This shot, from flickr user StrudelMonkey, was taken in Beijing’s Jingshan Park. Whenever I see rays of sunshine peeking through trees or clouds– in photos or in real life– it reminds me of those grade-school pictures I used to draw, with a big bright sun giving off rays of yellow light. Perhaps I was a better artist than I thought.
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When Lam Sai-Wing’s Hong Kong-based jewelry business, 3D Gold, took off more than a decade ago, he made a rather unusual investment. He built the “Hall of Gold” in one of his showrooms. This unusual and extremely expensive structure was made of six tons of gold. The furnishings included a fully working solid gold toilet.
As gold prices rose, Lam began dismantling the hall, melting down the gold and selling it to finance his company’s expansion into mainland China. He never parted with the toilet, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive toilet. Here’s what it looked like:
But, visitors to Hong Kong won’t be seeing it any time soon. Lam died unexpected earlier this year and his company has become engulfed in scandal after five executives, including his own widow, were accused of stealing nearly $23 million worth of gold bars from the company vault. Public trading of the company has stopped and what remains of the Hall of Gold has been closed to the public indefinitely.
[Via Time’s China Blog]
I haven’t been to the Hong Kong bird market, but I’ve been to bird markets in Taiwan– and the bird market in Singapore.
When Taj Reid over at www.wejetset.com sent us a link to this lush post on song bird love in Hong Kong, and the delights to be found at the bird market, I was reminded of my own pleasures when I sat in a courtyard sipping on coffee, listening to birds sing on a Sunday morning.
Owning song birds is just not a matter of heading to the local pet store and picking up a canary, you see. In Hong Kong, as with my experience in Taiwan and Singapore, picking out the right bird and the right cage is an art that depends on personal taste.
As the post states, men are the ones who prize their birds. Like doting parents who show off their toddlers at a playground, men gather at a park with their birds in order to see which person’s bird sings the best. There is a certain order to how the cages are hung so that the owners can achieve the best responses from the birds. I never quite figured it out, but I loved trying.
As gorgeous as the birds are, the cages are just as fantastic. My favorite type of cage is similar to the ones pictured here. The white and blue floral porcelain food and water bowls are simply lovely. Check out the wetjetset post for more wonderful photos and details about birding Hong Kong style as well as the places to enjoy the singing.
(photos courtesy of wetjetset)
Beijing was in the world spotlight earlier this year when it hosted the Olympics. In 2010, it will be Shanghai‘s turn when it houses the World Expo. Despite not enjoying the media attention of the Olympics or FIFA World Cup, World Expos, a.k.a. World’s Fairs, have been held for over 100 years and hold a certain degree of cultural clout. Contingents of many nations come to showcase their industry and culture to the world. Chicago and London were both famous hosts of early World’s Fairs. Zaragoza, Spain had the 2008 version, which wrapped up last month after a 60 day run.
Shanghai is set for a bit more spotlight than Zaragoza, though. The ’10 World Expo will run for six months (May-October) and is expected to draw the largest number of visitors of any such event in history. They’ll have to beat 50 million attendees, the number set by Montreal in 1967.
But it isn’t about the numbers, really. Beijing got its chance in the spotlight with the Olympics. But Shanghai is China’s largest, most modern and wealthiest city. It is well on its way to regaining some of the glory it had as East Asia’s cultural heart in the 1920s. Many people consider Shanghai the only truly modern metropolis in the PRC. Its buildings, culture and economic power back up that hypothesis; as do features like a glut of modern architecture and one of the world’s largest subways. While the cameras won’t be trained on Shanghai for the entire 6 months, the city will have a chance to show that it is, in many ways, the face of modern China.
Each week, when I pick out posts for Gadling’s Take FIVE, I look for posts that fit together in some way. These week, I’ve noticed a numbers theme.
If you’re counting, you’ll notice 7 this week instead of 5.