The Giant Buddha Temple

There are numerous Giant Buddha statue in China. The most memorable one is the LeShan Giant Buddha （乐 山大佛), which I witnessed in February 2006. Another one would be the Giant Buddha inside the Mogao Crottoes 莫高窟 /Thousand Buddha Caves. And the trip for the day is the largest reclining sculpture of the Nirvana Buddha in China, placed inside The Giant Buddha Temple (大佛寺) in Zhangye (张掖), Gansu Province (甘肃省), China.

Even the road is known as the Giant Buddha Temple Lane in Chinese language (or DaFoSi Xiang)

Peaceful street.. Any idea why they painted the bottom part of the tree trunk white?

Wall painting of the 八仙过海 (Eight immortals crossing the sea) opposite the temple :)

Entrance to The Giant Buddha Temple

Part of the temple is still under renovation, hence dusty. But the place is still open to visitors, with the condition "Enter at your own risk" ;)

I didn't take any photos inside the temple since photography is prohibited. But many still busily snapping away (as there are no guards watching), but I didn't snap any photo inside. The above picture is the photo of the Giant Buddha placed at the entrance. The whole Buddha is 34.5 meters in length, width of 7.5 meters between the shoulders, feet of 4 meters and ears of 2 meters. Huge leh... We are like midgets when standing next to it :)

(Photo courtesy of Gansu Tourism Site).

The above picture showed how huge is the reclining Buddha (in comparison with the person standing next to it). One interesting fact is that the reclining Buddha can be awake or sleeping when viewed from different location. When u look at the Giant Buddha straight at his face, he is fully awake with both eyes opened. When looking at the Buddha's face from the waist region, he is partially awake, opening one eye and closing the other. When viewed from the feet region, the Buddha is sleeping peacefully with both eyes closed. And one amusing thing is... the foot of the Buddha was broken and the foot region is now protected with glass panel to prevent visitors from rubbing the foot. Cos according to our tour guide, the Buddha feet was broken as too many rubbed the Buddha's feet in the past especially by students who are sititng for exam and not well prepared. (as the Chinese phrase 臨時抱佛腳). LOL

Part of the Temple.

I like to zoom in when taking photo, for a better view of the workmanship of the little sculptures on the roof top.
Can admire every fine and single details of the perfectly done craftwork, which are oftenly overlooked and neglected by many.

And *ahem*, not forgetting my obsession with doors and door knobs :)

One more... I promise it's the last one for the day :P

Jiayuguan Pass/Great Wall

I think everyone is familiar with The Great Wall (one of the seven wonders in the world) which needs no further intro. The mostly visited great wall area would be the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing. :)
But not many knows regarding the Jiayuguan Pass or Jiayuguan Great Wall (嘉峪关) in Gansu Province.
Taken at the Jiayuguan Museum ~ the plan of the miniature Jiayuguan Great Wall prior to visiting the real place.
Among the passes on the Great Wall, Jiayuguan Great Wall is the most intact surviving ancient military building. It is the last pass at the furthest west of the Great Wall of China. On the other hand, you can consider it as the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall.

Jiayuguan Great Wall, here I come :)

Those who are interested, can rent the plated armour suit :)

Majestic architecture ~ The wall and tower of the Jiayuguan Pass.

Mystical creatures (?dragon) on the roof top.

Jiayuguan Pass or Great Wall was built during Ming Dynasty in 1372. The pass is also known as "The First and Greatest Pass Under Heaven" (天下第一雄关).

Entering the interior of the pass :)

Two different pathway leading to the tower (Steep pathway vs staircase). Those who are adventurous can walk up via the steep pathway (with the risk of falling down).

*Trying to imagine the ancient days*

And this part of the great wall is not as crowded as the one in Badaling, Beijing. :)

If u wanna lepas geram, u can do it here... The Archery corner. *Shoot* :)

It's kinda hot walking under the hot sun.. I wanna drink iced lemon tea.. or Cola :P

The pass covers an area of more than 33,500 square meters.

Majestic leh the architecture :)

Part of the ancient Great Wall :)

The tower taken from different angle.

According to legend, when the Jiayuguan Pass was planned, the officer asked the designer to estimate the exact number of bricks required and the designer gave him a number. The officer questioned his judgment, asking him if that would be enough, so the designer added one brick. When Jiayuguan was completed, there was one brick leftover, which was placed on one of the gates where it remains till today. Did u notice the extra brick? If u didn't see it, look again closely at the above picture (or u can enlarge the picture by clicking on it). Give yourself a pat on the shoulder if you manage to find it. :)

Another shot of the mystical creature on the roof top.

Cantik leh the wall. Time to bid farewell... :)

Addendum :

To those who still cannot see the extra brick in the above picture, hopefully u can view it here. If u still not able to see it, then i dunno what to say liao :P

Photo Hunters : Wrinkled

Today's theme is WRINKLED. Since I had posted several photos of the older generation with wrinkles during my recent Silk Road Trip, I will gather the wrinkled faces of those wise men and wise women photos into one post. Misti surely will love this.

A centenarian @ elderly aged more than a century taken at The Grape Valley in Turpan, XinJiang Province, China.

Donkey cart owner taken at GaoChang Former City in Turpan, XinJiang Province, China.

Hami Melon stall owner taken in the desert, on the way to Hami in XinJiang Province, China.

Horse owner taken at Balikun Grassland near Hami in XinJiang Province, China.

Worker at Mt Mingsha Desert and Cresent Spring taken at DunHuang in Gansu Province, China.

Taken at DunHuang wet market in Gansu Province, China

Taken at Lanzhou Water Wagon in LanZhou, Gansu Province, China.

Cute Dogs

These are the cute, friendly and playful doggies in the neighbourhood. Everyone who sees them love them (except those who dislike doggies lah). They are so adorable. They can even play with strangers cos of their mild, gentle and friendly nature.

Chubby but friendly puppy who likes her tummy to be rubbed

And this is her little sister. Equally adorable.

This is not the mother, but she plays and take cares of the two puppies, together with the puppies' mummy. The mummy dog is photo and camera shy, hence I didn't have her photo.

The puppies always play with each other and enjoying each other's company. Aren't they cute and adorable?

But sad to say that.. 2 out of the 3 dogs were poisoned by some heartless morons few days back (and I presume they are now in Doggy Heaven). Why want to harm and murder those friendly and harmless dogs? Really &*^%$#@. I miss them... Rest in Peace, doggies. :(

*SOB*

p/s: The above photos of the doggies were taken 3 weeks ago..

Thousand Buddha Caves

The visit to DunHuang, Gansu Province is incomplete without visiting the famous Mogao Crottoes 莫高窟 (also known as Thousand Buddha Caves). Mogao Grottoes is the world largest, well preserved treasure house of Buddhist arts, paintings, scriptures and murals. It is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage in 1987.

The surrounding area of Mogao Grottoes . The background is part of the Mt Mingsha.

Resembles a gigantic bell :P

Sorry leh, i dunno what is the name...

Guess what? This is once a river, which had dried up due to the hot weather...

The Big Arch. Entrance to Mogao Grottoes.

The FeiTian statue (飞天) welcomes us near the entrance area :)

Distracted by the flower.. since this is the first time I see such plant bears flowers :P

Sketch map for those blur sotongs the tourists.

The Thousand-Buddha Caves has so many caves rooms.. Today, 492 caves remains.
Finally... the Mogao Crottoes/莫高窟 (or Thousand Buddha Caves). The inner walls of all the caves are decorated with dignified Buddhist art in the form of paintings, murals, scriptures & statues. Only few "caves" are opened for public/tourists each day.
I will stop here since we are not allowed to take photos inside the caves. :P

A Night in DunHuang

Yeah, I admit I had abandoned the Silk Road Tour series for quite some time and today I decided to continue on with the series. After getting ourself charred sunburnt at the Mt Mingsha Gobi Desert & the Crescent Spring and the camel ride, it's time for dinner (including eating the exotic camel meat).
It's Free & Easy time after dinner & checking in hotel. Since the night is still early, hence we took a stroll in DunHuang town. Well, the sky only gets dark at 10 pm at night. Hence we have ample time to walk around town. Presenting the famous FeiTian statue (飞天) and the 2008 Beijing Olympic mascots ~ BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YinYin and NiNi.
There are at least 15 to 20 stalls selling similar DunHuang products. I wonder how they make money since almost everyone selling the same stuff at the same place?
Yeah, remember the gigantic red dates? They are everywhere. LOL (Sounds like talking about spirit, and summore now is 7th month aka Hungry Ghost Month in Chinese calendar).
Mmm... Let's see what's available in the stall. Raisin, dried figs, pistachio, nuts and.. guess what's that elongated stuff in the upper left hand corner? Hehehe...
Red dates, almond and several different varety of nuts. From this photo, u can see how huge is the DunHuang red dates (in comparison with the normal-sized red dates next to it)
After riding the cute camels and err.. eating the exotic camel meat (Oops..) It's time to buy some cute and adorable camel soft toys back home. Besar kecil semua pun ada. Wanna wanna?
Following that, we visited the wet market nearby. I noticed the vegetables in DunHuang are huge in size !! Just have a look at the size of the chinese cabbage and the lobak. There are several other huge vegetables such as tomato, turnips, cucumber, chilies etc which are not shown in this photo.
Remember the famous 开朗裤 trousers (trousers with opening in the genital area) seen in the movie or tv drama series from China? Apparently the kids in China are still wearing them in this modern world, instead of wearing pampers. Hehehe, I need to censor this photo.. Dowan kena sue by the little kid in future for showing her partially nude photo :P
*Ahem*.. Elderly man with wrinkles ~ I posted this up specially for Misti :P
Shop selling groceries, herbs and spices. I bought the famous Szechuan 麻辣 spices with the spicy and numb properties from this young man.

Dunno what is this leh..

A stall selling economy rice or chap fan.

After see-see look-look and taking photo, it's time to sit down for cuppa tea. And err.. we didn't drink tea lah. Instead we had beer by the roadside and this is the place I had beer with my hubby.
Beer was served with paper cup. Unique leh? Beer in China is cheap, and the alcohol content is mild. One large HuangHe bottle beer only costed us RMB 4. I confess i had been drinking beer like drinking water over there. (Beer is even cheaper at the local grocery shop, to the extend of RMB 2.50 per bottle (depends on brand)).

Little boy eating bread while strolling on the street.

Cute boh the little boy's "vehicle"? :P

After 2 bottles of beer, it's time to move on. This particular stall sells dried gourds (different types, sizes and shapes) with paintings and writing on it.

The Desert Rose?

Young gal buying jagung/maize from the roadside stall. I put this up cos i like the photo. :)
And yeah, there are several stalls selling grilled lamb satay. We stopped by, but at another different stall for supper, having grilled lamb satay and naan bread.

The China version of wayang kulit or shadow muppet show? :)

And before we went back to the hotel, we stopped by this stall, and had our name written on a grain of rice. Very geng leh, to write several alphabets (can opt to write in English or Chinese character). A fruitful night indeed :)

Gold Kiwi

We are all familiar with the green kiwifruit, but I just get to know the other variety, the Gold kiwifruit from my staff one week back. Dunno it's available in the market for how long already leh. When I bought my groceries in Tesco last weekend (after snapping the ternak cacing photo), I came across the gold kiwifruit in the fruit aisle section. Hoo-lah-lah, of coz i won't let go the chance to buy one packet back home. :)

Presenting the ZESPRI GOLD Kiwifruit, from New Zealand.

The external appearance is slightly different from the conventional green kiwifruit ~ with smoother skin and a flat, hard pointed crown at the other end.

The fresh is yellowish in colour and it's much sweeter than the green kiwi. Do try it out if you haven't. This is a community service brought to u all free of charge by yours truly :P

Ternak Cacing?

I went to PC fair (@ PISA yesterday noon) and on my way back, I planned to stop by TESCO for groceries. On my way to TESCO (after the roundabout), something caught my attention... Hence I snapped a photo using my mobile phone N73 :)

Kursus Penternakan Cacing? *Ahem* Attending course in order to learn how to rear worms??
Mmmmmm.... Something new to me. Thanks, but no thanks :)

Photo Hunters : Dark

I haven't posted up photos for Photo Hunt theme since early this year. Today, I feel like participating again :)

Today's theme is DARK.

What are the dark stuff i have with me? None other than the bitter Beryl Dark Chocolate (80% Cacao). Mmmm... I still prefer using the word Cocoa than Cacao. Cacao just sounds... weird. Might be cos i'm too used with the word Cocoa since childhood time :)

p/s: Photos are fresh from the oven, taken few hours ago. To all the Malaysians out there, do try out our local product, the Beryl Chocolate. Good Stuff and value for money, and this is not a paid post. :P

Eating Camel...

I consider this as one of the delicacies in DunHuang, but kinda cruel.. as we were riding the cute camel at Mt Mingsha Desert in the afternoon and eating the camel hump at night time (although different camel). I dunno how to describe the texture.. It's slightly chewy. Err.. u gotta taste it yourself :P

Washroom for Crocs

The photos below were taken inside the toilets in the Crocodile Farm in Miri :P

What is/are your response(s) when u see the above signboards? So farnie, and I can't deny they are very creative to come up with such a drawing.

Washroom for the Buaya Darat? Male Crocodiles??

And another one for the female Crocs :P

Sand

The sand on the beaches at times mimic creative pieces of artwork, thanks to the bugs and mother nature :)

Cute leh the biji biji. Resembles mini marbles.. or might be white pepper. LOL

And the little sand balls are being dragged...

Ini siapa punya kerja? Korek lubang besar-besar pulak?

And I love this... The awesome work of mother nature which resembles tiger stripes :P

God's creation is indeed awesome :)