The Bonsai King

Have you heard of a bonsai plant that is worth 6 million dollars? Crazy, isn't it?

Well, here is a picture of the king of all bonsai plants.

Bonsai with a price tag of 6 million dollars

This bonsai plant is over 280 years old and is housed in its own glass mansion that has temperature control and other facilities. The owner paid 1.6 million dollars for it and there are people willing to offer 6 million dollars just to keep it. It was said that the tree was already in existence during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty. It has not only survived all these turbulent years but flourished as well. Just look at the roots and those branches and you will agree.

Visitors admiring the king of bonsai

The plant actually belonged to a rich family during the Qing dynasty and was a star attraction in the family garden. As the fortune of that family declined, it was sold to someone. The present owner is a vivid bonsai lover, he starts his own bonsai cultivation from a young age. He has collected quite a number of bonsai plants and house them in his garden. But he regrets for not being able to own this king of bonsai. Hence, he went hunting for this bonsai king all over China but his efforts failed. Then this bonsai king suddenly appeared in a competition and won the first price. He contacted the previous owner and eventually paid 1.6 million dollars for it. With the bonsai king in his possession, he wanted to restore the glorious garden of the rich family and placed the bonsai king as the center of attraction in the garden. He succeeded in his effort and now the garden is open to the public to view his collection of bonsai plants, the bonsai king in particular.

The proud owner and his bonsai king

Look at those trunks and branches

Crazy Stones

Stones collecting has become very popular and hot in China. These are no ordinary stones. They have artistic designs on them. It all depends on the individual collectors. Once a unique design or features are spotted on the stones, they can become very sought-after pieces and their values increase tremendously. This is the age of the crazy stones as reported by CCTV of China. There are stones vendors and stone collectors who become very rich by the stones they discovered. The vendors collect the stones from river banks, mountainous regions or field underground. Then then display their finds in rare stones markets. Once the collectors discover the unique ones (through they own interpretation of the features on the stones), they buy these stones and other collectors will then counter offer to acquire them, usually paying a premium price to secure the ones they like. Some ordinary stones may be bought for tens of dollars but eventually changed hand for hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Stones lying on river banks

A stones night market

Interesting features on a stone

There is a story about this collector who spotted this unique stone in a shop. When the shop owner showed him the stone, it was in a vertical position and he could not find anything unusual about the stone. But when he turned the stone the other way around (in a horizontal position), his eyes sparkled, and he noticed that the stone has a design of a galloping horse on its front face. Immediately, he paid 10 dollars for the stone. When his collector friend saw the stone, he offered him 300 dollars for it but he declined the offer. Two years later, a businessman offered him 30000 dollars for this stone and he was still not willing to part with it. Amazing, isn't it. Stone collecting/admiring has become such a crazy thing. There are many similar stories about how very ordinary stones become very expensive once somebody spotted the unusual characteristic features on them. Next time if you happen to step on a stone, take a look at the stone. It may bring you great fortunate.

This collector admiring the horse design on this stone

What about this one?

There are intrinsic values in stones

Did you see a bird?

 





Year of the horse teapot

This year is the year of the horse. To commemorate this year of the horse, teapot master, Xu Sihai, has come up with a teapot design that depicts a picture of the horse with a theme 马到成功. The design of the horse is taken from a famous antique of a horse stepping on the back of a swallow (马踏飞燕).

Xu Sihai 许世海, a native from Shanghai, is a well known teapot collector and also a self-taught teapot maker who learnt art from the famous painter Tang Yun. He was the first to open his own museum in Shanghai to show case his collection of over 2000 pieces of fine teapots. One of the famous teapot in his collection is the King of all teapots, a globular shaped teapot crafted by the legendary Shou Dahen of the Qing dynasty. This teapot is reported to be worth over a hundred million dollars and even with such a high price tag, the owner is not going to sell it.

King of all Teapots

From the China Press:
午马年的马蹄声已经来到，年前由著名壶艺大师许世海设计创作、四海窑制作的紫砂生肖马壶成功问世。此款马年生肖紫砂壶的设计，独具特色，传递了平步青云马到成功的精神。许四海和许泽峰父子俩创意构思了整整六个月。生肖马紫砂壶其特点：图文结合、讲究内涵和品位，壶体气势昂扬、古朴大气，壶嘴为昂首的马头，意在唯马首是瞻也。细细观赏生肖马壶，壶身线条流畅，是一款上虚下实，阴阳相合的一把提梁壶，完全符合中国人的审美口味。提梁式样的壶把，自壶肩而凌空而起，整个壶体显得气宇轩昂，古朴大气。壶身刻有许四海亲笔题字的“马到成功”书法及马踏飞燕的图案。这把紫砂马壶，许四海均采用储备20年的原矿老段紫砂泥，色泽优雅，透气率佳，茶汤顺和平适，适合冲泡各种茶叶。在世博会期间，许四海曾经设计制作过一套 12把，以中文字为主设计的生肖紫砂壶，受到追捧，目前一壶难觅。从2012年起，许四海与其子许泽峰便合作设计，推出了生肖图文壶。

　　紫砂生肖马壶，采用了佛家法器之一的钵盂为壶身，以示光泽，与人为善，壶盖上印有六朵如意祥云图案，取了顺兴风调雨顺之意，寓意吉祥。

　　（图为四海窑紫砂生肖马壶）

 

Amazing stone carvings

There are 4 types of stones produced in China which are classified as the national stones of China. They are the Chicken Blood stones from Changhua in Zhejiang, Qintian stones from Sankou in Zhejiang, Balin stones from Inner Mongolia and Shoushan stones from Fuzhou. All these stones have their own characteristic features and colours and are ideal materials for making into seals and carvings due to their soft nature and translucent appearance. They are many different varieties and grades, the best of them is the Tianhuang stones from the Shoushan region which is priced at more than ten thousand per carat. It is considered as the king of all seal materials by the Qing emperors who had many seals carved out from this yellowish translucent stone. The chicken blood stones, on the other hand, is considered as the queen of all seal materials by the Qing emperors due to the traces of magnificent red colour on the stone which resembles blood flowing out from a freshly killed chicken. There are also chicken blood stones from Balin stones in inner Mongolia. These stones have a better stone quality (translucent and crystal like) and the blood clour is fresh and fluidic in nature. Incentally carvings and seals made from this stones are highly sought after.

Tianhuang stone carving

 

Blue Star carving by grand master, NiuKexi

A chicken blood stone carving depicting Chairman Mao

 There are other good quality Qintian stones such as the Dengkuangtong, FongmenQin and Blue Stars which are highly sough after by collectors. Fongmenqin has a characteristic greenish yellow colour and a very translucent appearance. If you shine a torch light on the Dengkuangtong, you can see through the stone with its characteristic orange colour. It is magnificent when made into carvings. The Blue Star, on the other hand, has speckles of blue dots on a milky white stone that looks like stars on a heavenly white sky. Some grand masters took up to a few years to carve out these masterpieces of stone carvings through blending the different colours of the stones with their artistic talent and skills in stone carving. Most of these stone carvings are national treasures and they are not for sale.

Fongmenqin carving by Nietongfang

Crystal clear stone carving from Shoushan

 

Shoushan stone carving

 

Balin chicken blood carving by a grand master

 

Dengkuangtong carving

 

Ancient Ghost Town of China

During our Yangtze River cruise tour on board the Century Diamond, we stopped by a place called the Ghost Town (Fongtou Gosht Town) built many years ago. This town was built with the sole purpose to remind people to do good and shunt evil. As the name suggests, this town depicts life in hell for evil doers of the world.

In Chinese legends, there were 18 levels in hell for all kinds of criminals who committed hideous crimes against their fellow human beings while they were on earth. Depending on the severity of their crime, they were dispatched to different levels in hell when they died. Obviously their bodies and souls were tormented to different degrees at various levels in hell. The most serious cases were found at the 18th level in hell where there was no chance to escape punishment. We often heard people curing their enemies to die and be cast to the 18th level in hell where there is no escape and forgiveness.

There were various prison guards in hell to administer the punishments such as cutting off the tongues (for those who speak evil things against others), chopping of hands (for those who steal from others) and sending the bodies to a huge grinder or to boiling oil. All these scenes are vividly presented in clay figurines that really looked awesome and the life in hell was really terrifying. You may wonder how this can be of any good to visitors. Actually, the designers of this town wanted to use the terrifying scenes of bodies and souls being tortured in hell to educate people that this was going to happen to anyone who did evils against others after they died. Life in hell was made so real that people were frightened and scared of hell. To avoid being sent to hell, they will think thrice before committing any crime against their fellow human beings. If you were there and saw the horrible scenes of bodies and souls being subjected to the most hideous way of torturing in hell, you would probably agree that the building of the ghost town had serve its purpose, not to commit crimes if one does not want the kind of torturing in hell one would suffer upon one's death. The ancient people did have a point to bring this message across to the masses. For those who have eyes and let them see, crime does not pay.

Entrance to the ghost town

Signage of the ghost town

Drunken Ghost

                                              A video item on a strong man lifting a weight

Wall Writings

Wall Writings 2

This reminds me also of similar things back home in Singapore. The Haw Par villa in Pasir Panjang also has the same theme. There were so many scenes that depict life in hell where bodies and soul were subjected to all kinds of torture one could imagine. If you are in Singapore, bring your kids to visit the Haw Par villa and enjoy a remarkable educational tour. Enlarge to read the writings on photos on left and right, it is interesting!

On board Century Diamond

Century Diamond is a 6-star cruise ship that operates along Yangtze River in China to ferry tourists up and down the river. It has 6 decks and there is a passenger lift that brings people up and down these decks. There are restaurants, bars and a stage for performance and the upper level an is open-air deck for tourists to enjoy free space.

Century Diamond Cruise Ship

The crew members of Century Diamond, from cleaners, chefs to Captain, all are well trained in many areas. Besides carrying out their usual tasks on board the ship, they are also trained in performing arts like dancing, magic shows, acrobatic etc. Below are some performance recorded while we were on board the ship some time ago. It was China National Day while we were on board the ship, we were treated with a grand National Day celebration by the crew members of the ship.

                                                    Dance item by chefs and kitchen assistants

                                                    China National Day celebration


The upper deck

Bar to serve tourists

Fitness corner

Buffet is served on board the ship

cruising along the Yangtze



Cabin room inside Century Diamond


 

Hakka song and dance

The Hakka (客家) are Han Chinese who speak Hakka Chinese and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China. Although the vast majority of the Hakka live in Guangdong, they have a separate identity that distinguishes themselves from the Cantonese people.
The Chinese characters for Hakka (客家) literally means "guest families". The Hakka's ancestors were often said to have arrived from what is today's central China centuries ago and north China thousand years ago. The Hakkas are thought to originate from the lands bordering the Huang River (Yellow River) or Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei Provinces of the Northern China of today. In a series of migrations, the Hakkas moved, settled in their present locations in southern China, and then often migrated overseas to various countries throughout the world. The worldwide population of Hakkas is about 80 million, though the number of Hakka-language speakers is fewer. Hakka people have had a significant influence on the course of Chinese and world history: in particular, they have been a source of many revolutionary, government, and military leaders. (Source from Wikipedia)

On our recent trip to Meizhou, we went on a cruise ride along a river (Dongjiang) in Meizhou. On the cruise ship, we were entertained by the crew of the ship with Hakka song and dance. Below are the clips of the song and dance items.

Hakka dance featuring match makers

                                                               A Hakka song item
For more information on Hakka people, culture and history, visit this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_people