And South Carolina

Tibet
 

Ago I could not understand why many people want to travel Tibet because the trip is very tired and a little dangerous. I know the reason when I see these good pix.

1=Lhasa River
2=Figure of Buddha

You're cheating Billy, we want to see pictures you take. ;)

In handling intruders in your home, they repercussions are generally your word against his/hers. Dead men tell no tales. :cool:

yeah. a very awful dog.is it your pet?but i think the gun is more useful

Sorry. I cannot go out because of the operation. So I posted the pix that my friends sent me. I will try to take after I recover well.
I will edit and post the pix that I took in last trip in October.

:biggrin: Ak-47 is a terrorist's standard equipment, powerful fire, cheap and very bad accuracy.so the security force don't use this weapon, they more like the Mp5..and i don't think you own it at your home because when you shooting an intruder, maybe the bullet can through the wall and kill your neighborhood in his bed and the intruder has run away as fast as he can :eek:

Kaiping LiYuan Garden
 

KaiPing LiYuan Garden. YuPei Villa is romantic in the big Garden to memorialize the garden master's dead wife.

1=YuPei Villa
2=Hostess' Dresser

The hostess' figure looks like a big Shanghai star in 1920s. She is the master's third wife and the most beautiful. The villa was built after she died.
The incense and the heating oven wait for hostess to come. I stood there and stared at the room to imagine.
1=Hostess Figure
2=Heating Oven

Beautiful pics Billy !!!!!! :)

Bars on windows - Bars on windows DO help keep robbers out , BUT , and this is a BIG BUT , if there is a fire you CAN'T jump out of the window !!!!!!!! Yes most mfgrs do supply a wrench to open the window incase of a fire , BUT who is thinking when they are woken up by smoke filling a room in the middle of the nite ?????

Guns and home defence - In Arkansas you can defend your PROPERTY as in your WHOLE porperty , yard and all , just don't use to much force . I do feel sorry for any body that breaks in to our house with us here , they WILL get a sudden case of lead poisining !!!!!

The optimal home defense weapon is the shotgun loaded with birdshot. Just the mere sight of it will scare most intruders off. And if it's dark, the sound of aggressively racking one in the chamber should do the trick. If the uninvited guest is still persistent on doing you harm, let one fly in his direction. The birdshots spread is bound to hit some flesh and usually wont penetrate more than one wall.

Eric, I really don't own an AK-47, that was a joke. But making the criminal run is the desired result. All I can say is the ends usually justify the means, as long as you don't hurt anyone else.

good idea. and i think it never need any aim at when you shoot because of it's spreading range.

yep. To hurt some one is the badest choice if we can avoid it.

The carved woodbed is a good Chinese traditional bed. On bed there is a little broken goose feather fan that hostess uesed ago.Under the bed there are two couples of shoes. From her room, the hostess had the high quality life.

Sometimes the master played the Chinese mah-jong at table with families.

Guest Room.From the chairs, the master invited many guests to home.

1=Kwan-yin
2=Droplight
Most Chinese women, including my mother, believe the Kwan-yin. I feel that the light remembers the stories and history.

Flower Vine Pavilion I like this Pavilion very much. It looks like a bamboo pavilion.

The pavilion stands, but all the masters past away.
The Incense Oven still works when I came.

Wonderful pictures, Billy! Thanks for posting them. I very much hope to visit China someday. :)

I like the pavilion too.

The geometry of the roof is interesting. The "rafters" aren't spaced evenly around the center point of the roof. The roof covers a rectagular room, so as it reaches the apex, the angles of the rafters aren't quite identical. But they are symmetrical. The lattice covering of the roof looks awkward the way it lines up against the rafters. It probably looks fine from the inside as long as you don't look up and stare directly at it. A symmetrical lattice would have been very difficult to pull off.

I'm still waiting for more pictures of beautiful women.

What is the Kwan-yin? Is it the female figure? What is the belief? Is this a common figurine?

That is very poetic. Does this lantern have something to do with Kwan-yin too, or was it just a lovely thing in the same room?

Kwan-yin was men, but afterward she changed into woman. I cannot remember the story now. She was a good Buddhist of Buddhism Founder. Many Buddhists oblate the oblate in homes and temples.

The lantern is used to light up in the room ago and has nothing with the Kwan-yin.

Bird's Nest Pavilion
 

There were lots of birds when the master lived ago. No bird lives and sing now.

Sedan Chair Ago the emperors, officers, rich people took sedan chair as traffic tool. In the wedding, the bride also sit on the sedan chair from her home to husband's home. The SC in this pic is a wedding chair.
Bellows I don't know the bellows's function becasue I just see here.

More lantern All the master's children and the last wife of the master live in the USA now.

Coir Rincoat Ago the Cinese people use this raincoats in rain. I knew it in Chinese books when I was young.
Couplet There are the tablets at the gate and room walls to show the masters' personalities. In Chinese New Year we also put the red couplet on the gate walls.
The Chinese New Year is coming. Please let me know if you want to get the Chinese style cards. I am glad to post you.

Kwan Yin Restaurant
1603 W Pearce Blvd
Wentzville, MO 63385
(636) 327-8000

Kwan Yin is a Bodhisattva, known as the goddess of compassion. She has a very wide appeal that crosses all religions, because she represents a very universal theme.

We have a stunning example in the Nelson-Atkins Museum here in KC...

http://www.nelson-atkins.org/collect...l/bodhisat.htm

...although the photo scarcely does it justice. I can't even tell you how many people I have talked to over the years who have said that sitting before this amazing work in its perfect setting has brought immense peace and serenity to them. It is absolutely true. There is a palpable sense of calm, renewal and love in this part of the gallery. I've felt it all my life, but only after becoming Pagan was I able to understand what was happening.

A very, very powerful deity is Kwan Yin.

Gate with Couplets. There are two couplets with in two different sides. I did not take the other similar gate.

Ancient Furniture in Panlilou Villa, most important villa in the big house.

Traditional Chinese painting. Last weekend I happened to see the painting exhibition. To be frank, I also cannot understand the paitings. Can you see something from the drawing?

The top looks like mountains with occasional trees and houses, and the bottom looks like red flowers on a tree branch. Doesn't quite look like a cherry blossom tree though.

Unless you're referring to an emotional reaction from these paintings, in which case, yes, they evoke tranquility to me.

The top one looks like a fog-enshrouded mountain valley.

The Mountain is in the fog and cloud. In the bottom there are chrysanthemum, megranate, lotus and cherry.

To be frank, I also cannot understand the paitings. Can you see something from the drawing?

What did you mean when you said this, Billy?

I don't know how to judge the beauty of the paintings and what the painter want to express.

Its been my experience that often painters are not intending to express one exact thing, particularly when their images are more loose or abstracted. Many are hoping their work inspires an emotional response, personal reflection and curiosity- viewers make the meaning, based on what they bring and know. Of course, sometimes you know alot about the context in which something was made, sometimes not so much!

I wonder if the landscape is based on a real, recognizable place, or references a work of poetry or other literature. I wonder if the multiple panels tell a story, what the calligraphy says. And I wonder if there is some sort of cultural symbolism attached to the series of 4 plants depicted. Seasons? Blessings?

They are previews from the next episode of Survivor.

The first landscape is really based on Jigong Mountain. The four plants present four personalities.

Maid-in-Waiting. She became old and still served in the Place. She sit on the chair alone. The olny task is to wait for the death.

That is very beautiful. the explanation makes it possible to understand the hunched sadness of the woman.

The small number of brush strokes makes a very powerful statement.

Do the strokes which form the chair also form a word in calligraphy? It looks as though it might ... if it does, what does it say?

Gee Wolf just when I think you are a gun totting bad ass with the educational background and career that gives you all the more reason to shoot people you go and say something deep. Though I do agree with your thoughts on the painting. I am always amazed how a few simple strokes convey so much.

God Damn....that's a depressing painting. The old maid schoolmarm that never had time for children of her own, the old soldier that preserved other's lifestyles so well he had no life, the reward for years of selfless dedication is emptiness. :(

I cannot believe that you like this drawing so much. I also don't know if the chair presents something. Maybe the drawer knows it.

The following is the lotus in four seasones. The first is a bird singing on the green lotos. The second is the flower of lotus. The third is the fruit of lotus. The fourth is a bird singing on the sapless lotus.

Perhaps I'm just not as *cultured* as Wolf and Bruce but these paintings look like ink blot tests to me. :o

You're fine, just so long as you don't claim to see movement in still pictures, and oh yeah, never tell about the dismembered body parts, especially sexual ones. Or blood.

Although sometimes that's the "popular" answer. I can't tell you on what cards though. The psychology mafia will come after me ...

I'm not a real doctor, but I do have a Master's Degree ... ;)

What can I say, I'm well-rounded.

I also crochet doilies. Keeps me balanced.

I agree with the others, the Maid in Waiting painting is beautiful. The colors are so delicate and feminine, and they become even more so when applied in a wash like that. I especially like the abstract quality of the chair, how the three-dimensions are laid flat, not from lack of skill, but for artistic purposes. (and people thought Picasso did it first) ;)

Billy, is your description of the painting based on the writing on the upper right of the painting, or does that say something else?

My words were based on the painting. The Chinese ink drawing is very different the western canvas.

wolf. it isn't chinese word. it say nothing , just use some simple strokers to describe a chair. nothing more :biggrin:

It is still beautifully rendered.

Sliding Weight of a Steelyard. This copper sculpture is at the center of East Gate shopping street in Shenzhen. It warns that the stors must have good professional morality, not cheat on the clients.

East Gate shopping street. There are crowded of people. As you see, the USA chain stores have invaded every Chinese big city.

Skyscraper The two high skyscrapers in Shenzhen, China. The right is the highest in Guangdong province, China.

Billy , i was woundering just what all Sliding Weight of a Steelyard said .
I am in the weights and measure business .

I don't think that's a real weight, Zip. Just a copper sculpture in the shape of a steel yard weight. :)

Bruce , i can tell from the copper representation of the rope that it IS a sculpture . Besides copper is not acceptable for a test weight it is to soft and to thermily unstable .
For you folks that don't know a steelyard weight is the weight that is slid along a scale to determin the weight . http://www.ham.muohio.edu/ent/egr303...g_machine.html

I was just woundering what was written on it , ya know something like " Don't cheat your customers or the Emperor will have your head cut off !"

The words is how to identify the scales on steelyard. To be frank, I cannot understand the steelyard. My mom taught me three times, but I still forget how to read it.

Billy sir, I think you are most crazyman. But here we think big!

I used to want to go the china but then it was too expensive.
But now that I know you I can go there and stay with your hotel?

I like you very much so its ok. We can all be friends from foreign countries.

sir,