During the festival the living descendants pay homage to their ancestors by burning incense, paper money, and leaving food in front of alters.

The food was prepared on site, anyone interested can join in on the feast.

There was also an auction on the side. The host is very extremely loud and was competing for attention with the main show.

There was a golden alter on the side and during intermission another set of performers dressed in black and ran in circles…for 10minutes.

The elderly people enjoying the show or catching up with friends.

The primary objective of the show is to provide entertainment for the dead, hence they are always performed at night. There are lots of lot banging and high pitch noise, apparently it attracts the ghosts (wonder how they found out?!).

I think they did very well with the make-up and costumes. Personal favorite is the guy on the right (I assumed he’s the bad guy!).



As a kid, I often walked by these festivals with my mom. Even though I didn’t understand any of the rituals or the foreign dialects, it was interesting to re-visit these very traditional practices.

At the bus station.

While waiting at the taxi stand a driver takes a few minutes to clean the hood of his taxi.

For some reason, there were a lot of giant spiders on this island. The largest one was bigger than my hand and the web spans about a meter. My nerves were already strung out walking beside all these spiders but I absolutely lost it when a leaf fell on my neck and I thought one of the spider bit me! I must have looked ridiculous screaming and slapping myself all over….

On the way to the top of the island. Beautiful view but I was completely red at the end of the day from sunburn.

Some historic buildings that have been abandoned. These will probably disappear in a few years from the new development plans for more vacation homes.

Seafood restaurants beside the pier. You can bring in your own vegetables, pick the sea creature from a tank, and specify how to prepare it.

Picking the meat of your choice, by hanging it up they can’t hide a piece of fat or inferior grade meat from the buyer. The general practice is to point to the desired item and they will pull it off from the rack for you to examine. It is such a stark contrast compared against the supermarkets in Canada where meat is prepackaged and are wrapped in Styrofoam packages.

“You gonna buy it or not?!”; “Very good fish, cheap cheap!”

Old lady that sells junk under a bridge. I had buy some broken toys from her to take this picture!

All done for the day, see you tomorrow.

A barber shop at a street corner. I asked a co-worker to get a haircut together but he refused.

Fruit stands selling lychee in drive-through style. Man-powered taxis passing by each other.

Construction cranes at the outskirts of the ever-expanding cities.

I have been interested to learn about the different perspectives of the media between the East and the West. The West has been unrelenting in pointing out the flaws and shortcoming of China, which is growing at an incredible rate. There has been a lot of public attention toward sub-standard products, the pollution to the environment, and the human rights issues.

On the other hand, the people in China seem indifferent to government policies or actions as long as it brings about continual prosperity. There is also a hope that the upcoming Olympic will fix many things and China will be able to demonstrate its powers to the world.

With the large population, it is perhaps necessary for the government to exercise higher control to regulate the flow of the people. This control extends over to the tightly controlled media channels and internet censorship. The news networks and propaganda are filled with motivating idioms, stories, and statistics regarding increased levels of production at all levels.

No doubt the government has been putting a lot of resources into improving the infrastructure and road networks. One advantage is that China has access to technologies and experiences learned from developed countries. However, corruption and cutting corners are big concerns for the safety and reliability of these buildings. Time will tell.