Going down a few kilometers underground isn’t something new in places like South Africa and Australia; but these are all about mining.

When fierce competition between cities about the tallest buildings, highest hotels is what we’re focus on these days, real estate developers in Shanghai is doing the opposite now-they’re planning to build the lowest hotel. Read more about it here and some updates here.

Okay friends, this is my first post in 2007 here and initially I just wanted to post a few words in my personal blog which is hosted in Xanga, but who in the world knows that the editor in Xanga is not loading at all; it’s probably of the slow internet here.

There is not much visitors to this blog nor has it become too popular; largely because the topic I’m covering is not a hot one, and because I don’t post here regularly, moreover, I’m hanging around at Flickr.com after I got my camera these few months (See my photojournal on your right hand side). I love to blog what I’m blogging about, and probably won’t change my idea to blog something else in favour for more visitors and a few more bucks from the ads. I checked my Google Analytics account daily and there’s one regular visitor from Beijing. Who are you? If you see this, post a comment here and let me know!

Talking about the ads, I’ve got some good news for all of you. My account balance at Google Adsense has reached up to US$50 and they’re now sending me something called PIN which will arrive within a few weeks. If you have visit my blog recently, you’ll notice a Sponsored Post about hotelreservations.com and it has been approved! I’m also waiting for the cheque to arrive.

Things are a bit messy here in this blog; the design isn’t perfect and I’m still looking for solutions to make it look simple with easy navigation. Any CSS/XHTML gurus out here would like to help me? Let’s forget it, I’m still too poor too afford a designer… …

After months figuring out why Ryan’s Croissanga pluing isn’t working on my site, I’ve installed the Xanga Crossposting Plugin from Tan Tan Noodles and hope it’ll work. For users who are interested, please note some of you might experience error messages like “Error:Invalid username and password” when you activate it in the options panel. In this case, get the patch at Jason Robert’s page. Ryan Lee’s website is no longer working. What a sad thing that such a great blogger has left the blogsphere, anyone knows where he moved?

Finally, I’ll be meeting an uncle I knew when I was still a little child this week. I’ve got lots of things to discuss with him, and I’m very nervous now. Calm me down by giving me an eprop or a comment .

Cheerio!

This is the first article in this blog that features buildings that really disappeared forever, and in our last article, we featured architect Chen Kun Pei (陈昆培), and briefly about his life. Most of his buildings are quite well-known in Macau, so let’s talk about some that have gone.

Nam King Theatre
The theatre was set up in Tarrefeiro Market in the 30s. Renovated as the Worker’s Entertainment House and Theatre later. It has been shut down for a couple of years, and when I went to see it in August 2006, it was torn down to give way to some other buildings.

Imperio Theatre (1953-1982)
Originally called Teatro Broadway. Was shut down on 1^st June 1982 and a residential compound was rebuilt on the site and is also known as “The Broadway Centre”.

Cedade de Ouro Theatre
An Oriental theatre without much description even in the archives… …

Taipa Theatre (1965-1975)
Situated at Largo do Camoes. The theatre had 760 seats and inaugurated by Barros, the director of the Administration Bureau of the Islands. Its owner were Leung Gung Fu and Yeung Hin. It was closed down in 1975 and the land was sold to somebody else. Some years ago, according to the archives, the building is used as a warehouse for construction Materials. I was not able to visit the site myself due to the limited time during my visit, and shall anyone sees it, please contact me. Thanks.

Miscellaneous……
The cinema below has not disppeared yet; instead it’s one of the protected Monuments! It’s Kuok Wah Theatre.
Established in 1931 and located at Rua de S. Domingos, with a total of 837 seats; it was at first a joint venture between Chinese and Portuguese capitals and excelled its kind in comfort and sound equipment. It’s inauguration was held on 13^th April 1931. The first movie showed was the Love Parade (爱的巡礼). It suspended it sbusiness between the end of July and the middle of September due to discrepancy in the opinion of shareholders. It showed mostly Mandarin Chinese films produced by the Shaw’s and first run Cantonese and Western films in the 60s.

It ceased its business from 1^st August 1987 and was converted into a shopping mall, keeping the outlook of a thwatre. The mini cinema installed on the top floor was reopened in 1991 but shut down on 1^st September 1997 until now. It was the only cinema building listed on the cultural heritage preservation scheme, due to its representative outlook of the cinema in the 20s.

The information provided in this article is based according to the archives in Central Library.

If one day a man who claimed he’s from Macau is is very familiar with all the town’s street names, then he might not be a local citizen but an expatriate who settled in Macau for some while.

Strange as it is, a local usually never knows the street he has been living for a couple of decades so not to mention the names of architects who created the look of their places.

Architect Chen Kun Pei (陈昆培), is perhaps one of those forgotten figures; in fact he built some of the most famous buildings in Macau including the Post Office (1929), the Reading Room(1926), the headquarter of BCM on San Ma Lou, and the Fire Station on Estrata the Coelho do Amaral (1923), to name a few.

It really took me some time to research on Chen, and finally, after spending hours in the Archive Room in Central Library in Macau, and with the help of the friendly librarian Lius Crisostomo Lopes, I got only a passage on a thick directory that mentioned very little about his life and of course, his works.

Born in Macau in 1896, he studied in Seminario de S. Jose at a very young age where he mastered both Chinese and Portuguese. He worked in Silva’s office, a famed local architect that time soon after he graduated.

He successfully enrolled into the Governemtn’s Urban Planning Section in 1934, being the first Chinese to hold such an important position in the then colony.

He participated and managed a lot of projects, and made significant contribution to development in Macau’s architecture in the 30 years he served in that position.

He retired from that position in 1948 and founded his own firm located in No 37 on Travessa dos ANJOS¹ and built a number of public buildings, most of which are theatres and cinemas.

He has 19 children and retired from his profession after mid 60s and passed away on 28^th June, 1986 in Kang Wu Hospital.

Exhibitions, workshops and celebrations were held to commemorate his 100^th birthday in the end of 1996, and now I hope we can write something here to commemorate his 100^th birthday before the end of 2006 approaches.

¹ This place is seriously damaged when I visit it in 2006.↑

The post below is proudly sponsored by Reviewme.com and HotelReservations.com

I’m not planning to travel these coming months until next June to mark my 21st Birthday; but anyway, it’d be lovely to do some homework and research this time; last minute is always not a good thing—and I did had terrible experiences from not planning my trip well. Moreover, this blog lacks some topics on travel and leisure.

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I’m planning to take a break in Vienna, and the total package, including round trip tickets departing from Shanghai (British Airways), a stay in Falkensteiner Hotel Palace for a week with breakfast included costs US$2332.88. All I need to pay is lunch and dinner, some concert tickets and transport within the city. Sounds reasonable? In fact, if you don’t stay in Falkensteiner, you can also stay in some other 2-star hotels in which the package starts from US$1400+

I don’t know how to drive, otherwise, I will also include a car in my package, but anyway, I’ll see if anyone’s going to join me, if so, we can get a car from Avis at the hotel reception. That’s the same; isn’t it? No, they don’t offer discounts if not booked in advance……Bon Voyage!

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