SEA Aquarium in Sentosa

Recently my family and I visited the SEA Aquarium in Sentosa, a holiday resort for locals as wells as tourists. This place is renowned for its beautiful beaches, Universal Studio and of course, the Resort World Casino; one of two casinos in operation in Singapore.

Money making place

Resort World at Sentosa

The SEA Aquarium is  the latest addition to a series of creational activities at the small island off the coast of Singapore. This Aquarium showcases Asia's maritime heritage and it is also home to more than 100000 marine fishes from the small crown fish (Nemo) to the giant sharks. In all there are over 800 species of marine animals spreading over 49 different habitats. At one exhibit, there were sunken ship wrecks and fishes are seen swimming around happily as if they were looking for the hidden treasures in the wrecks. Some exhibits are very large in size and house a large variety of marine species while others are small containing individual type of fish. The colorful marine fishes and the corals decorations are exciting to look at. It is indeed an eye-opening experience, especially for kids who ran around clicking their cameras.

Angel fish

Beautiful marine plants

Sea dragon

 

 

Christmas for the fishes

A strange thing I noticed at the aquarium was that even fishes were celebrating Christmas in their own way. They swam around the Christmas tree joyfully. The white Christmas tree was also well decorated with gifts and boxes at the bottom. Judging the mood of these fishes, one may think they might be even singing Christmas songs and greeting each other merry Christmas.

A wet Santa

Not far from this Christmas tree, I could also see a Santa waving and dancing in the water. What a wet Santa he was. So you can imagine Christmas is celebrated everywhere in Singapore.

The Nemos

I particularly liked this exhibit where a bunch of crown fish playing around happily. I ever kept marine fish before and crown fish is really hardy and they can survive even if conditions are harsh. I always use this fish as guinea pig to test the conditions of a freshly prepared marine tank. Looking at crown fish also reminded me of the adventure of Nemo, a popular cartoon film for children and adult alike.

 

This was the central exhibit which kept the crowd motionless. Take a look and you will know why.
And not to forget the sharks and lots of them.

Country Road Take Me Home

Look at the picture below. It looks like a small path somewhere in the remote part of the world. It is good to stroll along this country path on weekends. This is the way to a healthy life style.

A small country path

However, if you see carefully, there are small fishes swimming happily in the air. No kidding.

What you look at is the sight of an aquarium tank. The aquascape really looks like the familiar scenery of a typical country side near where you live.

If you like aquascaping your aquarium tank, there are many ways to decorate your tank with small miniature plants and ferns. Here are some ideas taken from the internet source.

Looking at these beautiful tank setups, it makes me want to restart my aquarium tank.

Emperors' seals

There is a senior craftsmaster who embarked on a project to engraved the seals of all the known emperors of China in history. He knew that nobody had ever done this before. If he succeeded, it would be the first of its kind in the history of China.

This was a very difficult task as there were over 350 emperors in the history of imperial China, from Shi Huangdi (from the first emperor to Puyi the last emperor of the Qing dynasty). The task was also complicated as he and his sponsor had to use fine quality seal stones to match the status of these emperors. Even though the job seemed almost impossible, the master knew that the impact of the project was great. This was because nobody had ever done this before. The project also had significant meaning as it would showcase to the world the rich history of imperial China. So they both went hunting for the appropriate materials to carve these seals. All the seals would be carved out of all the famous seal stones such as Qintian, Shoushan, Chicken blood and the Balin stones.

All the materials for the seals of the emperors were chosen except for one female emperor (Wu Zetian 武则天 of the Zhou dynasty, actually she snatched the throne from her son's Tang dynasty and called her reign the Zhou dynasty). The master wanted to use a chicken blood stone for this woman emperor's seal. But he could not fine one suitable one as he did not want to carve her face on the reddish part of the stone. The sponsor eve had to live in Changhua (the birth place of the rare chicken blood stones) for a few months waiting for some one with the right material.

Finally one day a villager called the master saying that he had the stone they wanted. True enough when the master met up with the villager, he found the stone he had wanted all this while to carve the seal of Wu Zetian. However, the price was increditably high, 300000 RMB. The master took a few months to persuade the villager to drop the price to 150000 RMB. Eventually after many rounds of negotiation, they finally settle at a price of 158000 RMB. As this is his last seal to carved, he immediately started work on the seal of Wu Zetian.

Wu Zetian seal of chicken blood stone

When he had finished the project, all the seals were put on exhibition and received praises from his peers. The project was considered holistic as it showcased to the world the rich history of imperial China. Later he won a hold award for his world during an national event to recognize engraving artists in China.

The seals of all known emperors of China (350)

The master and his work

The whole set of emperors' seal stones are now housed in a company in Shanghai. If you happen to be Shanghai, do visit the company and see this great work of art from this extraordinary artist.

The story of Wu Zetian (from Wiki)

Wu Zetian  武则天 (February 17, 624 – December 16, 705), also known as "Empress Wu", was a Chinese sovereign, who ruled officially under the name of her self-proclaimed "Zhou dynasty", from 690 to 705. She was the only female emperor of China in more than 4,000 years. She had previous imperial positions, however, under both Emperor Taizong of Tang and his son Emperor Gaozong of Tang, of the Tang dynasty of China. Wu was a concubine of Emperor Taizong. After his death she married his successor and ninth son, Emperor Gaozong, officially becoming Gaozong's furen (variously translated as "empress", "wife", or "first consort") in 655, although having considerable political power previous to this. After Gaozong's debilitating stroke in 690, Wu Zetian ruled as effective sovereign until 705. She is the only recorded woman to rule China in her own right.

Find out more from this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian

Mother of chicken blood stone

There is s a huge chicken blood stone on display in Huayjou, some 2 hours drive from Beijing. This stone weighs almost 2 tonnes. The largest of its kind on display, the Guinness's record testified its enormous size. As the price of the chicken blood stone has escalated steeply over the last decades, who knows how much is this huge piece of chicken blood stone worth.

Guinness's world record

Traces of chicken blood on the stone

This huge precious bolder being transported from a mountain

It took workers one month to move the stone from the mountain site to the plain below. The owner did not want to cut up the stone as it is not easy to obtain a stone of this size.

High quality stone is made into seals selling for over millions of RMB

Proud owner of this huge precious rock

Do you know how was this stone being mined from the mountain of Changhua, its birth place, in ancient time some 300 years ago?

First they burned the site containing this precious stone with intense fire. Then, they poured water over it for rapidly cooling. The sudden contraction caused the boulder to dislodge from the mountain side where the stone was attached to. The miner then retrieved the chicken blood stone.

Fire heated up the base of the stone

Water cooling the hot stone

Chicken blood stone uncovered

There have been a lot of fake stones in the market. Some are just made from plastics while others have a coating of real stone on ordinary stones.

 

The photo above shows 3 chicken blood stones. Only one is genuine. Do you know which one is real? Experts say you need to feel the stones, real stones have a cold feeling while plastic materials feel warn on your hand. The other way is to use a lighter to burn the stones, plastic ones will give off toxic fume. For the fake with a top coat of genuine stone, check for evidence of joints and the flow of the texture on all its sides. The one on the centre of the photo is a genuine chicken blood stone. The one on the right is made of polymeric material while the one on the left is a stone coated with a layer of genuine stone.

This stones put together reveal a character

This Chinese character Gong means a lot to the Chinese people. It can mean an elderly figure, justice, of public, and many other meanings.

The logo of the Beijing Olympic Games

In the recent Olympic Games held in Beijing, the official logo was carved in this seal stone.

Beautiful stones

There are some stones that have unique features on them. Overnight they become collectors' darlings and fetched millions in auction houses.

The stone above depicts a small chick being hatched. The egg shell cracks open and the chick reveals itself to the world. This stone fetched a record 130 millions RMB in an auction for rare stones.

This stone shows a scene every one in China is familiar with, that is a scenery appeared in a 5 RMB note. The first owner found it along a river bank and later sold the stone for 20000 RMB. When the same stone was auctioned for 2 millions, he regretted for having sold it in the first place. He later found another stone with the features that resemble another scene that appeared in the 10 RMB note. This time he said he will not sell it again as this type of stone is hard to come by.

This particular stone shows two figures (father and son) fishing by the beach. This is unique in that the stone depicts a strong bonding between father and son. It is an ideal gift to give to your love ones, if you can afford it.

 

This one shows the image of a girl (at the centre) and that of a baby (on the right). No wonder rare stone collectors in China are keen to possess this type of art from nature. If you happen to see some interesting stone that look like some art form, remember there is a market for such things in China.

Sticky hand

Taiji may be a form of slow action exercise, but if you have mastered the skills in Taiji, you will develop a pair of sticky hands that can defeat your opponent.

Here is a video to demonstrate the sticky hand of Taiji.

 

 

Some folk songs to share:

http://youtu.be/lo3p4Qz0Eic 达阪城姑娘

http://youtu.be/UH7dLisSTYk敖包相会 

http://youtu.be/u_eqo4Jvdq0 在銀色的月光下

Intrroduction to puerh tea: Part 3

Here is the remaining video clip I recorded many years ago on puerh tea:

       Part 3:

   
       More info on Puerh:

 

Introduction to puerh tea Parts 1 and 2

Here are some recorded video clips on puerh tea in English (for sharing): This information is essential for puerh tea lovers.
                                         Part 1:

                                         Part 2:

Hope you enjoy the video.

Puerh blends well with food

If you are looking for a Chinese tea to drink, why not try puerh tea.

French like to have a glass of wine to go with their food. A typical Chinese would  prefer a cup of tea instead. If you are having a heavy meal (plenty of meat that kind of stuff), the best thing to do is drink plenty of puerh tea. If you do not wish to have wing to go with your food, you can have other alternative. With its mild but rich taste, puerh blends well with all types of food. It is not like other fragrant green tea that will rob you the rich taste of the food you are enjoying. Instead, the subtle taste of puern will compliment well with your food (the way wine does). It can also wash away oily things in your food and keep you healthy and slim. Not only that, long term drinking this tea will lower your cholesterol.

Green puerh takes too long to mature. You can opt for ripe puerh which can be consumed immediately. Of course, if you keep the tea for a year or so, the taste of puerh will improve significantly. Mature green puerh (over 20 years of age) is quite costly but ripe puerh (2 year of age) is comparatively cheaper and easy to drink.

Ripe puerh bricks of the 80s

Puerh cakes of the 70s

Puerh Toa cha (shape like a bowl)

Mushroom shaped puerh

Here I have a recorded video on the production of this marvellous tea. The narration is in English, so sit tight and enjoy this short film.

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World's oldest tea tree

It had long been considered that the world's oldest tea tree originated in India.

However the villagers in Yunnan discovered fossils of tea leaves in their village. This prompted a group of researchers wanting to find the oldest tea trees. They set off to Yunnan which is known to have a lot of wild puerh trees, generally 500 to 800 year old. Some trees are even more than a thousand years old.

Fossils of tea leaves

Add caption

True enough, not far from where the villagers discovered the fossils of tea leaves, they found the oldest wild puerh tree. They also needed to prove that other old puerh trees were grown from this ancient wild puerh tree.

Experts examining the oldest tea tree

In 1993, experts all gathered around and examined the ancient puerh tree. They unanimously agreed that it was the oldest tea tree ever found on earth. Hence history was rewritten. The world's oldest tea tree actually originated in China, in Yunnan which is the habitat of puerh trees

Old puerh tree



This 1000 year old puerh tree is well protected

As the best puerh tea comes from these wild puerh trees which have long roots to receive nourishments from the soil deep underneath. These trees will produce big and hairy leaves which are essential for making good quality puerh tea.

The best of the puerh tea comes from the Panchang village which is called the Lao Panchang, the king of kings of the puerh tea. A newly made piece of Lao Panchang tea cakes can cost a few thousands RMB.

Lao Panchang: The king of kings

Another oldie for sharing:
       http://youtu.be/QFuzQDdUizM 偷偷摸摸