Tag: asia
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The future is not waiting
The thing about the future is that is seems to happen on time and not wait for us to be ready to receive it. And always things appear to be later than we think, don’t they? Today I was with a friend on a photo walk in an old Shanghai neighborhood condemned to demolition and…
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Motion and the city
I was born in a small village in Lebanon’s north. I saw almost the same faces every day and I knew that nothing was meant to stir after nightfall when we and the village slept. As peaceful as this might sound, it irked me greatly and I longed for movement, for change, for a world…
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Life in the old lanes~ Shanghai
Behind and right next door to the glitz and glamour of Shanghai, real people live their real lives in the old lanes. The first shock you get walking through the very old parts of town is the extreme narrowness of the alleys and the very small size of the overcrowded rooms people call home. It…
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The faceless drivers of Shanghai’s growing economy
Shanghai has recently been one the fastest growing economies in the world with yearly growth percentages measured in double digits. In this city of now over 23 million, it is the migrant workers who drive the whole giant machine forward and through it all remain faceless…
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Day 30~ December 30th~ Guilin
One of the most stark truths about the future is that it remains unknown until the moment when it happens. We project, we plan, we dream, we wish, and almost always we are surprised by what unfolds. If it is the past that holds sway on our emotions, then it is the future that triggers…
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Day 29~ December 29th~ Guilin
Where the seconds melt into minutes, and the minutes into hours, where conversations flow, where bonds are made, where friendships and money are made and lost… the village card game.
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Day 28~ December 28th~ Guilin
What is it that makes us humans want to idolize someone and hold them high, look up to them, attribute super powers to them and be completely subjective about the whole affair? We do it with sports teams, with movie stars, with religious leaders and with politicians. Or do we sometimes do it from a…
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Day 27~ December 27th~ Guilin
The Yao, one of the 54 recognized ethnic minorities in China, number over 2 million and retain today many of their original traditions. Bright colors and silver adorn them and mountains are their preferred settling places. They form part of the colorful mosaic that China is.
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Day 26~ December 26th~ Guilin
No one is allowed to see her hair until she marries, each Yao woman can carry around her head up 1.9 meters of hair wrapped around like a crown. If a young man happens to catch sight of a girl’s hair, then he must invite her to live with his parents as a bride for…
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Day 25~ December 25th~ Guilin
Magical karst hills stand like guards along the banks of the Li Jiang in Guilin, impressive, haunting and dream inducing. Some places on our planet can take your breath away, and this is one of them.