慢慢悠悠

without haste...

bikes...and bikes...and more bikes...

I always enjoy taking photos of bikes. I still find it astonishing that here in China, especially in Tianjin, there are so many bikes.

One corner

different moments...

Hearts in between branches

At first I wanted it to show you the big heart in between branches, then I realized there are more smaller ones. Try it for yourself how many you can see.

Guest Heart Thursday

In between dreams

china house museum

Opened on 2nd, Sep, 2007, Porcelain House, also known as the "China House" or Yuebao House, is located in Tianjin Commercial Center.

In September, 2002, the porcelain collector Zhang Lianzhi (张连志) spent 1 million yuan (US$125,000) buying the house. Then in the following four years, the 49-year-old Tianjin native devoted most of his time to refurnish it with hundreds of thousands of porcelain pieces dating from Tang (AD 618-907) to Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. It is calculated that more than 400 million pieces of ancient porcelain, 16 thousand pieces of ancient chinaware, 300 white-marble carvings, and 20 tons of natural crystals were used in the process.

About 80 percent of the porcelain used in the house is broken or damaged antiques.

The house is covered with various porcelain pieces such as plates, vases and figurines, making it come into the spotlight in the neighborhood. Elements of Chinese culture can be seen at every turn of the house, for example, the four "China dragons," entwining the exterior wall of the building, auspiciously symbolize the power in ancient China and is one of the dominant features in ancient Chinese architecture. Each "dragon", which has a length of more than 200 meters, is actually pieced together by mosaic of porcelain pieces.

I'm linking this heart to Guest Heart Thursday

Covered with more than 3,000 porcelain vases, the wall around the courtyard gets a very auspicious name "Ping'an Qiang" (Wall of Wellness). The pronunciation of Chinese word for vase ("ping") is the same as the word for wellness.