Tropical Storm Goni, the western Pacific region’s seventh storm of the year, is headed for the Chinese mainland.  Forecasters predict the storm will hit the Chinese mainland between 6 pm and 9 pm (GMT +8) on August 4.  The storm will most likely make landfall south-east of Maoming in Guangdong Province. Tropical Storm Goni is expected to bring wind gusts of up to 74 kilometers per hour.

Nearby Shenzhen, Macau and Hong Kong will be on the periphery of Tropical Storm Goni and should expect rain and strong winds as the storm moves west through Guangdong and Guangxi provinces before weakening into a tropical depression.

Tropical Storm Morakot in the Western Pacific.

Official in Taiwan are watching Tropical Storm Morakot that formed earlier this week east of Taiwan. Taiwan has received less rain than usual this year and officials have said rationing may begin if the drought continues. The course of Tropical Storm Morakot is unclear. The storm’s heavy rainfall would be welcome in Taiwan. The storm is expected to affect Taiwan August 7 or 8.

Source: etaiwannews.com
Maps: Weather Underground

Typhoon Molave, the season’s sixth storm is making its way toward the south China coast. Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong can expect heavy rain and strong winds Saturday and Sunday.

With winds of 33 meters per second (119 kilometers an hour), the typhoon is heading  northwestward at 25 kilometers per hour and expected make landfall between central Guangdong Province and southern Fujian Province.

Typhoon Molave is will bring torrential rains and gale-force winds to China’s coastal areas. The storm is expected to arrive between the evening of Saturday, July 18 and Sunday July 19.

Batten down the hatched and stay off the streets.

image: www.wunderground.com

Guidebook writers say Shenzhen, China is a pointless destination. It’s new, it’s gaudy, it has no soul or history. They are wrong. The city has been unfairly maligned. There is a lot to see and do in Shenzhen, China.  In case you’re in the neighborhood, my list of 10 Must Sees in Shenzhen, China.

Shenzhen China at night.

Shenzhen City
Shenzhen is the third largest city in China, no small feat for a city only 30 years-old. What started as a fishing village of 30,000 has grown into a modern metropolis of 12 million. A city, with a population one-third of Canada’s: Tell me that’s not something you must see?

Visit the Diwang Building
The Diwang building in Shenzhen’s downtown is the ninth largest building in the world, and the largest steel skyscraper in China. Visitors can ride to the observation deck and look out over the city, Guangdong province, and on a clear day, Hong Kong. A night time visit offers stunning views of some of Asia’s newest and most creative buildings.

Shop in Dongmen
Near the Hong Kong border is Dongmen Shopping Street (East Gate), a mecca for shoppers. Clothes, housewares, electronics: Anything you can imagine can be bought at Dongmen in the Luohu District of Shenzhen. Hone your bargaining skills before hand, and haggle for the best deal while shopping in Shenzhen.

Fairy Lake Botanical Gardens
This huge park in east Shenzhen features walking trails, a petrified forest, and museum. Fairy Lake is also home to Hong Fa Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Shenzhen. Another attraction is a tree planted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping. The late Chairman Deng, who conceived of Shenzhen and its special economic zone status, is revered in the city.

The prayer tree at the Tianhou Temple.

Tianhou Temple
Chiwan Village, part of western Shenzhen, features an ancient temple to Tianhou, (or Matsu) the Mother of Heaven, and goddess of fisherman. She is worshiped across Asia. The original temple was built in 1410 after the fleet of Admiral and Explorer Zheng He was caught in a typhoon in the South China Sea. The temple offers visitors a glimpse of Chinese religion and myth.

Royal Tomb
Nearby the Tianhou Temple in Chiwan is the tomb of the boy-emperor Song Shao, Last Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty. He died when the Mongols chased the remnants of the Song court to China’s southern coast in 1279. A court official leaped into the sea with the boy, lest he be taken by the invaders.

Crane Lake Hakka Village
The Hakka were Northern Chinese, driven south by war. Their migration south started in the third century and lasted hundreds of years. They made their homes in walled communal villages in South China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. During the cold war the American military thought these villages (many round in shape) were missile silos. Crane Lake was the home of the Luo clan, and was completed in the 1800s. Visitors can see the partially restored buildings of the settlement, and learn more about the Hakka people and their culture.

Dapeng Fortress
Built during the Ming Dynasty, the Dapeng Fotresss once protected eastern Shenzhen and Hong Kong from Japanese pirates. In 1939 the British Navy, in an act that is considered the first of the Opium War, launched an attack. Chinese troops, in fishing boats, defeat the modern and better equipped navy. The old fort features the residence of General Lai, General Liu Qilong, and three temples. Dapeng Fortress is a piece of history, witnessing almost 600 years of tumultuous events.

Flowers for the Chinese Goddess Guanyin.

See Phoenix Mountain Temple and the Dragon King Temple
Very close to each other, these temples, are located in Shenzhen’s northwest. Legends say that sometime during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) a phoenix lived in a cave on a nearby mountain. During the Southern Song Dynasty a General walking in the area had a dream of Guanyin, the Goddess of mercy. She asked him to build a temple near the famous cave.  The Buddhist temple is a popular site, attracting worshipers and tourists. Nearby is a temple to the Dragon King, famous in Chinese folk tales. The temple is small but extremely ornate. The area of the two temples has been developed into a large park with walking trails and green spaces

Visit Xinan Old Town – Nantou Ancient City
Shenzhen’s Nanshan District is the home of Xinan Old Town also called Nantou Ancient City, a former government county seat, dating to the Ming Dynasty. The area was first constructed in 331 and was designated a heritage site. Archeological digs at the ancient city have uncovered more than 3000 artifacts, now stored in a nearby museum. Some of the original city walls and gate, as well as ancient wells and buildings, and a temple to Chinese Hero Guan Gong, still remain.

Eat and Drink at Sea World
When you hear Seaworld, you think of Shamu and leaping dolphins. Not the case in Shenzhen. Sea World in the Shekou area is Shenzhen’s expatriate hangout.  The centerpiece of the promenade is a former French cruise ship cemented into the ground, now being used as a hotel, and containing several restaurants and bars. The area also has international eateries, and offer visitors a chance to eat and drink something different than Chinese fare.

Zhong Shan Road. Zhong Shan Middle School. Zhong Shan? 中山? Translated: Middle Mountain? Stop the presses…you see the name Zhong Shan all over China, what the hell does it mean?

Dr. Sun Yat-sen, aka Zhong Shan, is considered the Father of Modern China. A revolutionary, his efforts resulted in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Sun was the first president of the Republic of China’s when it formed in 1912.

The 19th century was a difficult time for China. England, France, and Japan were intent on cutting up the Middle Kingdom like a pie, carving out their own enclaves, to rape the nation, and plunder its riches. The weak and corrupt Qing Dynasty had dealt with the first and second opium wars, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Taiping Rebellion. The Unequal Treaties enacted after the conflicts, giving land and rights to foreign powers, had diminished China’s power and prestige. It was a country ripe for revolution.

Sun was born in 1866 in Guangdong Province. He emigrated to America, attended school, and was granted American citizenship. In 1882 he returned to China, the ideals of Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln in his mind. He developed the Three Principle of the People (the San-min Doctrine, a government of the people, by the people, for the people.) These principles (Min-tsu, 民族主義, Min-chüan, 民權主義, Min-sheng, 民生主義) were the basis of the later Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek, and of the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong.

Sun studied medicine and practiced for a short time, The Qing Dynasty’s refusal to change with the times led Dr. Sun Yat-sen to become a full-time revolutionary. He was a principal member within the Tiandihui, a secret group dedicated to overthrowing the Qing Dynasty.

A failed coup in 1894, planned by Sun, made him an exile, resulting in him living 16  years in America, Europe and Japan. He raised money in these nations for the revolutionary cause.

After the Wuchang Uprising in 1911 (funded by Sun and his overseas work), and the overthrow of the Qing regime, Sun returned to China. He was elected the first president of the Republic of China. His tenure was short-lived, as was the Republic. Sun had united revolutionary groups, but after their initial success, the cooperation fragmented. It was not until the KMT’s Northern Expedition, under Sun’s Premiership, that a better semblance of government emerged.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen,  died in 1925 at the age of 58. He is seen as the Father of Modern China, and revered by both the Nationalists in Taiwan, and the People’s Republic on the mainland. The translation of his Japanese name, Zhong Shan, is seen everywhere in China. The town of his birth was renamed Zhong Shan in his honor. Most cities and towns in China have at least one Zhong Shan Road. Many schools, too, are named in his honor.

A worker at the Red Forest Mangrove Park in Shenzhen, China, cleans up dead brush. The Red Forest is a unique and environmentally-protected retreat in a city of 12 million, nestled between Shenzhen Bay and Nanshan District.

We listened as the Buddhist nuns chanted, an afternoon ritual, surrounded by the sweet smelling smoke from countless sticks of incense. It was a temple on a backstreet of Guangzhou, one of the largest and oldest cities in China.

“People pray for different things now,” the guide told me. She was a woman in her early 50s, tall, a northerner, with a strong jaw and eyes that smiled before her lips.

“Before, they might have prayed for their farms, or their families,” she said, “Now, parents will pray that their children get into a good university. Young people will pray they get a promotion.”

Ancient beliefs changing: Can a culture with 5000 years of history still hold to the old, while embracing the new? The old: A cornerstone. The new: A beacon of modernization and change.

Our group wandered among the buildings, quiet and respectful. Monks in orange robes walked with purpose over the 500-year-old cobblestones. Nuns chanted at another shrine, as they do each afternoon. Their words were read from battered, handwritten books.

I stepped back and surveyed the temple, Guangxiao Si, one of the oldest in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. As the sun set, the city of 10 million seemed far away.

Our guide had not followed. I spotted her in front of the main hall, in the shadow cast by the roof. She stood before the massive golden Buddha, incense sticks held between her palms. arms raised high. She hadn’t prayed when visited the building earlier.

What did she pray for? The old? The new? Both? She was a modern Chinese woman, with a condo, a car, and a grown daughter. Prayers for her family? Her career?

It was a private moment I was not meant to see. I turned towards the chanting and the setting sun. In the distance, if you listened, horns were blaring as the afternoon rush hour began.

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