more pictures to enjoy

OK, a little bit lighter tonight. I have been meaning to thank those of you posting comments to the blog. I don't have the time or energy to personally reply to most of them, but I enjoy the comments from friends, relatives, and even strangers. Here is just a collection of photos of the past couple days, as well as some general shots of China.

Waterfront park, Shamian Island, Friday evening

Nothing like putting your feet up after a hard day!

No explanation necessary!

Another magical moment: Despite having only one full hand, my daughter is very capable. A child was playing with this scooter at the waterfront park Friday evening. Xiao Xiao was intently watching, and I could tell that she would love to try it out. The child's mother, who spoke no English, also noticed her watching it and offered the scooter to us in a way that said "would you like to try?" Xiao Xiao's eyes lit up and she hesitantly looked at the scooter, then to me. I nodded "yes" and she slowly went to it, with a look of awe on her face. I can't be sure, but I think it was the first time she had been on a scooter. She hopped on and took off, slowly at first, but gaining confidence. She had a big smile on her face and drew a small crowd. As admirers looked on, I swelled with pride and thought, "that's my daughter!" (Jen, I got video!) Of course, when she had to give the scooter back to the child, she also drew a crowd, but that's not such a happy story... we'll need to work on that!

playground on Shamian Island, Saturday

The Crafts family: Norbert, Debbie, and Lily Grace. One of the two other families from our group that has been in Guangzhou the same time as Xiao Xiao and I. Our daughters are the same age and we have been spending quite a bit of time with them. I really enjoy their company and am thankful they were here for these 2 weeks in Guangzhou.

The following are some pictures of typical apartment buildings, 3 in Guangzhou and 2 in Beijing. There are different sizes and some newer and some very old. Most do not look very elaborate. In fact, most look quite depressing. But, they are everywhere! No single family homes that I see. Just apartments. Most with laundry hanging anywhere it can hang. I don't know how it dries, the humidity is stifling. It's really hard to capture the city on camera. These pictures were taken from the window of a bus.

...and then there is the traffic. Again, pictures cannot capture it. Traffic in China is nearly a contact sport. In the cities there are cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles and pedestrians everywhere-- mostly sharing the same roadways. There do not appear to be many rules, and if there are, I rarely see authorities bothering to enforce any of them. They change lanes and pass with just inches between vehicles-- literally! They pull out in front of each other, make U-turns everywhere, and make turns in either direction from just about any lane. Lane markers are often ignored and they make as many lanes as a space will fit. They are not big on seatbelts and I think car seats are non-existent. Kids ride in laps, or wherever, and pretty much as many passengers as you can fit in is OK. There are numerous bottle necks throughout the city where many lanes merge and the drivers are highly competitive. I once saw the driver of our mini-bus hold a full-sized city bus at bay with just his passenger side mirror. It was one such bottle neck and the larger bus was inches from a line of vehicles on his right, and close to the side of our bus on his left. The larger bus was trying to pull ahead of ours, with the intent of squeezing in front. Our driver strategically moved over to what looked like close enough to squash a bug, and the driver's mirror on the larger bus would not fit past the passenger mirror on our bus. Our driver held the larger bus until he cried "uncle" and backed off. The funny thing, though, is that I never really see angry drivers. They compete, cut each other off, and honk, but are fairly relaxed about it and it all appears to be just a big friendly competition. Maybe it's not, but that's how it appears. The other thing I notice is that they must be very skilled at this style of driving, because I see what seems like few accidents per number of vehicles. It sure doesn't look like American roadways, that's for sure.

Bicycles are used in many ways in China. If gas prices keep climbing, I may have to get one of these for Home Depot runs!