Dalian Zoo

It's been just about a year since I visited the Dalian Zoo, but I'm going to upload some of my photos of animals now anyways.

Sketches at the Art Museum

Qingdao Art Museum

Robert and I wandered slowly through the art gallery viewing photos.  It was a pleasure to look at photos with him and hear what he had to say about the photos.  There were so many different kinds of paintings

Beads and Shells at Stalls in Spring Sun on Fushansuo Bay in Qingdao

Approaching the Qingdao Art Museum

Sea Fountain at Fushansuo Bay

Lu Guo Cin, Local Artist

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Just before the Qingdao Art Museum on Dashue Lu in the old part of Qingdao near Ocean University's first campus, Yushan, I had the great good fortune to come across an art studio across the street with silk batik paintings that were truly wondrous. The artist, Lu Guo Cin, welcomed me and invited me to drink a cup of tea with him while I looked at his work. He didn't speak English, but we had a little conversation with my limited Chinese and discovered that we were nearly the same age, both 55 years old with only 11 days apart. He was born in 1953 on September 30 and I was also born in 1953, but a little later on October 11.

I have rarely met someone who I took to so immediately as I did him. In fact, I look forward to talking to him at great length when I learn more Chinese. It's a tremendous motivation to continue my studies in earnest. He made it clear that he had studied at the Beijing University School of Art (or something like that). He had me talk to a young woman on his cell phone and she also came over, but her speaking ability in English was quite limited.

Still, I hope that I made it clear that although I didn't have much money on me, that I'd be back to buy a lovely silk cloth that had phoenixes on it. I loved sitting in his little shop with colorfusilk batiks covering every inch of wall, including the ceiling.