Thursday, July 10, 2014

Golden Palace X Camellia japonica: Phoenix Hill 金殿。茶花。鳳鳴山

Golden Palace 太和宮金殿

it’s not actually gold, per say

250 tonnes of bronze

to mold the temple, statue and all

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

simply amazing

the detailed crafting

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

so are the marble and stone carvings

surrounding the “Golden” palace

i02000

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

at the garden

they built a miniature version

bearing resemblance to the one in

Royal Summer Place 頤和園, Beijing 

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

well.. and this whole project was actually

initiated by a general who

held great power in YunNan

 

(FYI, YunNan is a province,

KunMing is the capital city,

and today it still is )

 

General Wu-San-Gui 吳三桂

his CV was kinda mixed between

the good and bad

(majority of the historical figures,

who isn’t so?)

 

because he was a general of

previous empire, Ming dynasty

and he actually opened the defense gate

for the Manchurian army to enter

simply because

 

the Ming Emperor

robbed him off his favourite girl

Chen Yuan Yuan 陳圓圓

ya.. sounds familar? huh?

Mrs. Mark Chao a.k.a. Gao Yuan Yuan?

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

it isn’t exactly a bad thing

well yes he is not loyal to the Ming boss

but yet the Ming was doing really bad

 

and after decades

when the Qing Dynasty grew stably

and General Wu was honoured with

the title of a Royal General

and got

some self-governing ruling power for

YunNan as a province

 

KunMing prospered and

the development of Phoenix Hill

with these really grand setup

on par with the Royal palaces

back in Beijing

attracted too much of attention

 

which was one of the factor which

ignited the tension between

him mini empire here in YunNan and

the central government back in Beijing

 

which ultimately

led to a civil war and

destruction of this

Wu-San-Gui Mini Empire

 

Camellia japonica 茶花

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

and I managed to meet some sakura

up-closed too

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

this place is real awesome

more details to look into

next post, please

I gonna be running late for work

 

till then

have a good Thursday,

Steph

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

no I have changed my mind

there isn’t that much to

blog a separate post

so.. here you go

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

by the way

at the top of the hill

you can actually take a cable car to

the Flower Expo Garden next door

which I didn’t

昆明。鳳鳴山。太和宮金殿 KunMing Golden Palace

 

caught a bus back to the city

too tired from the hiking I guess

i02146