Blog Closed to Further Additions

After I moved from China I closed this Blog. You can still make comments to the posts. Thanks for all the support.

Small Work Space

We came across this money changer whose work space brings a whole new meaning to the idea of a less than ideal work space. Between the back wall and the glass is less than 24 inches! The width of the room was no more than 6 ft. She had a exit door under the counter out to the street only. Her perch was a formica ledge about 6 inches wide attached to the wall. I asked her if the sun came in the window and she said it did but I noted that she did have a small AC unit. She said, "Yes but it doesn't work!" Maybe just over 10 square feet to be in on display behind a glass wall on the street. She was all smiles though.

Hong Kong for a Day

Chinese Money Man

There are many of these butchers everywhere.

Hollywood Road is very popular and has many antique shops.

Crossing the street

Boxes to hold sweets

Major discussion

Who knew that a Polaroid would be worth $500 US

Rubber Mask

Looking straight up

Tim at U of HK

Bev and I spent a day in Hong Kong just for fun. We wanted to do a day of Art Galleries and Antiques. It was fun but many places were closed due to it being the Chinese New Year. These are a few pics from the day. Some in B & W which just seemed to fit.

UNSHAKEN

Michelle and her wonderful idea!

The Poster Michelle designed, FYI about 6 foot tall!

We work with the most amazing students ever. One of our secondary girls wanted to do something for the victims of the recent Haitian disaster. She came up with an idea. Went on to research the feasibility. Used her own money to develop a add campaign and is now selling her product with 100% of all profits going directly to the Hatian Red Cross.

So Michelle designed a simple wrist band. The title says it all UNSHAKEN and on the backside in just a relief is HAITI 2010. She found a company that could quickly produce her product and had it approved to be sold in the school.

She used her camera and designed a poster that has pics students wearing the samples that she had made. The poster was printed and hangs in our secondary building. To keep sales high and costs low the wrist bands sell for just 5 rmb or about $ .73 each with $ .60 being applied as a donation.

Amazing Kids.

BTW my friend Howard's daughter is the eyes at the top of the poster.

Tensions Rise

We have not experienced any observed changes but we continue to hear quite a bit via some of the unblocked media routes. It does seem a little bit tenser at times. Our hope is that some of this settles down as China is all about retaliation.

Some of the latest headlines.

US-CHINA TENSIONS

Google - China denies being behind an alleged cyber attack on the US search engine

Taiwan - a US sale of $6.4bn (£4bn) of defensive arms to Taiwan angers Beijing

Tibet - China says a US meeting with the Dalai Lama would "undermine relations"

Trade - rows over imports and exports of meat, media, car tyres and raw materials strain ties

Dog

So as we are in the dead of Winter which means it is Dog season. According to the Chinese eating dog will help you stay warm during the winter cold. So along with the other the other drying carcasses dog is hanging in front of many Chinese restaurants. I talked to one Chinese waitress who thought it was curious that foreigners wanted to take pictures of the hanging dog. I am skipping the dog this year. The temperature has not dipped below 50 F.

Fruit

Fresh Fruit

It is nice being able to purchase fresh fruit locally grown. We bought this on the way home last night after going out to eat. 1 small pineapple, 2 mangos, 3 larger tangerines, 2 apples. a small number of strawberries, 2 bananas (1 already eaten) bought right down the street. The prices have increased but still this was a little over $4.50 US. A grande size latte at Starbucks will be about the same price.

Si Hai Park, Shekou, Shenzhen

This is the park that is directly across from the Fenghua QSI secondary campus.
I took this phot last week from the 25th floor of an apartment building next to the park.
One of our teachers and his family live on the 10 floor of this building.

Many Grandparents watch young children and take them to the park daily.
The open pants are standard and make for convience and less laundry!

Lots of games are played in the park especially by older people.

This is the park Bull, it is giant size and can be seen from many upper floors of buildings in Shekou.

This little boy was quite curious and watched this musical performance.

Wonderful and different foilage is everywhere.