First Post of 2009

I haven't posted here for a long time, but I will be posting some new pictures here once a week or so. Here is a new picture for this week, shot while in Kunming.

Return to posting

I took a bit of a break from posting here as I've been pretty busy painting, drawing and relaxing a bit. But I'll be back to posting regularly on the China Blog. These shots are mostly from Dali, like the girl serving the thre teas during the wedding ceremony they satged for us. The first tea is very bitter, the next tea was sweater, and the last super sweat. This is supposed to be how the gal let's you know you're "in", as the sweat tea means you are gonna be hitched. If she keeps giving you the bitter stuff you are out of luck Don Juan.

Rice Fields and Workshops

I'm back today with some more shots from Dali where we spent 2 days touring the beautiful countryside. Like Kunming and Beijing Dali streets were line with many, many shops offering everything from food to cell phones, you name it. often you'd see shops where people were gathered to eat, gamble or get a bike repaired.



One of the many rice fields along the way to Dali.

A cool looking door to a workyard in Dali, it looked to be very old like many things in this area we walked through off the lakeside. I think this was the industrial area which had many lumberyards and supply depots for construction.

This workshop I think was a place to repair your bike or mmaybe get something else fixed like a wagon. I think many of the shop owners also live in their shops.

I think this guy was pushing his bike because it was broken. I snapped this pic early in the morning and the look on this guys face tell us a lot I think about his life condition--hard work.

I love the expression on this lady's face a she just emerges out of the shadows. I'd get this type of look all the time. In Dali on the streets I never saw another westerner the whole time, as a result people were always staring at me which was cool, but made it hard to snap pics of people as they were aware of my camera and would sometimes turn away.

Sunlight

The sunlight was at times in China very intense, especially in dali. the air there was much cleaner than in the cities of Beijing and Kunming, especially Beijing where it was overcast with a haze even on a sunny day. I think Dali was fairly high up, much higher in elevation than Beijing so like being out west in the US the sun is a lot more intense in the cleaner air.

I took this picture in the old Bai pagoda in Dali, which was built in 1339.

This was taken at the lakeshore in Dali where Echo and I spent a morning walking around.

This was one of the many open air markets sprinkled throughout Kunming. Here could could buy just about anything from pets to food, clothes and various arts and crafts.
This lady was selling fresh fruit on the street near the market we were shopping at. There were many fruit venders in this area I guess due to the fact there are a lot of people shopping. the fruit is great, but you have to buy and cut it yourself otherwise you's risk getting sick. Who knows where and what she's been wiping that knife on.

A Mote and Construction

This is a shot of the river or mote around the forbidden city near Bahai lake. Unfortunately it's heavily polutted with lots of trash and plastic water bottles that people unfortunately toss into the drink as they exit the site. What a drag.

This shot was typical of so much of China, eternal construction everywhere. This was shot on the busride back from the Forbidden City.

A shot of the zillions of morning commuters on their waay to work.

Country Farmer--City Begger

I had a little break from posting here as I was at the Philly Wizard Con this past weekend, you can see the pics from there on my other blog.

Todays pics are from Kunimg and on the bus ride there. We saw a lot of very beautiful countryside on the ride between Kunming and Dali. Lots of terraced farms where they were growing all kinds of vegtables from rice to soybeans etc.

The other pictures of the begger lady are from Kunming. We saw the same lady in two different spots in the same afternoon, so either her "begger pimp" moved her around or she could move pretty good herself. The story I heard about how many of these people became beggers, kidnapped and crippled as children, raised to be beggers is one of the most terrible things I have ever heard.

Beijing Night

Tonight's post is all pics I snapped during the eveings while in Beijing. It's such a colorful and sort of mysterious place at the same time after the sun goes down. Lots of neon lights but also lost of dark spooky places, alleys, doorway etc. It's clear that they are trying to really make the city a great place to see at night. the highways all have large areas that are illuminated by neon or colored lights. The slow shutter speed of the A80 aslo helps add a certain coolness to night shots with glowy, ghostly images. Very Blade Runner...





Echo buying cherries.

This is the Korean BBQ spot we ate at...yumm!