Rainbow in Shenzhen

It was 14 March 2009. The time was around 12 noon. Time to knock off for my colleagues and myself who were working in the Shenzhen office. As we slowly drifted out of the office doors, one of our colleagues shouted excitedly for everyone to look out of the window. We did. And what a sight it was. A full-circle "halo" rainbow around the noon sun.

This was my third sighting of an "unusual" rainbow over the past few months. The first one was an inverted "smiley" rainbow which made a one-minute appearance in the sky of Jerusalem in December 2008. Read blog entry here.

The second was a BIG full-arch rainbow that appeared in the evening sky of Singapore on my birthday in February 2009. Read blog entry here.

Unlike the last two sightings which lasted not more than just a couple of minutes for me, this "halo" rainbow lasted much longer. This allowed me to have the presence of mind and the time to capture photos of it.

It was quite tricky though - imagine staring straight at the bright noon sun and you will see what I mean. By taking advantage of buildings and structures to obscure part of the sun, I managed to capture a few photos of the "halo" rainbow on my mobile phone. :)

Halo-ed sun peeking out from behind an office tower


Noon sun crowned with rainbow


The battery of my mobile actually went flat after just a few shots, and I had to go back to my apartment to re-charge my mobile phone.

It was well past 1pm by the time I got back to the apartments, had my lunch and fully recharged my mobile phone. When I got out of my apartment, I was pleasantly surprised that the rainbow was still hanging in the sky, although it was by then a semi-circle arch rather than a full-circle halo.

Among the photos are a few which showed the rainbow hanging over an apartment building with the four Chinese characters "Jia Nan Mei Di" (which translates as "The Beautiful Land of Canaan") on it.

Rainbow over "Beautiful Land of Canaan"


The sign of God's covenant of peace (the rainbow) over God's promised land flowing with milk and honey (the land of Canaan).

What a beautiful reminder of God's promises and His faithfulness :)

A view of the apartment blocks "Jia Nan Mei Di" (Beautiful Land of Canaan). To the far right of the photo is "Dong Fang Xin Di" (New Land of the East) where my apartment is located. It has an alternative name called "Xu Gu Tang" (Sanctuary of the Ancient Narration). The entire area is known as "Xin An Gu Cheng" (The Old City of New Peace).

Very poetic (in a biblical way), don't you think so? :)