I can’t begin to describe my shock yesterday. I wanted to take a friend over to see one of my Wonders of Second Life, namely the China Tang Empire. So, I pulled up the LM’s About and was puzzled to see, instead of the Empire’s thematic photo, the About featured a picture of a real estate development. At this point I thought that maybe the sim’s build had been moved so I turned to my friends list, expecting to find sim owner Valor Relino and he was gone as well. This morning I made a trip to the sim to confirm that China Tang Empire was gone, and sadly it was.

In placing China Tang Empire on my Yordie’s Wonders of Second Life I broke one of my main rules, a wonder must be a sim group of four or more sims. I did this because the build was so extraordinary in every way, a true work of art and clearly a work of love. When I featured this amazing build in my blog I only shared a few of the photos I shot, to encourage readers to make their own trip and see for themselves. Sadly, here are a few more photos of what once was a stunningly beautiful area.

At this point, all I know for sure is, the China Tang Empire is gone. If it has been taken private, then ok, I can live with that. But if it is gone forever, then this is a very sad loss for Second Life. I hope that it is just an interim situation and that the area will be rebuilt, perhaps on a large sim complex. But for now, I’ll have to remove it from my Wonders list.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, that is, I can’t explain my interest in the cultures of Asia. I don’t especially believe in reincarnation, but perhaps I was Japanese in a former life. All I know is I find the history of Japan and China to be endlessly fascinating.