Bookmark this category Star Ferry Musings #54: Mecca of Tea Drinkers Written by Robert Wu for his family and Friends To read earlier articles, please enter web site: http://www.starferrymusings.com/ ———————————————————————————————- Wu Yi Mountains 武夷山 is one of the World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO. It is also in the middle of WooLong tea 烏龍茶 production […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends —————————————————————————————————— I love Indian curry, but my body does not like it and revolts afterwards. So I had to refrain from eating curries. Upon deciding to visit India for 6 days, we were tempted to bring 6 days ration of instant noodles. But the tour company […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ————————————————————————————————- India is a large, multi-ethnic, complex civilization. Its earliest culture 5,000 years ago by the Indus River was amazingly sophisticated with planned cities, sewage systems and other creations that were the most advanced of its time. It suddenly disappeared 4,000 years ago, to be replaced […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ———————————————————————————————————– This is a somewhat wordy article about the surname Wu and my lineage. It is intended as a record of our clan for the benefit of the younger Wu family members. Hope you will find it interesting too. The Wu Lineage My surname Wu 伍 […]
An Accelerating Phenomenon Two years ago, WuHan 武漢 city held an unusual ceremony. Over 500 young men and women wore the the Chinese clothing hanfu 漢服 (traditional clothing of the Han 漢 people) that was worn for the last 4,000 years to attend the traditional adulthood ceremony. For men, it’s called guanli 冠禮, and for […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends …………………………………………………………………………………………. We read about the three-year drought in Kenya one week before we departed for east Africa and knew about the havoc it wreaked on the animals there. When we were actually on the grassland of Masai Mara National Park, we only saw dozens of migrating […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ……………………………………………………………………… As tourists in Kenya, we were driven everywhere in a safari van. We had the unfortunate fate of having a speed demon as our driver. Our van had three blown tires, all on the same wheel. The tires were all Michelin tires which I trust, […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ………………………………………………………………………………….. Sally and I took a trip to East Africa recently. In 8 days, we took 3,000 pictures and videos. We saw a part of the world different from our own and got a glimpse of their lives.Kenya is a poor country with agriculture and tourism as […]
The riots in Urumqi, XinJiang, in the last few days costed over a hundred lives. It is threatening to become an ethnic battle between the Uighur and the Han ethnic groups of Chinese. I hope this turmoil will be settled without too much more bloodshed. ——————————————————————————– Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ——————————————————————————– We […]
With the civil unrest gripping Iran, I remember our trip to Iran two years ago and some of the fond memories. I hope the unrest will be resolved without much bloodshed. ———————————————————————— Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ———————————————————————— Sally and I joined a tour group in Hong Kong to visit Iran. […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ———————————————————— I have not seen the starling 黑领椋鸟 (八哥) chick in the nest for two days. The nest lacked any movement and the parent birds did not fly to the nest anymore. I searched from my window and finally found the chick, so I went to […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ————————————————————- Today, I discover the black collared starling couple already has a chick and it is already an adolescent. Within days, I believe, the chick will fly off and leave the parents with an empty nest. I can share with these parents my experience of coping […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends ———————————————————– We have two new pets, and we don’t have to take care of them. Two black-collared starlings have made a nest on a cypress tree 50 feet from our flat windows. That cypress tree is used as the estate Christmas tree in the winter. They […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends —————————————————————————— Kyoto, a Repository of Tang Culture In 1999, Sally and I spent a few days in Kyoto 京都 to see the sights. We heard Kyoto was heavily influenced by Tang Chinese culture and retained much of that culture while few intact Tang dynasty relics remain […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends —————————————————————————- As a Cantonese person 廣東人, I always knew my spoken Chinese is different from that spoken in the rest of China. This distinction made me interested in my heritage and the local history of GuangDong 廣東 within the larger history of China. The following is […]
Written by Robert Wu fro his family and friends ————————————————————————- Happy lunar new year to all. This new year is the Year of the Ox, according to the Chinese zodiac. I wish you all a successful year ahead. Feral Cattle of Hong Kong Hong Kong is a wild place. Its countryside is overrun with 800 […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends Barack Obama will be taking his oath in front of the Congressional building and become the newest US President. The Congressional building and the White House are in the news all over the world. These buildings are in the tradition of Western Greco-Roman architectural style, and […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends Newspaper Conspiracy? In 1992, I read the following newspaper article in MingPao 明報, a reputable Hong Kong newspaper. It was not April 1st, so it was not an April’s fool joke by the newspaper. The article stated that four European tourists saw a crowd of Chinese […]
Written by Robert Wu for his family and friends My new years resolution for 2005 was to see as much of the Great Wall as I can, and I have been striving to fulfill it. This is the third report on my quest to see the Great Walls, following earlier ones in SFM #14 and #29. […]