Hainan China

Girlwing, her parents and I went for a eight days vacation to Sanya on the island Hainan, which is a tropical island south of China. Hainan is famous for its beautiful beaches, fancy hotels, pretty seashells, tasty seafood, giant Guan Yin (观音) and sweet coconut candies.

To the left you can see the first hotel we stayed at. GuestHouse International Hotel in Sanya is quite fancy with a great view from the top of the mountain and not too far from the beach. We payed around 400 yuan per night for a room.

The Guesthouse by night.

This little friend was waiting outside our hotel room one morning.

One day we went to NanTian Hot Springs outdoor spa. There they have fish that feed on visitors. They like exotic Swedish flesh.

Another day we went to see the giant GuanYin. On the way there we stumbled over some ancient grafitti. This one say longevity (长寿).

Here you can read "Live long and prosper" (寿无量).

These are common in temples and used for praying.

The entrance to the temple. Over the entrance you can see "二不" which should be read from right to left and literally means "not two". I leave it as your homework to figure out the deeper meaning of that.

The goal to our journey. A view of the giant Guan Yin.

Guan Yin again.

Next day we spent some time in the town and I found several interesting things to take pictures on. This is some strange tea.

When it is hot and the sun stands high, you should protect your skin from the strong sun.

Selling narcotics.

Need a copy of a key?

Or maybe buy some second handed shoes?

Here we are selling meatballs, fish balls and other kind of balls cooked in oil on a stick. To the right they sell lemonade.

In Hainan you can buy all kinds of fruit for really great prices.

Fruits are sold everywhere.

Lottery is the weeks highlight.

Selling more drugs.

A dried fish store.

An ice cold soup made of fruits like watermelon, sweet potatoes, cocnut, beans and some more stuff mixed with coconut milk and ice.

A lotus flower in a pond in the hotel area of the second hotel we stayed at.

Our bedroom in the more fancy Crowne Plaza in Sanya.

The hotel beach.

The hotel beach.

They serve drinks as well. Nice :)

This is the hotel area where we borrowed a tandem bike.

The Crowne Plaza is a really big hotel. This is just the hotel lobby. Second floor is housing a café. I like the ancient style. The hotel were the location for the miss world the same year we where there, but earlier.

World Expo 2010 Shanghai China

The World Expo in 2010 was held in Shanghai China. As I was in the city at the time I had to make a visit. It is a huge area of 5.28 square km hosting incredible buildings where 192 countries are exposing their culture.

It was interesting to see and it would take several weeks to see it all. We had only one day and most of it we spent in queues to enter the most popular places. I actually refused to queue for the most popular because of queueing times of around four hours. Instead I focused at the ones with shortest or no queues.

Wedding wagon from Mongolia.

Interesting facade on a building.

Beautiful old style house with hand carved wood details.

 

It was very tiresome

 so a rest is needed.

The gardens need constant work.

England made this giant seed.

Filled with real seeds.

A lot of seeds.

Seeds of all kinds and shapes.

They where like ALL OVER.

The Swedish Pavilion. I showed my Swedish passport and they let me jump the queue and enter via the VIP entrance. The same trick worked in all the Scandinavian pavilions. Good to be Scandinavian on the World Expo in Shanghai. :)

Fried dumplings for dinner!

Australia by night.

Malaysia by night.

Night view over the theme pavilions.

The giant China pavilion. You can see 5 floors. Under it you have all the Chinese provinces.

The Yunnan entrance.

New Go Books

Every time I go to China I want to buy some weiqi books. The two main reasons are that it is so damn cheap and that there are so many of them to find.

This time the main reason was to find a beginners book for kids that I can give to my sisters kids. We went to the major bookshop in down town Shanghai and went to the weiqi section. There they have a wall filled with all kinds of weiqi books.  After some search we found this one. ErTong WeiQi RuMen (Go for beginner kids). The book starts with really basic things like counting liberties moving on to capturing stones and to end with medium level problems. Totally 219 pages, almost A4 sizes. The only problem with the book is that you need to know how to read Chinese, but Girlwing promised to translate the book to Swedish for the kids.

For myself I found some books as well. They are two problem books in the level 5 to 1 kyu and one book 1 kyu to dan level. The books are filled with problems. One consist of life and death and the other of tesuiji problems.

First Girlwing didn't want to let me buy the more difficult of the problem books but after some begging she allowed me to buy it if I promised not to read it until I became 1 kyu. I wonder how long time it will take me until I can start to read that one...

Also, when we came to Shanghai we had a couple of "The world of Weiqi" (围棋 天地) waiting that Girlwings father had bought for us. Those are mostly for Girlwing to read but I can find some fun in watching the pictures and trying to solve the problems in them. I can also replay the pro games with interesting variations. We have been thinking of subscribing for the magazine but then we probably have to subscribe for several copies at a time. Anyone interested in subscribing with us? It will probably be at least 50 yuan per issue.