Hobbies and Interests
From Andrew Tang (65), "What a surprise of seeing John Tsui (63) and Tony Chan (65) while visiting the Michael and Judi Denny Peony Garden at the Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens (OVBG) on Thursday, the 19th June 2104. Located at 155 Arena Street, it is conveniently situated in close proximity to both the Parkwood Estate and the Oshawa Creek trail.
In 2001, the Canadian Peony Society donated 100 plants from the Wally Gilbert Collection to the project. That contribution led to the official launch of the OVBG. Further donations from peony breeders and suppliers across North America have led to the entire collection flourishing into the largest contemporary collection of peonies in North America. With more than 300 varieties in cultivation, the collection is truly impressive!
ALL DISCOUNT TICKETS SOLD OUT!
Discount tickets ($29 each) are available for our members who are interested in seeing the show ‘War Horse’ at Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. The show is on every day except Monday. The show ends its run on November 4th 2012 (discount tickets available up to Sept 2nd). There are two shows each day (1:30pm and 7:30pm) except Sunday which has one matinee only. Please click here and let us know if you would like to purchase tickets (date, time and the number of tickets).
Anyone interested in non-competitive outdoor soccer during the summer months in Markham, Warden & 16th Av. area, please
" ... I went to Shanghai to attend an opening ceremony of an art exhibition by a Hong Kong artist who held his exhibition at a new art gallery in Shanghai. The artist is Dr Dominic Lam, a Hong Kong Wah Yan 1965 graduate. He is the Chairman of World Eye Organization, and the inventor of a new form of painting known as 折光畫 or, painting by Chromoskedasic Process. It is this new form of painting that he is introducing to the Shanghai public. I believe that more such exhibitions by Hong Kong creative artists held outside Hong Kong will help promote the cultural image of Hong Kong.
(Click the images for the albums.)
17th Feb was the Chinese Lantern Festival and the Festival celebration in Shanghai continued for a number of days. It was this Festival that made my short visit to Shanghai a specially colourful one. Our art exhibition opening ceremony took place in the evening on 18 Feb. On that day, we had the morning and most of the afternoon free. We spent the time visiting the Yu Yuan Spring Folklore Lantern Festival site.
Eric Li ('95), our Middle East Correspondent, reported from Qatar:
Before the announcement of the hosting country of FIFA2022, I am sure not many of us aware of the State of Qatar. Qatar is a small country and majority of the population are residing in Doha, the capital city of Qatar. Because of the reservation of natural gas and petroleum, Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in 2010. The country is still developing and you will find thousands of construction sites in Doha. Qatari loves sports and they usually offer great deals to sport fans. It's hard to believe I spent only CAD$25 in total for watching 2 semi-finals, double final and the single final of the Qatar Open (Tennis). Tickets for Asian Cup (football) are really inexpensive (from CAD$5 to CAD$25). Food is great here if you are a lamb lover but don't expect you will get any great Chinese cuisine here. Winter is wonderful here but the summer is really hot (close to 50C in the daytime and 40C in the evening + humidity). View pictures here.
This ends the series of China Meets the World. It is subdivided into
Overview,
Culture and Cultures,
The Unjust Past, Lingering Effects,
The Task of Rebuilding,
Forces from Abroad and
The Future.
The author, Kong Shui Loon, concludes: "No one knows the future, not tomorrow, the next year, or the next century. But human beings are still time-bound. We are able to look back to the past in order to understand the present and what is to come. I have unveiled the various living dimensions of China and the Chinese in recent history to describe how and why history had proceeded the way it did. If I am allowed to end this series with an optimistic note, I would say that of all the individuals that I had depicted in my writing, there are thousands and thousands like them to come. They will meet the world on their own independent terms, courteously, caringly, and harmoniously, in accordance with THE CHINESE WAY."
Please click here to read the whole article.
My Week in Guizhou - with the Guizhou Rose Society of Edmonton by Vincent Lee (65)
Background:
In the fall of 2009, I was looking for some kind of volunteer work that would allow me an opportunity to travel and to work in some dental or other capacity in a place where such services are needed - as long as it is not in a war zone (Doctors without Borders sometimes do that; I don't feel like working in an environment with bullets flying over my head!). I almost ended up going to Nicaragua around Christmas time 2009, but that didn't work out. And, because I couldn't go, I was able to attend a friend's Christmas dinner party, at which I ran into an old friend Dr. Chao Tai, a neurologist in Edmonton, who was originally from Singapore. His son, now also a neurologist, and my son, Sigmund, were high school classmates, and they learned music and piano from the same piano teacher. Much to my delight, I learned that for the preceding four years, Dr. Tai had been leading a group from Edmonton to do volunteer work in Guizhou Province (貴州省) in southwest China. I expressed my interest in joining his group, and ended up going with him for his fifth year into this remote part of interior China. Timing was perfect for me. After my Zhangjiajie tour, instead of returning to Hong Kong from Chengsha, I flew from Chengsha to Guiyang (貴陽), the capital city of Guizhou.
Guizhou Province, together with its neighbouring province Yunnan, is part of a plateau in southwest China (雲貴高原), with a range of elevations between 1000 to 2000 meters. It is hilly and wet, but the sandstone soil is of poor quality. I was told that only about 15 to 20 percent of its land can be used for agricultural use. Its capital Quiyang (貴陽) city is quite vibrant, though nothing like any of the coastal major centres. The province has a fairly well developed highway network amongst its major cities; but beyond that, the roads into the country side and villages are still narrow, and not well maintained. There are four major components to our group's visit: (1) The free clinic to villages; (2) Water projects to remote villages; (3) School visits, and (4) Visit to churches.