If you are not too serious an art collector, but would
like to pride yourself for having some “recognizable” oil paintings
by renown artists of an era gone by such as Leonardo di Vinci,
Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso or Gu Kaizhi (344 – 406 AD), one of the most famous artists of Chinese history, you have come upon the right place in China or perhaps the world.
The place is Dafen, a modern suburb of Shenzhen in southern China, with 10 million inhabitants northeast of Hong Kong, where you can enjoy affordably world classed hand-painted oil paintings of famous art & masterpieces. It has approximately 620 galleries and over 5,000 artists doing the creation, imitation, collection and export of oil paintings.
Southern China is the world’s leading center for mass-produced works of art. One village of artists exports about five million paintings every year — most of them copies of famous masterpieces. The fastest workers can paint up to 30 paintings a day.
A giant hand raises an impressive paintbrush into the sky at the entrance to the art village. The bronze sculpture of Gu Kaizhi outside the gates of Dafen in southern China leaves no visitor in doubt as to what the people do here and it has achieved unexpected fame and relative prosperity as “The McDonalds of the Art World”.
Dafen, with its artsy economic miracle, is running out of space. It’s a replica of Michelangelo’s David, flanked by flowerpots in front of the new “Dafen Louvre” where entrepreneurship is debated against bad taste. With creative skill & imagination Dafen can produce to your satisfaction any art masterpieces at a price you can afford.
Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to catalogue the world’s most spectacular natural wonders and manmade structures.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of the most remarkable creations of classical antiquity, and was based on guide-books popular among Hellenic sight-seers and only includes works located around the Mediterranean rim. The number seven was chosen because the Greeks believed it to be the representation of perfection and plenty.
TheNew 7 Wonders of the World (2001-2007) was an initiative started in 2001 by the Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation to choose Wonders of the World from a selection of 200 existing monuments. A popularity poll was led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber and organized by the New7Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland, with winners announced on July 7, 2007 in Lisbon. The New7Wonders Foundation is regulated by the Swiss Federal Foundation Authority as all nationwide-active foundations in Switzerland are. It was the first in a planned series of lists; in 2007 the foundation launched New7Wonders of Nature, which was the subject of voting until Nov. 11, 2011 (Wikipedia).
The New7Wonders Foundation claimed that more than 100 million votes were cast through the Internet or by telephone.
Now jump right in to view the slides of the New 7 Natural Wonders of the World here below:
Bavaria lies in the southeastern corner of Germany. With its unique diversity of attractions, its scenic beauty and unspoilt nature, its romantic castles and medieval towns, its beer halls, traditional festivals and oompah bands, its excellent cuisine and hospitality, its pleasant climate and its cosmopolitan high-tech capital of Munich, Bavaria is undoubtedly the prime holiday destination in Germany, no matter at what time of the year you come for a visit.
Bavaria has it all: exciting cities, exceptionally rich in history and traditions such as Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Augsburg or Bamberg, embedded in peaceful rural countryside with rolling green hills and extensive forest land, crystal-clear lakes and a beautiful frescoed village now and then. You will also find friendly little guest houses, top class resorts for hiking, skiing and water-sports and cosy restaurants where you can expect sumptuous meals with steaks exceeding the size of the plate. All this at very affordable prices.
Bavaria’s state capital, Munich, is one of the most prosperous metropolises in Germany. Its Alpine character and Mediterranean verve, its world-class museums and art treasures, the Hofbräuhaus and famous Oktoberfest, traditional customs and high technology, beer gardens and haute cuisine, operas and boisterous nightlife, all make it so popular with visitors from all over the world.
The most distinguishing architectural feature of Bavarian towns is the painted houses – like Walt Disney pictures drawn from the fairy wonderland. (View slide show below).
Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,550 km2, including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km2 with a high density of 775 islets.The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. (Wikipedia)
Halong City, a reformed coal-mining town, is gateway to one of the most majestic sites in Vietnam. Capital of its province, it now capitalises its greater profits by promoting tourism. Its nearby Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is attracting tourists both domestically & internationally.
“Halong Bay is the kind of rare site that inspires fairy tales and landscape paintings. It centres on a field of limestone karst towers jutting out the bay and soaring high over green waters. These rock formations take a number of odd, often surreal shapes. The name itself means ‘descending dragon’, and looking out over the myriad rock shapes, its easy to imaging the undulating tail of a dragon snaking its way through the water. “
Source: Wikipedia Pictures
A first visit to Halong Bay, with craggy, forested spires and perpetual mists, requires a few moments’ processing. After that initial gaze, visitors descend for all kinds of activities. Weaving through the pillars by kayak or rappelling off a limestone precipice are especially popular pursuits. Old Chinese junks launch sightseeing cruises from the pier.
The best hotels near Halong are on Cat Ba Island – an enviable place to spend a night or two. It’s an oasis of jungle in the midst of the bay, home to sandy beaches, lakes, Buddhist grottoes, waterfalls and five-star resorts.
right up to the Queen. What if they are rare and large
and of the unusual pink colour?
In its 244-year history Christie’s, the high-profile auction house, has only auctioned 18 polished pink diamonds larger than 10 carats. Large diamonds typically end in museums or or in the hands of the rich & famous.
Recently in February 2012, a lot of excitement has been generated by the finding of a rough pink diamond weighing 12.76 carats (2.55 g). It is the largest rough pink diamond unearthed at the Rio TintoArgyle diamond mine in Western Australia. It is called The Argyle Pink Jubilee.
The rough diamond – estimated to be worth millions – light pink in colour started its cut in Perth on 21 February 2012.The cutter is Richard How Kim Kam. The stone will be graded by a team of international experts. It will then be be sold by invitation-only tender.
It is similar in colour to The Williamson Pink, which is the diamond that Her Majesty The Queen received as a wedding gift and was subsequently set into a brooch for her Coronation. More than 90 per cent of the world’s pink diamonds come from this mine.
Expert diamond polisher Richard How Kim Kam has now started work in Perth on preparing the stone. Mr Kam, who will take about 10 days to cut and polish the diamond as a single stone, said “I’m going to take it very carefully. I know the world will be watching.”
When the diamond has been cut and polished it will be graded by a team of experts and showcased to the world before being sold later this year.
Argyle Pink Diamonds manager Josephine Johnson said “This rare diamond is generating incredible excitement. A diamond of this calibre is unprecedented – it has taken 26 years of Argyle production to unearth this stone and we may never see one like this again. The individual who gets to wear this remarkable pink diamond will be incredibly lucky indeed.”
In the golden years of our lives, we can now look back with such sweet sorrow of the wonderful two years of our lives in Kirkby College where we lived in peace & harmony sealed in friendship & bond of love.
Look at the pictures as they were of the 1950/60’s environment.
Another part of the pictures will be the Kirkby Spirit & bond of friendship that persist till today.
When talking about space, there are areas which are normally familiar to the man in the street. There are indeed also indefinite concepts in scientific terms as used by geometers and physicists which we may not know or understand. Suffice for me to touch on some personal thoughts relating to peace & harmony, privacy, friendship, love & emotion . . . and space in the physical living or playing fields.
Even then there are confines or boundaries beyond which we may never know, and of course, there is that spiritual aspect of things where grace sets in.
In January 2007 when my friend CC & his lovely wife Phyllis were travelling & sightseeing in New Delhi to Taj Mahal in Agra, India, they passed through the countryside where some grand new villas were under construction. He noticed a large poster with these words:
Till today he remembers it well and often reflect upon those memorable words, sharing them with his friends, architects, developers and his soccer-playing grandchildren. According to him, life is often preoccupied with time & space and with grace giving us lessons in various ways.
Lately, while watching his grandchildren playing soccer, realisation dawned on him of the need of an optimum playing field where space is paramount for level play with ease or difficulty of attack & defence. He recalled & visualised the “space” concept in terms of a restricted number of 11 players & one goal-keeper in each team and where in winning the game all available spaces must be covered & exploited. Success in life to him means preempting the right positioning in space. His grandchildren are fortunate to have a grandfather with wisdom to impart.
In further extension of my thought:
Space is taken to overcome all boundaries, inhibitions & restrictions to explore & conquer . . . turning all adversities to victories. Space however is timeless as opposed to our limited existence.
Grace is herewith defined as a divinely given talent or blessing, the free & unmerited favour of God. It’s got to flow from God to fill within us & then exert forth to the external. Grace is unseen, non-materialistic and unlimited flowing from God for our faith & asking. As goodness grows, blessings flow.
From the womb to the tomb, we need space to grow . . . to equip ourselves in our daily life to intern, specialise and then to fraternise. As is said, no man is an island. We are by nature gregarious and cannot live alone. We need company. We need partner and that is why God provided Adam with Eve. Within the limitless space of the Garden of Eden, freedom & choice were available except for the forbidden fruit. What happened next resulted in the pain & suffering of mankind.
Freedom to chose & choice to make are really no option whatsoever. Inevitably, man by his own doing destroy the space & environment in which he lives. By our own strength we are powerless and though “impossible” is the word not to be found in Napoleon Bonaparte’s dictionary, not all things are possible with man. Only with God all things are possible. With “space to grow” we need “God’d grace to flow”.
Give grace some space, for man is no master of space. It sours the souls of those greedy for space by intrusion & exploitation, thereby destroying both peace & harmony . . . as exemplified by the turmoils in the Middle East & the Arab world. Under the guise of democracy, everything has gone crazy. The need for regime change is a nagging & ragging righteousness with no resultant merit except unnecessary death, pain & suffering. Nobody ever wins in a war!
Make friends not enemies. The irony is you may have but one enemy, you’re bound to face him everywhere! Negotiation rather than confrontation as with diplomacy opposed to being artless or tactless or hypocrisy. Give space to sovereignty, for aggression will meet with further aggression. Let every sovereignty grow & progress. Encroach not upon its nest.
Let moderation & good sense prevail and senselessness be assailed. LET GO & LET GOD. Don’t ever push yourself too hard. As is said in Ecclesiastes 3:17: “God will bring to judgment both the righteous & the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”
Here below is a laughable illustration on the question of “Value Vs Valuable”. With old things in Australia, we have a market for “Trash & Treasure” – what’s trash to you maybe treasure to others.
“Sir, anything you see down there is 75 years old.
I just bought this hat yesterday!”
There is a thing or two about the collection of old vintage, antique or classic. Amateurs will not be able to value such items – only the experts & antique appraisers are called upon for such valuation.
However in an auction where collectors assemble, bids can go higher than the estimated value. It all depends on “What is it that you really want? And what’s the price you are willing to pay for it?”. When it meets with the heart’s desire, it becomes priceless!
In another light, to me the question of sentiment is held topmost in my mind & heart. When I was in college those days in England, I did woodwork as an option subject. For it I chose to do a needlecraft work-table out of teak, all crafted with joints only. Though not an exceptional skilful handyman, I laboured with all my heart and was credited in giving it to the girl of my heart, who became my wife. Now . . . how would you appraise such a priceless piece of art?
This needlecraft work-table will always remain in my heart
The spirit of adventure has always charged both men & women to seek out the highest mountain, the deepest seas or oceans, the greatest caves, and places where angels fear to tread. Here in another sense, we can quote a line or two from Alexander Pope‘s Essay on Criticism: “No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr’d, Nor is Paul’s Church more safe than Paul’s Church-yard.”
In the South of Brazil there is a spectacular dormant volcano that has always captured the interest of adventure-seekers.
If you are one of them but are hindered by time, money & distance or that your level of physical fitness do not allow such an adventure, then sit back, relax and watch this amazing trip inside Earth.
Be more than just an armchair traveller as modern technology affords you virtual realistic travel to places beyond your wildest imagination.
But do not ever think you are one of the first stepping into this amazing inner river, pools, stalactites and stalagmites. There are traces of man ( human skull & skeleton) being there some thousand years back.
This is truly amazing!
. . . trees & greenery, streams & waterfalls, pools & lakes, caverns & tunnels, strange geological formations etc. . . . all hidden away waiting to be discovered!
Now . . . who’s perfect for thinking that God won’t use you!
These Biblical greats as above-mentioned were not perfect and yet God used them mightily, nor did they have all the abilities & skills. Herein is a lesson to be learned – it’s all a question of availability rather than ability that God seeks.
If God can overlook our imperfectness, who are we not to do likewise? God alone is perfect. He alone can be judgemental about us. Whoever we are we ought to be submissive, obedient, loyal and faithful to our tasks – undertaking them responsibly.
In our personal relationship, we should not be unkind to our own kind. This ironically is the truth in practice . . . we seem to see “perfectness” in others and hate the sight of “imperfectness” in our own kind. We can be so hypocritical appearing to be kind & courteous to others but to our own kind most unkind consciously or otherwise. This is all putting on your “Sunday Best” as in church.
Let me share a story here as an illustration:
“When I was a kid, my mom would prepare special breakfast every now and then. And I remember one night in particular, after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad.
I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologise to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I’ll never forget what he said: “Honey, I love burned biscuits.”
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she’s real tired. And besides – a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone! You know, life is full of imperfect things . . . and imperfect people. I’m not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. What I’ve learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults – and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences – is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.”
Herein lies the key to life’s happiness . . . learning to accept each other’s faults and laying them at the foot of God, the Perfect One.We could extend this to any relationship . . . husband-wife or father-son/daughter or friendship. Understanding of this basic fundamental key will see us through to a life of happiness.
Paul Chong's Blog 