Coming back from our Macau trip we envisioned a long and difficult time getting back into the groove of things. However, to our surprise the week of October 6-12 went by quickly. Classes seemed to zip by and before we knew it it was the weekend again. This is not to say that our school week was boring. It was just that nothing too eventful occurred. On the weekend is when we experienced something new and fun. Art Village Experience
For several weeks Ms. Penney, the seven year old teacher, had planned a day trip to Da Fen , the famous art village in Shenzhen. This site is known as the most famous oil painting village in all of China with some 2000 artists and 200 vendor outlets.
Da Fen originally opened in the early 1990s with approximately twenty artists. These individuals specialized in creating replicas of famous Van Gogh, da Vinci, and Rembrandt paintings. Although these replicas still have high popularity at the art village, there is a surge in creative local artists producing one of a kind Chinese-influenced pieces.Ms. Penney arranged for a bus to take 12-14 teachers on a day trip to Shenzhen. We spent about three hours browsing through art shops. It was incredible to see how talented and skilled these artists are. It is one thing to sketch a drawing with a pencil and paper, but it is another to create dimension with a brush and canvas! We were able to get a few good shots of the artists in action and none of them seemed to mind us taking their picture.
Ultimately Pazi picked out two pieces. Her first selection was a colorful and vivid painting of the Hong Kong Central harbor and amazing skyline there. We were able to get this for 80 RMB (under $12 dollars). The second canvas painting was more of an earth-toned piece with flowers and a unique gold border. She really fell in love with this one. It cost a bit more but for 100 RMB (under $15 dollars) it was worth it (see photo for both). Overall, the quality of the artwork we saw was excellent.After shopping, we all went down to Shekou for lunch. This is the same place we visited last year with the Johnson family. Since we knew the quality of restaurants in the area we were very excited to visit Gypsy's. This fusion restaurant with ties to Australia is superb. Pazi ordered their amazing fish and chips which could feed possibly three people! Adan devoured his incredible Thai Beef Salad with their secret dressing.
It was a very nice and relaxing day. We very much enjoy the scenery of Shekou and Shenzhen. We will head back to this same location in November when we have teacher in-service with other QSI educators living and working in China. We will spend a total of four days here, two working and two personal. During this time we hope to visit Hong Kong. We will make sure to keep you posted on all the details.
