Taipei Night Market

Night Market in Taiwan are street markets in Taiwan that operate in urban or suburban areas. They are similar to those in areas inhabited by ethnic chinese, such as Southeast Asia. A few such as Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market (or Snake Alley) utilize purpose-built marketplaces but most occupy either sidewalks (pavements) adjacent to streets or entire streets that are normal thoroughfares by day. Some night markets in smaller side streets or lanes feature retractable roofs. Most of the markets operate daily and feature a mixture of individual stalls hawking clothing, consumer goods, xiaochi and specialty drinks. The atmosphere is usually crowded and noisy with hawkers shouting and fast-paced music playing over loudspeakers.

Miramar Ferris Wheel, Taipei

The Miramar Entertainment Park is a new-age shopping and entertainment complex built with the idea of offering enough consumption and entertainment options to keep visitors occupied for a full-day stay. The most striking feature of this park, which was opened only at the end of 2004, is a 95-meter-high, 70-meter-in-diameter Ferris wheel that light up at night to add a strong touch of romance to the Taipei skyline.

Only One Mother

Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky,

Hundreds of shells on the shore together,

Hundreds of birds that go singing by,

Hundreds of lambs in the sunny weather.

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,

Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,

Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,

But only one mother the world wide over.

Gullfoss, Iceland

Gullfoss is a waterfall located in the canyon of Hvita river in southwest Iceland. This wild and wide waterfall tumbling on the Hvítá River in two tiers at 90 degree angles to each other is one of Iceland's iconic natural attractions.

World Tallest Woman

YAO DEFEN

She is the tallest woman in the world, with 7 ft 8 inches (233 cm) and weighs around 440lbs. the reason of her being giant is due to the tumor in pituitary gland.

SANDY ALLEN

This lady is 7fr 71/4 inches tall and around 232 cm. she was the tallest woman of the world till 2008, and when she died she was 7 feet 71/4 inches tall.

MALGORZATA DYDEK

She is 7 feet 2 inches tall (218 cm) and a basket ball player in US.

ZAINAB BIBI

This lady is 7ft 2 inches which makes her around 218 cm. she is recently allowed to stay permanently in Birtain because she says that her height has made her a target at home(Pakistan).

CAROLINE WELZ

She is 6 feet 9 inches tall, and she is Germany’s tallest woman.

Weird Man Reclaims World's Tallest Record

China's Bao Xishun reclaimed the title of the world's tallest man(Really Weird) after Leonid Stadnik of Ukraine refused to be measured under new guidelines from Guinness World Records. This Weird Bao is 7 feet, 8.95 inches. 

700-Pound Weird Man Enjoys Rare Outing

A 700-pound weird man who was once considered the world's most obese person left his home Sunday for a trip to the shore of a lake near his home in northern Mexico. It was the first time 43-year- weird Manuel Uribe, shown with girlfriend Claudia Solis, had left his house in five months.

Magic Kingdom Park Walt Disney

The Magic Kingdom is the heart of Walt Disney World, where costumed Disney characters roam the streets and Space Mountain rules the rides. Cinderella’s Castle, based on the turreted German castle Neuschwanstein, is a guaranteed favorite with little ones.You will find wonder, fantasy and pixie dust everywhere around the magic kingdom park. The seven enchanted lands lead the young and young hearts on a journey of fun, excitement and fantasy. Despite of whatever park you visit, the Magic Kingdom Park is the spot where the storybook dreams become a reality.

The Crystal Cathedral

The Crystal Cathedral is neither made of crystal nor is it a cathedral. Nevertheless, the Christian megachurch in the city of Garden Grove, California, is one amazing church.
Built by "The Hour of Power" televangelist Rev. Dr. Robert H. Schuller (who started out with a "drive-in" church located in an actual, old drive-in movie theater!) and his wife Arvella, and designed by architect Philip Johnson, the church is made almost entirely out glass with a web-like framework of steel.
From the outside, the Crystal Cathedral is shaped like a giant four-pointed crystal star, with the main "cathedral" rising 12 stories above the ground, featuring a mirror-like exterior composed of some 12,000 panes of glass. The view is even more amazing from the interior, where the transparent glass lets in the surrounding view, sunlight and the sky.
The Crystal Cathedral also has one of the largest pipe organs in the world, called the Hazel Wright Pipe Organ, with 5 consoles controlling 270 ranks, 31 digital ranks, and more than 16,000 pipes!

Hallgrimskirkja

A Lutheran parish church, Hallgrimskirkja is named after the Icelandic poet and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614-74), author of the beloved Passíusálmar("Hymns of the Passion") and other works. He was one of the most influential pastors during the Age of Orthodoxy and wrote many important Lutheran hymns.

The modern Nordic design of Hallgrimskirkja is the work of state architectGuðjón Samúelsson, who also designed Reykjavik's Landakotskirkja and the Akureyrarkirkju in Akureyri. The church took 38 years to build (1945-86), the tower being completed long before the church's actual completion.

Rising 74.5 m (244 ft), Hallgrimskirkja is the tallest building in Iceland. It is situated in the city center and has become one of Reykjavík's best known symbols. The church has a stylized concrete exterior inspired by the distinctive basalt formations found throughout Iceland.

Hallgrimskirkja's interior is more traditional, but its modern-meets-Gothic lines are still reminiscent of ice formations and the smooth vault reminds one of an ice cave. There is little decoration, in line with Lutheran tradition. The most famous feature of the interior is the huge organ built in Germany in 1992, boasting a 50-foot-tall case and 5,275 pipes.

The bell tower, accessible via an elevator, provides the best views in the city. The three bells in the tower represent Hallgrímur, his wife, and their daughter who died young.

The statue in front of the church is of Leif Eríkson, an Icelandic/Norwegian explorer and the first European thought to have landed in North America. The monument was a gift from the United States for the 1930 Althing Millennial Festival, which marked the 1000th anniversary of Iceland's parliament.

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia, or Catalan for "The Holy Family", is a yet-to-be-finished Roman Catholic basilica in Barcelona, Spain.

The church’s design is rich with Christian symbolism, with façades featuring intricate details describing the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the most awe inspiring is the eighteen towers representing the 12 Apostles, 4 Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and a central tower – the tallest of them all – representing Christ.

The construction of the Sagrada Familia basilica started in 1882, directed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who devoted his life to it. When people said that the construction had taken a very long time, Gaudí replied that he was building the church for God, and that his client wasn’t in a hurry. He then became known as "God’s Architect."

In 1926, Gaudí got run over by a street car. Because of his raggedy attire and empty pockets, no one wanted to take him to the hospital. Eventually, he was taken to a pauper’s hospital where no one recognized him until his friends found him and tried to move him to another hospital. Gaudí refused, saying that he belonged with the poor, and died a few days later.

Because Gaudí refused to work with blue prints, preferring to use his imagination and memory instead, construction of La Sagrada Familia was halted after his death. Part of the church was even burnt during the 

Spanish Civil War. Construction of La Sagrada Familia was restarted afterwards and continues until today.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe ( June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962 ) born Norma Jeane Mortenson, was an American actress, singer and model. Marilyn died in her Los Angeles home at age 36, the circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a ''probable suicide'', the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as the possibility of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the years and decades following her death, Monroe has often been cited as a pop and cultural icon as well as an eminent American sex symbol.

The Faces Of Sabah 'Kaamatan' Harvest Festival

Kaamatan festival known as Tadau Kaamatan by the local is the main event in the Sabah festival calendar. Kaamatan festival is a manifestation of Creator and Creation relationship, as well as inter-creations relationship. It embodies the principal acts of invocation of divinities, appeasing, purification and restoration, re-union of benevolent spirits, and thanksgiving to the Source of All. It is part of a complex wholesome Momolian religious system centered on the paddy rites of passage and the life cycle of Bambarayon - the in-dwelling spirit of paddy.

Kaamatan festival apex was celebrated at the Unity Hall known as Hongkod Koisaan where the priestess familiar with the spirits of the pagan native perform a ritual called 'magavau' to nurse the spirit of the grain back to health in readiness to plant again for the coming season. People from every ethnic across the state of Sabah come to the Unity Hall to celebrate the season of harvesting, showing off their cultural roots and attend the local beauty pageant Unduk Ngadau. Photographers came from all around the state and nation to capture the local beauty with their local traditional costume. It is not usual to see the local wearing the traditional costume unless for special events or traditional function.

Kaamatan festival is full with local wearing a colorful traditional costume from every different ethnic in Sabah. Kadazan and Dusun celebrate their annual harvest festival joined by other ethnic such as the Bajau, Murut, Rungus and lots more. Each of the ethnic was given chances to present their own traditional cultural life for the local and tourist to see. Many took this chance getting to know more about the life and the culture of the natives. I took this opportunity to photographing the rare chances portraits where the locals once in a year wearing their beautiful traditional costume.

Strings Attached

A Guinness World Records holder Yang Xiangdong drives a car through 60-meter steel tightrope at the Yanxi Lake in Beijing.

Songjiang Hotel - Paradise Set In The Deep Quarry

The future of swimming and sunning luxuries of the rich and famous, a Waterworld-concept swimming pool and hotel that would be craved directly in a quarry mine in Songjiang, China. The hotel plans to build luxury rooms beneath the water level and incorporate a huge waterfall, extreme sports recreation center and an underwater restaurant and specialty cafes.

Songjiang hotel is a jaw dropping highly innovative design of a 400-bed, five-star resort hotel set in a lush deep, water-filled quarry in the Songjiang district of China (close to Shanghai). This impressive concept conceived by Bristol based Atkins Design Studio, was inspired by the natural water and landscape features of the quarry it is to be set in.

The structure’s foundation would be laid into the 100 metre deep quarry and sprout out two levels higher than the rock face of the quarry. This would enable it afford several underwater public areas, restaurants and guestrooms facing a ten-metre deep aquarium, that would present an enviable aquatic design theme both visually and functionally.

Whilst the hotel’s lowest level will contain a leisure complex with a swimming pool and water-based sports facilities, the highest level over the quarry accessible by special lifts from the water level would be a venue of an extreme sports centre for activities such as rock climbing and bungee jumping. Other facilities would include a conference hall to accommodate up to 1,000 people, restaurants, cafés, sports facilities & a banqueting centre.

Devil's Pool, Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River betweem the country of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Falls are the largest in the world. There is a place where one can swim called the Devil's Pool but only during the months of September to December when water levels are comparatively low. This claim is based on a width of 1,708 metres and height of 108 metres, forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world.

Suoi Tien Cultural Theme Park

The World's First Buddhist Waterslide Park

Suoi Tien Cultural Theme Park is a Vietnamese water-filled fantasy land, located rather unromantically next to a rubbish dump 15 kilometres South of Ho Chi Minh City. Suoi Tien, or "the fairy stream," is the world's first water park devoted to Buddhism, specifically the Southeast Asian animistic form of Buddhism. The animism works well for the theme park; instead of Mickey and Daffy, Suoi Tien has chosen the Dragon, Unicorn, Tortoise, and Phoenix as its sacred animals, used thematically throughout the massive water park. Furthermore, workers in golden monkey outfits roam the park taking pictures with visitors and causing "mischief."

The park focuses on Vietnamese history, folklore, and of course on the Buddha himself. Among the parks many features are an oversized golden dragon whose mouth contains a neon haloed shrine to Buddha, avenues lined with pillars in the shape of giant elephant tusks, a swimming pool surrounded by a massive concrete facade of dragons and a giant rotating frog sculpture at the entrance. Particularly delightful are the twelve story face's of the Buddhist sages - with water slides emerging from their beards.