Dapeng Fortress 大鹏所城

     In October, we visited Dapeng, a coastal town and subdistrict of Shenzhen. Dapeng Fortress 大鹏所城 is a miniature fortress that was built in 1394 to defend against pirates who attacked the Guangdong coast in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Surprisingly, a lot of people in Shenzhen haven't heard of Dapeng Fortress but the site has a lot of history behind it and is well preserved. "In 1571, it sustained a siege of over forty days by Japanese pirates equipped with scaling ladders." And in addition to pirates: "In 1839, five British naval vessels launched a surprise attack on the maritime forces of Dapeng Fortress in the waters off Kowloon. Chinese troops in fishing boats, led by General Lai Enjue, defeated the better-equipped enemy. The Kowloon naval battle is now widely considered the start of the Opium Wars." Pretty cool. There's a lot more information about Dapeng here.

The South Gate 南門 and main entrance.

Most of the buildings inside the fortress walls are living quarters that have been made into tourist shops or where locals still reside today.

Near the end of the street you can see another gate.

My friends Rochelle and Adam snapping some pics.

The view from on top of one of the gates.

Longhua Middle School 龙华中学

Longhua Zhongxue 龙华中学 was founded in 1956 and people like to brag that it's one of the "oldest schools in Shenzhen." This isn't entirely true because the city of Shenzhen itself is only a little over 30 years old. Longhua was a small town (and in a way it still is) until it was recently added to Shenzhen, and is now one of the city's outer districts. 

This is a small courtyard in my apartment complex.

A street full of flower and plant shops that leads to my school.

My school! Longhua Zhongxue. 

This is Houyi 后羿, a popular character from Chinese mythology. Basically, at one time in Chinese history ten suns rose up in the sky. This was causing lots of problems, such as crops being burned and people having to take multiple showers a day. This guy Houyi said, "Not on my watch." He took out his bow and arrows and shot down nine suns, leaving the one sun we have now. Now as far as I know, he's not the mascot of our school or anything like that. I think he's just one of the more popular gods in Chinese mythology  (I've heard the story a few times) and so why not have a big statue of him at the school entrance?

These guys almost look Western, but I'm certain they are Chinese characters.

My school is gorgeous and I told the other teachers this when I first arrived. They were shocked and asked, "Do you think it is more pretty than your middle school in the U.S.?" "Um..yes...it definitely is." I really have no idea whether they are trying to be modest or some actually don't think too highly of Longhua Zhongxue.

This area is behind the main classrooms and close to the administration offices. The pathway is lined with busts of famous scientists, philosophers, ect, with many of them being Western. It looks like we have Newton here.

Who's in the distance?

Einstein right there.

I took this picture from one of the top balconies. You can see the school clock tower blending in with the apartment complexes in the background.

My school is awesome because any school with a botanical garden on the roof is awesome.

Sign next to the main gate of Longhua Zhongxue. The name is in traditional characters: 龍華. A teacher at my school explained to me that "lóng 龍" means "dragon," and "huá 華" is another name for "China." But my school's name isn't  "Dragon China Middle School (though that would be pretty sweet)," Longhua is just a name in China.

I tried to take this picture at night with the least amount of blur, but now I actually like the way it ended up.