2008 Hambug Trip - Christmas is coming !!!!

I arrived in Hamburg on Sunday morning, after check in the hotel I decided to make a trip down to the city hall to see what is happening for the Christmas. Winter in Hamburg is always wet and cloudy plus the strong wind from the sea, it make you really feel chill walking on the street. This time around, our company arrange us to stay in a newly open hotel near the harbour and it cause a little difficult for me to went down to the city hall ( not within a walking distance!!).

When I walk toward the Hamburg city hall, I notice the Christmas market have already kick off and there are few boats on the late were put on Christmas decoration. I guess all the boats will look nice at night but I would need to adjust my jet lag so I decided to visti them at night some other day ( I will be in Hamburg until the coming Saturday!).

Look at the sky, you will know what I mean by Hamburg winter!!!!

My humble digital camera was not up to performance, sorry for some blur picture. I just want to share the Christmas atmosphere with all of you, so just bear with me.

My next entry I will blog about the unique Hamburg Christmas market!!

My Cup of Coffee and Your Cup of Coffee - Part II !!!!!!

We all have our own cup of coffee and it is always we like to look at other cup of coffee, wondering whether other cup coffee taste better than our cup of coffee!! This is like we have are very own life but always like to compare with other people life without knowing that our life will fade away due to lack of focus.

Every of us have different story, how we are brought up, the school we attend, the group of friend we mix with, the career we choose etc will make each of us different from others. Human are always greedy, we want more than we are affordable to own!!! Some people may claim that we need this kind of behavior to force us to strive for success, I agreed but this theory only work only if we know the "real us".

Have we wonder how many time we spend a day, a week or a month try to understand our need, whose really we are!!!! If not how to we convince ourself we understand whose we are!!! SO start to allocate some time to focus on understand the "real you"!!!

Hamburg Here I Come!!!!!!

I Will be going to Hamburg to attend World Finance Conference for my company and expect a hectic schedule for the whole week, anyway I will try to see whether I can blog few entries during my stay in Hamburg. I was told that Hamburg have started to SNOW!!!

Xi Hu Hangzhou - Snow White look in Winter

This the final part of my Xi Hu scenery entry - Snow white look of Xi Hu in Winter. The story go like this :


I woke up on morning to find that I am surrounding with a thick layer of WHITE SNOW. It is not common to have snow in March especially in this part of China. It must have snow through out yesterday night and everybody must feel exited to see all the greenery have suddenly cover by white layer of snow.


Children were happy because they can play snow ball again. I took a trip down to West Lake to take some beautiful scenery, I love the clean cold breeze that blow into my face, it is so fresh and sometime I think the oxygen content must have been very high after the snow.

If not because of the white snow, all the pictures I have taken will not be any attractive at all!!!! So as you can see the nature have changed something simple to a very different kind of scenery. Normally by this time of the year, all the green have started to grow for Spring but a sudden change of whether have turn it back to Winter. This is the power of NATURE!!!!!


This was the story way back 2005 and it conclude what I call "personal touch" with Xi Hu, although now I am reside and work in Shanghai but those year in Hangzhou have really mean something to me and will be keep in my heart for many many years to come!!!

Look at that! In fact when I took this shot, I was focus on the building located far that prompt me with a lot of thought like I was flying back to the history.


This is one of my favorite picture. When I took this shot, I am actually want to focus on this small plant, It stand a lone in this empty land cover with white snow and it never lost to the force of nature even though it is small. I suddenly realize that no matter how small we think we are, our strength and persistent to survive will see us thru the up and down in our life.

The color of the red ancient architecture match well with the white snow and that make it outstanding in the picture, without the snow it just a normal building.

Ah! I won theInternet photography competition with this picture!! The comment from the judge was that this picture provide different layer of feel to the scenery, the reflection, the river, the trunk of the tree have created some sort of winter atmosphere in the picture!!!

I like this picture too because of the reflection and the single lamp stand in the middle of the river that make this scenery match the feel of a winter!!!

Nothing special for this picture except I was to capture the straight and tall trunk of the tree, I am not sure what I want to present with this picture!!!

This is the close up of the building of the first picture!!!

This is conclude my final part of Xi Hu photos. I hope my viewer will like it !!

Xi Hu Hangzhou - Misty Look in a Summer rainy day

Here come the second part of my Xi Hu entry. This time I present you with the misty look of Xi Hu, there are lot description how beautiful xi Hu can be in a misty rainy day and in Mandarin it mean ”烟雨江南“ the first two words mean " misty rainy day" and the second last two words mean "the region located in southern part of Yangtze river" literary it mean Hangzhou.

The ancient Chinese literature always like to use misty Xi Hu as a symbolic of romantic and beauty of a scenery but the set of photos you view below have not able to provide you the same degree description of what so call ”烟雨江南“ because I don't think my little humble Casio Exilim can do the job?

Remember I take the same angle for my sun set photo but it will look differently in a rainy day.

Another misty look!

A stone gate..I have a similar shot for my sun set entry! How different there are? not in turn of the physical look but the atmosphere that I want to present!!!

Ah ! this is my favorite shot!!! I just want to tell something in this shout !! Can anyone guess!!!!

My next entry will be my last part of Xi Hu faces - The Snow white look of Xi Hu in Winter!!!

Xi Hu Hangzhou - Sun Set During Autumn!

I was working in Hangzhou from year 2001 to 2006 and I used to hang out in Xi Hu during my leisure time. I have the opportunity to view the different faces of Xi Hu. It was the same time I bought a CASIO Exilim digital camera and was able for me to capture many many wonderful faces of Xi Hu.

Xi Hu have different faces during different season in the year, basically you have the most beautiful sun set in Xi Hu during autumn, Misty look during raining season in summer and the most beautiful scenes I have seen or I have captured with my camera was the white Xi Hu after snow during winter.

I am going to blog each of this scenery I have captured on the following entry but for now I will show you the Sun Set in Xi Hu during Autumn. Hope all my viewer will like it!!!!

This was the stone gate located on the southern side of the Xi Hu somewhere near the famous 柳浪文莺。

It is this set of photo that spark my interest to learn photography. I took all these photos using a very simple digital camera but I learn one important point about photography is not the equipment that determine the outcome of your photo, it is how you understand the meaning of the scenery that count.
I like this one very much as it have some kind of emotional feeling attach to it, not solely about romantic.....but a little bit of sadness of not able to catch the last glimpse of the beautiful sun set before it submerge on the horizon of the lake!!!!
I purposely took the shot between the two trunk of the tree with a boat in a far side. What do you think the message I want to sent on this shot......LONELINESS!!!!!!
This is another shot I took behind a couple that sit facing the lake and the beautiful of the last glimpse of the sun set shine toward them.

I think now my viewer should understand what I mean by how you interpret the scenery you wish to take and able to capture at the right moment with the right atmosphere you want to present.

I am not a professional photographer but I learn how to express my feeling on all the photos I wish to take. May be the photo represent what and how I feel during those year in Hangzhou, anyway sometime it is good to embrace it and recall what was ME then!!!