Five tigers Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Item description / significance
This is an inside-painted (inner-painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting five tigers.

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app (from a seller in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, northern China)

Age and origin
Painted in 1992, according to the inscription, probably Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
The facial expression of the tiger looking at the viewer is what sold me! I also like the fact that there are five tigers, and one is white. And of course, the quality of the painting (the level of detail) is high.

See below for photos of this sphere, including photos from the seller.

Continue reading Five tigers Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Journey to the West Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Item description / significance
This is an inner painted (inside painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting the character of Monkey from the beloved Chinese classic Journey to the West. It is an adaptation of one of the “Havoc in Heaven” series of 8 paintings by Liu Jiyou. In this painting, Monkey has escaped from a furnace.

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app (from a seller in Nanjing, Jiangsu, eastern China)

Age and origin
Painted in 1996, according to the inscription, probably Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
What attracted me is the quality of the painting (the level of detail)—and the low price, to be honest! Now that I am more familiar with the Liu Jiyou paintings, I like it more than I did originally.

Other notes
The seller also sent a tassel with an inside-painted hulu gourd on a tassel:

See below for information about the inscription and the painting this adaptation was based on, as well as photos of the sphere, including photos from the seller.

Continue reading Journey to the West Chinese inside-painted glass ball

12 Chinese zodiac animals inside-painted glass ball

Item description / significance
This is an inside-painted (inner-painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig).

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app (from a seller in Yingkou, Liaoning, northeast China)

Age and origin
Painted in 1996, according to the inscription, probably Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
What attracted me is that the quality of the painting (the level of detail) is high, and the fact that the subject matter is the 12 zodiac animals. Many inside-painted balls are similar to each other (there are lots depicting the Qingming festival, for example), but this is one of only two I have ever found of the zodiac animals, and the other one is not, shall we say, an attractive quality level. (See for yourself.)

See below for information about the inscription, the Chinese characters that accompany the animals, and photos of this sphere, including photos from the seller.

Continue reading 12 Chinese zodiac animals inside-painted glass ball

Big Qingming Festival Chinese inside-painted glass ball

Item description / significance
This is an inside-painted (inner-painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting an adaptation of the Song dynasty handscroll painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival.”

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app (from a seller in Beijing)

Age and origin
Painted in 2000, according to the inscription, probably in Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
What attracted me is that the quality of the painting (the level of detail) is high. Also, the seller discounted the price, haha. But, get this: I have another inside-painted glass ball depicting this same scroll, and it was painted by the same guy!!! This one was painted 8 years later, has more detail, and (I think) is bigger.

See below for more photos of this sphere and the other one I bought before, photos from the seller, and photos of other spherical renditions of this painting.

Continue reading Big Qingming Festival Chinese inside-painted glass ball

“English” on signs in Wuyi and Jinhua

Below are five funny English text samples I saw on a brief road trip with my husband Siqi and his parents to Wuyi, Zhejiang Province (a city with a population of 460,000). On our way back to Hangzhou, we passed through Jinhua, Zhejiang Province (a city with a metro area population of 1,258,000).

Continue reading “English” on signs in Wuyi and Jinhua

Wuyi Fluorite Museum

There’s a trip.com page about this place, and a couple of stilted English-language news articles that mention it, and that’s all.

Hello, Wuyi Hot Spring Fluorite Museum!

The museum was two floors of rooms, laid out like this.
“Schematic diagram of the distribution of fluorite ore resources in China” and “Distribution map of fluorite despots in Wuyi Count” (inset)
Guanyin statue outside the museum

See below for info on 4 Guinness World Records related to fluorite, and photos of the minerals on display.
Continue reading Wuyi Fluorite Museum

Trip to Wuyi, Zhejiang Province

I live in China. I’ve had the thought that while I’m here, I should look into buying minerals that are mined locally, since presumably such treasures can be had for a fraction of the price they sell for after being exported.

I had the impression that China is known globally as a source of fluorite. I did an online search, and went to a geological museum in Hangzhou, and learned that the county of Wuyi (population 462,462), which belongs to the city of Jinhua, has fluorite mines and a fluorite museum. Therefore, during the Chinese New Year Holiday, I went with my cooperative husband and in-laws to Wuyi in search of beautiful stones. I assumed, since Wuyi has fluorite mines and a fluorite museum, that it also had shops selling fluorite products. If it does, we couldn’t find them! Nevertheless, our road trip shopping quest was successful.

The trip is documented in this post and five others:

We stayed two nights (February 1 and February 2) in the Vienna International Hotel in Wuyi. There are… 26 miscellaneous photos from the trip below.

Continue reading Trip to Wuyi, Zhejiang Province