Lantern Festival at Gold Coast

Tuesday was a red day here, or national holiday, as it was the Mid Autumn Festival, otherwise known as the Lantern Festival.  Last year we were going to go out to the Gold Coast  to join the fun, but it poured rain and so not much went on.  Fortunately the weather co-operated this year and it was a beautiful mild evening spent sitting on the beach with everyone else!

Heading out on the bus.  This was part of the line up left after the bus was full. 

We met Jill and the kids about 7 to go to the beach and stake out a spot.  They were so excited to have Buzz Lightyear  lanterns!!

Showing off Buzz!

The first thing Keegan did was run for the ocean and plunked himself down!!

Everyone stakes out their little piece of land with glow sticks or something else.  The Mid Autumn Festival celebrates two things.  First its a harvest celebration, and this is when the moon is the biggest and brightest.  It also commemorates a 14th century uprising against the Mongols, where the rebels hid their plans in little cakes and these were passed around to other rebels.  These cakes are called moon cakes.

Some get quite creative with their glow sticks!

Good thing it was warm as Keegan was quite happy to run in his diaper!!  Ryan was supposed to be at his University class but came home instead because of the traffic.

People wander around carrying their lanterns.  There were some quite elaborate ones.

This little cutie had a truck! 

These two had a more traditional one.

They used to have paper lanterns with candles, but those are a thing of the past and now they are made from plastic with led lights in them.  Some people still dig holes in the sand and put real candles in them, but this is discouraged.

These next few are a combination of traditional and glow stick art!

The next few are of Jill making glow balls and the kids having fun.

We headed home around ten, covered  in sand but with some happy kids!

Even as we're heading home many families are just starting their celebrations.  On this night of the year everyone stays up late eating their moon cakes and visiting.  Jill brought little cheesecakes and l brought cookies from Subway!!  I'm afraid moon cakes are definitely an acquired taste!!

Fancy rabbit!

Pretty fish! 

It's a really nice evening and very pretty with all the colored lights and many varieties of lanterns.  The Chinese have some rather neat family celebrations.  You see all ages coming with the lanterns and spending time together with kids running everywhere and people relaxing and visiting.  

Shaolin Monks

One of our day trips this summer was to Ngong Ping to see a demonstration by the Shaolin Monks.  You can get to Ngong Ping, where the big Buddha is, by either bus or cable car, so this time we took the bus up and the cable car down.  I love their signs for telling you when the bus leaves and when the next one goes, and they leave exactly when they say they're leaving and if the door is closed and you run to catch it too bad because you don't get on!!

 Grandpa and his faithful sidekick!

 Heading into the village. There is a monastery here but the village is set up for tourist's of course.

 These guys were quite amazing to watch.

Wouldn't you like to be so flexible?

Not sure what this one is doing!

 I don't know if this is Kung Fu or what.

 The sword is real and sharp.  When Blaine's family came earlier on,one of the guys cut his forehead.

 This one is skipping on his butt with that rope he's swinging around!!

Doing somersaults off those poles!

And sideways flips!!

Balancing these buckets as they run up and over the poles.

These were hanging situps as they picked up water from a bucket below.

I didn't count how many times they did this, but it was a lot!! 

Hunter doing his Kung Fu!!

Hunter was thrilled to get his picture taken with the monks after the performance.

Practicing his drumming skills!

The Buddha is very large and on a clear day is visible from a long way off.

Heading down on the cable car. Keegan doesn't look impressed with having to get his picture taken when there was so much to see below!!

A little fishing village not too far from Tung Chung which is where the cable car originates from.

Just over the last hill is Tung Chung and the end of our outing

The train wasn't busy at this time so Keegan could relax and spread out!!  Unfortunately that only lasted till the next stop!!

Universiade Games in Shenzhen

World Universiade Games

The World Universiade Games, which is like an Olympics for University athletes,was held from Aug 12th - Aug 23rd in Shenzhen. 24 different sports were incorporated into the 306 events that took place..  Around 11,000 athletes attended from 152 countries.  I think the next one is in London England.

Part of the Athletes Village

Main stadium which seats 60,000 people.

The finale of the opening ceremonies which was held in the main stadium.

Ryan, Jill and Blaine had a chance to go and watch some of the basketball.  When they got to the men's venue and had to buy tickets, they had to walk about 300 m past the entrance and back again to buy the tickets.  Why the ticket trailer was up there they didn't know. They then spent about 15 minutes to get through security which was much tighter than at the airport!

This was the Canadian men playing Hong Kong, in one of the local high schools in Shenzhen.

The game was close when they arrived, but Canada pulled away and won easily.  One of the Sask Huskie men was on the team.

A few of the flags from some of the countries.  They had fun trying to guess the countries.

This fellow was one of the volunteers at the games and he was trying to improve his English, so he sat by Blaine and carried on a conversation for the whole game.  He was very friendly and even told a lady who was standing in front of them and blocking their view to sit down (In Chinese of course)

The next 3 pictures show Jill and Blaine as they went to find drinks before the the ladies game which was at another venue.  Somehow it seems they were mistaken  for coaches or athletes.  They took them down to the coaches and athletes area and rounded up some coke.  They weren't allowed to take bottles into the gym, so they came up with 3 cups , and then took them to sit in an area where only coaches and athletes were sitting.  They even wanted to pose for pictures with the 'celebrities'!

It must have been that RCHS logo that made them think he was a coach!!!

This was the ladies game against Australia.  It was close at half time, but Australia pulled ahead in the second half.  Apparently Australia had 5 or 6 players from their national team.

This is Lisa Thomadis, who coached Jill in Saskatoon.  She got free tickets for the crew and was the head coach for the Canadian women.

Watching intently from the 'special section'.

Leaving  the gym along the red carpet, where only teams, were allowed to go!

Jill and Lisa meeting after the game.

Lisa was very friendly and seemed genuinely happy to see some familiar faces from 'home'.  After the event, she and an assistant coach from McMaster university spent two days with Ryan and Jill, while Jill showed them around Hong Kong.

The media man waiting patiently to get the post game remarks from Lisa. The blonde girl on the right was one of the taller players from Canada.  They had a fun night watching some quality basketball.  The Canadian men's team won a silver medal and the women finished in 6th place.