Green Lake Park 翠湖公园

[abcdefg]

(This is a test post to see if I can figure out how to embed photos using the new forum tools.)

 

The time to visit Green Lake Park is now. I've said that Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. But if you go now, you will get to see the migratory Siberian seagulls who winter here from mid-December until mid-February or so. They will swoop down and take crusts of bread from your hand.

 

 

 

On Sunday afternoons, old men write poetry on the pavement with water.

 

You can always find regional and ethnic snacks. Left below is rice in bamboo. In the middle are 糖葫芦 a type of candied fruit, and below right they are making and selling 官渡粑粑, a type of thick grill cakes with various stuffings.

 

           

 

And you will always see artists and calligraphers with beautiful pieces for sale. Old Kunming was a very literate city. It's my understanding that lots of scholars and literati took refuge here during the Cultural Revolution. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kunming is also a place where you frequently see people singing and dancing. This happens in many small squares on a daily basis; but here in Green Lake Park on weekends it's especially popular.

 

                     

[abcdefg]

Obvious problems so far:

1. It is extremely slow to use. That may be due to my crappy China Mainland internet connection. Thank you Xi Jinping.

2. The preview of the layout is not the same as that of the final post. Things change size and they move. I hope to find a way to remedy that.

3. This tool needs to be suitable to a longer post with a dozen or so photos. Not sure if it is; it might be once I become more familiar with it. Right now, I don't find it easy to use.

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The biggest problem is #2.

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I was hoping it would be idiot-proof, but it definitely isn't.

[roddy]

Looks good. 

1. Yeah, not sure there's much I can do about that from here I'm afraid. 

2. It won't be the same as the size of the preview box is smaller than the actual post layout, so it'll wrap things differently. 

3. There's actually a gallery add-on which might make more sense. It's a paid extra, but might be worth trying. The forums posts are meant to be mainly text, so using lots of images in them is probably always going to be a bit fiddly. But like I say, looks good to me anyway. 

[somethingfunny]

Damn seagulls.  Terrifying.

[889]

It's always difficult to do a layout like that. And increase the page size 200 percent on your browser, then watch the layout switch again.

 

I think a single column photo layout like you've been using is the only practical approach.

[roddy]

Small images and plenty of text can work well - how's this look?

[889]

Yes, Roddy's works but the text is set differently in his example, flowing around the photos and justified left and right.

[roddy]

I suspect abcdefg's trying to do the same thing, but it doesn't work so well when you have very little text - it's just not an ideal arrangement, in that case you want a gallery+captions layout, which you can't do in a forums post. 

[abcdefg]

Haha, Somethingfunny! Those are Kamikaze seagulls. They dive-bomb unsuspecting tourists with vicious precision!

 

Your example looks great, Roddy. I will try to emulate it. And you are right, Roddy. When I post food things and recipes and such, it will be mostly text. Today I just didn't have much to say about Green Lake.

 

889 -- I tried to put the photos in single rows. The odd, stair-step result was done by the formatting software; it wasn't my intent. 

 

[roddy]

Hang on, let me edit it and see what i can do...

[roddy]

That's maybe a bit better, but to be honest I'm not sure this kind of post will ever look great here. But I gave all the images a uniform width (200), left or right aligned those with the most text to go with them, and just put the rest below the matching text. 

[abcdefg]

That looks much better, Roddy. It's actually just about like mine looked during the "preview" phase, before the final posting.

 

I'll try another one later using smaller pictures (size 200.) And I'll keep the text to pictures ratio such that there is more text.

 

Appreciate the help.

[roddy]

The preview pane is narrower, so I guess it bunches the text up more. To be honest I wouldn't want you to spend too much time on this - we like your posts, we're not going to grumble if you're not an expert typesetter. 

[abcdefg]

Thanks, I'll have something new on the food front in the next day or two.