And So It Begins

-


http://rmls.com/RC2/UI/photo.asp?z=DNDNAAEOCUCMADECECDKBEEQDIAIDPCWDEEFAZEXDRCZDJDPECDQAAEBCWDT



This is where our journey begins, a large brown house nestled among peaceful oaks. And for most--and almost for us--this would probably be seen more as a destination than a starting point. But, much like Bilbo Baggins, we had a wise friend come along and nudge us out of our comfortable surroundings with promises of adventure and treasure. But, unlike Bilbo, we weren't quite so reticent to go though we had many more preparations to make.

At present, we are standing at the edge of the journey, gazing on the landscape before us, imagining what great adventures await us. We will be launching out on September 7, 2017 for the south eastern coast of China, for Xiamen--or more traditionally--Amoy (but more on that later).




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Urban Decay

-
Image
My last post was about a trip we took to a ghost mall in hopes of finding urban decay and wound up finding a partially operational mall. And though we didn't find the urban decay that others had posted about online, it still was an interesting place to explore. This post is about a trip we took in hopes of finding an interesting place and wound up finding urban decay. This last weekend, Sandy and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary by spending the weekend in Guangzhou, just for some time away to enjoy being together. On Saturday, we decided to explore a little and went to an art factory called Redtory that TripAdvisor had listed as an interesting place to visit. Had I read the reviews a little more closely, we wouldn't have gone because some of the reviews discussed how the shops were mostly closed down in October of 2019. (This actually brings up an interesting issue many travel sites are having: with the pandemic greatly limiting travel over the past few years, most cu
Read more

A Visit to an Abandoned Mall (South China Mall)

-
Image
A few weeks ago, someone told me that the largest abandoned mall in the world was located in Dongguan, Guangdong, about a 2 hour drive from us. Well, that really interested me because I am familiar with two abandoned malls in Xiamen, and they were very interesting to explore -- and honestly a little creepy. It is no wonder they are referred to as ghost malls. That is not to say there are no businesses in them, but the majority of storefronts are empty, and those that are in use look more like squatters moved in -- stores you would encounter out on the street with little glitz or glamour -- definitely no mall appeal.  So, I did some research on the mall and found out where it was, saw a few photos, and read some description about it, but most of the info was from 2013 to 2019, nothing recent. Wikipedia has a bit of information as well, but all quite dated. Some of the basic stats are that the mall covers  9,600,000 sq ft with enough space for 2,350 stores.  But with the pandemic, what
Read more

Among other gods

-
Image
Over the past few decades, the West has promoted the idea that the only truly impartial worldview is secularism, the absence of religion In fact, secularism is now seen as the dominant and only viable perspective in the world, which--in typical Western myopia--ignores about 3.17 billion people in the East who are adherents to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and folk religions (according to Adherents.com ). We in the West have little understanding of the role religion plays in the daily lives and worldviews of nearly half of the world's population. Two weeks ago, I was able to witness an annual event in our apartment community which vividly demonstrated the divide. Our community is located on the outskirts of Xiamen in an area made up of country folk. The story we've been given is that this apartment complex was built on the ruins of a village and housing was given to many of the people to replace the homes they lost. So, the atmosphere of this complex is much more rural than most.
Read more