Yuyin Shan Fang

This little tourist spot in the outskirts of PanYu (the city we live in that's about a 1/2 hour south of Guangzhou) was built about 135 years ago, built by a government official who had great success in his education (and subsequently his sons) and whose place in society was something like the Secretary for the Ministry of Punishment.

In other words, this was a man you wanted offering you moutai... not a sentence of 1000 cockroaches up the ass.

He built this place as a private recluse, as he was disillusioned with the modern world. Good on him - I imagine if he were alive today he'd have been building it in Tibet if he could, funny to think how only 135 years has made so much of a difference to the region.














































































































































Mmmm.. ancient secret changing rooms... this guy built a little theatre stage into his house & would hire opera opera
























































Chinese Chess! I'm still getting used to the characters that define what piece you're using (particularly since they're different for each side) but i'm no longer losing every game...

A big set in the garden sounds like a plan!




















































































































This was in the quarter where the women would spend their days, hanging out in wait until Snr Death got horny.






























































































































The good-luck turtle! The deal here was bounce a coin off his head & you'll never have to worry about anything - get one off his back & you'll have good fortune. My first coin bounced off his head, and the second off his back... I suppose we'll see how deep the rabbit hole goes.













































the Door Guard! These two were here to protect the house from the bad joo-joo.























































Nice - gotta love turning garden art into an ashtray!


















"No White Women Allowed"


















Love the archway! Why the hell did we end up building boxes to live in when we could have THIS for god's sake!





























Nice roof tiles eh?


















Yup. And this was one of them cooler days.

Oh and for all you yankees, that's Celcius.. you know, where Zero degree is freezing and 100 degrees is boiling? Yeah, that whole "logic" thing...

I didn't find out until recently where the farenheight scale came from - y'all should google it sometime, have a good laugh.

















































The Qing Lin (another god-animal that protects your household) hanging out during restorations...




































The front door!