The Watchtowers of Kaiping: Liyuan Garden

The Watchtowers of Kaiping: Liyuan Garden

The Kaiping Diaolou are fortified multi-story watchtowers and residences originally built to protect rural villages. Most were built from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, with a fusion of Chinese and Western architectural styles, by returning immigrants with wealth acquired overseas.

The earliest diaolou were built in the Ming Dynasty as a response to banditry and floods. Building reached a peak during the Warlord Era of the 1920s and 30s. More than three thousand diaolou were built, with approximately 1800 remaining in the Kaiping countryside. Most were abandoned after the Communist Revolution. Some are being maintained by families who now live in other countries.

There are three kinds of diaolou: watchtowers, communal towers built as temporary shelter in an emergency, and residential towers built by rich families as fortified residences. Fortified residences became a way for owners to showcase their wealth, with families and clans competing to build the grandest and tallest towers with modern materials and features at the time. Building was financed by Chinese immigrants returning from the West, Hong Kong and Malaysia, who incorporated Western architectural features, like domes, arches, and Roman columns into the structures. Local builders sometimes worked from postcards sent from abroad. UNESCO designated the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages a World Heritage Site in 2007.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden Entrance

Liyuan Garden or Li Garden was our second stop on a day trip to Kaiping from Guangzhou. We also visited Zilicun, Majianglong, and Jinjiangli village.

Liyuan Garden is not a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, but is a great example of the grand diaolou residences built by rich families.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden

Liyuan Garden was built by wealthy Chinese immigrant Xie Weili, who had four wives and more than 20 children. It took ten years to build and was completed in 1936. The compound is split into three zones: the Villas Zone, Grand Garden, and Little Garden. The zones are divided by three canals.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Watchtower between fortified villas

With 30 inch thick walls, iron windows and doors, Letian Lou (on the right) is a traditional diaolou that was built in 1911. It sits between three of the villas on the first row and was considered the security center of the Xie family.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Rearview of watchtower and front row of fortified villas

The six fortified villas that surround Letian Lou resemble French villas that are painted yellow and topped with ornate green tiled Chinese roofs. Panli Lou and Panwen Lou, the two most prominent villas, share the same basic footprint and were built in 1926.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Panwen Lou
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Panli Lou
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Rear villa
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Panli Lou's Chinese style roof

We had a look inside Panwen Lou, which was the residence of Weiwen Xie, older brother of Weili Xie. There was an eclectic mix of architectural styles built with imported materials. The foyer had dark wood panels and doors, ionic column reliefs framing the staircase, and what looked to be Moroccan tiled floors.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Entry hall leading to staircase
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Looking down at the entry hall from the stairs

Terrazzo was used extensively in place of marble and wood on the staircases. Many of the stairs also had carpet. The rooms were filled with imported furniture.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Villa Sitting room
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Villa bedroom
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Closeup view of Moroccan floor tiles

Panwen Lou and the other villas were also equipped with modern conveniences that we take for granted like indoor plumbing. This included flushing toilets. Most Chinese at the time had outdoor toilets. Even now there are many people in China still live without toilets or indoor plumbing.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Kitchen with indoor plumbing
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - indoor toilet

We were in a bit of a hurry, because it was getting late, and we still had to hit Majianglong, and Jinjiangli village. We didn’t have a lot of time to really explore the gardens.

Kaiping Diaolou - Li Garden

The Bird’s Nest and Hua Teng (Flower Vine) Pavilion are two of the structures in the Grand Garden area behind the villas. The roof of the Hua Teng Pavilion is shaped like the crown of the Queen of England, the Bird’s Nest is an aviary.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Picui Pavilion on one of the canals

The Little Garden Zone is separated by a grand canal, connected to the rest of the garden by a series of bridges. The hexagonal Yicui Pavilion is one of several pavilions located around the garden.

Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Yupei Villa
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Walking the canalKaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Chinese tourists crossing walking garden
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Canal landings
Kaiping Diaolou | Liyuan Garden - Chinese tourists crossing walking garden

The The Yupei Villa (above) overlooks the main canal and the Little Garden, which is connected to the Villa Zone and the Grand Garden by a series of bridges over the canals.

By the time we made it back to the entrance, it was well past noon. We looked around a little shopping area, and had a quick lunch of dumplings before heading off to find our driver.

Next stop… Majianglong village cluster.

Some of the information in this post was referenced from Wikipedia, CNN Travel, Travel China Guide and other sources.

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The Kaiping Diaolou are fortified multi-story watchtowers built to protect rural villages from ethnic warfare, bandits, and warlords. Most were built from the late 19th century to the early 20th century with a fusion of Chinese and Western architectural styles by returning immigrants with wealth acquired overseas.

The earliest diaolou were built in the Ming Dynasty as a response to banditry and floods. Building reached a peak during the Warlord Era of the 1920s and 30s. Of the more than three thousand diaolou built, approximately 1800 remain in the Kaiping countryside, another 500 in Taishan and other areas nearby. Most were abandoned after the Communist Revolution. Some are being maintained by families of the original owners who live in other countries.

There are three kinds of diaolou: watchtowers, communal towers built by several families as temporary shelter in an emergency, and residential towers built by rich families as fortified residences. Residences became a way for owners to showcase their wealth. Families and clans competed to build the tallest and grandest towers with modern materials and features at the time. Building was financed by Chinese immigrants returning from the West, Hong Kong and Malaysia, who incorporated Western architectural features, like domes, arches, and Roman columns into the structures. Local builders sometimes worked from postcards sent from abroad.

UNESCO designated the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages a World Heritage Site in 2007. The designation covers four separate areas: Sanmenli, Zilicun, Jinjiangli, and Majianglong village cluster.

My partner and I took a day trip to Kaiping from Guangzhou, visiting Zilicun, Liyuan Garden, Majianglong, and Jinjiangli. Li Garden is not a designated World Heritage Site, but was nearby. Our first stop was Zili Village, or Zilicun.

With nine towers, Zilicun has the largest number of diaolou among the four Kaiping villages designated by UNESCO. The drive to Zilicun was surreal. We could see dozens of diaolou rising from the countryside in the distance from the highway, but we were not allowed to get a closer look at any of them, and didn’t have time to stop for roadside photos.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zili Village

Like most tourist spots in China, there’s a long walk from the parking and ticket areas to the village, which is mostly interconnected and tightly packed low-rise buildings with reinforced windows and doors with bars. They were built this way as a defense against attacks.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Reinforced Door
Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Door and molding details

From a distance the buildings looked fairly drab. On closer examination many of the roof edges have moldings and painted bas-reliefs of flowers, birds, and mythological creatures. Many of the doors have paintings and Chinese writing above them.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zili Village - Village resident sitting against a wall

We passed this lady taking a break from morning chores outside her house.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Diaolou at back of village

We had almost walked the entire length of Zili Village before seeing any of the diaolou, three of which rose up over the large pond at the edge of the village. We were surprised to find that most of Zilicun’s diaolou are actually scattered throughout the rice paddies behind the village.

Some of the diaolou look like more traditional watchtowers, while others look more like fortified residences.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Diaolou in the rice fields

The towers somehow managed to stand out from, and at the same time blend harmoniously with the countryside.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Yunhuan Lou Residential Tower

Yunhuan Lou is a residential tower built in 1921 by Fang Wenchen who earned his fortune in Malaysia. One of it’s defenses was a water cannon.

Unfortunately it was not open during our visit.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Watchtower next-door to a residential diaolou

Yunhuan Lou’s closest neighbor is a three story watchtower with small shuttered windows.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Two Diaolou in the fields behind village
Ju’an Lou and Anlu Villa were built so close together that they share the same foundation. We assumed they were probably built by members of the same clan.
Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Two Diaolou in the fields behind village

Photo by Kathryn Foster

Ju’an Lou is a traditional watchtower with Western design elements, while Anlu Villa looks more like an early 20th Century apartment block from the west.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Two Diaolou in the fields behind village

We ran into this lady in the back of the two towers picking wild herbs near the irrigation trench running between fields.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Two Diaolou in the fields behind village

Looking back towards Zilicun, at one of the towers watching over the fields.

Sitting room on upper floor of The Mingshilou Tower

Only two of the towers were on open during our visit. Before heading back to the village, we explored Mingshi Lou (above), a five story residential diaolou which was built by Runwen Fang in 1925 after his return from Chicago, in the United States. In addition to the main building, there is a kitchen building on the other side of the courtyard. It has a veranda with ionic columns on the 5th floor, four towers known as swallow nests, and a hexagonal pavilion on it’s roof. Mingshi Lou appeared in the 2010 Chow Yun-Fat film Let the Bullets Fly.

Mingshilou Tower entry room

With most of the original furniture, family portraits, foreign newspapers and magazines, and other common items, Mingshi Lou is a mini museum chronicling the lives of overseas Chinese who had returned home in the early 20th Century.

Sitting room on upper floor of The Mingshilou Tower
The Mingshilou Tower Family Shrine

A phonograph sits in a corner of a sitting room with Western and Chinese furniture on one of the upper floors. As with most diaolou, the family shrine is on the top floor.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village

The rooftop terrace of Mingshi Lou offered great views of Zili Village, the diaolou in the fields behind the village, and the surrounding countryside. This was taken from one of the swallows nests.

View from the rooftop terrace of Mingshi Lou

Looking down at two other diaolou from Mingshi Lou

Looking over Zili Village from Mingshi Lou

The view of Zili Village from Mingshi Lou.

Kaiping Diaolou | Zilicun Village - Chinese ladies posing and taking photos of each other outside a diaolou

We lucked out and beat the tour bus crowds who were taking selfies and photos of diaolou and each other around the pond.

Next stop… Liyuan Garden.

Some of the information in this post was referenced from Wikipedia, CNN Travel, Travel China Guide and other sources.

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Snow Day in Beijing

Snow Day in Beijing

Winters in Beijing are cold and dry. Snow is rare, and it usually doesn’t stick. We can count the number of times it has snowed the past three years on one hand. This year it has already snowed twice before the official start of winter.

We were flying to Taipei the first time it snowed in late November, but this time we were home. After waking up to snow on the ground, and watching it snow off and on for hours I grabbed the camera, and took the subway down to Tiananmen Square and the area around the Forbidden City.

Walking down one of the side streets outside of our compound to the subway station.

The snow picks up on the way to the subway station near the corner of Jianguomen and Dongdaqiao.

I chose the wrong security checkpoint line and it took almost 15 minutes to get into Tiananmen Square. By this time it had stopped snowing. Most of the people I encountered at Tiananmen Square were tourists from out of town, and the usual security and military personnel. There were additional cleaning crews to remove the snow.

After a few minutes of walking around and posing for pictures with Chinese tourists from provences that don’t see a lot of foreigners, the snow picked up again.

Tourists flock to the front of the square to get the best photos of the Forbidden City and the color guard protecting the Chinese flag.

The color guard protecting the Chinese flag on the Square facing away from Mao’s portrait on the Forbidden City.

Beijing policeman walking the sidewalk outside the barrier that surrounds Tiananmen Square.

I walked the subway under Jianguomen to the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which is the south entrance to the Forbidden City. Tourists took selfies and photos before entering.

 Two guards with policemen leaving the security area at one the bridges to the Gate of Heavenly Peace.

While taking the photo of this guard and the portrait of Mao, I noticed he was looking at me from the corner of his eye.

Just east of the main entrance to the Forbidden City is an entrance to the Imperial Ancestral Temple, now known as the Working People’s Cultural Palace. It is a smaller scale replica of the Imperial Palace that was used to honor the ancestors during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. 

The layout of the Imperial Ancestral Temple is identical to that of the Forbidden City. It has been called a smaller scale replica of the Imperial palace.

While Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City’s Gate of Heavenly Peace were filled with people from out of town, the Working People’s Cultural Palace was filled with local Beijingers.

The Bridges leading to the Halberd Gate of Imperial Ancestral Temple. 

Locals were taking photos and playing in the snow. I was surprised how many photographers were out. I tried to cut them out of my photos as much as possible. One young family was engaged in a snowball fight.

Several young women were posing for photos in Imperial era costumes. I don’t know if these were hastily arranged to take advantage of the snow or if they were regularly scheduled shoots. The woman in the photo on the Bottom is balancing on clogs at the center of her feet. 

The Imperial Ancestral Temple houses the Taimiao Art Museum of Imperial Ancestral Temple Beijing, which is one of the sites for Anish Kapoor’s solo exhibition in Beijing. We first saw the show the prior evening. I stepped in to get another look.

Kapoor’s mirrored steel works S-Curve (2006) and C-Curve (2007), Stave (2013), Non-Object (Spire) (2008) and Non-Object (Door) (2008) were on display in the central atrium.

The 600 year old Imperial Ancestral Temple is the probably the best preserved historical site I’ve seen in China. The highly detailed wall and ceiling paint create a more unique experience than the usual white walled gallery spaces, or outdoor settings, when viewing the distortions and reflections of the scultures.

When approaching the C-Curve (above) from the front reflections are inverted until one gets closer to the sculpture, when they shift to right side up. There is no such distortion when approaching from the rear.

The reflections of the S Curve can feel even more disorienting, as the view changes depending on if approaching from the left, (upside down), or the right (rightside up).

Kapoor’s mirrored steel scultures are part funhouse mirror and part portal to another world. The Temple environment adds to this impression.

 

Back outside, I headed for the back gate, passing more locals taking photos of each other and the Imperial structures in the snow.

These two young women were taking selfies with a snow bunny that had been built, with a crude snow man on a bench facing the moat near the East Glorious Gate of the Forbidden City.

I ended the morning with a quick walk up to the east corner tower. There were about a dozen other people taking photos with smart phones and DSLRs.

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Desperately Seeking Geishas

Desperately Seeking Geishas

Gion is a famous entertainment and geisha district in Kyoto that is filled with restaurants shops and teahouses, where geisha (called geiko) and maiko (apprentice geisha) perform.

Most tourists looking to spot geisha head to Hanami-koji Street. The street and side alleys are lined with traditional wooden machiya houses, which are now mostly restaurants with a number of teahouses, known as ochaya, mixed in. Ochaya feature some of the most exclusive (and expensive) dining in Kyoto, and guests are entertained by maiko and geiko.

We arrived at Hanami-koji Street just after 7:30 PM and met a friend at the highly recommended local bar Finlandia. After a couple of drinks we strolled through the alleys surrounding Hanami-koji looking for geisha, but gave up after twenty minutes to go to dinner on the other side of the Kamo river in Ponto-chō. Hours later, we parted ways with the friend, and were back on Shijo Avenue debating whether or not to go back to the hotel, or head back to Gion to see if we could see any geisha before calling it a night.

We were on the bridge back to Gion when I spotted a geisha walking towards us. I quickly pointed her out to K. Locals laughed as we pursued her back to Ponto-chō taking photos. It was like chasing a ghost as she disappeared into one of the buildings. I still can’t believe how fast she moved walking on three or four inch high wooden clogs.

There was no stopping us now. By this time it was just after 10 PM, and with the exception of a few locals going about their business, Hanami-koji Street was empty. For the first 20 or so minutes we caught glimpses of geishas in the distance on their way from one tea house to another. 

We settled on a spot across the street from a tea house on Hanami-koji after watching a Geisha get into the back of a cab that had pulled up in front. We stood a few feet off the street in one of the alleys and waited.

From that point on Hanami-koji came to life with geiko and meiko walking from one performance to the next, getting into or out of cabs, or socializing on the street.

At one point we were in the perfect position to see into the entrance of the tea house as the Okasan and another woman escorted a client out. The woman in the white kimono was clearly not happy. We got a quick glimpse of two kneeling geishas as the Okosan and the other women went back inside. Something was clearly wrong.

The client rode off in a cab, and a few minutes later one of the geishas walked the okasan to her car. She bowed, and as the car drove off started to cry. She noticed us across the street taking photos, turned her back to us and quickly composed herself before heading back inside.

At some point two guys walked up to us in our spot with cameras. One looks at us, turns to other and says “This is spot I was telling you about…” We all laughed, and they head off.

A little later, we followed a pair of geishas to the end of the street. An old woman approached us, pointed to an alley and said “Maiko!” We go to the alley and there are two apprentice geisha chatting. We take more pictures, and a few minutes later they went their separate ways. It was well past midnight so we left too.

76 Departments of the Afterlife

76 Departments of the Afterlife

Dōngyuè Temple is a 14th century Taoist temple in Beijing’s Central Business District. From the outside this hidden gem looks like most other small temples in China, but passing through its gates takes one on a tour of the Taoist afterlife.

Dōngyuè Temple is one of the largest Taoist temples in northern China. It is dedicated to the God of the Eastern Peak, Mount Tai, the holiest of the Five Sacred Mountains of China.

The main halls and the main gate were completed in1322. The temple was expanded and rebuilt twice during the Qing dynasty.

The memorial archway opposite the temple, across Chaowai Street, seen through the main gate. It was built in 1602. Another gate between the temple and the archway was dismantled in 1988 when Chaowai street was widened.

Guardian deities greet you when entering the main gate, called the Zhandai (or Dragon Tiger) Gate. Ten imperial guards of Mt. Tai sit in a side room on the other side.

Monks walking the raised pathway named “Happiness Road” that extends through the courtyard.

There are two pavilions on both sides of the path, with memorial stele for Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty.

90 stele with Chinese calligraphy from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties are distributed between both sides of Happiness Road. Many sit on the backs of stone turtles gods. There were originally 140.

Happiness Road ends at Daiyuedian Hall, also known as Mount Tai Palace. Two little towers which hold what appears to be ash, branch off both sides of the path, just before the hall.

Daiyuedian & Yude Halls

I couldn’t get photos inside Daiyuedian Hall, but got several shots in the back rooms known as the living palace called “Yu De”, or Yude Hall.

The Hall was originally dedicated to the statues of God and Goddess of Mount Tai, but now displays Jinsi Nanmu wooden sculptures of statues of the gods of heaven, earth, and water and other Taoist deities.

Departments of the Afterlife

What distinguishes Dōngyuè Temple from just about every other temple we’ve seen in China, are the cubicles on the east and west sides of the courtyard with plaster sculptures that represent the 76 departments of the afterlife, or hell, under the jurisdiction of the God of Mt. Tai. Some of my favorite departments are featured below.

Department of Accumulating Justifiable Wealth

Department of Halting Destruction of Living Beings
Not sure I would trust this guy with a knife.
Department of Opposing Obscene Acts

Department of Instant Rewards and Retribution

Urging Department

Punishment Department

Department of Earth Gods

Department for Demons and Monsters

Department of Forest Ghosts and Spirits
(The cover image is from the same department.)

Animal Department

Department of the Hell
Depending on what you read, there are 15 Departments of Hell. The actual Department of Hell is much more restrained than some of the others.

Recent History

Dōngyuè Temple was was completely gutted during the Cultural Revolution, with the contents burned or taken away to be destroyed. The temple reopened in late 1970s. All but five of the 50 statutes are replicas. The five older statues are originally from the Beijing Sanguanmiao (Three Officials Temple), which currently serves as government offices. They were moved to Dongyue Temple when the original statues couldn’t be found. The three courtyards and remaining buildings occupy only part of the original site. Dongyue Temple has hosted the Beijing Folk Customs Museum since 1997. The temple was restored in 2002.

Check out China’s memory manipulators, a 2016 article by Ian Johnson for the Guardian, for more background on Dongyue Temple, other cultural sites, and the recreation of Chinese history by the Communist Party. A fascinating read.

Information in the post about Dongyue Temple was referenced from Wikipedia and Travel China Guide.

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An American Expat in China

An American Expat in China

How does a middle aged graphic designer find himself living in Beijing, traveling China, Asia and the World?

Four years ago I was commuting daily to my web and graphic design job at a New York healthcare company in the Bronx. The commute was long and unpredictable, and the company’s recent move to the new corporate headquarters added an additional 15 – 20 minutes each way. While I generally liked the job I was looking for a change.

My iPhone was my only camera at the time. My photos (and videos) covered a range of subjects from daily life in New York City, weird or interesting stuff I came across (clouds, shadows, etc.), trips and the occasional food pic. Most of this ended up on Instagram and Facebook.

I originally got into photography as a visual arts student at Duke Ellington, School of the Arts in my hometown, Washington, DC. As with many photographers of a certain age, my first camera was the Pentax K1000. I learned to shoot black and white photos, learning to develop film and work with prints in the darkroom. I was always into comics and drawing, and eventually moved on to graphic design, but never stopped taking photos, eventually making the move to digital. The first digital camera I used was the Nikon E4500 flip camera that I occasionally borrowed from the job. Since then I have shot with an assortment of point and shoot cameras, the occasional DSLR, and every iPhone I’ve owned since the original, and now shoot photos with the Sony a6400.

My first trip outside of North American was to Japan, to visit the Nichiren Shoshu head temple Taiseki-ji with other members from Los Angeles’ Myohoji Temple for the 750th Anniversary of the Submission of the Rissho Ankoku-ron in 2009. I took a few extra days afterward to explore Tokyo. Before Japan the only country I’d been to outside of the United States was Canada for a day trip.

I traveled to Taiseki-ji two more times (2012, 2014), and Sado Island (2012) with members of New York’s Myosetsuji Temple. I hit Tokyo again, and Nikko and Kamakura in 2014.

In 2014 I went to Europe for the first time, celebrating Christmas with my Partner and her family in Copenhagen, and New Years with friends in the UK. We returned to Copenhagen the following year to ring in 2016.

A couple of weeks into the new year, I was on my way to work, when I get a text from my partner asking how much I liked Chinese food. I called her back and she told me that we were going to China for her job. Nine months later we were living in Beijing.

Beijing is a study in contrasts. The city is more vibrant and modern than I thought it would be, with so much landmark architecture, but it’s also the Communist era buildings and apartment blocks, and the hutongs.

I’ve seen more Teslas, Mercedes, Porsches, and other luxury and exotic cars in Beijing than in New York, Los Angeles and London combined. They share the roads with electric motorcycles that I’ve not seen anywhere else, countless e-bikes, bicycles, and ‘old school’ carts (tricycles) pedaled by foot.

It’s still news in the West when ApplePay or Android Pay are available in new cities. Meanwhile in Beijing (and the rest of China) a billion people are using WeChat and Alipay to pay for everything with their phone. Even street vendors and panhandlers have a QR code to accept cash on their mobile phones. I’ve met expats of all ages who have been here for years. Some have been here decades. I was speaking to a gentleman at one of the charity balls last year who said he had lived here for fifteen years, and how much he loved the frenetic energy and how the city was constantly changing. This vibrancy is not just in Beijing, but in cities all over China, and other countries in Asia. I can definitely see how people come here and want to stay.

Since moving to this side of the world, my partner and I have explored Beijing, China, and several other Asian countries. We have also visited several more countries in Europe, and I have circumnavigated the world at least twice since 2016. Not too bad for a guy whose first trip overseas was a little over ten years ago.

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