Matt in China 2011 - Week 3

[Matt]

I saw one wild squirrel in china. That was it. I think all the rest of the animals would get stir-fried if they where spotted.

[Matt]

More photos from Wen shu yuan.







A shrine to the first emperor of united China

[Matt]

Woke up the next morning and this was in the paper:

China loves Apple and Apple products. So many companies here try to rip off everything Apple, from just slapping the logo onto their toasters to actually making windows laptops look identical to Macbooks.


Off to another ancient street:


Joni enjoys some milk. I avoided dairy in China, a place where counterfeit milk is commonplace.




Street performers

[ApproachingLight]

[Matt]

We head to a chinese arcade after a hotpot meal.
Chinese arcades are like a time capsule. It looked and sounded just like an american arcade out of the early 90s. A lot of games dish out tickets for winning. Although no skeeball to be found, we would recognize a lot of these games. What was odd were the amount of seniors in there, tied to the easy ticket machines. Gambling has always been illegal in the People's Republic of China, and these arcades and their near worthless ticket prizes are all folks have to legally fulfill those urges.


Basketball is insanely popular in China. These games are everywhere. NBA clothing (or knockoffs) is sold everywhere, and Kobe Bryant is the most well-known player (aside from Yao Ming). I went to Rochester city schools. Which means ever day in PE for 12 years i played basketball instead of normal gym activities. I had a basketball hoop growing up. Joni, surprisingly, kicked all of our asses in this game.


Hey, a game where I can punch fish in the face. Perfect.


Joni dominates yet again at some Japanese drumming game.


Joni heads back to Guangzhou, she has class the next morning.

Jing and I head out to eat Tibetan food.

[Matt]

Then we head to some new music/art-themed commerce park.


Opened earlier in the year this huge abandoned factory complex has been refurbished into shops, nightclubs, restaurants, and more. Art is scattered about the places and the old factory structures have been dramatically lit. It's dark. It's creepy in places. It's very surreal in others. But at the same time it feels very safe.




We find an Italian Gelato shop (a popular Italian franchise) and try it. It's the real deal. Jing has never had it before. It's very expensive compared to other ice cream options in China.




This rail dock is now a nightclub


An old steam train is now parked through it.






I have about 100 or so photos of Jing posing. She approves of maybe 2 of those.

[L_G_D]

Awesome shots as always. Did you happen to notice what the English phrase on the wall said? "Unity is.... ????" Interesting to know what it said and why it's in English, and how long it's been there.

[Matt]

"Unity is Rebirth"
Chinese factories of that era would always have these types of propaganda. It has become kind of a joke. You can buy these types of old propaganda slogans on mugs, lunchboxes, shirt, mousepads now.