Construction Work

Since we have been in Shekou, just over two months, I have seen lots of building and changes. It is pretty incredible, I have actually seen buildings constructed in under two weeks, only to be torn down for some reason less than two weeks later. "Why?" You just have to say "It's China" . It is what everyone says here when we see things that seem to make almost no sense at all. Building is happening everywhere and with what seems to be few codes to follow and lots of workers large buildings appear very quickly.

Saftey considerations for workers are pretty non-existent. Also as a pedestrian you must alway be aware of where you walk, it may be right through a construction site. Something that in the US would be walled off keeping pedestrians at least 40 or 50 feet away. Not in China. Sometimes they will use a line of plastic caution tape but not always!

Here are some examples, I know my son-n-law Sean will be amazed to see some of these. I have rarely seen saftey ropes, safety glasses, gloves, hearing protection etc. You routinely see welding everywhere. It seems that welding goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, gogles are very rare.

Light pants, short sleeve t-shirts, and plastic flip-flops, with a straw hat our the clothes of choice for the construction trade. There seems to be few rules with as many workers as there are available, someone is always waiting to get your job. Shenzhen has people coming to the city at a rate of over 600,000 per year!

Tools! The main tool of choice is a heavy metal bar or rod. It can be used to do almost anything. Power tools if used are usually surrounded by 4-6 men. I saw a sledge hammer being used from afar. What was amazing was that evey time it when above the worker' head that was swinging it, it seemed to bow backwards. I couldn't figure out why I was seeing this optical illusion, until I got closer and saw that the handle had been replaced with a piece of bamboo! Somebody may be headed for a splitting headache.

The man above that was painting had on street shoes and no rope or safety gear of any kind. He was doing touch-up four stories above an all concrete sidewalk! If he refused to do this job someone else would have his job.

One think that is very amazing is that the materials used are absolutely wonderful. Lots of marble and granite everywhere. Otherwise the construction material of choice is a low grade cement block, that will later be covered with stucco, or tile. I have observed eight foot walls that are 100 yards long built in one or two days. Sometimes parts of them fall down a few weeks later! I saw a sidewalk torn up and built to completion only to be torn-up again the next week rebuilt and yes it happened a third time, in a three week time frame. We could only guess that the buses wanted a little more road on that section of the street and needed the sidewalk trimmed down. Where are the engineers?

New Eyeglasses

Not that I needed new glasses but I thought it would be great to get a pair of glasses that I could wear when working on the computer. My progressives force me to tip my head back to use the lower section of the lens. I had read about this place in Kowloon, part of Hong Kong, that was set-up as a high production optical supply company. Were you could get a pair of glasses while you wait. I told another co-worker about it and she got a couple of pair of glasses and was very pleased.

Eric, another teacher at the school, and I decided to make a overland trip to see if we could get to Hong Kong any easier and less expensively than our current method of using the ferry. We found out we can in about the same amount of time and with a bit more flexibility and a cost savings of about 75%. The trade off is all the transitions you have to make. We took a taxi, bus, light rail, above ground subway, below ground subway, and a change of lines with the subway. You have to watch your stops very closely. And of course the reverse of this on the return trip.

Ok, so we found the glasses place located in an industrial area of the city. After entering the building which had an all marble entry, guard and very fancy directory, we went to the 12th floor of the building via a freight elevator that had a attendant to press the button for your floor. Nice work if you can get it. When we entered the space we saw that it had tables in the center area with chairs and lots of glass frames all around the outside edge. We were earlier than the advertised opening time and that was good since it was already open and only a few people had arrived. That changed very quickly. Erick immediately had an eye exam, I had to wait because I had worn my contacts and had to take them out and wait for my eyes to re-adjust before the exam. The entire process was set-up for production. There were four rooms for eye exams. After you had your exam and picked out your desired frame, they sat down with you to review the various lens options. Coatings, UV, etc. You make your choices they give you a price and then you enjoy looking at the sunglasses, wild designs, and enjoy a cold boxed tea. In less than 15 min. your glasses are brought back and the optometrist checks the fit and makes adjustments. They take your money and send you off with new glasses a plastic case, polishing cloth and glasses screwdriver.

Total time about 45 minutes, unless you take extra long making your frame choice. To give you an idea of the cost, Eric had UV coatings and extras, I didn't but I chose a more expensive frame and had a more difficult to grind lens. His cost in US dollars was $29.00 mine was $36.00, the eye exam was free if you buy glasses.

So far my glasses are great. I call them my apartment glasses as they work great for reading, computer work, or just watching TV in our apartment. The picture of me with the blue-dot frames are the ones I ended up with.

Check the link for more info.

Chinese Tea

While we were in Hong Kong ,we decided we would learn a little about tea ,the art of tea brewing and drinking. We were treated to a great find (accidentally) when we visited a department store with over 5 floors that was quite large by Chinese standards, (we were looking for silk material). It was off the beaten path, in a hard to find building and we are quite sure we were the only Americans in the store that day.

The fifth floor was totally devoted to tea, tea products, exhibits, and tea demonstrations. Many different individual shops were set up, and each area had tea and tea pots with other tea related items. You could sit down with the tea hostess of that area and sample as many teas as you liked. We tried a couple different kinds and bought a few that we especially liked. We also bought a unique tea brewing pot that produces perfectly brewed tea. The hostess showed how to use all the tools and the other dishes used in the brewing process. We had the opportunity to buy any kind, style, size of tea from any area in China. It was like a mini tea exposition.

We were introduced to the Southern Chinese method of brewing and drinking tea. I have added a link if you would like to know more this process or about Chinese tea.

http://chineseteas101.com/gaiwan.htm
and
http://chinese-tea.net

PS Thanks Rob for your help as to where to start on this topic.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is exciting, spectacular, and expensive. Bev's description and pretty accurate. We spent four days in the city. So much to see. So many people. Hong Kong definitely has a flavor that is all its own. It is truly a International City. We stayed on Nathan Street in Kowloon and took the Star Ferry when we wanted to go over to Central the central downtown area by the water, great fun. HK has a great system for moving people that surrounds the MTR Subway system which is very efficient, and the double Decker buses that carry over 100 people at a time, to the taxis that can get you anywhere you want to go.

We did some of the tourist stuff like go to Victoria Peak which is really fun and we were lucky to have a great clear day. We also went to the Jade market and became members of the HK museums, seven in all. We only had time to go to the Art Museum but we will be back. Many staff do day trips to HK and are able to do one or two things in the six or so hours before returning on the Ferry. Our passports are getting plenty of stamps now.

We did a lot of shopping and there is much shopping to be done. We found a wonderful lady on the third floor of a building off the beat and path. Flow (sp) she sells pearls and jewelry and silk products at very good prices. She was so much fun and reminded me of my Grandmother with her quick wit and great sense of humor.

As you know there are people wanting to make you tailored clothing all around. Bev ended up having a pair of black linen pants made. Took three visits but the place was the alley right by our hotel. So it was not inconvenent. They fit perfectly and they are fully lined. very nice. Total price was about $65,00.

Well we can't wait for our next weekend trip to Hong Kong.

Macau

Thank goodness for Chinese Moon Festival and Independance day. Oct. 1st. We took a little three day trip to Macau. It is about a hour and a half by high speed catamaran. These are just a few photographs from our excursion. Macau is 5% Portugese and 95% Chinese but the influence is very strong. It is also the gambling capital of the East. I would have to say that the gambling is much different from Las Vegas. I was expecting larger casinos. They are large but not as big as Vegas and are primarily table games, many I have never seen before. We visited two of the local museums. They are very nice. and well worth a visit. There is picture is of the ruins of St. Paul a Catholic church that burned but the facade remained and is now fortified and a major tourist attraction. There is some history and much to explore in Macau. One of the shopping areas we explored had many shops with Chinese antiques. Some real, I think!, and many reproductions. Similar prices for either. The problem is none of it can be shipped into China only Hong Kong or back to the states. Check the link for more info about Macau.

Lo Wu Shopping

Lo Wu Shopping Mall is just across the border from Hong Kong in Shenzhen. It is a general consensus that Shenzhen is Hong Kong's backyard to the motherland, and Lo Wu Shopping Mall is a favorite shopping center for Hong Kong people and overseas visitors with 90-100,000 visiting daily. The mall is filled with bargain shops selling designer brand name products, beauty shops for massages and manicures, tailors and most of a floor with silk and other cloth material of every kind.

Bev is having a top and pants made from silk for her.The total cost of the pants and top with long sleeves is $73 including labor and material. We have to go back next weekend for a final fitting. It is over a one hour bus ride or 45 min. taxi ride. from where we live. Tim bought a Ralph Lauren polo shirt for about $7.00. Bev purchased a Jimmy Choo designer bag for about $34.00. These run about $2,000.00 - $3,000.00 US in London. So it was a heck of a buy. It may not be 100 percent original!

The tough part about this mall is that you get a shadow whether you like it or not before you enter the mall to help guide you to the best shops$$. One guy followed us, and at one point Bev was calling Tim, so he walked up and told her where her husband was standing. Ours followed us around for a couple of hours. Also the number of people offering you DVD's, sunglasses, watches, Nike golf clubs etc. is huge. As Bev walked down the aisle of shops she had people pulling her arm and shouting "Missy, Missy" at you. This happens about 10 times per minute. It wears you out after a while because it is so high pressure, and you can't stay long. You can find a large variety of silk scarves, handbags and more. It is not like that anywhere in Shekou where we live.