Back in 1962 France launched a ship named Ancerville, which was purchased by the People’s Republic of China in 1973 and renamed Minghua. 10 years later the ship was permanently berthed at Shekou, Shenzhen, where she was refurbished and rebranded – this time as the hotel and entertainment complex, “Shekou Sea World“.

Since the Minghua was berthed at Sea World Plaza, the water which originally surrounded her has been reclaimed to allow construction of the golf course you can see here. The land reclamation continued southward, and today the coastline has been moved several hundred metres, leaving the Minghua completely landlocked.

Weirdly, this isn’t the only landlocked entertainment ship in China – there’s another one in Hong Kong. Are there any other countries that have converted a ship into a shopping centre?

Here’s a history of the ship which includes some good low-level shots.

Thanks to Nrupesh Soni.

The world famous Custard Lake in Australia supplies the entire state of South Australia with 90% of its annual custard requirements. Um, maybe.

Mmmm, custard . . .

My guess is that this is probably the bottom of a dry lake, as there’s other dry lagoons in the area – but I couldn’t say what causes the fantastic yellow colour. Can anyone else solve this mystery?

Thanks to Justin Flavin.

With the continually increasing quality of images on Google Maps/Earth, it’s hardly surprising that the cameras are capturing ever more private moments of people’s lives. Perhaps then it was only a matter of time before the very end of someone’s life was published on the Internet for the whole world to see.

Here’s two examples of funerals taking place, one in the Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Chicago, and the other at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Washington DC Silver Spring, Maryland. In both shots you can see a crowd of mourners surrounding the grave and also the funeral procession parked nearby.

Update: From the comments, Chris pointed out a third funeral in progress at the Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, CA (where several notable San Franciscans are buried, including Joe DiMaggio).

Thanks to Yoshi, Don Bruns and Chris.

Continuing our journey along Germany’s “Walk of Ideas” we arrive at a giant pill entitled “Milestones of Medicine”.

Then there’s “Milestones in Music” – a collection of giant musical notes in front of the Konzerthaus.

Which leads us to “Modern Book Printing” – a large pile of books by Schiller, Lessing, Fontane, etc.

And last but not least, “The Theory of Relativity“, a giant E=MC2. Which, uh, seems to have gone missing!

Ah well, there’s pictures and descriptions of all 6 sculptures on the official website.

Thanks: Me, Myself & I.

The ‘Walk of Ideas’ was an ‘art project’ throughout Berlin which was put in place of the World Cup earlier this year. The 6 sculptures promoted the best of Germany, and not very subtly provided advertising for the project’s two main sponsors.

To start with, parked outside Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, there’s a 2.5:1 scale model of an Audi TT. The foam sculpture is called “The Automobile” and was of course designed and built by Audi.

Adidas very kindly provided a gigantic pair of Adidas football boots called “”Innovative Football Boots” to leave lying around on the grass. How kind of them to provide this huge piece of advertising?

I’ll post another couple of the sculptures tomorrow.

Thanks: ZoroZ and Me.