Landscapes
On the way to Jiageng Park (嘉庚公园 - JiāGēngGōngYuán) in Xiamen (China), I noticed this old bulk carrier, which seemed to be totally abandoned. The silhouet of the ZhongShengHai 87 (众盛海87) had something phantasmagoric, with the surrounding Xiamen fog.
If this ship is waiting to be dismantled, its little brother, the ZhongShengHai 88 is still sailing on the South China Sea. It has just left Hong Kong yesterday, to reach Guangzhou's port.
The 2011 year has been marked by an exceptional flood in Thailand, resulted in a total of 815 deaths and 13.6 million people affected. This disaster made headline news for weeks, and most of us may remember it.
But the flood also affected adjacent countries, such as Cambodia. During my travel there, I met some farmers who converted to tuk-tuk drivers, as their land crops were totally devastated. Also, aids provided by the government wasn't enough to feed families that count 3.3 children per woman in rural areas (2010).
This picture has been taken on the way to Chong Khneas Floating Village. Those palm trees are usually never flooded. But the lake was so high that time, that a sudden thunderstorm changed the lake into a violent and wavy sea for a couple of minutes.
During a company outing in Xiamen (China), we visited the Shuzhuang Garden (叔庄花园 - ShūZhuāng HuāYuán) located on the south of Gulangyu Island (鼓浪屿 - GǔLàngYǔ). With its freighters in the background, this garden embodies contemporary China, trying to reconcile its ancestral traditions and the omnipresent industrial power.
The classic pictures of the floating market of Cai Be (Vietnam) show a multitude of boats, loaded of colourful fruits and vegetables. But the surrounding shanties and their high TV antennas left an even bigger mark on my mind.
