The Chinesepod picture post!

Thanks for the compliment xiao liang. People tell me that my kids could be models EXCEPT they are "vertically-challenged," having an Asian mother and a bairen 白人 father who's not very tall himself. My cousin who lives in the Philippines tells me that if my kids moved there, they could be actors. Filipinos love people who are half-Filipino and half-Caucasian. So I joke and tell my kids that's an option they have if they aren't successful in the US.

I can't see anything either. I have found recently that different places in China seem to have tighter internet restrictions. Perhaps you are in one of those areas.

Then it's official: it's just my computer that's affected and can't see these pix.

Hey, great pictures, and what a good looking family! :-)

"bu hao" is good. A great learning opportunity.

Much better :)

Hehe.. a bit better.. still need to work on the dimension for the portrait orientation :)

You have it set to 425x425 but the dimension should be 318x425.. the first one looks fine though :)

If I had to casually guess, it probably has to do with the size of the picture files, but i'm not the browser expert. We're probably also experiencing the same pictures never showing up.

The pictures you can and cannot see are consistent? I seem to get different ones every time... though some never show up. Hmmmm

Hi, cinnamonfern: thanks for the feedback. I see what you mean. I am actually not THAT short and far, nor are my kids. I am off to my Chinese classes right now, but will try to adjust the second photo again when I return. Zaijian!

I'm going to reply to your new post here, so you can still edit the post if you want to. The top picture looks fine. The bottom picture is now squished, so you all look kind of short. It's kind of fun though - like those fun house mirrors. :)

light, for me, there's a consistent set of pictures I get, and another set of pictures on this thread that I don't see at all. For example, I always see the picture of you smiling at the table, and Connie and Lu Jiaojie, but then I never see the one with John and Jenny making a podcast, among many others. Not sure why.

I can see them.. but they are horribly distorted and stretched.. when you add the picture, you need to be careful of the dimensions that it automatically selects.. It should be: 425x318 for a landscape orientation or 318x425 for a portrait.. 425 is the max width anyway.. you can do the calcuations to find the height yourself..

awww man, abelle, I can't see your pictures either! maybe its stuff being blocked, or something.

Sometimes our office is NEARLY that cold! HAHA. They put me in the back where the heat doesn't work, and in fact where the air conditioning will sometimes start in the middle of winter. ): Oh woe. The trials and tribulations of a paper pusher! Today I am only wearing two layers but yesterday I had three on (two sweaters and a jacket), with a floor heater blasting directly on me and I was still chilled!

Nice pic. :) Now...you mean -28C outside, right? Please tell me your office isn't that cold.

Haha. But after the coffee I'm all serious business... because it's cold as can be here and I'm freezing! PS: Cold = -28C as of this morning.

Please to meet you. You can still flash a big smile before the morning coffee, so can't be all bad. :-)

Tinypix.com was rather confusing but I think I figured it out. :) 谢谢 for pointing out the little thing on the top of the comment box! Yay for not having to use any codes!

Bah! :)

Read the first post, it tells you how.. and you don't even need to do Step 3 in the way that it said as there is a little picture button at the top of the comment box! :)

Ah! My secret's out. ;) Okay, I'd post a picture except I really just have no idea how to. HAHA.

Your avatar makes you a liar :p

I think Jay sounds pretty ... shaky on CD so I was just curious if he's any better live. Some of his songs are amazing but some not so much. Haha. It almost seems like he can't quite sing, yet his compositions are nice so I tolerate him. Heh.

That is pretty expensive though! AND NO GLOW STICKS? What the heck? That kind of sucks.

Ahh.. sorry for late reply, missed it..

Yes, the concert was amazing really.. but the security and event organisers here ruined it by not allowing people to take in glow sticks and all the cool things that you normally see at his concerts overseas. It was an expensive concert, even by western standards, coming in at around $250AUD for my ticket.. but I was pretty close to the stage.

I thought I was the only person living in Brisbane who hasn't been to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Now it is becoming clear I am the only person ON THE PLANET who hasn't been. Sigh...

Ah! I mean, Jay Chou 愛. Hee. Was the concert any good?

Jay Chou

Love all these photos Light! Thanks so much for posting them :-)

Well.. the short story is that JoeyJo (I call her Jojo) who is the girl in the picture was working at the Blue Mountain Youth Hostel in Shanghai. I get on well with all the service staff at the hostels I stay with and get to know them. So she was telling me about how because of her height she has trouble meeting guys. They, or at least this is how she perceives it, don't think she is pretty because she is too tall. I'd guesstimate that she is roughly 5'7" (maybe 5'8") with me being around 6'2". So while it is certainly tall for a Chinese girl, it is by no means extremely tall.

Anyway, I got her to take me around Shanghai on "a date" and that we would be boyfriend and girlfriend for the day.. haha.. it was just a joke of course but now whenever we meet or say hello to each other the greeting is "hello my ex-girlfriend" or "hello my ex-boyfriend". :) She also warned me that whenever she goes out walking with her friends that she likes to hold on to their arm; this is quite a common thing that you've probably seen for yourself in many places. So she hung on to my arm the entire time and she was my temporary girlfriend for the day.

We actually ended up going out again before I had to leave for Australia at the end of my trip and I ended up taking a lot of pictures of her. I think she is lovely and certainly very pretty regardless of her height. She has a real boyfriend these days, which I am glad about because she had so much trouble in the past. I wish she will be happy and that it will be a lasting relationship for her. I have to admit, in a small way, I would have liked that someone to have been me.. but I am glad for the time I have spent with her and the friendship we have formed.

Oh no! You can't just throw out that bit about a "temporary girlfriend" without some sort of explanation. ;)

Yup.. they're going to look at you as the "gawking tourist" whether you have your camera out or not :) hehe.. And I find that many of the Chinese travelling from other places within China look more like tourists than I did! :) I've only once been told I wasn't allowed to take pictures in a train station and that was in the newly built Nanjing metro area. I did it just inside the ticketing area where there were a few, obviously bored, train guards. The reason I took the picture was to show how empty of people the place was. Quite a boring photo really but it was just so amazing at how empty it was compared to the other cities I'd been in.

With my trip from Hangzhou back to Shanghai, I was travelling on one of the many holiday days, so it took quite a bit to even get myself a ticket and ended up on an "extra" train that departed at 8pm. It took 4 whole hours to get from Hangzhou to Shanghai because we had to keep stopping for all the other "regular" trains to pass us. The "extra" train was added to alleviate the masses of people waiting at Hangzhou for a train to Shanghai during that busy time.. it wasn't even a new year exodus.. just a regular long weekend.. I'd hate to get stuck in a new year exodus when it seems the entire population of China decides to go travelling around. :)

Yay! The train station! I had a train leaving the Hangzhou station at 11pm - it was so crowded! There were definitely twice as many people as in your picture and many of them were sitting on the ground. I was too scared to take pictures in the train station and on the train because I already am obviously 老外...I didn't want to bring this impression all the way to gawking tourist. I should have just done it though because the trains were so interesting.

That is only one half of the waiting room.. lol! When I got there, there was about half as many people waiting but as the time for the departure grew nearer, it filled more and more and more. There are many such rooms like this in the main train stations across China. The one in Hangzhou (for the return journey) was actually larger than this one but had more doorways to separate train platforms. This one just had the one doorway to a single platform.

One thing of note in Chinese waiting areas is the hot water facilities. Everywhere you go in China boiling water is available for people to refill their travel tea cups as well as for filling instant noodle cups etc

Great pics. Must have a good camera. I was interested in the Railway Station....not seen one like that...looks more like the waiting lounge at an airport. Also love the bamboo forest. Reminds me of House of Flying Daggers. 小心朋友！

Love em' light487! Thanks for posting.

Oooh boy.. you asked for it now! :)

As many pictures as possible!

post away. There could never be too many I think.

Haha - not sure what I like better - the idea of being a teenage mutant ninja turtle or a bìxì !

And yep - as xiaoliang said, this is outside the Madame Tussaud's at the top of the Peak in Hong Kong. I have another pic of me next to a wax version of Michelle Yeoh, but she looks ridiculously skinny and pretty compared to me, so that one is not going to be posted...

Yeah - I'm not a big fan of the tour groups either. The only one I was a part of while I was in China was the tour of the Great Wall. The main reason I chose to do this is because I didn't have to figure out how to get there and back (ack - buses!). We went to Mutianyu section - which I really enjoyed. They have a toboggan run to get off the wall! - It seems a bit odd, but was also hilarious, perhaps dangerous, and really really fun!.

We got a tour of the Ming Tombs, which I was apprehensive about because the guide books all say to avoid it, but I actually really enjoyed it because our tour guide was able to fill us in on historical and cultural details. And she was super flexible - we went to look at the statues near the tombs - which were really cool and not originally part of the trip. And we stopped near the Olympic Park to take some photos and let some people off early (also not part of the tour).

The only downside was the cold western-style Chinese food lunch. So bad...so bad. This was easily worst food of the whole trip, even worse than the whole crab my friend made me eat in Xiamen. I think the food must be better if you go with a Chinese tour group...but my Chinese wasn't good enough for that to work for me.

Actually I remember hearing about where a group of Chinese tourists have hijacked a bus before.. basically they wanted to go somewhere that the normal buses didn't go, so they all bribed the driver into taking them there... Seems like a pretty normal thing to occur really.. only that it wasn't a tour bus but a government bus.. :)

"bribe the tour guide to take them home early"

..hehe, yeah, that's funny.

lol.. I don't remember you telling that story, though I may have simply missed the post. It sounds pretty typical though. I know what you mean though about asking the questions as they do always tend to involve being taken to a factory and a chinese medicine clinic. The fashion parade would have been fun, right? :p lol..

That time I went to the Panda centre had none of that :standard: stuff but the tour was conducted by one of the hostel staff, and it was a very good hostel in terms of service. If it is still under the same ownership, I would recommend staying there for anyone looking to go to Chengdu. "Sim's Cozy" is its name. I think Gesa (though could have been another ChinesePod user) went there on my recommendation and also enjoyed her stay immensely.

In mainland China you do have to ask very specific questions, because it can spoil your day. You should ask questions like:

- are we going shopping? (most tours involve shopping)

- is there a visit to a factory? (almost every tour)

- is there a visit to a Chinese medicine clinic? (quite common)

- is there a fashion parade? (yes, I've had a fashion parade forced on me)

- are we going to a museum (that hasn't been mentioned)?

- what is happening at lunch time?

- how long is the bus trip to our destination?

- what time will we return?

I'm sure I've told this story before, but I was on one excursion where the tourists were trying to bribe the tour guide to take them home early.

Ya.. when I went to Bing Ma Yong (Terracotta Warriors) in Xi'an, I arrived by myself and was able to secure an informative tour guide all to myself at a rate of 100RMB for the entire day. Of course, had I gone in a small group of 3 or 4 people it would have still been 100RMB.. but I felt a little like a VIP having my own private tour guide.. not to mention her being cute as a button in her government issued tour-guide uniform.. always a plus. :)

yes, you did say that...exactly...for something special. I'm 100% with you on this.

you know in the past I avoided getting into that tour group type holiday like the plague..didn't want to have my freedom to check things out by myself taken away. A few years ago though I found that I had to go on a tour of a couple of things with a group and the guides were great [interesting, informative and entertaining] and of course they shared experience with a large group was great as well and I could see the benefit. I had the best of both worlds. The vast majority of the holiday I was on my own to go and check things out, do what I wanted to do, so these 2 day tours didn't cramp my style or take away from that freedom. But I could never go on one of those holidays where the whole thing is mapped out for you with a tour group the whole time. Well I could, but it would not be my preference.

Well that's what I meant about "sometimes" it is ok.. it needs to be something special though but I generally avoid the tour group thing as much as I can :)

I'm not sure that I agree. I wouldn't want to miss out on the fashion parade, the silk factory, or lunch at the restaurant owned by the brother-in-law of your tour guide.

I agree mate. I've never been into the tour groups thing either. I'm too independent and like to be a free spirit, hehe. I wasn't on a tour group back then...it was just that I was there on a brief stopover only and I think it was the last cable car of the day [if there is such a thing...hehe...can't remember precicely it was many years ago, but anyhow, I do remember we got a quick squiz at the view and that was about all we had time for at the time.

"diddly squat time to look around"

And this is precisely why I choose to travel by myself in China and avoid tour groups, unless it is just too difficult to do by myself. Like the Panda Breeding Research Centre visit or the Beijing Opera things.. everything else you really need to do yourself, otherwise you get ushered along way too quickly. :)

“赑屃”。。呵呵，精彩

oh dangran. That sounds right. Thanks mate. I've been to that peak myself, but had diddly squat time to look around and it was many years ago now. I wonder how long Bruce's wax figure has been there?

Haha. Would be scary to meet this pair in a dark alley! :-)

The tortoise and Bruce 小龙 - you would morph into the mythical 赑屃/bì xì/dragon-tortoise.

It's outside the Madame Tussaud's at the top of the cable car to Hong Kong Central's peak. Popular photo spot!

awesome picture ! It looks so real...like you really are boogieing with Bruce. So what's the story then? Is it a wax model? Where do you go to get this pic?

"But I am still ready to take down the baddies...Bruce is there for backup"

lol. Very good.

"Tortoise"....don't you mean teenage mutant ninja turtle?

Haha, I've been there! :) Great to see you!

I'm so happy this thread is being resurrected! :)

If I'd known 15 years ago there would be an online world and photoshop, I would've save myself the trouble and just do what xiaoliang does - facial hair is much easier to manage when it's virtual! Too late now, everyone is used to the way I look. Past attempts at getting rid of the mo have only resulted in bitter complaints...

天哪！ Very youthful (and yes of course I'm familiar with what they say about "orientals", how young we all look).

... Would that be part of the reason for the facial hair (like the kid in XiaoLiang's avatar)? Sorry, that's quite personal. Just thought how even younger you could pass for, if you didn't have it.

Why thank you. My photoshop instructor loves you! Don't want to be precise with my age, but I'm older than 40 and younger than 42. :)

丘宏量 these are recent pics right? You look so youthful (not that I know how old you really are)!

Some things touch-up software just can't do - don't think I'll make it on an ad anytime soon.

I might make it on South Park with my second pic though!

lol...hilarious.

Hehe! You look like someone from an advert in the first picture! Perhaps a HP or microsoft lifestyle ad :)

... admittedly, not quite so much in the second pic, but hey!

hehe, really love the shirt. 经！

It is Rolf Harris! He opened the festival on Friday morning, gave a really great show. Amazing energy for a guy that's 80 years old!

The shirt says, "Shakespeare hates your emo poems"... from here:

http://www.threadless.com/product/548/Shakespeare_hates_your_emo_poems

hey, I really was interested in all these photos...I've heard of the event of course but never been, but I'll tell you what I'm really impressed with. It looks like your t shirt may be mentioning Shakespeare. I'm interested to know what your shirt says.

Anyone know how you'd describe a musical festival like this in Chinese? Someone called my girlfriend while we were there, and she was like, "我们现在在。。。在。。。"

hehe, hey ,that's not Rolf Harris on the screen in the first photo by any chance is it? [or is it you?...I thought they were meant to be photos of you....you've gone from kid to old age fast but the mo's still there ;)

行

无比邪恶的英俊?

此外，你老是一位那么好的运动【怎么说在中文。。good sport?}

nah mate,please keep 'em coming. 你那么大方；感谢

I suppose this will teach me for posting images like that :-p I'll post something more sensible when I get home :)

that didn't even make sense

...well it makes sense to me mate...it explains the mo' on such a young face at any rate [而我的考拉的秃屁股】

I always thought you were a little too generous in giving your furry koala to my face.

... that didn't even make sense. I should really learn more Chinese.

oh,I see you took it to mean: 厚...generous,脸...face giving,and 皮...furry...like a warm cuddly koala.

我真的不敢当!

"Oh no mate,I wouldn't be so 厚脸皮"

I think 厚脸皮 aptly describes about 75% of your posts :p

Oh no mate,I wouldn't be so 厚脸皮 as to say that. I was referring to:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4677701247_97c694e11f_m.jpg

...but as you've asked,I believe the term for "love handles" is 爱把手

Very impressed that you've discovered the chinese word for love handles!

nǐ méiyǒu àishǒubǐng,zěnmebàn?

...no seriously tvan, if I looked that cool and that wise I'd be very happy [not to mention that well preserved at 2500 y.o.] . So yes,in answer to your question ;)

....you mean 2.5 year old? yeah,definitely

@babardwan, are you saying that you look worse than the 2,500 year-old fossil that is your current avatar?

A hearty groan for your terrible joke! :-D

As per yoozh old sport, y'are too kind. Many hearing the above would earnestly counsel me 'not to give up the day job'.

Re. John Cleese, catch this?

hehe,thanks tal. Actually,I enjoyed "show him the ropes",vacance,Quasi [the affectionate familiar shortening...I'm touched],hollering [important bit that],oldster,john cleese reference as much as the punchline.

For many years my favorite joke went like this:

Quasimodo (aka the Hunchback of Notre Dame) was fed up with his job of running up the stairs of the cathedral to ring the bells many times every day. He wanted to take a holiday, so he advertised for a temp to come in and do the job while he took a break.

Unfortunately the only applicant was a very old and decrepit looking man, but, not to be denied his vacance, the hunchback grudgingly agreed to 'show him the ropes'. (At this point I would usually caution the listener that 'show him the ropes' was not the joke's punchline.)

Once he was satisfied with the old guy's performance, off goes Quasi for his hol, but after just 2 days of effort, running up the many flights of winding stairs, swinging on the bells, hollering (important bit that,) the oldster falls down dead of exhaustion.

Perturbed by the silence of the bells, the townsfolk send 2 gendarmes in to investigate. They soon come upon the body of the deceased.

'Alas,' says one. 'The hunchback has shuffled off the mortal coil, gone to meet his maker, he's an ex-hunchback....' (Imagine John Cleese in this part.)

'Hang on,' says the other, turning the body over gingerly with his foot. 'This is not Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame.'

'I think you're right,' says the first, 'but you know what? He's a dead ringer.'

好的，那，驼应该是左边还是右边？：

http://www.tipiloschi.net/nino/ninoland/MartyFeldmanIgor.jpg

Quit your whinging and show us your hump, 加西莫多 :-p

那，这就是这个问题朋友. If I did have a lovely face I would show it for you,but alas 加西莫多是我的堂兄。It's alright for you 好看 folk. So unless you are Esmeralda 我太害羞 Per'aps I should change my username to bellbellbellrung ,hehe ;) 庇护所 ！

And what no bababardwan? Come on fella! You post 3,235,234 times a day, I demand to see your lovely face! :)

Perhaps you could answer a few questions and we can figure out what the problem is.

(1) When you say "thread," do you mean all conversation threads at a certain level? Which level?

(2) Which groups are you in? You can find out by looking at the right hand side of your dashboard. There's a list there.

(3) At the top left-hand side of your dashboard, which view have you selected? There is a drop down menu with options (view all groups, intermediate, newbie, etc. according to which groups you have joined).

也许他爱谁谁。。。 hehe :-)

how about sharing a picture in this thread?

nothing

my english level is very general

干吗呢？

不是，是超人！！！

〉A man waving his arms and saying "看这里!"?

as close to the right answer as you could possibly get. He was clicking his fingers with his arm raised high. ^_^

> A cloud in the shape of Mao Tse Tung's face?

... however, this is the winner for me :D

hehe, I did think of your first one or a kite.

A cloud in the shape of Mao Tse Tung's face?

...lol

A banner with your names on it flying from the tail of an airplane?

A bird?

A phoenix?

A UFO?

A cloud in the shape of Mao Tse Tung's face?

A man waving his arms and saying "看这里!"?

^_^, 但是不对。

I'm telling you, it's magical (exept that foreigners really should check the English in the photo album). I keep telling my friends that it is worth going to china for the pictures. It's basically a professional model shooting, 5+ people helping you a full day with # different kinds of costumes and wedding dresses. And Chinese tend to spend a fortune on it. Which is in comparison a bargain to be honest.

@matthiask, what an idiot I am. Of course, the famous yet normal 合肥公园！;-) It seems like the Chinese have taken the whole Wedding picture thing to a whole new level!

天堂

Thanks, tvan.

Okay, it's in Hefei, just in a normal park in the outskirts of the city. So the next creative question is: What are we looking at?

没关系。在合肥里。

很好的照片！可是我真的不知道哪里啊。。。

Well, I'm stumped. BTW, thx for the sense of humor. It's a beautiful picture!

you need some assistance. And, no, it was not a golf place :D In fact, except virtually, I never played Golf. Guess it is not good for my back, though - but would be for business :D.

I'm actually quite amused, because I have very similar pictures as @jinkeli has :D

差点儿 ^_^,

我在天堂，但是这个照片是地上。

天堂

@matthiask, well near as I can tell, between the two wedding pictures, it looks like @jinkeli got married at the Versailles Palace, and you really like to play golf. How does one walk through grass with a bridal train?

Gotcha. Well, if you ever make it over to that area, be sure to hit the beach. (In the summer of course) It's beautiful.

No,never been there mate...as above just a simple matter of deduction [ah,from 7 posts above that is ,hehe ]

Yeah, that should be the one! I've only been to to this particular beach a few times. Know how to get there, but never thought to ask what is was called other than just, 'near Whitehall'. Ha!

So you've spent some time in Michigan then?

Jason,

Not the beach sly folk illegally camp in their vans....instead Sylvan beach,the beach surrounded by the woods:

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Sylvan+Beach&sll=-28.304381,154.885254&sspn=6.304415,9.876709&ie=UTF8&hq=Sylvan+Beach&hnear=Michigan,+USA&split=1&ll=43.651975,-86.418457&spn=2.591391,4.938354&z=8

@xiao_liang: Thanks. And, yes! I got fried that day. (even my head a bit) It was worth it though!

@barbs: Slyvan beach? A google search got me some lake in NY. Is that the one?

@iwatachief: I've never been. A few years ago, I almost took a job in Qinghai. I'd still really love to visit sometime. Cycling the lake sounds like a great idea.

@Jason. Ok wrong guess! Never been to Lake Michigan (yet!). Looks beautiful! But I can definitely say that this particular pic could have been taken on Qinghai Lake. I cycled around this place last year with my wife and loved it! Thanks again for the pic!

From the colour of the sand,wind pattern on the sand,species of crab prints,the species of grass,height of the dune,position of the sun,it could be none other than Sylvan beach.

Looking cool calm and collected on the way to a healthy sunburn there Jason! Great pic!

@iwatachief: Wrong continent, right type of body of water! :) Think even bigger and near 4 other big lakes. This was taken on Lake Michigan in the U.S., near the town of Whitehall.

@phil: Not specifically! I love that place though. I'm hoping to make my way back there this summer. As well as pictured rocks. Which, even having been all over the state, I've still never seen. Looking forward to seeing more of the mitten!

I would have to say you are almost definitely wrong. I just about can't 'bear' telling the answer.

我猜猜一下！可能是青海湖？是不是？

wo cai cai yi xia! keneng shi Qing hai hu! shi bu shi?

I'll try to guess! Maybe it is Qing Hai lake, isn't it?

Hi tvan

I can't find the reading "tian" in any of my dictionaries, both paper and online ones. I can't find it in major Chinese dialects either. All I can say is that the reading is similar to a middle Chinese sound of “真”.

I was recently asked about and had looked up 眞 in 漢字源, which told me it's a 会意 character made up of 匕 saji (spoon) over 鼎 kanae (cauldron, kettle on three legs)--so I knew you'd made a very close guess. It also said this indicated the cauldron being filled up with the spoon and so a state of fulfilledness or completeness (therefore truth and realness). So this is only one of the etymologies. It's different from the one in this Chinese Etymology page.

Re: @zhenlijiang's link above, an alternate pronunciation for 真 is listed as Tían. Is that true? It makes sense, since it would explain the pronunciation of 填; however, a quick perusal of online dictionaries (Still at work) only found Zhèn.

Hi zhenlijiang

I should have "logically" come up with “真” since it's the first character used in your first name. To be honest, I couldn't tell for sure what character your avatar indicated. It resembles both 鼎 and 爵，but at the same, seems to be neither. 我真纳闷儿了！ FYI, one of the etymologies of “真” is “鼎 + 勺” (tripod food vessel + spoon), which implies “美食美味”. I hope you like this etymology.

惜しいです！ I got it from this website you introduced me to some time ago:

http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E7%9C%9F&submitButton1=Etymology

Hi zhenlijiang

Your new avatar is .... let me say ..... very antique. Is that “鼎” or “爵”?

确实有点意思

同意！我也是。

mystery....was this reply meant to be at the bottom of the page where nickybr38 has posted a couple of pics a few days ago [in which case it would be hard to see how the "in reply to nickybr38" got there], or was there a couple more pics posted since then [about 4 hours ago] which you quickly responded to and then were removed by nickybr38 in the editing time?

Looking great in both pics! Great to see you! :-)

oh ,sorry to have missed it mate. You did too. I did read your post back then but when I got to the "For those that don't know how to post images" part I skipped over it because I do know how to post both at the start of a post where your first photo is ,and also in ordinary posts. I didn't realise you had advice on how to post in subthreads where you have to use the HTML code which is what I needed. Thanks to you too then mate. :)

Yes, you did, and thank you very much. I would not have been able to make an earlier post of a photo of cold noodles without you.

I posted the code for how to put images in subthreads in the very first post in this thread!

Or maybe they're messages from... err, the future!

Hehe, even miracles are not perfect... :P

Yes, it was Thailand. Krabi.

You're good!

..Hey thanks tal,that was easy. Ok ,well the above is a pic of phuket and you can see some similarities to John's pic...the shallow water and it's colour [which is why I favor it over Ha Long Bay which generally looks deeper and also the light generally a little darker though both these are still possible at halong bay which I'm under the impression has a lot more rock formations so it has that in its favour] and similar rock formations.

John, come and tell us we're wrong so we can narrow it down.

I can see two contenders for Taiwan. One is a very faint patch which makes it look like it's barely receiving recognition. The other one just below it is where it has been joined to the mainland by a peninsula that's reaching out and grabbing it asserting the one nation status,hehe ;)

Thanks tal for the link and the answer. I did consider that it might be a matter of learning the code. I remember this being discussed when subthreading first came in and some-one gave us some enlightenment. I only learnt the italicizing ,but I remember orangina got many more tricks up her sleeve. I'll have to give this a crack later. :)

Looks a bit like a puppy...

Is the "Chinese Miracle" supposed to be a map of China? If so the miracle part really is extraordinary, I can't see Taiwan!

baba mate, it's called HTML! Anyone can do it, Voilà!

Hey,what I'd like to know is how you managed to post pics on a subthread John? What's your secret? ...or is it special CPod powers?

We're being toyed with and we still come back for more.

hehe,yeah. I enjoy it ,as long as we get some feedback before bedtime. Don't make me lose sleep on this John ;)

What you say makes perfect sense. And there is not enough of it around here in my opinion. :) I'm a big fan of observation. I would now call it something that we know we know.

lol. Well I'm only going from observation mate. But let me kind of exaggerate it to get my point across,though I really don't know for sure if this is how it works. Let's say you open up on this thread ...and lets say it takes you 5 minutes to read through a thread and another couple of minutes to type a comment. During those whole 7 minutes new comments are possibly being written and posted by other poddies in the same thread ,but they are not jumping onto your page [otherwise you would have noticed this by now...as you are reading a thread comments would occasionally suddenly appear]...no...they only appear when you go out of the thread and come back in ,or refresh the thread by clicking on it's title at the top. Anyhow,I think the same thing happens when you post a comment.On your screen it's just throwing it up under what was last displayed 7 minutes ago.But you need to see a current version of that thread to see whether anything else has been posted in the last 7 minutes. Just my observation mate...could be wrong. To really exaggerate it ..leave a tab on an active thread open an hour post your comment and then see what happens.

Barbs, I am nearly with you on the 'open another tab'; does it involve time-shifting? ;-) I also had trouble with Marty in Back to the Future. Actually I think it is because there is always a logical gap. Why would anyone want to go back to 1985 is my question. :)

hehe,freaky esp. Actually I posted it and there were only my two comments. I then had to edit my 2nd post and then shortly after that your comment appeared.But what I have noticed before is something similar. If you post a comment and then see it appear and then edit it,something can jump in front of yours. Of course ,the only sure way of knowing where your post is in a thread when folk are posting at a similar time is to open another tab and then open that thread on the new tab.You will not otherwise see other new posts appear on the page[tab] you are posting [at least not until you have refreshed that tab]

I can say definitely I have not been there, but I'm going with either Thailand or Vietnam, and I'll go with Vietnam because I can't agree with Barbs all the time. We're being toyed with and we still come back for more.

Oh, how did you do that Barbs, you still snuck in front of me!

If not Thailand,the other place it is reminiscent of is Ha Long Bay Vietnam. Am I even close?

love the Chinese miracle.Well spotted. My south east asian vibe has intensified...Thailand maybe? ...reminds me a little of down Phuket/ phi phi way.

Ha ha, indeed...

Nope, the second one is not in Australia, although I can understand the difficulty in guessing this one. From this picture, it could almost be taken in Florida too.

Here's a "Chinese miracle" taken on the same trip:

And here's a picture that will provide more actual clues to the location:

Cutting difficult hair - $15.

Knowing you will never go bald - PRICELESS!

no,it should not be "somewhere ELSE in Asia".I deliberately left it open like that,as that was my fallback mate if it did end up being in my backyard,hehe.

Yeah, you are probably right, I also have doubts about the little huts, but couldn't be sure that they are not in Aust. And I don't have a record to protect so I was being a little reckless. Shouldn't that be 'somewhere ELSE in Asia'? Hee hee.

I do so love a guessing game.Trouble is I don't want to spoil my perfect record now,hehe.Also don't want to look a dill if it is in Brisbane again from the same trip.I was pretty sure of the first photo but this one I'm really not sure of.So I would say that while it could be on the Brisbane River,the trouble I'm having with that guess is those little huts in the background behind you...don't recall seeing them anywhere here and they give me more of an Asian vibe [though they're not much to go on].So I'll cast a wider net and say somewhere in Asia.

ps got another pic from the same river?

You're right, hard to guess, but still in Australia? I think I recognise the colour of that water. :) I would stay in Queensland, possibly northern NSW, and not too far from the coast. Actually, no idea really, just feeling homesick.

Haha... thanks. I can't say I love my hair, but I'm appreciative that it is in no danger of thinning in the next 100 years!

It was indeed taken in the fine city of Brisbane, and Lone Pine sounds about right. Bravo!

I guess the other one is harder to guess...

I s'pose there's a lot of places the 袋鼠照片 could have been taken but it looks so very much like an area of Lone Pine right here in Brisbane.

Very nice John.I'd be more impressed though if there were a few crocs about and you were still looking this cool.

Kangaroo! (or wallaby?). I guess Australia would be too obvious?

And I continue my love affair with your increasingly impressive hair! Great pictures, thanks John!

I saw these photosets on my travels around, mainly in the tourist areas of course, and I have to admit that I was almost keen to give it a go.. but I chickened out and decided to giggle at the people having their photos taken instead. :)

cool ...经典's a goer then. Locked in. thanks again :)

No prob. This 经典 can be used in similar contexts (a 'classic' joke, picture, expression, etc) as the English 'classic', but I don't think it's used this way as often as it is in the West. People definitely say it, but I'm pretty sure it's a somewhat newer usage of the word. You can also see it online a fair amount.

thanks Jason. I saw that one in the dictionary,but had no idea it was the applicable one to use so thanks for letting us know. Do the Chinese use it about as often as we might in the west?..or at least often enough for it to sound natural enough to use in the same way?

I am so glad we could clarify this important issue! (not sarcastic)

You can actually just say, 经典, or 很经典.

And, agreed! 很经典！

I would agree. I couldn't find a direct translation for the "Classic" exclamation in English.

典型...but I don't think that conveys the right meaning as used in this context with this emphasis.

好像经=Scripture/Classical Text. 有别的意见吗？

Funny, I actually was sort of going for that look in this one. But that was after 3 hours of being shoehorned into Chinese sized outfits. LOL!

bingo !

hehe,yeah,lame attempt I know. I really don't know how to translate that one actually....that is,how to translate "classic" used in that sense. I'm sure that in Chinese what I've used wouldn't have the same nuance of meaning.Any ideas?

经=classic, 对不对？

哈哈大笑

“把我一个农民”

经！

Classy!

I love these chinese photoshoots! I have a couple of my girlfriend that she had done a few years back. I love your louche demeanour, "yea, I'm just hanging with my queen, kicking back in my throne. Throw me a peasant".

真棒照片！哪里是你们的冠冕？你们看起来像王权，而衣服很漂亮。

Maybe it's a waddle of ducks :)

@your second link....WOW. This is my favorite quote:

"Huang, the 43-year-old founder of a Chinese tourism empire has substituted tomes on American history with minibar bottles of Remy Martin and a gaggle of dime-store ceramic ducks."

I don't think it's a "gaggle" of ducks though...I thought "gaggle" is reserved for the exclusive use of geese...

哇, you should be a detective! I guess it is in the 潮州 area, did you check out the link I posted? Yeah, the Chinese do love their replicas. It might seem wasteful building them, but it gives so many a chance to "see" these things without travelling to the real ones!

Here's another pic I took that day.

呵呵，no, can't say I can...just employing my powerful powers of deductive reasoning...;)

So where is this Great Wall of the South? Near 潮州? Funny how there are so many replicas of famous landmarks there are in Guangdong...anyone ever been to 世界之窗 in 深圳? I refuse to go on principle...

呵呵，you've tried it then?

Shucks mate, you got me! 我是假人。Oh finally got to see you amongst the bluebells, 真浪漫啊!

No kidding...when was the last time you saw someone wearing armor actually SMILING? That stuff's heavy!

I think that guy in the armour looks totally fake too.

:-)

I didn't think the bricks looked right. Looks pretty bright there too. Not sure about those trees either. Honestly,I was surprised you were saying it was great wall till I read on.

她脸皮很厚，而且脸上有毛，一点都不害羞。

小狗不害羞吧？;)

害羞

Ahh, 胆小。。。;-)

Ahh, 虚荣。。。;-)

You're not the only one dude.

Oh ho! The 1000RMB hold-a-panda! :p I will post a pic (unfortunately a blurry one due to the inability of anyone in my tour group to take a decent picture) later of me holding a Red Panda.. it was only 100RMB.. lol! :) Would have loved to do the 1000RMB experience though..

哎哟， 中国人 :-p Apparently, they eat and sleep so much because as bears their digestive system is designed to digest meat, but as mostly eaters of vegetation, they take a loooong time to digest anything, and do so inefficiently...

Wonderful pic Liliana. 呵呵，I thought that turquoise outfit was your own!

Pandas spend most of their time sleeping don't they? And when they're awake most of the time eating. A few years back I was planning an outing to the Panda Breeding and Research Centre in Chengdu, and a friend told me to be sure to go in the morning, because at other times of day the pandas are usually asleep! My (Chinese) wife was not impressed by the pandas roaming around their outdoor enclosures because they got their white fur dirty! When we saw a baby one in a special indoor area it was still clean and cutesy.

"Now that's how a panda should look," she said. "These zookeepers must be lazy, not washing the ones that live outside."

It is REAL! He is 10 months old, when the doctor brought it he was sleeping so I had to feed him some apple, because he was cranky.

This is in Chengdu. They ask you to wear the gloves and the blue robe for the Pandas health, because they are fragile.

Maybe it was because I am Mexican and they were afraid I would pass the N1HI virus! hahahahahah.

It is one of the best experiences I had in China. He was so fluffy! Amazing feeling!

I'm sure she wouldn't be wearing gloves if it was fake!

我的妈呀！谢谢你的建议。。我千万别拥抱姑姑。。不过我还想要拥抱Lili的小可爱的熊猫，呵呵

@bababardwan, 你说你要拥抱那只可可爱的熊猫吗？别忘记它是个野兽，很难预料。例如：http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28554008/

..looks real to me ,而且Lili带着手套。我很想要抱那个非常可爱的熊猫

Nah, it's fake....there's a big market for 山寨熊猫here...haha!

Oh my god, is that a real panda?! Love this picture!

Actually, in one way, it looks like the world's most awesome ventriloquist's act :)

Oh how I envy you! Too cute! Is this in Chengdu)? Mental note: must "Pet a Panda" before leaving China :-)

Wow, I really like that photo.

Amazing photo mate ! That reflection on the lake is unbelievably good and the colours are so vivid.Great photo all round. :)

Catherine, I may have confused you - this photo was taken in 2007. Last week I was at the same 天池 as you. :)

Changye

I want to see a picture of you. I have seen millions of your posts, but never a photo.

Is that your dog? cute!

Awesome photo! Definitely looks warmer than where I was, that's for sure :) The reflection of the mountains in the lake is beautiful...

真好的照片！Look at how clear that reflection is. Great to put a face to the name, thanks for posting it bodawei!

Thanks - so I may use tinypic.com it seems to share with people in your 小区。 ;-)

I can see the photos of xiao_liang, tvan, and ma_tai, but not yours and catherine's.

You've already seen the beautiful bits of the photo. ;-)

You are lucky having been twice - I like to return to my favourite places.

Can I take it that tinypic.com works for you? I don't think you said above whether it did or not?

Hi bodawei

I can't see the photo, as usual, but this time I don't complain about this because I've already been to the 天池 twice so far. Yeah, 长白山天池 is really beautiful.

o oooo so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,lovely

Wow, very cute! This thread was a really good idea... Going through here, I feel like I'm getting to know all you ChinesePod users a lot better.

cute children!

Good kids ma_tai. The boy on your left looks like my son did. But now he's 20!

Do I look funny to you? :-p

Xiao_liang, are you being funny again? I didn't know you were a dad!

How sweet! You look like one happy pappa!

Fantastic! Your kids are so cute! And you look happy, if suitably tired, hehe - I know how it feels to have two kids that age :p

哇~真的好可爱！！

And why don't you look entirely happy? Eager to get back to the ChinesePod office?? Hehe...

I can't take credit for taking this photo - my fiance took it... the camera is my new baby: a Nikon D90. These days I feel like I take trips just so I can take photos... I guess that's not such a bad thing, right?? ;)

How strange! Two completely different 天池's! I was actually too excited about the hawks flying overhead to look at the signs... It was so wild up there! It was absolute heaven until the snowstorm!

Superb picture! Looks like a really good camera - the focus is amazing, and you look great! Thanks for posting it :-)

Catherine! I was also at 天池 last week (on Thursday). Had my photo taken in exactly the same spot! Now I've seen yours I couldn't compete. 2 degrees really? I think it was about 30 when I stood on that spot. But it was amazing to see the snow and ice. Did you pick up the story about the lake written on the big plaque nearby?

Wonderful photo Catherine, you look like you're about to go to Jizhou!

Maybe 'weather-worn' but looking good!

Haha oh those! That was a fun photo shoot. Marco and I were out on the terrace and taking the wackiest pictures possible. That's what you get when you are around Italians...

just checked the ItalianPod homepage and I can only see you with the team in a small square down the bottom 2nd from the right [not that one...hadn't noticed it before actually] and currenlty this computer can't display the large area top left [as it says I need to download a plugin] if it's there. From memory you had a stripey shirt and your hands were raised in the air and you were shrugging your shoulders,hehe...a fun pic.

Let's just say I was a little weather-worn at this point in the journey. 37 degrees in the Taklamakan Desert, 2 degrees at Tianchi (and snowy)... I'm not sure which ItalianPod photo you're talking about - surely not the one on the homepage? I hate that photo!!! ;)

Great photo thanks catherine...a little different to your Italianpod one with your hands in your pocketses this time.I hope we can have the Italianpod photo again. :)

噢，多谢你告诉我

Sorry missed your comment - it's a wood called Wychwood in Oxfordshire. Really beautiful.

Since both Tal and bodawei can't see this one - is there an image provider everyone in china has access to?

Hmn. How strange. Is there an image provider that works for you?

I don't want to be a whiny whinger xiao_liang but this photo isn't showing up for me (is it the tinypic program?). Your first photo is just a couple of inches of leafy foliage - I think the photo is too large for my humble 农村 Internet. Are you hiding in there somewhere? I think that it is great that some people have generously posted family photos - good post.

Once again me old mucka, I can't see you or the bluebells!

wow,beautiful picture mate ! Can I ask where the setting is? kanqilai hen làngmàn de fēngqǐng.

Bluebells out already? (Bluebells 已经开花了吗？) Will have to go a-hunting.

@zhenlijiang, wow, good recall! 这个照片是三年前的；现在那只可爱的小狗是个三岁的"scent hound." （不知道中文怎么说“scent hound"。）它常常追野猪。像很多的够，看起来它的样子好像很可爱，不过打猎的时候它非常凶。

Taken by your daughter. Is the black one the new puppy Tvan?

I really like this picture!

Check out tvan with the two hot bitches!

...

Because it's sunny, looks pretty warm.

Ha.. ha.... oh dear.

Great picture tvan!

Looks like you've lost a bit of weight! ;)

Keep trying! You can do it! Or just use the HTML code in reply to this - it should work!