You ain't yet seen crowded.

I'll be trying over the next while to put some random unused photos to good use. We really need to go out and do some real travelling again, because I'm not sure how much entertainment I can milk out of some of these (there are reasons I haven't posted them before). This particular batch is from my cell phone, which is my camera of last resort, as the quality is low.

Contrary to its reputation, not everywhere in China is crowded, and even crowded places are not so all the time. However, if a tide of humanity is ever going to sweep over and drown you, it will be it may well be in the aisles of the Auchan grocery store. It is actually a French chain that got in early when Chinese consumers started to have a little money. Although the more traditional market streets are still thriving, Auchan attracts huge crowds. They don't always appear to actually be shopping. Last year (before we were here) during the big freak snowstorm that virtually paralyzed all of China, the poor crowded in and milled about all day for shelter from the cold.

The store was already huge, but in December, an entire interior wall was opened up for a major expansion. It is now, hands down, the biggest store I have ever been in, and that includes American mega-stores like Bass Pro Shops. Amazingly, it can still be completely packed. When it is, it feels like an entire shopping mall of shoulder to shoulder humanity.

By contrast, there is another French chain here, Metro, that is more of a warehouse store, which caters to restaurants and businesses. It requires a membership, but most of the expats have one through their employers. It is, unsurprisingly, much less crowded, although not useful for regular grocery shopping. We don't go that often, as it is on the wrong side of town for us. However, it is one of the few places in town that I will buy meat. I have made it a point to observe how they are handling and storing the meat in most of the shops around here. Suffice it to say, I haven't liked what I've seen.

Back to the crowd topic. Here is a comparison of Auchan on the left, Metro on the right.

Notice how the people just sort of blend into each other in the distance. Now imagine that you can see the same thing 360 degrees around you. Remember that a typical camera can't capture distance and depth very well. You get the picture.

This China project is good for a few years, but I intend to save enough money that, when it is over, I can go live in a nice, quiet rural area.

Monday Miscellany

It's not actually Monday, I just thought I would try to get back in the groove of more regular posting. We went to Hong Kong for Christmas; partly for the vacation, and partly to be able to do American-style shopping for American-style goods, which we sorely needed. We now have a good handle on day-to-day shopping in China, but shopping for durable items like clothing, electronics, etc., is often just too daunting here. There are just too many variables and questions: Where do I find it? How much does it cost? Is it real or counterfeit? How does this item really compare to that item? I made half a dozen shopping outings for a laptop computer for Allyne's birthday, and then finally gave up (a friend helped my out by ordering one through the IT department at his corporate employer).

I may post some pictures related to Christmas, but Lee and I decided that I was going to post about Thanksgiving, and she would take Christmas. Therefore, I'll give her first choice of the photos and the stories. In the meantime, here are some more miscellaneous pictures:



A giant Buddha statue somewhere west of Suzhou. It seems to me that Buddha statues get built as sort of an municipal economy booster. If a place really needs to get some tourist dollars, what better than building a big statue and hoping for some piligrims? I don't begrudge it to them. In the same vein I actually admire how the town of Roswell, New Mexico, found a way to turn the whole "crashed flying saucer" tale into a way to actually have a viable local economy. Side note: the traditional fat "laughing buddha" of China is not Siddhartha, the Indian Prince and origin of Buddhist religion. The true Buddhas are always thin, to represent his self-sacrifice and freedom from the appetites of this world. There is a loose historical source for the fat buddha, which is something about a kind hearted monk of centuries past. I suppose you could loosely equate him to a Santa Claus figure.

I really amused myself with this next photo. It calls to mind on of those old cheesy/good monster movies, like the bronze statue monster in Jason and the Argonauts. Or perhaps the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters.

A spot on the shore of Tai Hu lake. (a redundancy for me to write it that way, since Hu means lake).

Seemingly every stinkin' consumer product in Asia has a cute face on it. It gets old sometimes.