The Qingming Festival or Tomb Sweeping Day

Qingming is frequently mentioned in Chinese literature. Among these, the most famous one is probably Du Mu's poem (simply titled "Qingming"):

A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day;
The mourner's heart is going to break on his way.
Where can a wineshop be found to drown his sad hours?
A cowherd points to a cot 'mid apricot flowers.

The Qingming Festival or Tomb Sweeping Day ( All Souls Day in English) usually falls around the 5th of April.

For the Chinese, it is a day to remember and honour one's ancestors.Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, josssticks, paper money.

Most family members will visit the graves for this yearly festival as they believe their ancestors in return will give them health, peace, luck and prosperity. Some even hope to be blessed in winning 4 digit lotteries.

Petaling Street

Tourists and locals love to go to shop in Chinatown.

Satay vendor enjoy good business in Petaling Streets
Waiting patiently for customers.

Enjoying local chinese hawker food.

Hot day for Hot dog seller!

Elegant growns on display.

Hello, I am in Petaling Street.

Getting ready for business.

One roasted duck sold at RM34

Bargaining for a cheaper price.

Traditional children clothes on sale.

Jeans or Shoes ?

What a kind lady!

This old beggar is not forgotten.

Pigeons waiting for left-overs near the food stall.

Souvenirs for sale.

Tourists enjoy food and drinks at the open stall.


Petaling Street or Jalan Petaling Street in Malay,or known as Chinatown among tourists is in the heart of bustling Kuala Lumpur city. For us Chinese, we call it Chi-Cheong-Kai in Cantonese. It is located at the Southeast of Central Market, bounded by Jalan Bandar, Jalan Petaling and Jalan Sultan.

Easily accessible by public buses it is strategically located in the busiest part of Kuala Lumpur. It is famous for its makeshift bazaars or stalls; selling "very reasonably" priced goods like wallets, handbags, t-shirts, watches, shoes as well as dresses, sunglasses, shoes, fabrics and souvenirs. Tourists have learned bargain like the locals to buy their goods at a low price.

Petaling Street is also known for its jewellery shops with their fascinating variety of fine jewellery items beautifully crafted in gold and set with priceless gemstones.

The street has actually been given a facelift. Petaling Street is now better sheltered and its walkway covered to protect from the heat and rain.

Tourists and locals should not miss the variety of tasty local Chinese food here. There are many restaurants with a lot of delicious choices. Some of the restaurants here have been operating for generations!.Look out forThe famous restaurant Yook Woo Hin on Petaling Street. It is one the longest surviving family-run food places in KL. Locals use to go for a morning tea and breakfirst there after their morning walk or jog.

Lion Dance

The Chinese Lion Dance goes back some one thousand years. The first record of the performance of an early form of the Lion Dance dates to the early Ch’in and Han Dynasties (Third Century B.C.)

The lions express joy and happiness. From the fourth day to the fifteenth of the New Year, lion dance groups would tour from village to village in traditional China. This traditional culture is practised in so many countries as far as America and Mexico by migrant Chinese.

The performing group is usually made through the Choy Cheng, or "Eating of the Green (Vegetable)." In this country, it has come to symbolize money, the color of dollar bills. Usually. the lay see (li shir) is in the form of a hung bao (lucky red envelope with the payment enclosed) which is tied to some vegetable matter such as loose leaf lettuce. Since the lay see is attached to some vegetable, it’s called "choy cheng," with choy literally meaning vegetable. The greens are placed in an area for the lion to "eat." The lion will carefully approach the "green" and even test it to make sure that it is safe and not a firecracker or other dangerous item.

The music played by a minimum of three pieces: drum, gong and cymbal. Variations to the basic beats help keep the music lively. The loud music, along with the firecrackers and lion movements, are used to scare away "evil spirits" so that good luck will follow. Lion dances are performed to bring luck and to ward off evil spirits, as with the beginning of the Lunar New Year and grand opening of businesses, and now – minus the firecrackers

I am surprised to know the group of young performers came from my former Sam Tat Secondary School when I visited my sister who is livimg in Ipoh. This look like the school has more activities than before where I joined the photography society as a hobby.

Bangkok--A nice place for All

I took my family for a holiday in Bangkok and I took some pictures and would like to share them with you all. It's worth and we enjoy the trip especially my wife loves it very much, may be a place for shopping paradise it is cheap and nice.

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand draws tourists from all over the world.It is a busting town,chocked with traffic. One of its specialmode of transport is the three wheels motor vehicle, the "tut tut".

Its unigue floating market where vegetables and fruits, food stuffs, clothes, shoes, souvenirs and handy-crafts are sold on boats along a narrow water-way,is a must see for every tourist.This colourful morning floating market captivates the attention of every photographer.

Another place of interest in Bagkok is the historical Bridge over river kwai at Kanchanaburi. It was here,during the World War II that many British,Australian and Germain soldiers lost their lives building this historical bridge.Temples are a common sight in Thailand where Buddhism is its official religion.

It allowed me to share in the grief with my family members especially my wife and friends, Sally was the youngest girl in her family. She was lovely and well spoken.She loved to make herself pretty all the time. She had a very determined character. She passed away on January 24, 2007 and she will always be remembered by us.

World's Largest telephoto Lens

No kidding and it must be crazy....A telephoto lens weighing 256 kg (564 pounds) ,weighs almost more than two or three average men.

And just imagine how to transport the lens to shoot wild life in the jungle.

Zeiss announced that they have created the world’s largest telephoto lens, a 1700mm f/4 . It was developed for long-distance wildlife photography.

Never before has the world of photography seen such a lens. This supertele lens provides 21x magnification. In search of the highest imaginable image quality the client decided for 6x6 medium format and the Hasselblad 203 FE as the best camera he is aware of.

At 1700 mm focal length and a speed of f/4 this lens put requirements on optical glass, lens assembly and quality assurance methods, never before encountered in photo lens manufacture.
This 256 kg behemoth also required Carl Zeiss to develop totally new ways of operating a telephoto lens, including servo controlled aiming and focusing.

Drawing from its expertise in satellite and space optics as well as semiconductor fabrication lenses Carl Zeiss was happy to accept the challenge.

I wonder how good the image quality is? And how much this custom-made lens cost

Photo contrast between Beijing and Chengde

A family friend of mine returned from a holiday trip to China told me that Chengde is a place that attracted them most compared to Beijing and Tianchen the package tour they took recently. I agree with their views.

This bring back my memory to the holiday trip I made with my family ...

After a four to five hour drive on the expressway across the mountainous region north of Beijing, we arrived at a city called Chengde. It is a small plain surrounded by the Yanshan range.

And coming in from a noisy, dusty and congested Beijing, we would feel immediately the pleasant contrast in Chengde with its serenity, slow pace, blue skies and cooling mountain air.
It is no wonder why the emperors in Qing Dynasty liked to spend their holiday in this city Chengde.

Chengde boasts of the biggest imperial palace garden called Bishu Shanchuang at the foot of Yanshan, which is twice the size of the Yihe Yuan summer palace in Beijing. The long name in Chinese simply means "a mountain resort to escape from the summer heat"

Those pine tree that line the pathways and decorate the open space have aged to become even more majestic now.One can almost hear the strains of pipa and gucheng floating through the courts and gardens.

As tourists, me and my family took some pictures during this China tour and also covered Beijing and Chengde . All the pictures were taken with a Canon Powershot S60 compact camera.