Wayne is 59, Anna 40 something, Bob 63, Me 24
The back side of our building, teacher’s apartments
Someone sent me this link in a Chinese QQ chat room about photography. This area is in Beijing. Use Google Toolbar to translate. http://yangyunzhong.blshe.com/post/5646/384331
Dujiangyan (都江堰) is a town about 50km north west of Chengdu city. I planned a day trip there one day when I was not scheduled to have class. The bus ride took about 45 minutes and was very smooth. There is a large high-speed highway between Chengdu and Dujiangyan, which makes it a perfect day trip. The city is famous for its massive irrigation project that took place nearly 2000 years ago and is primarily responsible for the growth and development of Sichuan, Chengdu. Dujiangyan was effected by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. I didn’t go to the irrigation project, but I took some pictures of what the city looks like today, over 1 year after the earthquake.
Collasped Agricultural Bank of China
Collapsed Agricultural Bank of China
Damaged Roadway
Rebuilding
Vacant Buildings
Damaged BuildingDamaged Building, notice the four minority symbols on the building
Ancient Temple, large mountain in the background
Repainting a Famous Bridge
Removing the rubble, notice the minority symbols on the gate
Each piece of steel has to be hand extracted from the cement
How the buildings get broken down
Cold and blue river
A large amount of cold water flowing very quickly
Destroyed Buildings
Destroyed Buildings, who chose?
Who chose?
The Sichuan Coca-Cola bottling factory is in the town I live. It’s cool because all the tiny shops adjactent to the factory have huge Coca-Cola signs and have drinks in all size there. I like to go there to buy beverages because I know it’s fresh.
Sichuan Coca-Cola bottling plant（四川省新都区可口可乐）
Finding the Hyperfocal distance is important in photography when you want to maximize the ‘depth of field’ (DOF). I use this technique very often because I like for my photos to be very sharp and have the maximum depth of field.
There is a great online resource that will help you calculate the Hyperfocal distance at any lens aperature. DOF printable charts http://www.dofmaster.com/files/charts/samplecharts.pdf.
To find the hyperfocal distance, you need to know 1) the focal distance of the lens you are using (eg~ 50mm) and 2) the current or desired aperature setting of the lens. By using the previous chart, you can find the ‘hyperfocal distance’. This is the distance at which you want to focus your lens, to have the maximum DOF for that aperature setting.
Example, referring to the chart above, I have 35mm film camera. My lens is 50mm and I like to use an aperature setting of f/22. According to the chart for 35mm cameras, at 50mm and f/22 the hyperfocal distance is about 12ft. That means I need to focus my camera an an object that is 12ft away. Everything from -half- the hyperfocal distance, 6ft, to infinity, will be infocus and sharp.
There is an easy trick to do this. If your lens has a distance meter on top, just turn the focus so that Infinity matches with the aperature setting you are using. So, if you are shooting at f/11 then turn the lens so Inifity lines up with f/11 on the lens. Then set your aperature and shoot.
Depth of Field @ 50mm f/22
