Guangzhou, China 2011 - Part 2

Day 2

The home of kung-fu. That’s what this place is. Welcome to Foshan!

Foshan is a booming city just outside of Guangzhou. With the development of various industries and factories, Foshan is growing exponentially. Apprently, Foshan is known as the capital of cheap furniture and lighting, not to mention pottery.

However, the one thing which has not changed much is Foshan’s ties to martial arts. Do you remember the martial arts legends we grew up with, and later believed them to be fictional in our later years? Well, they’re not exactly fictional. Take for example, the legendary Wong Fei-Hung, made popular by Chinese superstar actor Jet Li, and his trademarked ‘Shadowless Kick’. Fiction? Think again.

The movie character was based on real life master Huang Fei-Hong. Master Huang, just like the movie character, was a master of kung-fu, an active medical practitioner, and was known for his ‘Shadowless Kick’. In the movies, the ‘Shadowless Kick’ is depicted as multiple flying kicks but in reality it was merely a very fast kick. But you get the idea.

We took the opportunity to ride the Chinese Metro to Foshan in order to visit the Foshan (Zumiao) Memorial Hall dedicated to Huang Fei-Huang and Ip Man, among others. There, we lost ourselves between the fine line between legend and history...

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After walking throught history at the Foshan Memorial Hall, we headed to Xiqiao Mountain. Did you know that Huang Fei-Hong was born on Xiqiao Mountain? Well this famous mountain in the Foshan District of Guangdong is well known for it's gigantic statue of Kuan Yin, the revered Goddess of Mercy. The impressive structure is constructed on top of a hill, accessible by huge flight os stairs and a Buddhist temple is built around the statue as commemoration to the Goddess of Mercy. Here on this Sunday afternoon, you can see many devotees visiting this holy place to pray and seek blessings.

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For dinner, Jerry's uncle invited us for dinner at an exclusive restaurant in town. Mr. Lee was an excellent host and he made us feel absolutely at home in a strange foreign land. After dinner, Mr. Lee insisted on taking us to a well known dessert, or 'tong sui' shop within walking distance of the restaurant. After some lovely warm and cold desserts, we decided to walk around to find things to shop.

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Thank you for viewing! The adventure continues in Part 3... 


For a quick link to the other parts in this Series, kindly click on the hyperlinks below:

Guangzhou, China 2011 - Part 1

Guangzhou, China 2011 - Part 2

Guangzhou, China 2011 - Part 3

Guangzhou, China 2011 - Part 4

Guangzhou, China 2011 - Part 5

For those of you who like statistics:

Vital Stats for September: 3 post 317 pics

Vital Stats So Far: 104 posts 4,180 pics

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