More shots from around town

This little pink thing hanging out in the alley behind my apartment complex obviously doesn't know quite what to make of someone without black hair and brown eyes.

Lots of makeshift sidewalk cafes are found throughout the city. This one is in the alleyway near where I live.

Bigger fruit stands are right around the corner, but this village woman probably can't afford to rent a shop, much less purchase a vendor's license. She does the best she can, trying to sell a little fruit from her basket.

Traditional architecture in the city, along with some pretty bushes.

Most people don't have any kind of oven in their home and have no clue how to bake anything. They buy baked products either at modern bakeries (which are to be found everywhere) or along the street. The street bakeries are popular because they are cheap, delicious and easy to access. The ovens are barrels. Above is one example of a barrel stove....

...and here is another example of a barrel stove.

These boys were working outside over the weekend. One is sketching the scenery, and the other is checking his cell phone -- and I don't know what else he is doing.

The cute home-owned coffee shop sells great coffee and yummy pudding.

Love the month of May

His and hers "Red Guards" uniforms from the Mao era.

Cleaning out the muck from one of the many canals in the city. Poor guys are waist deep in muck. I hope they get paid well.

Tea eggs, a low-carb snack.

On a beautiful day in May, artists are out in force along the scenic routes in the city.

My dog is home in the air-conditioning, but some dogs obviously don't get to live the doggy diva lifestyle.

Aww, so cute!

Mr. Personality is begging a stranger for food (and he succeeds, to the delight of the crowd)!

It was a lovely, lovely day in May, and I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of the sights around town.

Reality Check

Lest my last post left you with the impression that everyone in the Middle Kingdom is filthy rich these days, this post is meant to bring you back down to reality.

I read just this morning that there are 100 million people in this country who live below the poverty level, and poverty is defined by the government here as living off of $1 (US dollar) or less per day. Anyone who is living off $2 or more per day is not included in the list of impoverished. In this country, I would be hard pressed to even find a single meal that cost less than $1. I don't know how those 100 million people, or those who are doing only slightly better, survive.

This picture was taken on the street in front of my apartment complex. I see way more poverty than BMW's.

Sticker Shock

All my neighbors are local people, and many of them have really nice cars, including some Mercedes, BMW's and Porsches. It baffles me, especially since car prices are quite a lot higher in the Middle Kingdom than they are in the USA -- due to taxes and fees they cost 2 to 3 times more than in the USA. I help my neighbors feel superior to the lowly masses by driving around in my beat-up electric scooter with a headlight held intact with clear, but clearly tacky, packing tape (it got damaged when I moved twice in the past four years). I kind of ruin the neighborhood image. Well, the fact that they only cut the grass three times a summer doesn't add much to the image either, but I digress.

One of my super-cool neighbors has a Mini-Cooper, which was all the envy of, well, me. It's a BMW car, but honestly, almost anything new with four wheels strikes me as awesome. Every time I went downstairs to the storage area/parking garage to get my e-bike, I would ooh and aah at the coolness of this trendy-looking city car.

Then one day I went downstairs and about fell over in shock. 'Cause this is what had become of the car:

Yep, it is now a "Miss Kitty" car (as I always accidentally erroneously call it...why can't I remember it is "Hello Kitty" not "Miss Kitty?" My American friends remind me that "Miss Kitty" was in Gunsmoke, but I still get it confused. But then again sometimes I accidentally call a Blackberry a Blueberry, and again, I don't see what the big deal is; they are both tasty fruit that start with the letter "b.")

I mean, this car costs over $20,000 in America, so here the web reports the price as somewhere between $60-75,000. And it used to look so sophisticated. And now Miss Kitty and Teddy the Teddy adorn the driver's side door (and back of the car too). I just want to cry. 'Cause now it looks like it belongs in a toy box alongside Barbie's orange plastic convertible.

Just another rainy day

It was just another rainy day today. Dark clouds hovered, noisy park hanger-outers stayed inside for a change and I took a long nap.

My trip to America begins five weeks from today. Be seeing some of you soon.

Pitcher Picture

One of my favorite shops sells beautiful Chinese-style ceramics. This is one of three pieces I own. Looking at them makes me happy.

My Trainer

She makes exercise a real challenge. Ever tried to do a push-up with a dog between your nose and the floor? An upside down dog who is trying to bite your nose because she thinks it is a game? I don't mind. I don't like push-ups anyway.

Old-Style Decor

As you may recall, when I first moved to the Middle Kingdom, I lived in a really bad apartment, as did most local people at the time. Mold grew inside, it was covered in coal dust, and I got sick all the time. I am happy these days to live in a clean apartment, like a lot local people now also get to do. Here's a mini-tour of part of my apartment.

I've always loved old-style Chinese furniture, but in the USA it is really expensive. When I was buying furniture in 2004, I found the selection of all styles of furniture really expensive at furniture stores, so I went down to a factory in a coastal city and ordered several pieces of old-looking Chinese furniture that were made for me for cheap. It was really cheap. And in 2004, the exchange rate was more in my favor (it's horrible now). 


The top piece is what you see when you first walk in my door. The kitchen is behind it to the left, and to the left side is a very small dining area. Turn right to go to the living room. You can probably see the hallway behind it on the right.


The second piece of furniture holds my dishes (on top) and pantry items (on bottom). The kitchen has very little storage space, so it was necessary to find some other place to store them.

This piece holds shoes near the front door. This picture is not perfectly clear, but the wood alternates between light and dark stain. 


Do you see the mark on the wall on the left? That's where Mimi dug into the concrete wall. I need to fix that some time. 

My TV used to sit on this, but now it stores DVD's, old VHS tapes, and such as that.

This is the main part of the living room, with the main balcony to the far right (where the sun is streaming in). I guess I could have straightened the lamp shade before I took the picture! The upright machine in the corner is the main air-conditioner for the apartment. Each bedroom has a small wall-mounted version. 


I like the brightness of my place. 


I am very thankful to be able to live here. And I hope that someday I'll be able to transport all these pieces of furniture to the USA, but I'm not sure I'll be able to.


By the way, my local friends and neighbors think Chinese furniture is too old-fashioned. They want the modern stuff and find it amusing that I like stuff that is no longer in style here.