I don’t generally hop from region to another when they share a common theme; variety is the spice of life, as they say. But after seeing Jomo in Honour’s pictures recently, I had to scurry across the grid and take a look for myself.

Jomo is the home of **JOMO** avatars, skins and accessories, operated by Duo (Xiaoduo Abbot), and has been built to resemble an ancient Chinese walled palace. It’s a stunning build, with a wealth of detail and excellent use of space. So much so, that it really speaks for itself, and written words can only scratch at the surface.

The main “palace” building contains the Jomo skins, and is flanked on either side by buildings containing **Jomo** avatars and accessories. While the build exudes ancient China from the outside, inside all three of the store areas are ultra-modern in design, with crisp lines, panelled flooring and lighting by which skins and demos can be more than adequately examined.

However, a visit to the store alone misses much of the sheer beauty and power of the build, almost all of which has been custom-built by Duo, and which really is deserving of the time taken to explore it in detail. There are stairways to climb, parapet walls to walk beside, rooms to discover and tunnels to explore – some of which contain treasures of their own. In the south-east corner of the build there is a beautiful stage area, fronted by an intricate guzheng, and with a magnificent painting centred on a lotus blossom which has to be seen to be appreciated.

To say the build is utterly photogenic is an understatement; this is a place which lends itself to a multitude of lighting conditions and windlight-induced atmospherics; where a slight smearing of haze gives the build an added feeling of depth and scale, something I’ve tried to convey in some of the pictures I’ve added to my Flickr stream and which are in the slideshow below. I know I could happily spend the better part of a day taking snaps and experimenting with windlight while visiting Jomo, which also had me again dabbling with oil painting effects for the images used in the body of this post.

For those who have a hankering for traditional / ancient Chinese buildings, check-out the front of the main store building as well; Duo has a range of building on sale, up to and including a palace which is almost region sized (240×240 metres).

Whether you are looking for a new avatar – the mesh models are quite stunning – or a new skin or avatar accessories with an oriental touch, Jomo, is more than worth a visit; equally so if you’re looking for a stunning period build to photograph.

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