Day trip to Ho Pui Reservoir 3-6-18

河背水塘 3-6-18 Yuen Long 元朗八乡河背村河背水塘
河背水塘位於元朗八鄉附近,海拔250米高,被群山環抱。水塘是灌溉水塘,屬於大欖郊野公園的一部份,水塘容量有50萬立方米,其S字型水壩為該水塘的一大特色。河背水塘曾入選為漁農及自然護理署的郊野公園十大自然風景之一。

3-2-18 Kam Shan Country Park

金 山 郊 野 公 園 面 積 雖 小 , 但 園 內 共 有 四 個 水 塘 , 包 括 首 個 新 界 水 塘 - 九 龍 水 塘 ( 1910 年 建 成 ) , 石 梨 貝 水 塘 ( 1925 年 建 成 ) 、 九 龍 接 收 水 塘 ( 1926 年 建 成 ) 及 九 龍 副 水 塘 ( 1931 年 建 成 ) 。
石梨貝水塘
西九龙
西环
华景山庄位于香港新界西葵涌华景山路9号
金山樹木研習徑位於金山郊野公園內,入口設於九龍水塘,與金山路麥理浩徑第六段連接,臨近九龍副水塘
Hooked oakblue (Arhopala paramuta) 小娆灰蝶
Wild monkeys 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
White rumped Munia (Lonchura striata) 白腰文鸟 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
Chinese peacock (Papilio bianor) 碧凤蝶 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
金山郊野公园 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
Chinese peacock (Papilio bianor) 碧凤蝶 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
Chinese peacock (Papilio bianor )碧凤蝶 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
Grey Wagtail 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
Red Base Jezebel (Delias pasithoe) 报喜斑粉蝶 3-2-18 Sha Tin 沙田金山郊野公园
Eagle’s nest nature trail 3-2-18 Sha Tin Lion Rock Country Park

2-26-18 Ping Shan Heritage Trail

位於新界元朗的屏山文物徑是香港首條文物徑,於1993年12月12日開幕,長約1.6公里,蜿蜒於坑尾村、坑頭村和上璋圍之間。文物徑貫連多幢典型的中國傳統建築。
屏山文物徑地圖
聚星樓
聚星樓
聚星樓
上璋圍由居於坑頭村的鄧氏族人分支所建立,位於坑頭村西面,至今已有二百多年歷史,為屏山文物徑沿線唯一的圍村。
這口井由坑頭村村民所建,在二百多年前上璋圍立村前已存在,曾一度是坑頭及上璋圍兩村食水的主要來源。
楊侯古廟坐落於坑頭村,為元朗區六間供奉侯王的廟宇之一。相傳該廟已有數百年歷史,但確實修建日期已不可考。據廟內匾額顯示,廟宇曾分別於1963年及1991年進行大事重修,其後於2002年亦進行修繕工程。有關侯王的來歷說法頗多,村民認為侯王即宋末忠臣楊亮節,他因保護宋帝而捐軀,深受後人景仰而加以供奉,每年農曆六月十六日為侯王誕。楊侯古廟結構簡單,只有一進,三開間,分別供奉侯王、土地和金花娘娘。
楊侯古廟
楊侯古廟
華嫂冰室的招牌菜是番茄蛋菠蘿油
鄧氏宗祠位於坑頭和坑尾兩村之間,是屏山鄧族的祖祠,由屏山三圍六村所環抱。據鄧氏族譜所載,宗祠由五世祖鄧馮遜興建,至今已有七百多年歷史。1990至1991年間,鄧氏宗祠曾大事重修,費用由屏山鄧萬里祖祖嘗撥付。宗祠現仍用作祭祖、 慶祝節日、 舉行各種儀式及父老子孫聚會等用途。鄧氏宗祠於2001年12月列為法定古蹟。
鄧氏宗祠是三進兩院式的恢弘建築,為香港同類古建築的表表者。正門前兩旁是鼓台,各有兩柱支撐瓦頂,內柱為花崗石,外柱則為紅砂岩。前院鋪有紅砂岩甬道,顯示鄧氏族人中曾有身居朝廷要職者。建築物各進的樑架均雕刻精美的動植物和吉祥圖案,屋脊則飾有石灣陶塑鰲魚和獅子。後進祖龕供奉著鄧族先祖神位。
鄧氏宗祠
鄧氏宗祠
覲廷書室坐落於坑尾村,乃屏山鄧族廿二世祖鄧香泉為紀念其父鄧覲廷而興建,於1870年落成,兼具教育及祭祀祖先的雙重作用。1899年英軍進佔新界時,書室更曾用作臨時警署及田土辦公室。科舉制度雖於二十世紀初廢除,但覲廷書室仍負起教育族中子弟的功能。直至第二次大戰後初期,覲廷書室仍是坑尾及鄰近村落青年讀書學習的場所。覲廷書室曾於1991年進行修繕,費用由香港賽馬會捐助,書室得以回復昔日的光采。
覲廷書室是兩進式建築,中為庭院,以青磚建造,柱子為花崗石。書室內的祖龕、斗栱、屏板、壁畫、屋脊裝飾、簷板和灰塑等別具特色,為當時工匠的精湛傑作。
屏山跑車餐廳
在上璋圍西面不遠處有一座神壇,供奉土地公(村民稱之為社公,亦稱伯公、福德公等),建築日期已不可考。傳統中國村落皆建置社壇,以祈求福澤,保佑闔村平安,亦作為村落的界線。社壇多為簡單的磚砌建築,多不設神像,以石頭代表社公,規格較高的兩側會有「鑊耳」山牆。
社壇
社壇

2-24-18 Hung Shui Hang Irrigation Reservoir

洪水坑灌既水塘 洪水坑水塘亦称丹桂坑水塘,位于香港屯门九径山北面,位于大榄郊野公园西北部边缘,位于蓝地水塘东面不足一公里处。洪水坑水塘属灌溉水塘,即非食水用塘,主要用作灌溉农田。水塘的水会流经丹桂村、锺屋村一带再流经洪水桥,经过天水围西侧,成为该区著名的“臭河”,最后汇入后海湾。
洪福邨 , 天水圍

“Large Circle Line” or the “Third Interchange Contour” in southwest Moscow

Since August 2017, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) 中国铁建 has been building a 4.6-km section and three stations on the “Large Circle Line” or the “Third Interchange Contour” in southwest Moscow, which will be completed by the end of 2020. The CRCC hires more than 100 engineering and managing staff and over 700 workers for the project, and about half of them are Russians. The first tunnel was bored through in early April, 2019 and the remaining eight tunnels by 2020.
In February 2019, the CRCC won another contract worth over 5.64 billion rubles (about 88 mln USD) to build a 2.9 km section of the “Large Circle Line.” The city aims to increase metro lines from the current 300 km to 1,000 km by 2023.
The company designed and produced five tunneling shields capable of coping with the city’s harsh winter and complicated geological condition. The “Shengli” 胜利号 tunnel shields, with a diameter of more than 10 meters, is independently developed, designed and produced by CCRC.

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Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui [Liang, Qiao & Xiangsui, Wang]

More relevant than ever, this interesting handbook on modern all-enveloping warfare was first published in China in 1999. Re-digitized from the 2004 Filament Books edition, this new edition contains specific methods for American troops, government, academia, and business circles for dealing with unrestricted warfare. Coauthored by Major General Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, the book has been required reading at West Point. The Peopleв’s Liberation Army manual for asymmetric warfare details the waging of war, strategically and tactically, using weapons not limited to bullets, bombs, missiles, and artillery shells. The two PLA officers who advocated the strategy set forth in the following pages argue that modern warfare, in ways not too dissimilar from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, is about impeding the enemy’s ability to wage war and to defend itself against a barrage of attacks against its economy, its civil institutions, its governmental structures, and its actual belief system. This is not a manual for achieving an overnight victory. Rather, it is a recipe for a slow but inexorable assault on an enemy’s institutions, often without the enemy’s knowledge that it is even being attacked. As Sun Tzu once wrote, “one party is at war with another, and the other party does not realize it is at war, the party who knows it’s at war almost always has the advantage and usually wins.” And this is the strategy set forth in Unrestricted Warfare, waging a war on an adversary with methods so covert at first and seemingly so benign that the party being attacked does not realize it’s being attacked. In the age of the worldwide internet, what seems like the free flow of information is also an open door policy for one country to insert its propaganda into the thinking and belief systems of its enemy. Do we consider Vladimir Putin’s Russia to be a friend to the United States? Are we really that naive? Voting constituencies might have very legitimate reasons to support the politicians of their choice, but when those choices are based on the flow of absolutely false information inimical to the best interests of that population, it is an example of the success of asymmetric or unrestricted warfare, in essence, propaganda war. The Russians have been experts at this since the days of the czar, and since the experiments of Pavlov and his dogs have mastered the art of getting the responses they want from the stimuli they inject into their subjects’ thought patterns. In this past election cycle, it worked. As you read the following pages, a manual for the military humbling of the United States through nonmilitary means that most Americans will not even realize, you should understand that this is not just a “what if,” but a reality. It is happening now even as North Korea’s Kim blusters about sending missiles towards Guam and Donald Trump responds by rattling his own saber in its scabbard. China, meanwhile, watches while its enemy is engaged with a tiny country that has the means to send nuclear tipped ICBMs to American cities. If North Korea attacks Guam or Pearl Harbor and the United States responds, who benefits? Not North Korea, not South Korea, not the United States. China benefits when U.S. Naval facilities on Guam or at Pearl Harbor are damaged so that the American presence in the Pacific is diminished to the point of incapacity. Readers, therefore, should take this little manual as a dire warning. Complacency cripples. Hubris kills. And blindness without guidance usually leads one into the nearest wall if not hurtling down a flight of stairs. Thus, although this book was written almost twenty years ago, it should be regarded as the playbook for the destruction of not only the United States, but of western democracies in general.

4-star admiral wants to confront China. The White House says not so fast

Adm. Harry Harris is proposing a muscular U.S. response to China’s island-building that may include launching aircraft and conducting military operations within 12 miles of these man-made islands, as part of an effort to stop what he has called the “Great Wall of Sand” before it extends within 140 miles from the Philippines’ capital, sources say.

Harris and his U.S. Pacific Command have been waging a persistent campaign in public and in private over the past several months to raise the profile of China’s land grab, accusing China outright in February of militarizing the South China Sea.

But the Obama administration, with just nine months left in office, is looking to work with China on a host of other issues from nuclear non-proliferation to an ambitious trade agenda, experts say, and would prefer not to rock the South China Sea boat, even going so far as to muzzle Harris and other military leaders in the run-up to a security summit.

The White House has sought to tamp down on rhetoric from Harris and other military leaders, who are warning that China is consolidating its gains to solidify sovereignty claims to most of the South China Sea.

Harris lost. 4-24-2018 The Trump administration has abruptly decided that Washington’s pick for ambassador to Australia should instead become envoy to South Korea, filling a diplomatic void just as President Trump prepares to meet Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, officials said on Wednesday.

The shift involving Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of the United States forces in the Pacific, is a diplomatic blow to Australia, a close American ally. Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, confirmed that Admiral Harris would not be taking the post in Australia. Harris lost the South China Sea and his job, got to work behind a desk instead.