Discovering the Far East

Cultural Exchange Festival

by Roelof

Some Saturday’s ago I visited a Cultural Exchange Festival with some friends, mainly because M-J was singing there.

P1010963mir.jpg

Quite early in the morning we went to a park at the foot of the purple mountain. Fortunately the sun was shining, so there were quite a few Chinese visitors, although it was not overly crowded. The festival itself consisted of several foreign students in Nanjing that performed something related to China or to their own country, and some individual countries had a stall there.

It was really lovely weather, and M-J manage to garner a lot of attention, don’t ask me why.

P1010970.jpg

Since everyone seemed to want to take a picture with her, after I while I just set out to explore the fare alone.

These are some amazing musicians from a bar I frequently visit, in the background you can see the crowd gathering.

P1010993mir.jpg

The acts weren’t that spectacular, so other things caught my attention quite quickly, including this stark contrast between old and new China. By the way, that building on the right is the third-tallest building in China and some 3 minutes from my apartment…

P1010989mir.jpg

This was really a hard picture to take, the auto-focus of my camera just did not want to focus on the dragonfly, apparently it thought that the twigs in the background were more interesting. I did not dare to take the picture as a macro.

I am quite satisfied with the result, though unfortunately it decided to fly away before I could get a better picture. I think it was Rebeka trying to prove that it was actually dead. Alas.

P1020026mir.jpg

Towards the end of our visit I bought a Diablo that makes a sound which is awesome, and some beautiful papercuts there, both definitely overpriced, though.

All in all I had a great day there, and actually even a slight sunburn.

P1010977mir.jpg

Greetings,

Roelof

5 comments

1 Oma { 11.18.09 at 01:08 }

Hallo Roelof, je verwent ons. Alweer een bericht! Helaas begrijp ik niet alles. Wie is dat meisje in die bijzondere groene outfit? Kennelijk M-J, maar wie is M-J? Zou ik dat moeten weten? Hier was het weer vandaag ook prima. Ik was sporten en het regende gelukkig niet, zoals andere dagen en de zon kwam zelfs te voorschijn. Bedankt ook voor je mail. Kort, maar krachtig. Ik wens je nog vele gezellige dagen en groet je hartelijk, Oma

2 Pa { 11.18.09 at 02:32 }

I like the dragonfly picture a lot. For now they have disappeared from the garden here. Is it possible to get into that 3. highest building? Do they already have a run-up competition for it?
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/1886191,CST-NWS-stairs16.article. This year I believe it was a german guy who won in Chicago.

3 Roelof { 11.18.09 at 09:09 }

Dat meisje is een vriendin van mij die heel goed kan zingen.
Graag gedaan, graag weer! Nogmaals bedankt voor het artikel.

Het is superkoud hier, een post daarover volgt binnenkort.

4 Roelof { 11.18.09 at 09:10 }

I can send it to you if you want me to!
Actually I don’t know if it is possible to go up there, but as a foreigner you can bluff your way through almost everything here, so it si definitely worth a try.

Never heard of such a competition! Cool stuff.

5 Kerstin { 11.21.09 at 00:30 }

Echt tolle Fotos, der van dijk tree bear gefällt mir ;-) aber über den wurde ich nicht in meiner prüfung befragt… hatte nämlich am mittwoch meine letzte vordipl. prüfung(zoo) und bin nun ganz offiziell im haupstudium, nächste woche bekomm ich mein zeugnis *freu* Ansonsten schickes fest vll kommst du im sommer mal beim höfefest vorbei ;-)

Leave a Comment