Land of the Lost - Issue No. 008: Disneyland of China

 

Talk about absolutely creepy and cool at the same time.  Ever hear of the fake Disneyland of China?   Well, if you haven't here's a little synopsis courtesy of The Washington Post.

“Wonderland,” which is situated on a 100-acre plot of land 45 minutes outside of Beijing, was intended to be a huge tourist destination. But according to Reuters, construction was halted in 1998 when farmers and local government sparred over property prices. A small “town,’ the skeletal remains of a castle, and the metal framework of a huge pavilion are all that remain, and the site is completely open to explorers.

Wonderland Amusement Park was to be the largest Amusement park in all of Asia, but unfortunately it never came to existence. And probably a good thing; Farmers have taken over and planted crops on the abandoned property. This is just another example of wasted money and resources. Families were uprooted and moved, just to build something that never came to be.

Scroll down and see the various pictures I found online, and watch a creepy video by Catherine Hyland after the jump.

You can see more pics and a video after the jump...

It's Purely Animal - Issue No. 54 - Love The Panda

Did someone say Panda?  Who doesn't love Pandas as much as I do?  All they do is eat Bamboo all day, and lounge around - living the good life. LOL.  I spotted these pictures online last week and wanted to share them with you.

If you're curious to see Baby Panda go from 
this to this, 

 

then you'll enjoy the rest of the pics.  
Have fun!

You can view Baby Panda's continued age progression after the jump.

Famous Photographers With Their Famous Photographs

You may recognize them or you may not, but all these photographers share something in common.  They were all famous for taking that one photo that became synonymous with remarkable events in our world's history.  

Tim Mantoani's new book, Behind Photographs has reached out to these photographers and given them the notoriety they so highly, and rightly deserve.

Steve McCurry and his photo of a young Afghan refugee in Pakistan in 1984

Jeff Widener, responsible for the Tiananmen Square Tank Man photo in 1989

Mark Seliger with his shot of Kurt Cobain

Neil Leifer, with his shot of Ali posing over Sonny Liston in 1965

Hand Made In USA or Is It?

Ahhh, the irony. But I wouldn't doubt it.

It's Purely Animal - Issue No. 30 - A Dozen Pandas

A dozen pandas were born two weeks ago at a breeding center in China, and they are absolutely adorable.  OMG, I would love to have one, but I don't think that would be a good idea.  They would eat our chihuahuas as a snack.

The pandas are part of an effort by this large center to help the endangered species in the wild.  They also look for red pandas and other endangered Chinese animals.  You can read more about the cute little panda babies at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mind-Boggling News: Suicidal Wedding

Such a sad story, but you hear about it way too often.  Some can handle it, and some just can't.  According to the Mirror, a young woman in China was about to get married, when her fiancé of four years broke up with her moments before the wedding. What a Bastard!  

She walked over to a window in a 7 story building, and as she prepared to jump to her life's end, a community officer managed to grab her and pull her to safety.  

It's mind-boggling to me that people can be so cruel.  You don't make decisions on marriage days before the wedding, what's wrong with that idiot?

Land of the Lost: An Empty Ghost City Built For Millions

It must be nice to be a country with so much wealth; One can simply throw it away.

We can't complain - we helped make China who they are today -  we bought all their exported merchandise. 

So imagine a city  built for 1 million people, but with no people living in it.  An Australian film crew recently made a trip to one of China's massive ghost towns built to boom the future economy and were surprised by what they found:

Vast new cities of apartments and shops are being built across China at a rate of ten a year, but they remain almost completely uninhabited ghost towns. It's all part of the government's efforts to keep the economy booming, and there are many people who would love to move in, but it's simply too expensive for most. Video journalist Adrian Brown wanders through malls of vacant shops, and roads lined with empty apartment buildings… 64 million apartments are said to be empty across the country and one of the few shop owners says he once didn't sell anything for four or five days. - Dateline

I found the video news footage rather intriguing - and fascinating.

To check out more of China's ghost towns, see Ordos City after the jump...