Life and Travel in China

I have now added a few photos of architecture and at the same time looked through old photos from this group. I have also selected the next photos that I plan to add. I must admit that many of the previous photos (from a year or two ago) are poor. Whether it was due to my mistakes (crooked, poor light, a bit forced, blurry, incorrectly set colors, or snow) or technical problems (different cameras, different quality). I will try to present better photos.

I had the opportunity to see a car show at the Shenzhen Exhibition Center today. Apart from Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini, there was nothing interesting. All brands presented standard models, the same ones seen on the street. It was the same with models, and I see even prettier ones on the streets. For every one pretty girl, there were ten fat, weird, unsmiling ones. After 11 o'clock it got crowded, as whole families came in, as if they were going to a supermarket. The famous cars were so crowded that it was impossible to take photos. Despite everything, in the morning, before it got crowded, we managed to see something and take some photos. I will post these photos in some time, but I still have some overdue photos from Shanghai and Hong Kong.

I now understand what communism is. Well, it consisted of a policeman on a motorcycle stopping me on the main street. I was riding a bike, quite fast, but in accordance with the regulations. Of course, the main road is only for cars, because they pay for taxes, customs duties, fuel, roads, etc. A bicycle is garbage. The policeman told me in broken English to get off the road. I say ok and go to the right, and he looks at me with a face saying "You, come here! You stop here, come to me! You come here!". I drove up to him, he stopped me in the middle of the road. He tells me to give him 50 RMB, a 'fine'. I told him I didn't have any money on me. He says I pay or he takes the bike (my bike is his two wages). He went to talk to a friend, I think it's better not to run away, because stupid riding a bike will turn into shooting at a fugitive. He's talking on the radio to his superiors, I hear him say "but he's a foreigner". He was ordered to let me go. He tells me to go back to my country and I can travel there as much as I want.

I'm leaving tomorrow for the "Venice of China", near Shanghai. It is such a charming village surrounded by canals and lakes. Apparently there are many old buildings, ancient bridges, and even hotels are located in ancient tenement houses. Of course I will bring lots of photos! Let's just hope the weather is good, because it's not very nice at the moment.

This weekend I visited Shanghai and, by the way, the 'Chinese Venice', i.e. ZhouZhuang. We were a bit disappointed with this supposed Venice. We were supposed to spend the night there, but the guest room was not clean. I don't expect much, it doesn't have to be a 4-star hotel, but it has to be at least clean. We escaped on the last bus to civilization, to Shanghai, to a hotel near Cheng Huang Miao. The next day, ZhuJiaJiao is also a historic village connected by a network of water canals. Moreover, in Shanghai I visited two famous temples and an interesting museum, as well as the traditional promenade and Nanjing Road. Of course, I brought hundreds of new photos!