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I am trying to put three unrelated photos together, this is an assortment of walls.
The first one was taken in a private property in Okinawa, Japan. I must admit my initial focus was on the red flowers. My attention was subsequently captured by the stone walls which when put together with the plants and flowers seem to make a good picture.
The second photo was taken in a holiday resort in Langkawi, Malaysia. I was impressed by the architecture of the resort building. The slightly sloping stone walls add a lot to the elegance of the building.
The last one was taken in Chongqing, China. The wall was entirely covered by a mural depicting some history in the past. Apart from a door opening on the right hand bottom corner, it is somewhat difficult to understand it is a building.
Please enjoy 🙂
I was born on Okinawa. Happy to see a picture of Okinawa 🙂
It is good to know someone who was born there. I have other posts on Okinawa in my blog, it is really an interesting place!
I loved my time there. I spent 7 years there.
I understand the people there has long lives, possibly due to good food and environment. I wouldn’t mind revisiting it again!
Most of my time was on the Air Force base, but I remember leaving the base and seeing such gentle people and countryside.
I visited the airbase there but did not see any planes taking off or landing on that day.
I was impressed by the many Chinese characters and Chinese styled buildings there which reminded me Okinawa once has very close relationship to China. I understand many young people have departed the country side to the city or even to Japan main islands, I saw a lot of elderlies there, especially because people live to a grand old age.
I was there during the Vietnam War, and there were plenty of planes. The Okinawans hated the American presence. The GI’s caused a lot of trouble and the jet noise was very disruptive to their quiet lives.
Apart from fewer planes, what you said is still true. Understand that they may relocate the air force base, I have not followed it close enough to know whether the relocation is unsuccessful. The inhabitants don’t like the base for sure.
Your knowledge of the world is amazing. I should give you the award of Most Fascinating Blogger On My Follow List 🙂
My fascination for the world started when I was a kid, collecting stamps. At that time I had Okinawa stamps when Okinawa was called Ruyku Islands or similar. In olden days, Chinese didn’t care about territory at all and kings from Okinawa would pay tributes and gifts to the Chinese Emperors, China would sort of protect them. When the Japanese took over Okinawa, the Okinawa officials begged China to free them from Japanese ruling and China didn’t help them.
I am also aware of the bloody combats in Okinawa in WWII, killing many people on both sides, some people believe Okinawa has a lot of ghosts!
Yes, it was part of the Ryukyu Islands when I lived there, not Japan. There were lots of WWII bunkers that I played in as a kid.
Interesting! Do you practice chi as in Taichi or the air breathing skills known as Chi?
I love the art of tai chi; however, I had to stop because I was practicing so much my knee started hurting, and I could not find the source in spite of my teacher working with me on it, so I quit. I run based upon Tai Chi, it’s called “Chi Running”, and it’s very low impact running. I love it. I wish I could do Tai Chi. I was starting the sword form when I quit. It was such beautiful skill, I really wanted to continue but my knee problems were really bad.
I learned for sometime the Fluidity Taichi which incorporates qi gong into Taichi. One of the things is that your upper part of your body will sort of “float” when you have qi correctly in the body and do not transfer the force to the knees. I quitted because it was so difficult to learn. After 9 months, I was still at the first Starting Form!
It took me 6 months to learn the 108-move form, but that was practicing at home every day. There is so much torque on the knees, though, and I couldn’t move past that. Danny Dreyer, author of “Chi Running” says that all sources of pain are due to chi blockage in the body. But I couldn’t figure out how to get the chi moving through my knees to stop the pain.
I know many people who has quitted Taichi because of knee problems. My teacher said it was due to incorrect posture. The Fluidity Taichi has to be practised with nothing in the mind and the movements are sort of voluntarily, I didn’t have the knee problem when I practised this form of Taichi although I had this problem when practising other branches of Taichi practise.
The Chinese medicine claims all pains are due to blocked chi, as you know the Chinese has a different systems with points and qi in the human system. I don’t think I know enough to understand all these!
I believe in chi 100% The best I’ve felt in my entire life was when I was doing tai chi with another teacher. I quit that class because she was such a drill sergeant that I dreaded going to class, but she was very good, and really changed my life. I wish I could have her back in a sweeter personality so I wouldn’t be so scared of her :p
I know the feeling. When I started Fluidity Taichi, I just stood still at an instructed posture for 2 hours continuous each day, my teacher was not going to teach me the next step until he felt I have got the right posture.
Oh good teacher! Wuji? That was huge. My second teacher didn’t do wuji stances, and I missed them.
Very few people practise Fludity (wave form and watery) Taichi in the States, I note there are some Youtubes showing followers practising this in US. Some movements will extend your spine so it will not compress the nerves etc. It is very difficult to find good teachers in the States. There should be good teachers in HOng Kong but finding them is difficult. The problem with my teacher is that it is difficult to grasp what he teachers, maybe there are better ways of teaching. This is the main reason I quitted.
Tai chi has so much to offer. Danny Dreyer (the author of Chi Running) says that in San Francisco they do tai chi in the parks. I guess San Francisco Chinatown is so huge, there is a large following.
I think there should be good teachers in SF, LA or NYC, but would be best if recommended by a friend.
That last wall is amazing, there looks like such a story or stories to go with it.
I still have to work out what are the stories!
Three great posts and stories. All are places I want to visit too! As for the third one, we saw several walls at the Chen Clan Academy in Guangzhou that told stories of history and religion. All very interesting!
I need to visit the Chen Clan Academy oneday!
I know you would like it!
Yes, sure!
I like the mural and it is very significative being in Chongqing. History of China in the last 150 is so complicated and requires much study to understand what it all means to the people who lived through it. But nonetheless interesting because of all the layers.
Even for those who live so close to the scene cannot easily make out what exactly has happened in the last 150 years, no doubt, historians are writing about it, but then again, we may not totally agree with the historians!
a star for each photo ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Three X wonderful
Thanks for giving me all the stars, wonderful!!!
;-D
I love the wall with the palms growing out of it. They’re all interesting though.
Yes, I like that building very much!
Wonderful pictures Michael. The last one captures the wall nicely but also the spirit of the artist who created it.
Hugs
Hi David, nice to hear from you again. Glad that you like my last picture. I was thinking to put it up as the first picture but because it is a portrait size picture, WordPress will show it at a small scale in the Reader which is not that appealing to readers.
Reblogged this on Life after work and commented:
More great photograhy
Many thanks for reblogging this on, Kenneth!
I am drawn to murals.
And wow, those palm trees! Makes me want to visit.
Glad that you like the photos! Some of my posts contain beautiful palms on the beach too, they really give you a holiday mood 🙂
I was first impressed by the pics. Especially the last one for for the creativity and the first one for its simplicity.
I was going to go on and comment on that when I read through the comments. This really is a window into a whole new world for me!! 🙂 🙂
Tai Chi is something I have only seen in films and have always been fascinated by. To see people who have learnt it discuss about it feels nice. 🙂
Thank you for sharing 🙂
We started talking about Okinawa and I have no idea that Livingonchi knows about Taichi until I ventured to ask – it was an interesting conversation on something not related to the pictures at all!
🙂 It sure was interesting for me to read!
Glad that you like it!
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
WONDER WALLS!
Many thanks for reblogging this on!
I like the bright green with reddish flowers in contrast to the older stone wall. This was beautiful!
Great to hear from you; am glad that you find the pic beautiful!
Amazing mural! 🙂 I almost forgot what I’d been looking at because I got involved in your t’ai chi conversation. I’m off to my class soon but am happy to report a nice-natured instructor 🙂
Glad that you are taking up lessons, with a nice-natured teacher too!
I’ve been going for about 8 years so I should be an expert by now but I focus more on enjoying it 🙂
Wow Joe! You must be an expert, enjoying not only the exercise but also the good health that goes with it!