Mexico - Pátzcuaro - Dance of the Little Old Men

La Danza de los Viejitos (Dance of the Little Old Men) in Pátzcuaro, Mexico.

Sent by Denisse from Michoacán México.

The Danza de los viejitos (Spanish: Dance of the little old men) is a traditional folk dance in Michoacán, Mexico.

The Danza de los Viejitos is said have begun as a dance in the Mexican State of Michoacán in the Purépecha Region. The men that perform this dance are known as Danzantes or "Dancers." This dance was performed by four men that represent fire, water, earth, and air. Four dancers are also believed to be the correct number to dance in this traditional performance because there are four colors that make corn which is red, yellow, white, and blue. The dancers ask El Dios Viejo (The Old God) for good harvest, communication with spirits, and to learn about the past or to predict the future.

A Danzante wears a top and bottom made out of a white blanket. It is topped with a "sarape," which is a blanket worn as a cloak in Latin America. Each sarape contains different designs and colors. They wear a hat made out of straw with adorned lengthy pieces of ribbon, each one a different color. The ribbon is parted down the middle of the hat, each one hanging 10 cm on the sides. Their shoes are sandals that have a wooden sole in order to make a tapping noise throughout their dance, followed by a wooden cane they also use. The dancers also wear a mask made out of either wood, cornstalk paste, or clay with an elderly man's face painted on it (read more).

China - Beijing - Hutong People

Hutong People in Beijing.

Sent by Ying Huang from Beijing, China.

Few cities can match Beijing for big-hitting historical sites. From the Forbidden City to the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and the incomparable Great Wall, there’s a richness of culture to be found in China’s capital that’s hard to beat. But beyond the main attractions, it’s the Beijing hutong (胡同), the city’s ancient residential alleyways, that leave the deepest impression. 

These grey-brick, tree-shaded small streets are where local life unfolds: a game of xiangqi (Chinese chess) drawing a crowd; songbirds in cages; fruit-sellers and scrap collectors; a cleaver-sharpener doing the rounds. These residential areas are where you’ll find an older generation living their lives in traditional dwellings, removed from the breakneck pace of change in the rest of the city.

More recently, multiple hutong have become homes to hip cafés, cocktail bars and boutique hotels, meaning there are even more alleyway gems for the curious traveller to discover (read more).

Taiwan - Sky Lantern at Shihfen

Sky Lantern at Shihfen, Pingsi District, New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Sent by Patricia from New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Shifen Sky Lantern Square is located in front of Shifen Tourist Center. It is a place used as parking lot during the day; however this place will turn into a popular spot for holding the Sky Lantern Festival during the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar every year. On this day, you will see over 100,000 sky lanterns rising into night sky during the events; it will be a magical and breathtaking sight that you will cherish forever.

Sky lantern” was invented during the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-265) by Zhuge Liang aka Kongming. In the beginning, the sky lantern was created to use for transmit military information. In 19th century the Lantern Festival tradition has brought to Taiwan, and ever since then starting from the spring of planting season, people would release “sky lanterns” into the air with their prayers for the coming year. The American Discovery Channel TV Program ranked "The Fantastic Festivals of the World" has highlighted the Taiwan Lantern Festival as one of the best festivals in the world. The sky lanterns are constructed from oiled rice paper on a bamboo made frame, and contain a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material. After lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, same concept of a hot air balloon which raises the lantern into the sky. People usually write their wishes on the sky lanterns because it is believed as the lantern fly into the sky; it is a way to pass on your wishes to gods above(read more).

Taiwan - Xia-Hai City God Temple

Xia-Hai City God Temple, Taipei.

The red thread circled around the incense to break bad luck and to bring fortune.

Sent by Patricia from New Taipei City, Taiwan.

The Taipei Xia-Hai City God Temple (Chinese: 大稻埕霞海城隍廟; lit. 'Dadaocheng Xia-Hai God Temple') is a temple dedicated to the City God or Cheng Huang Ye (城隍爺) in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Xia-Hai City God Temple was built in 1859, and maintained by a single family to the present day. The Ministry of the Interior designated the site an historical monument in 1985. It is located on Dihua Street in Dadaocheng, which is today part of Datong District in Taipei. The temple houses over six hundred deities in its 152 square meters of area, resulting in the highest statue density in Taiwan. Currently, due to the temple enshrining Yue Lao (God of Marriage and Love), it is one of the popular pilgrimage sites among believers in Taiwan who seek for relationships and marriage (read more).

Taiwan - Face Threading

Night Market, Taipei.

Face threading is the oldest facial purifying technique by using just one single cotton thread to transform all girls into superstars.

Sent by Patricia from New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Chinese facial threading is an ancient beauty practice--still very alive today--that makes your face smoother and brighter, using only a spool of thread and white powder. Most Taiwanese associate this cosmetic skill with their grandmothers' era and it is relatively simple, using just two staggered threads to remove extra hair on one's face, shaving/shaping eyebrows and exfoliation (read more).

Taiwan - Zhongli Tourist Night Market

Zhongli Tourist Night Market, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.

Sent by Patricia from New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Zhongli Tourist Night Market is located on Xinming Road in Zhongli District; it can be found at the intersection of Zhongyang West Road and Minquan Road, covering a distance of around 700m. The Zhongli Tourist Night Market is one of the top tourist night markets in Taoyuan. With many schools close by, the street is being used as a regular road during the day. Many school buses will pass by until approximately 17:00pm, where vendors being to setup their stalls. At this hour, this section of Xinming Road which is normally filled with cars becomes a hub for vendors and stalls. The market is formed with stalls on either side of the road, as well as stalls neatly lined-up in the middle of the road, attracting a large crowd. During weekends and holidays, the night market is completely packed with visitors, becoming even more fun as the night grows.

Zhongli Tourist Night Market is mainly set up on Xinming Road with three major product categories: lifestyle products, food and snacks, and fruits. Most of the stalls here are old and well established shops; they include all kinds of snacks, men and women’s clothing, hardware stores, daily items, ornaments and decorations, cold drinks and ices, anything ranging from food to toys can be found here. The first half of the night market is mainly clothing stores, convenience stores, and entertainment products from Korea and Hong Kong. The second half of the market is a food heaven where numerous well-known stalls offering local delicacies such as sweet potato balls, fried spareribs, mixed tofu-pudding, and hot and spicy stinky tofu are all gathered in one place. Other local snacks such as pork intestine noodle soup, fried pineapple shrimps, oyster pancakes, freshly cooked squid, and mini egg cakes are just as tasty as those from other night markets! (read more)

Taiwan - Longshan Temple

Longshan Temple, Taipei.

Two palms together, I wish all the peace for the families.

Sent by Patricia from New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Bangka Lungshan Temple (also Lungshan Temple of Manka, Mengjia Longshan Temple) is a Taiwanese folk temple in Wanhua District (alternately known as Bangka/Mengjia), Taipei, Taiwan. The temple was built in Taipei in 1738 by settlers from Fujian during Qing rule in honor of Guanyin. It served as a place of worship and a gathering place for the Chinese settlers. In addition to its Chinese Buddhist elements, it includes halls and altars to Chinese folk deities such as Mazu and Guan Yu.

This temple originated its name from the ancient Lungshan Temple established in Chin-chiang county of Fukien province in the seventh century. Immigrants from the three counties Chin-chiang, Nan-an and Hui-an of Fukien came to Manka in the beginning of the eighteenth century. As they were pious followers of that ancient Lungshan Temple in their home town, they erected this one as a branch temple at Manka and named it after the root temple when they created a new settlement here in Taipei. Lungshan Temple of today is no longer in the original buildings constructed in 1738. It was rebuilt in 1919 and completed in 1924 (read more).

USA - Texas - The Lost Mine Trail

CASA GRANDE FROM LOST MINE TRAIL

Big Bend National Park, Texas

The Lost Mine Trail starts at Panther Pass and skirts the slope of Casa Grande to the Juniper Canyon. Overlook the trail then continues to the top of Lost Mine Peak, with an elevation of 7,500 feet.

Sent by K. Jones from Colorado, USA.

From the very first step, the Lost Mine Trail leads hikers into a different world - a woodland-grassland ecosystem with some of the best scenic views in the park. Walk this trail and learn why so many park staff and visitors alike list it as their favorite hike in Big Bend National Park.

The Lost Mine Trail rises 1,100 feet over 2.4 miles (4.8 miles round-trip) and provides excellent views of the surrounding mountains and desert. The average time to complete this trail is around three hours, so take plenty of water and a snack (read more).

United Kingdom - England - Blackheath

Clouds over Blackheath village, London SE3.

Sent by Simon from Blackheath, England.

Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. Historically within the county of Kent, it is located 1-mile (1.6 km) northeast of Lewisham, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Greenwich and 6.4 miles (10.3 km) southeast of Charing Cross, the traditional centre of London.

The area southwest of its station and in its ward is named Lee Park. Its northern neighbourhood of Vanbrugh Park is also known as St John's Blackheath and despite forming a projection has amenities beyond its traditional reach named after the heath. To its west is the core public green area that is the heath and Greenwich Park, in which sit major London tourist attractions including the Greenwich Observatory and the Greenwich Prime Meridian. Blackheath railway station is south of the heath (read more).

Japan - Ishikawa Prefecture - 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art at Kanazawa

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

Sent by Makiko from Toyo, Japan.

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (金沢21世紀美術館, Kanazawa Nijūisseiki Bijutsukan) is a museum of contemporary art located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.

The museum was designed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the architectural office SANAA in 2004. In October 2005, one year after its opening, the Museum marked 1,570,000 visitors. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic it attracted only 971,256 visitors, a drop of 63 percent from 2019, but it still ranked tenth on the list of most-visited art museums in the world.

The Museum is located in the center of Kanazawa, near Kenroku-en garden and the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art. The building has a circular form, with a diameter of 112.5 metres. This shape aims to keep the appearance of the overall building volume low, to mitigate the scale of the project and allows access from multiple points of entry. The transparency of the building further manifests the wish to avoid the museum being perceived as a large, introverted mass (read more).

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Srebrenik

Srebrenik Fortress in Srebrenik, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sent by Lejla from Srebrenik, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Srebrenik (Serbian Cyrillic: Сребреник) is a city located in Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, near Tuzla. As of 2013, the city had a population of 39,678 inhabitants, while the urban centre itself had a population of 6,694.

The earliest historical record documenting Srebrenik is the edict of Stephen II to Ragusa signed on 15 February, 1333. According to documents from the same period, Srebrenik was under the administration of župa Usora. Srebrenik fortress, a medieval fortress dating back to at least 1333, is located on the Majevica mountain, providing an important strategic stronghold in the area.

In September 1363, king Louis I of Hungary sent an army to Bosnia, led by his palatine Nicholas Kont. This army suffered substantial losses of Hungarian soldiers and materials in Srebrenik. Among the lost materials was the royal seal, which was replaced afterwards (read more).

USA - Alaska - State Flag Song

ALASKA - THE MAGNIFICENT 49TH STATE

Sent by Erica from Alaska, USA.

The words to the song Alaska's Flag were written by Marie Drake, a long-time employee of the Alaska Department of Education, and set to music composed by Elinor Dusenbury, whose husband was commander of Chilkoot Barracks at Haines from 1933 to 1936. The Territorial Legislature adopted Alaska's Flag as Alaska's official song in 1955.

Eight stars of gold on a field of blue,
Alaska's flag, may it mean to you,
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes and the flowers nearby,
The gold of the early sourdough's dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams,
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The "Bear," the "Dipper," and shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
O'er land and sea a beacon bright,
Alaska's flag to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier (read more).

Tanzania - Zanzibar

Dhow at sunset - Zanzibar

Sent by Camille of Los Angeles from Zanzibar, Tanzania. Thank you very much. I have never expected of this.

Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre, Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.

Zanzibar is also a semi-autonomous region that united with Tanganyika in 1964, and formed the present-day United Republic of Tanzania. The archipelago's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. The main spices produced are clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, coconut, and black pepper. The Zanzibar Archipelago, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes referred to locally as the "Spice Islands". Tourism in Zanzibar is a more recent activity, driven by government promotion that caused an increase from 19,000 tourists in 1985, to 376,000 in 2016. The islands are accessible via five ports and the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, which can serve up to 1.5 million passengers per year.

Zanzibar's marine ecosystem plays a vital role in its fishing and algacultural industries, these ecosystems act as nurseries for Indian Ocean fish populations. Moreover, the land ecosystem is the home of the endemic Zanzibar red colobus, the Zanzibar servaline genet, and the extinct or rare Zanzibar leopard. Environmental pressure from the tourism and fishing industries, as well as larger threats such as sea level rise caused by climate change, are creating increasing environmental concerns throughout the region (read more).

Benin

Concise overview of Benin, a counry in West Africa.

Sent by Taouvik of Togo from Cotonou, Benin.

Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its population lives on the southern coastline of the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Porto-Novo, and the seat of government is in Cotonou, the most populous city and economic capital. Benin covers an area of 112,622 km² (43,484 sq mi), and its population in 2021 was estimated to be approximately 13 million. It is a tropical country with an economy heavily dependent on agriculture and is an exporter of palm oil and cotton.

From the 17th to the 19th century, political entities in the area included the Kingdom of Dahomey, the city-state of Porto Novo, and other states to the north. This region was referred to as the Slave Coast of West Africa from the early 17th century due to the high number of people who were sold and trafficked during the Atlantic slave trade to the New World. France took over the territory in 1894, incorporating it into French West Africa as French Dahomey. In 1960, Dahomey gained full independence from France. As a sovereign state, Benin has had democratic governments, military coups, and military governments. A self-described Marxist–Leninist state called the People's Republic of Benin existed between 1975 and 1990. In 1991, it was replaced by the multi-party Republic of Benin (read more).

Singapore - Esplanade

Esplanade, Singapore.

Sent by Audrey from Singapore.

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is a performing arts centre located in the Downtown Core of Singapore near the mouth of the Singapore River. Named after the nearby Esplanade Park, it consists of two rounded structures: one housing a concert hall with about 1,600 seats; and the other a theatre with a capacity of about 2,000 for the performing arts. It is nicknamed "The Durian".

In 1989, the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong, produced a report assessing the status of arts in Singapore. The report would form the blueprint for cultural policy in Singapore, and led to the establishment of the National Arts Council and National Heritage Board. The report noted a lack of suitable performance arts venues; for example, Victoria Theatre was deemed only suitable for small to medium-sized performances, while Victoria Concert Hall was similarly lacking in its seating capacity and stage size. It recommended that a new performing arts centre be built, and in 1992 the Singapore Arts Centre (now known as "Esplanade Co Ltd") was established to build the Esplanade. The name for the centre was revealed in 1994. It was named after Esplanade due to its significant presence in the Esplanade Park (read more).

United Kingdom - England - Bull Ring, Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM

View of Bull Ring

Sent by Helen who is originally from Birmingham.

The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham, England, consisting of open-air and indoor market stalls as well as a large indoor shopping centre.

The Bull Ring has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held, developing into its main market when the town grew into an industrial city. The current shopping centre complex, styled as "Bullring", forms the United Kingdom's largest city centre based shopping centre when coupled with Grand Central, to which it is connected via a pedestrian overpass, collectively branded as Bullring & Grand Central. The current Bullring opened in 2003, replacing a previous 1960s complex, and houses one of only four Selfridges department stores in the country.

The site is located on the edge of the sandstone city ridge which results in the steep gradient towards Digbeth. The slope drops approximately 15 metres (49 ft) from New Street to St Martin's Church and is visible near the church (read more).

Italy - Umbria - Papal Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels

ASSISI

Patriachal Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels.

Sent by Marzia from Arezzo in Tuscany, Italy.

The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels (Italian: Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli) is a papal minor basilica situated in the plain at the foot of the hill of Assisi, Italy, in the frazione of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

The basilica was constructed in the Mannerist style between 1569 and 1679, enclosing the 9th-century little church, the Porziuncola, the most sacred place for the Franciscans. It was here that the young Francis of Assisi understood his vocation and renounced the world in order to live in poverty among the poor, and thus started the Franciscan movement.

After the death of Saint Francis in 1226, the friars built several small huts around the Porziuncola. In 1230, a refectory and some adjacent buildings were added. In the course of time, little porticoes and accommodations for the friars were added around the Porziuncola. Some foundations of these were discovered during excavations under the floor of the present basilica between 1967 and 1969 (read more).

Germany - Lower Saxony - Juist

Beach view on the island of Juist, a car-free island in the East Frisian Islands of Germany, located in the Wadden Sea.

Sent by Martina from Juist Island in Germany.

Juist (German pronunciation: [ˈjyːst]; Low German: Juist) is an island and municipality in the district of Aurich in Lower Saxony in Germany. The island is one of seven East Frisian Islands at the edge of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea in the southern North Sea. It is located between Borkum Island (west), Memmert Island (southwest) and Norderney (east). The island is 17 km (11 mi) long and from 500 metres (1,600 ft) to 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide, depending on the tide levels. There are two villages on the island: the main village Juist, and Loog. The island is separated from Norderney by the Norderneyer Seegatt.

The tallest buildings on Juist that can be seen from the North Sea are the water tower and an old hotel. There is a lighthouse on the island, but it is not in use. At the western end of the island is the Billreef, a large sandbank where birds such as dunlins, grey plovers and knots rest during their migration. In the western part of the island, the beach and the dunes are eroded by the sea. The edge of the dunes moves about five metres south each winter. On the western third of the island is Lake Hammersee, a freshwater lake (read more).