It was going to be a day of thunderstorms last Saturday. I still got up at 5 to be at the large lotus pond around the corner from Weiwei's home in Shenzhen. Weiwei, my best friend from the colleague days, was so kind to volunteer as my "photography assistant" to carry the tripods and hold the umbrella for me in case of heavy pouring. The morning passes quickly when heavy rain and beautiful sunshine took turn to take control and I came back with lots of mosquito bites and some nice photos of my favourite flower. For more images of the lotus flowers, please see my album "Lotus" in the Chinese Cultural Symbols galleries.