Month: December 2025

Melbourne for Christmas 2025

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Christmas 2025 finds us in Melbourne city centre bunking down (literally) in a friend’s apartment

We are just here for 3 nights while our friend does Christmas with his family. It’s an opportunity for us to explore the city, even though much of it is closed!

First up was a drive around some of the further flung areas.

Luna Park with the world’s oldest wooden roller coaster (we didn’t go on) and an entrance like something out of a Stephen King novel!
The old and extremely expensive beach huts reminiscent of Bournemouth
St Kilda’s once a red light district and now home to the most amazing cake shops.
Heaven on earth

As it was Christmas Eve we were advised to go to the carols by Candlelight in what is known as The Bowl, a natural amphitheater in a Central Park. Apparently people take folding chairs and picnics and listen to the music. We had travelled a lot and were quite tired but thought we would sit at the edge for a few songs then have an early night.

On arrival we discovered that it is now a ticketed event but just as we were at the entrance two ladies behind us asked if we needed tickets as they had two free ones going spare. What a coincidence! These tickets were for the premium seated part of the arena. Apparently one of the performers had complimentary tickets for his family who couldn’t come so gave to these ladies and their family didn’t want to come either so they let us join them.

It turned out to be quite an extravaganza with razzmatazz, glitz and sparkle from many major Australian stars of stage and screen, none of whom we had heard of! But they sang well.

The kind ladies who invited us in.

The music was lovely and featured Christmas songs as well as carols. To our surprise the whole thing was featured on Australian television and in our seats we were caught in the cameras! it was quite magical as the sun set and everyone waved candles.

It was packed (all these hundreds of people hadn’t just shown up and got priority seats!)

As you can see we were wrapped up because to our great surprise it is quite chilly here. 16 degrees and windy. It’s like a British summers day if you are in the sunshine but decidedly chilly otherwise. we managed 2 hours of the concert before the cold got the better of us.

Christmas Day itself was a walking around the city experience with visits to…

The State Library … but it was closed
Hosier Street with its iconic graffiti walls
And a monument to the Australian women who have been killed or stolen in the last 2 years. Very moving.
AC/DC came from Melbourne so have a street named after them
St Paul’s cathedral (one of the few places open) with this modern but entirely relatable nativity scene
A ride in the FREE circular tram which helpfully tells you bits of information about what’s available at each stop.

We are sending Christmas Day evening with a trip to the cinema to see Wicked (part 2)…with cheap tickets for seniors like us followed by a festive egg and bacon fry up courtesy of Martin.

Ba Gua

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The Ba Gua is a pattern of trigrams comprising yang (or solid lines) and yin (broken line) surrounding a Taiji ball. The symbolic ball and the trigrams were both developed over 5000 years ago in the Henan Province by the mythical FuXi.

Fuxi is allegedly responsible for starting the first society by regulating family group with names, creating agriculture and farming techniques as well as observing nature to be able to come up with the polar opposites that we know as Yin and Yang. This system has become the foundation of all Chinese culture and philosophy.

Today we visited the place where his community flourished and developed into the Chinese nation. It is now a national monument and contains the place venerated as his tomb.

The tomb is underneath a circular mound with a square which represents earth and heaven.

We lit some insence sticks

The park contained many notable features such as this tree with a prominent knot which looks like an ear. Fuxi is said to have ‘heard’ the secrets of the universe.

Here you can see the lion’s ears depicted on FuXi’s head symbolizing the ability to hear messages about the truth of the universe

These two trees are growing together. They are a Cypress and a Sandalwood which are notoriously hard to combine but which have come together here naturally showing tha humans should not always intervene. We should let nature do its own thing.

Around the park are many trigrams

Both large
And small
This was a growing one.

The BaGua contains a wealth of philosophical concerns which take years to study and the I Ching or Book of Changes is the most well known place to learn them. But in addition the Chinese also use this for fortune telling. As I am learning the I Ching I decided to have a go. Most fortune telling is complex and involves mathematical calculations to result in a hexagram (double the trigrams) and then knowledge to interpret the meaning but here the guy just asked me to select a stick and then a thin card.

Apparently I am a good person who is respected by many (but not all) for the work that I do. The card I selected was the dragon which is the top animal in their heirarchy and represents these abilities to a high level!

Apparently FuXi came up with the concept of a dragon because many different people wanted to join his group from Tibet and Mongolia and the South. Each group brought with them their own sacred animal eg snake, turtle or tiger so FuXi combined all their characteristics into one mythical animal encapturing all strengths.

Dragon had 9 sons and this is the 9th

The 9th son is another compilation of regular animals. You can see horse hooves, lion’s mane and antlers
The dragon’s 7th son guards gates and doors.

Around the park were topiary gates and walls.

This tree looks uncannily like a Taiji pose
Dragon pillar surrounds a field of red prayers

My favorite was this gate. Called the Taiji Gate. This is the only time that I have seen a gate in China with this name.

And finally these five statues of 800 year old traitors who betrayed their Emperor in the Song Dynasty. People are allowed to slap the faces of the four men and one woman as eternal punishment. We saw one elderly lady wheel herself up them heave herself onto her feet so that she could viciously slap the statues. It is supposed to be a message that you should behave yourself but honestly after 800 years perhaps its time to forgive and forget…

Laozi and MuLan

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Lao zi which literally means ‘Old Master’ is one of China’s 4 great philosophers. He is attributed with writing the book Tao de Ching which means the changing virtues of the Tao.

Born Li, Er in the 6th century BCE he was a royal librarian and archivist. When he retired to the Henan Province he dedicated his time to composing his book which would ultimately become one of the founding texts of Taoism.

Here is the library or study where he did his writing. It is symbolicly raised high to be closer to heaven.

Below the library is a temple to Laozi and also a Taiji ball.

Around the ball were pictures carved in the stone representing symbols that are important in Taoism and Taiji.

The fan which moves air around. Clackerboards which also move the air.
The sword for defense and the flute where the movement of the air inside the bamboo changes into music.

Everywhere we could see the Tao.

Even in old style script

Interestingly the Japanese bombed the site in 1938. They sent 13 bombs over the wall but not a single one exploded !

The Japanese were so shocked that they ran away! Locals think the site is now even more auspicious.

Many people come here to drink for the healing spring waters.

A statue of Laozi himself

There is even a column with his writing on which people rubbed themselves against to get healing from joint pains

If only they did Taiji they could work on those joints themselves!

Many signs gave deep philosophical messages such as this

Do your own duty well and don’t be overly concerned with what others think about you.

While I was busy immersing myself in this deep cultural experience Kevin was proving to be quite a celebrity. I lost count of the number of times local ladies asked for photos with him or just wanted to shake his hand!!! We were so far off the tourist track that they don’t see many foreigners here at all.

After lunch it was off to the tomb of Mulan and her parents.

An unassuming tomb

Close by though was an impressive temple dedicated to her

Armour from the period

And outside…

Men in Black

Apparently they are farmers and as it was a Saturday they weren’t at work so this was a place for them to hang out.

We finished the day walking the streets of Shengqiu old city and treating ourselves to hawthorn apple treats

Shangqiu

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Shangqiu was the capital of the Shang dynasty which flourished at the same period as Bronze Age Britain (1600BC – 1040BC)

Rich in ancient history dating back to prehistoric times the area boasts several important archaeological sites where pottery shards and bones have been discovered.

Standing proud in the city centre is this elaborately decorated structure representing a three-legged drinking vessel. The earliest examples of such cups have been discovered in this region. Prehistoric peoples found that the tripod gave the best stability on most surfaces. They have two ears at the top and a single handle. So the cup represents 1-2-3. On ancient texts it says that 1 gives birth to two. Two gives birth to three and three gives birth to everything so these drinking cups contain a deep philosophy.

The very earliest 3 legged vessel is this one

The pattern on the surface resembles animal fur

Some cups are decorated with animal faces to show how closely we live with the animal world.

Many examples of early Chinese script have been found, some carved on animal bones. This script is more fluid than modern characters and you can see more clearly how the pictographs formed.

In the top left you can see a figure praying. Top right are antlers. Bottom right is a tree.

The highlight of the museum was this ancient jade burial suit.

Each plate is made from jade which was extremely expensive so this suit was for an Emperor the work that has gone into its construction is phenomenal and each section is stitched together over the body. It does have the look of an early Cyberman!