The Island deux

I've been trying to get photos of all the interesting life forms here in Zhuhai. Tonight I went to the island in search of giant crabs but only found a few smaller ones, so a photo of them will come later.
To begin, there are paths all around the island to mount one of three hills, which I would approximate to be close to 100 ft tall. The white concrete stairs often lead up quite steeply and remind me of kung fu movies.

The Great Wall of China is laid out similarily to these paths, crookedly, and often juts out. The great radio tower lies in the background, which has become a marker for whenever I leave close to home.


Along the pathway directly next to the ocean you will sometimes find holes in the pavement, which fill up with water and these one inch scuttle bugs.

In Ontario we'd have something that looked like this, but smaller, and non-aquatic.

The next district over (I reside in Xian jo) is Jida. It contains many businesses and shops, whereas Xian jo has mostly apartments, and shops.

This is where the Fisher Girl is found.

I have aptly named this the Finger Slug. There are many things in the forest of the island (especially at night) that make noises, and this little guy I stumbled on by chance.


Just around the bend here is Gongbei district, and the beach I went to.


These are my favourite creatures. Often they will dart out and away so quickly, you never would have known they were there. In this case I was trying to get a photo, but it disappeared before I could. Although I could not see it, I knew it hadn't left, so I snapped a photo with the flash on and, later, discovered it. Very good at camouflage, and about two inches long.

Living in Zhuhai

There are so many Chinese people living in China, that the question arises, what to do for work? There are many jobs you can fall into because there's nowhere else to go, cleaning the street with brooms, begging, or being a gate attendant at an apartment complex.
Meet No. 78

His real name might be in Chinese under No. 78 on his nametag, but I like to thing of the guy as No. 78. Along with a few others, he monitors people coming or leaving the apartment, opens the gate for cars waiting to come in, or even opens the gate for cars leaving! He works long hours, and we often find him 'asleep at the switch'.
Today he gave me something that looked like candy, with his broken english of 'hellohowareyou'. Of course I accepted it, and it turned out to look fibrous and tasted of mint, chocolate, and meat.

Its taste lasted longer than chewing gum, and made my throat hurt, similar to when I tried chewing tobacco, which made me think perhaps it was. Kristen thinks it's meat, but despite my chewing, the stuff would not break down.
10 pts for guesses.

This is where I live, on the 24th floor. Can you see the pride flag Heather is flying out the window?

I told her to stick her head out and say hello, but something about being so high up made her stay inside.

This little guy is No. 79

Luckily we've only had a few in the apartment, and that was only recently after moving in, otherwise we've not had to deal with any cockroaches. On the street you sometimes see them scuttle by. They're often confused though with the rats that are a foot long, excluding tail. I like to think of them as giant hamsters.

Here is a good view of the island I like to jog around.

It's about 2.5 km around, and can be summited in three areas. It has majestic, sometimes steep, stairs, akin to old Chinese movies, and contained the giant spider whose picture is on this blog. It's very much a jungle inside, and fun because it reminds me of when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
This picture also demonstrates what I think is the pollution in the ocean. Zhuhai sits beside the Pearl River outlet and therefor gets all the poop and pollution from all inland. I haven't braved the waters yet, but I'm told the islands have much better water. This area pictured is also a port (with about 1/4 the ships shown) and today was a particularily bad day for colored water.
Also pictured is a famous restaurant, the name of which I do not know. It specialises in seafood and is quite expensive, for the area, coming in at over 100 kwai per person. Roughly $17 cad.
The road you can see is called Lover's Ave., and stretches along Zhuhai's coastline. It has a beautiful ocean view filled with islands, and palm trees and century plants line the route every few feet.

It's been a lovely couple of days off. Drinks and bbq, sunny days and swimming. To start off, the good/bad news. Although Typhoon Lupit is no more, a new possibility has emerged for a windy storm, W23.

I realise that the last typhoon was completely unpredicted in its actions, and that even mentioning this one, so early on into its birth, is quite premature in alerting you, across the world. I am, however, a storm chaser at heart, so chew on it. :)
After talking with my other half and some Saskatchewanians, I left for the pool, meeting AD, Yannis, and David.

It's been quite a while since coming to this regular haunt of mine, and I made good use of it as such. The water had cooled considerably (it's fall, don't you know?) and with the daytime ambient temperature of 30 degrees still, it was quite shocking to get into water only slightly chillier than warm. I'd lost a bit of weight from being sick, and alonside had become a sort of homebody, but today began my swimming work-out regimen and my insatiable appetite returned (four meals a day).
I also sustained a fair sunburn, but the good thing about Zhuhai is that sunburns aren't as painful and never last more than two days.
(I put sunblock on my face)
Here we have a fisherman's meeting. Reminds me of a bunch of Gidos :) Can you spot the odd man out? I was about 300 yards away; dunno how he spotted me!

Early on into my trip I found a dead butterfly moth of gargantuan proportions. I didn't have my camera with me; alas there is no record of it, save my hope to once again find it. It measured nearly the width of my palm and in fact actual hair was growing from its belly, reminiscent of a bat. This next photo is of a similarily unique butterfly, albeit more beautiful, and only the size of a 1947 American penny.

Late this afternoon I had planned to visit the island in search of an insect/animal scavenger hunt, but made it too late and only had time to see a few things. The water has been quite choppy lately, perhaps from the barrage of storms the Pacific is throwing our way, but in any case I couldn't see the little crabs I once did that scuttle around. (to come later)
These human contraptions are heard hundreds of feet away, flying so quickly they often blur for the human eye, and produce a sound similar to the very fabric of time ripping away. You'll notice two of the men operating these things need to sit themselves on the ground, and for good reason, there is so much force exerted that perhaps small children have flown away on an excessively windy day trying to manipulate such devices.

I can only imagine in a typhoon.
At first I thought these were bats, but as I got closer I could hear a weird cry and see these flying bodies were much larger than the fist sized bats that always come out around dusk.

Also at dusk these white cranes (i think) mass into circular flight, settling for the night up toward the summit of the island. My next day off I plan to be at the top ready to see if I can't get a better view of the hundreds of these birds as they spin countless times around the island before finding their resting spot.

The arch covering the only entrance and exit to the island, bathed in the haze of a Chinese sunset.

And a lone walker, hitting the path by himself.

Ocean

Taking bus 99 down Lover's Road, within view of the ocean the entire time, I stopped to view a 10 foot stone sculpture of the Fisher Woman, meant in ancient times to wait for the return of fisherman. Actually, I'm sure this superstition is still upheld with current generations of fisherman. Another nice day, but it's so hazey here that you can barely see anything more than a few hundred feet away. If there are clouds in the sky, you cannot see them unless they're directly in front of the sun. Every day hundreds of people visit this sculpture, so it's quite popular. It is the image of Zhuhai.

Further down I found what many people do here in China: buy a bunch of crap and try to resell it. Jewelry, statuettes, lawn gnomes, and shoes are primarily what can be found on the street, sometimes for a cheaper price; authenticity is still a question. You may find Niek shoes anywhere.

My destination was the beach, a twenty minute bus ride down the ocean. Unfortunately I have yet to find a clean beach, as this one was littered with broken shells and glass, condom wrappers, and flotsam. Vaguely there was a smell of wet cardboard. A handful of locals were swimming, but the four other white people ( I think they were British) and myself stayed clear of the water, which had large flotsam and was a murky brown. The tide changes the water depth about eight feet at maximum, and sometimes the waves are a few feet high. I'm still waiting for a typhoon to bring waves that I can play in.
Speaking of, Typhoon Lupit has pulled its tail between its legs and run away. It probably won't even hit Taiwan now, and has decreased to barely a category 1.
As I took the bus back from the beach, I noticed another crab had begun to ransack a beach restaurant. These little guys have become an infestation on the southern coast and locals can't seem to control them. Luckily the bus had already left.

Went to Jida township with Heather and Kristen for supper, bowl of noodlemeatvegetable. Cheapest place yet to have supper, just 10 kwai each (1.3 CAD) (with beer) Gellato followed, banana and chocolate ecstacy, which was very delicious, but more expensive than supper for a much smaller proportion. Worth it.
Finally, I wanted to demonstrate how Zhuhai is a fishing port, but showing the difference between the street outside my apartment. The first half is at 3 in the afternoon; the latter at 4am.

w22 (lupit)

Part: Beijing

Took an overnight train to Beijing through some really pretty mountains.

The cupping we'd had done (awkwardly, more so in fact, than the previous 'hairwashing' experience)showed dark welts on my back, and made my skin feel stretched into knots, the opposite of a massage.

People were in good spirits

Especially this guy. cigar, anyone?

Travelled past some nuclear sites

Landed in Weng Fu Jen, and travelled to the market streets. Bought my second Tibetan Prayer Bowl and found scorpions

I had one for breakfast

It was still alive.
Made our way over to Tian An Men Square, but weren't able to see Mao's tomb.

There are so many people, in fact, this is what sidewalks here look like, or wait, is that the metro?

Went into the Forbidden City and got some great panoramic shots


Here's me next to the biggest temple gate.

Along the way we ran into a garden

and some weird tall Chinese lady doing her make up for ten minutes, garnering attention

and some more funny Chinese shirt translation

We met another Chinese lady at Bar Street who sang and danced with everyone. Everyone danced like fools. Everyone had a good time :)

To end the night, we lit another Chinese lantern. Earlier in the night, one got caught on some power lines, before being swept away by the wind. Luckily this time there was a mall cop who ran after us to get our picture taken with him

in time for the lantern to get away

Part: Inner Mongolia

After more than a few days thinking I had the h1n1 flu, i went to the doctor, upon getting back, to find i have a bacterial throat infection. Not as bad as west nile, my body's immune system feels like shut down while i went on vacation. Already i feel much better.

Part One: 2000 kms to Hohhut, Inner Mongolia, 37 hours

Hard Sleeper, three people per wall. after 8 hours, not comfortable.


Halfway through a perpetual twilight was created by the haze of fires or pollution, lasted the whole day's travel.


Could only get a quick snapshot of this sphinx-like structure of two chinese dudes layin.


Arrived in Hohhut 7am to a beautiful mountainous (and cold) sunrise, but compared to the past month of +30 degrees, it was welcome relief. Got a hotel until i could meet up with the group from Changchun I'd met a month ago, (a friendly bunch), and slept in. Saw some temples, ate some food, finally found the nefarious chinese lanterns. I'd heard so much about them in canada, and yet here, they are not so popular.
First attempt was close to a hotel, and nearly crash landed into it. The following one caught fire and nearly burned Fitz alive.

Took an angry taxi one minute out of the city to be dropped in the middle of nowhere, but that turned out alright. Travelling with my American counter-part Fitz, we stumbled upon a non-descript Chinese burial ground, probably recent, and an old morraine which led up gradually to the tallest mountain hill around.

The views were amazing, and we set off some noisemakers at the top, and even then, with the wind and open space, they still hurt my ears.



We celebrated Chinese National Holiday Oct 1 in Hohhut, and everywhere for three days straight, we could see fireworks.

Day before we left to Beijing had supper with the group at a Muslim spot, a kind of stew with some beer. By now, anything that resembles homemade Canadian food is a definite want on my list.


More to come later about the beijing section.

Isn't this just sacriligious?

"Feel the romance of British Royalty. Diana Underwear."