My Life in China

As seen in some of my previous posts, large and majestic buildings is definitely something China has its fair share of. I recently came across this photo list where people across China have photographed their local governmental office and posted it. The government officials in each province seem to be in competition to see who can construct the largest and most expensive building possible. There was a publicized case where the officials in the Fuyang province built a mixture of the White House and Capitol Hill, check it out here.

Here are some examples:

Boybands are still a pretty big thing in China, this is the music video from one of the most famous boybands Top Combine: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTk4MTQwNDQ=.html. As the name suggest the band is a combination of different winners from the Super Boy TV-show (Chinese version of American Idol) and debuted in 2008.  Their Chinese name is Zhi Shang Li He or 至上励合. The videosite is the Chinese version of youtube, hence the similar name. The musicgenre is known as Mandopop (Mandarin popular music) and although the songs are sung in Mandarin it is a big industry in most Eastern Asian countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Malyasia, Taiwan and Singapore, etc.

A lot of Chinese fear the possibility of radiation from the Japanese nuclear plant at Fukushima, even to the extent that supermarkets saw a rush of buyers of salt in large quantities. Despite the fact that the salt doesn't contain very much iodine so it's basically useless. Last night in a local supermarket, everyone was fighting with each other over who got to buy the salt, while a single old lady on the side calmly browsed the other goods, even shaking her head and laughing. Someone nearby walked up and asked her why she wasn’t fighting to buy some salt and the old woman laughed and answered: "I still haven’t used all the salt I bought during the SARS incident!"

For a foreigner it might be tempting to open up a business here in China, with its economical power ever increasing. Myself, I have thought about several business ideas that might have worked here but I don't think I have the business sense (or courage) to start something. This article didn't inspire me to do so either:
http://di.se/Default.aspx?pid=229764__ArticlePageProvider&epslanguage=sv



I'm not saying it is a bad idea to start a company here in China, but I do think it's a bit more complicated than in Sweden. The Chinese like to keep track of how money moves and doing a simple international transaction usually takes a 2 hour visit to the bank just to go through all the paper work. And that's with small amounts and for individuals, imagine what it is like for big companies.

Last Sunday I was out exploring an area of Guangzhou where I have never been before, I had my eyes set on the Xiogang park but also the area surrounding it. It was a warm day (24°C) but cloudy. Here are some photos of the day.


The book fair is in town.


Need a bucket?


Sometimes I wish I was a cat.


A smoker's heaven or hell?  Well, read this. But then again, you wouldn't smoke if you didn't have a wish to inhale 4589 dangerous toxins into your body..


Nancun


Interesting alien design on this phone booth.


Someone's getting married!


"Outstanding Scenic Spot for Excel Management." Oh yes, makes sense.


Where are the emergency toilets?! I need one NOW!


Cherry blossoms in the background? I'm not sure but they look like Sakura.




I was invited to play some table tennis against these two gentlemen, it was great fun but I'm quite bad at tabletennis.


The Chigang pagoda with the  TV tower in the background.

You remember my posts about my visits to Macau? Well, it's a very special place and now the guardian has done an article on it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/mar/05/macau-china-spend

Last weekend I went with a couchsurfer friend to Nansha Tianhou Palace which is situated outside Guangzhou. It takes a while to get out of this mega city, I spent 1 ½ hour on the Metro and 30 minutes on a bus. It thought we were never going to get there since we didn't find the right bus on the metro stop my couchsurfer had been told to go to. So after some phone calls we went to another metro station where took a minibus that led to the Palace.


In the entrance of the palace grounds there stands a 15 meter tall statue of goddess of the sea. "The statue is an embodiment of protection of the region throughout the year. Legend has it that the goddess belonged to a fishing background and she arrived during the Song dynasty and died while trying to save others from drowning. The Palace was built to commemorate this act of valour and courage." The palace itself is split into three levels, each of the levels houses a temple dedicated to various deities.


Kung Fu Kid!






View from the second level.




Some kind of dragon god?


The temple's weapons were sadly not for sale.


View from the third level.


Roof decorations, it's the latest thing here and I'm sure it will show up in Europe this spring.


Shrines are made to be colourful and kitschy, no feng shui here!




We even found a beach! In China! Though I wouldn't swim here unless I had a wish to ingest heavy chemicals and other more or less poisonous stuff that the factories put into the rivers and sea here.


Not every beach has their own stranded plastic pirate ship - but this one did!