Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season

The recent few days of public holiday in Hong Kong have been rather nice for the Christmas season. As a result, I’ve finally had the chance to do some end-of-the-year cleaning of photos. And I’ve gotten around to editing photos from all the way back in May when I took a trip to Yunnan Province, China. Have a look at the set on Flickr and let me know what you think!

It was a 10 day trip during the Chinese May holiday and I traveled with a few friends to some of the major cities in Yunnan: Kunming, Dali, Shangarila, and Lijiang. All the while we took overnight-sleeper buses (never done this before!), or had a private driver to drive the 4 of us from city to city. The scenery was absolutely stunning (farmland and forests), people were incredibly friendly, food was fresh and delicious (the best strawberries I’ve ever eaten), and the air was clean! Our driver in Shangarila, who was of Tibetan decent, as many people in the region are, even invited us over to his home for milk tea! Not something we foreigners would expect, or even think of doing at home. I’m looking forward to more adventures in 2012 (and first up.. India!)

Until then… Happy New Year!

Reflecting Hong Kong’s history as a port, many of Fitzpatrick’s images are taken on the water. “We’re used to seeing Hong Kong from the island’s perspective, looking out at a famous harbor,” Fitzpatrick says. “But the sea is the heart of what Hong Kong is, and many of our early boat dwellers would have seen Hong Kong the other way—from out on the harbor looking at the island. That’s the point of view I’ve tried to capture in many of the photos. It’s a subtle link to the past that appeals to me as a Hong Konger.”

The photos that follow (taken on my iPhone 4) don’t even compare!

It’s a fitting exhibit in conjunction with the recent launch of the iPhone 4S and opening of Hong Kong’s own Apple Store… Anyways, have a look and visit the exhibit yourself before Oct 15 at Culture Club,15 Elgin Street, Soho, Central, Hong Kong.

It’s been a while since I posted! Apologies! And this one is going to be short… just a few photos that I’ve taken in the past couple months that I quite like

抱歉我最近没写。。这个post也很短，只让你看看我这几个月拍的几张照片儿。我相当喜欢！

Tianjin Snacks：天津小吃

Hutong Bikes near Lama Temple：胡同自行车在雍和宫附近

I previously wrote a small blurb on Beijing’s JianBing (煎饼), but there’s more to it! I’m happy to be working with VeggieWala, a great resource for you vegetarians out there, from recipes to restaurant reviews. With my love for food (although not always the vegetarian kind), I hope I can provide some useful and insightful information here from Beijing. Here’s a snip-it of my first post for VeggieWala, and head over there to read the whole post about “The Chinese Crepe”

One of Beijing’s famous street foods is the JianBing (煎饼). Jean who? No, no, JianBing. Many, myself included, consider it a Chinese crepe. In the dictionary it translates to a Chinese pancake and it literally translates into fried, round-flat cake. So, there can be many English interpretations, and don’t get the JianBing confused with the scallion pancake that you find at Dim Sum or other Chinese restaurants. Rest assured that all Beijingers will know what a JianBing is. And on your next visit to Beijing, you can find this wonderful, savory, vegetarian-friendly delight all over the city in street food stalls or grocery stores small and large. Originating in Tianjin, just 117km (72miles) southeast of Beijing, the JianBing is the perfect breakfast food, but it’s also an inexpensive snack and even perfect grub as you crawl out of the bar at 5am.

Where can you enjoy this vegetarian-friendly treat? You’ll most certainly find vendors next to Beijing subway stops, in permanent street stalls (like the one pictured) or moving vendors, as you would typically imagine. Often the local grocery store also sells them. I encourage you to explore the street vendors of Beijing (and China) to find who you think makes the perfect JianBing!

我以前写过比较短的post关于北京煎饼，但还有很多没说！我刚刚开始从北京帮VeggieWala，美国一个吃素的blog。它真有意思告诉这么做菜啊，在什么地方吃啊，也吃素的还可以吃什么啦。虽然我不是常吃素的，但我真很高兴兴奋我的食品爱好能从北京帮它写一点关于在北京吃素的能吃什么。看看我第一个post在VeggieWala吧！

And some photos previously posted from this summer below:

我只写一个短post因为在我新家还不能上网。现在我开始关于食品的照片会在flickr。 让你们看看

A dump site for digital technology, Africa’s notorious Agbogbloshie Market is a toxic wasteland where Europe’s outdated computers are scavenged for spare parts and torched to recycle precious materials. The surreal site in the capital city of Accra has been burdened with tribal rivalries, drug problems, and child trafficking, while receiving repeated warnings from international agencies about massive emissions of noxious fumes, threatening the pickers, and poisonous chemicals, seeping into the soil.

A surprisingly suppressed story, it recently gained worldwide attention when the New York Times Magazine published pictures of the heavily polluted place by South African photographer Pieter Hugo.

According to the New York Times Magazine, “the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary 
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, agreed to in 1989 and now adopted 
by a majority of nations, was meant to stop the dumping of toxic waste in poor 
countries. But rules get complicated when the waste arrives as a gift.”

via Flavorwire

我对南非真心疼。

Cooking Dinner Vol. I from William Hereford is a beautifully filmed and wonderful concept for the food preparation experience. The imagery with perfectly fitting typography and soundtrack really indulges all of your senses while cooking.

With the redefinition of how content is created, shared, and digested, Cooking Dinner Vol. 1 definitely gets the mental wheels spinning on the potential direction of food magazines, with thought to beautifully shot, yet easily digestible vignettes.

It’s a great example of a new concept for food magazines moving towards the tablet technology, while also engaging the user:

Tablets (and the internet really) provide the opportunity to look at moving images with the same studied intensity as a still photograph. Traditionally we are at the director’s mercy regarding when a shot begins and ends- the whole experience is fleeting, which can be wonderful, but I like the idea of creating a moving image which runs on a loop or is shot over a long period of time so the media can be consumed and studied in ways a traditional film cannot.

Cooking Dinner Vol.1 tells a lovely story of process and engages those tech geeks who do (and don’t) cook, while making an enjoyable experience in the kitchen.

via PSFK

Cooking Dinner Vol. I的食谱视频真有意思！非常漂亮也用所有的感官。在厨房能很好玩。

Beijing, China (courtesy of my classmate Tim. Thank you!)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

在亚洲的街上休息休息：这几张照片就是开始的系列。真有意思，在美国没见过。

Domino’s YouTube video shows the secrets behind shooting a commerical with a twist.

Discover what crazy things are done at pizza photo shoots, and why Domino’s has made a promise about how we shoot our inspired pizzas from this day forward.

Beyond the clever commercial, I knew that shooting food was difficult, but I had no idea that it was THIS involved!

看这个Domino’s 广告关于怎么拍食品广告和照片。我以前知道拍食品照片很难， 但是不知道拍广告是怎么难！

Cool photo series by Linda Lundgren, a talented food stylist from Sweden, features different food products organized by their color.

And speaking of food that looks good. An article at Good highlights “10 of the best foods for your looks”: