My Hometown Urumqi

My Hhometown Urumqi is a beautiful city, although, many people do not know much about her.Urumqi means "A beautiful Pasture land " in ancient Mongolian used by the Junggar tribe, 2000 years ago it was once an important town on the new northern route of the Silk Road, which made important contribution in promoting Sino-foreign economic & cultural exchanges. During the 22nd year of the Zhenguan's reign in the Tang Dynasty, 648 A.D., the Tang government set up the town of Luntai in the ancient town seat of Urabo, which is 10 kilometers away from the southern suburb of Urumqi nowadays. The Ancient Luntai Town, which played quit significant a role on the new northern route of Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty, was the only town of tax collection, the only town of management, the town of supply and the first town as well. In the time of Qing Dynasty (A.D.1763) , the emperor Qian Long named the expanded city as "Dihua". UP to A.D.1884, another emperor Guang Xu put up Xinjiang as a Province and the Di Hua city as the capital of Xinjiang. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, by Feb.1,1954, the city name was restored to its original meaning, i.e., Urumqi.

Because the northern route of the "Silk Road" passed through Urumqi, it became a heavily-guarded fort in the Han Dynasty, and remained so for centuries. But today, the city itself has few historical sites to offer tourists, except for the museum of the autonomous region that houses some valuable relics unearthed along the "Silk Road". An excursion to Tianchi, however, is worthwhile.

A cold Day

When somebody ask me about my feeling of Banff, I will say it is beautiful but so cold.

Last semester, some students from my class went to Banff together. We "enjoyed" the grand view of the moutains with shaking in the cold wind.

In the fall of 1883, three Canadian Pacific Railway construction workers stumbled across a cave containing hot springs on the eastern slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains. From that humble beginning was born Banff National Park, Canada's first national park and the world's third. Spanning 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 square miles) of valleys, mountains, glaciers, forests, meadows and rivers, Banff National Park is one of the world's premier destination spots.

The sping Hotel
A Springs Timeline... 1874 - The Springs Hotel is constructed after the potential of the site was discovered by a member of the Royal Household 1912 - Substantial additions including the Winter Gardens and an oak panelled library. 1973 - International pop star, Ian Gillan of the band Deep Purple purchases the house and constructs a guitar-shaped pool.
The Springs is a fine example of a Victorian-style country house. Constructed in 1874, it overlooks a spring-fed lake set in rolling parkland.

Jimmy's Subway Book

As my favorite image book, Jimmy's Subway Book brings me lots of dreams.

I open the book with listening classic music.

The color,the delineation and the words warm my heart.

A blind girl goes to subway station as usual. She travels with subway everyday. She is looking for her own colorful world without eyes. In that world, her dreams, lost memories and happiness will being forever.

I still remember the sentence at the very beginning of this book.

We're extremely fortunate not to know precisely the kind of world we live in. －－Wislawa Szymborska

Life has so many things we can not foresee before it happens.

Like love, joy, sad, calamity and luck. We go forward following time without stop. Yes, we are lucky, we have health, family, friends and life. Although, we do not know what will happen in the next second, we still can search our dreams, breathe the fresh air and watch at the sky. That is life.

Vincent van Gogh

If you aks me why I pay more attention to Vincent van Gogh, and try to search more information about him, the reason is about the song "Vincent". That was wrotten by Don Mclean, a fmaous American singer. I was attracted by the lyric of "Vincent". When you are listening this song, you imagine the story of Vincent and h

is work. Then you will realize tears are falling from your face.

Starry starry night

paint your palette blue and grey

look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the hills

sketch the trees and the daffodils

catch the breeze and the winter chills in colors on the snowy linen land.

And now I understand

what you tried to say to me

and how you suffered for your sanity

and how you tried to set them free.

They would not listen

they did not know how

perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry starry night

flaming flowers that brightly blaze

swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in Vincent's eyes of China blue.

Colors changing hue

morning fields of amber grain

weathered faces lined in pain are smoothed beneath the artist's loving hand. And now I understand

what you tried to say to me

and how you suffered for your sanity

and how you tried to set them free.

They would not listen

they did not know how

perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you

but still your love was true

and when no hope was left in sight on that starry starry night.

You took your life as lovers often do,

But I could have told you Vincent

this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

Starry starry night

portraits hung in empty halls

frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes

that watch the world and can't forget.

Like the stranger that you've met

the ragged men in ragged clothes

the silver thorn of bloddy rose

lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

And now I think I know

what you tried to say to me

and how you suffered for your sanity

and how you tried to set them free.

They would not listen

they're not listening still

perhaps they never will.

He borns.

He paints.

He departs from this life.

One in the cornfield is golden.

A group of crows exclaimed to once fly the sky.

Charles Baudelaire

Lottery

Many people are crazy at Lottery all around the world.
My roommates and I decided to join these crazy people.
You can not ignore the allure of millions of dollars.

The History of the Lottery
It is possible that the history of the lottery goes back as far as times of Moses. There is some contention among Biblical scholars about this. Certainly, it would not be all that seemly if a great religious character should profit from gambling. But in the Book of Numbers of the Old Testament it is written that Moses was awarded land near the River Jordan after playing a local lottery. No wonder so many people today still pray before picking their numbers.
Lotteries are not mentioned in historical writings much until 200 BC in China, when the Hun Dynasty used lotteries to raise funds for taxes. In 200 BC Emperor Cheung Leung invented The Chinese Lottery. Today this game has survived as what we know as Keno. Revenue from the Chinese Lottery was used to build the Great Wall of China. It is also thought that playing the lottery in Europe may date back as far as the times of Julius Caesar, in the first century before Christ.

See, lottery has attracted people for many years.

My memrory of the first Christmas in Canada

This is a video of my first time to see the Christmas Light in Calgary. It is a beautiful place for me to visit.

My boyfriend and I went to there to celebrate the Christmas. Although he is not good at shooting. And the video is not clear to watch. That is the bridge to let me think about the past time.

Christmas is an annual holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus. It refers both to the day celebrating the birth, as well as to the season which that day inaugurates, which concludes with the Feast of the Epiphany. The date of the celebration is traditional, and is not considered to be his actual date of birth. Christmas festivities often combine the commemoration of Jesus' birth with various cultural customs, many of which have been influenced by earlier winter festivals. Although nominally a Christian holiday, it is also observed as a cultural holiday by many non-Christians.

Bona and his family

I am glad that my friend who is the owner of Bona's parents asked me to help him to taking care of his cats for few days. Bobo and Gana lived in my home as our lovely guests.

When I saw Gana at my first sight, I was shocked because he looks like his son Bona so much.

Look at this image, father and son are lying on the ground. Both of them are white with pink ears. The mother is squating beside them. She is the most beautiful cat I have ever seen.

One of my loves is watching these cats when they are sleeping. If it is possible, I prefer to take photoes for them.

They are having a profound sleep and nonoe can interrupt them. The Sweet Family they are.

A slipped cat is an artful cat

That is a funny story happened at last month.

This is my roommate's fish vat withou a lid. A Red piranha, a small crab and several fishes in it. As one of the olddest family member, the red piranha is being protected well. Unfortunatly, there are two cats around him all the time.

They try to catch the poor fish several times. Like this.......

With curiosity, they keep trying until we stop them. Without coming through, we felicitate that the red piranha is still alive.

One day, yes, the day the red piranha will never forget. Cat's skin fell into the vat; both of him and red piranha were scared. He tried his best to jump out the vat. When we saw him, he looked like a soaked through. Hehe, after that we call him "artful cat" because the pronunciation of artful in Chinese sounds like someone slipp into something.

I think our "artful cat" will never try to catch the fish.

The cats enjoy their happiness

What an Exciting moment! I will introduce my dear pets to you.

He is Bona, the first cat I kept by myself. He is an active and lovely car. One of his characteristics is liking stay with human all the time. (Now, he is sleeping beside me.)

Another little cat, Cat's skin. What a strange name he has. My roommate named him because their old cat was called this name too. He is a little younger than Bona. Unlike with Bona, Cat's skin is a pavid and sensitive one. It hard for a stranger to make friends with him.

I start my Blog finally

After being reminded by friends for many times, I start building my English Blog. This is a new attempt for me.
In the past few months, I have lived without the Internet for a long time. I never appeared in my chat program and Chinese Blogs for nearly 3 months. Oh, how lazy and busy I am!
At this moment, I am listening one of my favorite songs while I am writing this poster. The title of this song is Silent All these Years which was sung by Troi Amos. The song is so fit my situation now that I have kept silent all these months. ^_^
When I had my first Chinese Blog in my mid-school age. I thought a question why we need a blog. I thought out some reasons. First, everyone needs room to confide and express their feeling of life. Second, we are all actors in our own life, so we perfer to let more people know ourselves. Third, in this tech time, people communicate with others through the Internet and phones instead of talking face to face.
This is my first English Blog. You can read some interesting stories about my cats in the coming posts.