Weihua Zhang’s blog

Finally, after much struggle and lots of revisions, my book Dream Variations: A Journey Across Two Continents came out Sept. 2012. You can purchase it at Amazon.com or Kindle. Here is the cover:

Kowloon Walled City Park is absolutely beautiful! This is by far my favorite place of Hong Kong so far. I look forward to exploring Hong Kong more in the upcoming days.

Here are some low country views in late November at dusk.

Six of my images have been selected for this year’s juried exhibition “Small Works.” Exhibition will be at Gutstein Gallery from Nov. 12 — Dec. 30, 2010. Hope you will join me at the opening reception on Nov. 12, 2010, 6-7:30pm.

The morning of Sept. 11, 2010, just before we left for Beijing Capital International Airport to catch our flight to US, my husband and I squeezed in a brief visit to Gong Wang Fu. According to Wikipedia, “The Prince Gong’s Mansion (Chinese: 恭王府) or Gong Wang Fu Museum is located in the western part of central Beijing, China, north of the Shichahai Lake. Consisting of large mansions in the typical siheyuan layout and gardens, Prince Gong’s Mansion is known as one of the most ornate and extravagant residence compounds in all of Beijing.” Gong Wang Fu and its garden simply took our breath away!

Yet, of all Gong Wang Fu’s grandeur and exquisiteness, it was a little stone lion that caught my attention. I just had to aim my camera at this little “fella,” all alone on the floor, next to the tall red imposing gate. See for yourself!

Here are two more photos taken that same day on site of Gong Wang Fu.

Changchun ［长春］, the capital city of Jilin Province in the Northeast China, is my hometown. During my recent trip to China, I’d get up in the early mornings and go to the local parks to simply engage in “people watching.” Many people, old and young, dressed in exercise clothes or not, in large groups or small, would practice tai chi, play badminton, and stroll in the park. I took all in: The green trees, the tranquil pond, the exercising crowd, and the reflections in the water. I love those mornings of “people watching”!

Shanghai ［上海］, China, is the host of this year’s World Expo ［世博会］, which runs from May 1 to Oct. 31. My family and I visited it on Aug. 28 and were simply overwhelmed with the tens of thousands of people that flocked to the Expo each day. We were not ale to visit China Pavilion–the one we wanted to see the most–but I did snap this photo of the unique yet unmistakably Chinese structure.

I visited Yuan Ming Yuan [The Old Summer Palace, 圆明园] on Sept. 9, 2010 when I was in China. I missed the Lotus Festival, which ended on Aug. 31. 2010. I was still able to capture a few remaining lotus. The other two shots are of the ruins of Yuan Ming Yuan, which was looted and destroyed in 1860.

I just came back from a two-week photography trip in China. Finally, I got to visit the world famous terra-cotta soldiers ［兵马俑］– those life-size army soldiers and horses entombed with China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang [秦始皇］–in Xi’an ［西安］. It was quite an amazing experience!