2011, Day 024 - Electrician needed

I take you back in time to 2009 and my trip to China. This photo was taken on our last day in Zhuhai from the car window as we ran a few last minute errands before Aunt Nancy took us to the ferry terminal. Yup, we rode gangster class to China from Hong Kong but slummed it on the way back. I don't know if there was a reason why but I remember the ferry being quite cramped and thinking that the exclusive gangster lounge might be nice since we had it all to ourselves on the way over. Oh well...

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-70/f2.8L

42mm, f2.8, 1/320 sec @ 800 ISO

2011, Day 017 - Fishmonger

Back to China! On the eve of Chinese New Year we went to one of the markets where Laura and I explored whilst Aunt Nancy went in search of something, I can't remember but I believe that we didn't even know at the time. Anywho, amongst the peddlers was a fishmonger cleaning a fish for a waiting customer. How can you know if your food is fresh is you don't witness it being slaughtered?

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-70/f2.8L

52mm, f2.8, 1/125 sec @ 200 ISO

2011, Day 015 - Family

As proof of my earlier statement, this was the scene that greeted us outside the Yen family shine in my grandfather's village. Yes, that is smoking and gambling but one the positive side the gentleman on the left in the black leather jacket was the one that took us to the house where Grandpa grew up and showed us the important sights in the village. This is the stock the Yens come from and I rather like it...

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135/f2L

135mm, f4, 1/100 sec @ 400 ISO

2011, Day 012 - Cones of scent

I love the effect of all the incense spirals in this communal shrine in my grandfather's village. There are three shrines that belong to the founding members of the community including one for my family. Not surprisingly our family shrine was in the greatest state of disrepair with men outside playing cards and dice, it seems rather fitting given my grandfather's personality.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 17-40/f4L

21mm, f4, 1/25 sec @ 3200 ISO

2011, Day 011 - Wedged

Continuing with China and the village where my grandfather was born, this is the tail end of a trash collection vehicle that required us to huddle in the doorway of the houses lining the alley to make room for its passage.

Thank goodness for the usability of Canon's 5D Mark II at high ISO. This is one of those shots taken immediately after coming back out into the light from a dimly lit building where I forgot to lower the ISO. It's slightly grainy at 100% but still completely acceptable.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135/f2L

135mm, f2, 1/8000 sec @ 1600 ISO

2011, Day 006 - Flight

Another photo from my trip to China. This photograph was taken at the village were my grandfather grew up in one of the narrow alleys between homes and shows one of my guides and occasional shadows fleeing back to the safety of her home after the novelty of my visit wore off.

In re-processing this file I tweaked the colors, adjusted the histogram, applied a little vignetting and sharpened the results.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 135/f2L

135mm, f4, 1/200 sec @ 100 ISO

2011, Day 005 - Aftermath

I was going through some of my photos from China taken about two years ago and decided this one could use a little more attention. I wanted to increase the contrast and desaturate the colors to make it look moodier and a little bit dirtier. There are a number of little elements that I like in this photo; the rope reflected in the puddle, the scattering of bones like this is some ferocious beast in its layer and the wet feet and dirty coat of the dog.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-70/f2.8L

70mm, f4, 1/2500 sec @ 400 ISO

Day Seven in Zhuhai - The Departure

This morning marked our final day in Zhuhai. Nancy has been a phenomenal host and we had even more Chinese New Year celebrations planned. Today we had a bit of a lie in and didn't get started until we left for lunch.

Before going to the hotel, again, for New Year's lunch we went to Nancy's mother's apartment to meet up with everyone. Nancy had two sisters and a brother who came with their children. Polly was especially fun as she is larger than life and has a personality that Laura and I could identify with. We chatted for a while, almost all of Nancy's family can speak English, and then departed for the hotel.


Amy on the left and Gordon's daughter on the right (I didn't catch her name).


Left to right: Laura, Amy, Gordon's daughter, and Polly.


Grandma on the left and David on the right.


Polly enjoying herself with on of Nancy's brothers-in-law.

Lunch was much the same as last night's dinner but the company was great. We were seated at the kid's table although some of the "kids" were very near my age and, to round out the table, Grandma and Uncle Gordon sat with us. Both were great sports and we had a lot of laughs and played a few games between courses.


Jeffrey and Cindy playing a game.



Nancy's family, Uncle Gordon is sitting to the left of Grandma in the brown jacket.

After lunch we did a little shopping in a knock-off market. There were lots of really bad fakes but Laura did locate a ghetto-fabulous Louis Vuitton handbag. Thanks to Nancy's haggling skills Laura was able to get almost half off making a cheap bag even cheaper! To top it off there was a great guy singing out in front of the market, he was a little bit intense.


Having completed our shopping on the mainland, we returned home to finish packing our bags in preparation for the ferry back to Hong Kong. Once packed we had a snack at, Nancy's insistence, and she had a visit from some former employees of Andy. After they departed we loaded our stuff into two cars and headed for the port to catch our ferry.

The trip to Hong Kong was uneventful, when we arrived we changed our yuan for Hong Kong dollars and were whisked away, in separate cabs to accomodate all our luggage, to our new home for the next week, the Park Lane Hotel. It's in a nice neighborhood filled with tons of exclusive boutiques, many of which are in the middle of huge sales with massive discounts.






Having settled in, Laura and I ventured out into the city in search of dinner. Unfortunately, the place in the guide book we wanted to try was totally packed so we kept wandering until we made it to a grocery store to get something for dinner and some snacks for later. We ended up with pizza, chips and bananas for dinner, nothing authentic but we were tired and just wanted to eat, get cleaned up and go to bed.


The view from our window.

Sleep is good, we need more of it...

Day Six in Zhuhai - Chinese New Year

To celebrate the new year we got up early to have a traditional meal with Uncle Po and the rest of the Yuans. Uncle Po had reserved a luxurious private dining room in the hotel that was opulently furnished for us to have our morning repast. Instead of running late, like we feared, we were the first to arrive by about fifteen minutes and had an opportunity to peruse Jeffrey's baby albums, much to his chagrin. It's hard to believe that he was born sixteen years ago and that we were all so different back then.




Anywho, we had what was essentially the same meal as we had last night because it is the traditional meal and we're been dining in hotels. It was fun to see them all again and Aunt Helen, Uncle Po's wife, showed us some of the pictures that she's taken as she is an avid photographer. Unfortunately she doesn't speak English and I don't speak Chinese, otherwise we might have had a lot of fun chatting.




Another part of Chinese New Year is the giving of lai see to the young and the old and we benefitted from it as well! Many of the envelopes were fat with cash and, as Jeffrey exclaimed on the way home from breakfast, "I'm rich!" His only concern was that if you bring in more than 8,000 yuan to exchange for Hong Kong dollars they ask for identification and it is a much longer process. What a terrible thing to have to deal with!


Jeffrey with his aunt, Nancy's youngest sister.


Jeffrey with his cousin who apparently is very accomplished at school. She is the daughter of Nancy's youngest sister.

With breakfast complete we returned to Nancy's house to change clothes and go with Jeffrey to the sports club. While that may sound unexciting it is actually a large members-only complex with a gym, a theatre and numerous other modern amenities. We walked through the neighborhood and past the security gates to hail a taxi. Now, you have to understand, there are no real rules of the road in China and the police presence is minimal so the cab drivers are completely insane. They cross multiple lanes of traffic, drive on the wrong side of the road, dart in and out of slower moving vehicles, cut off busses and all sorts of vehicular madness. Plus, they use their horns A LOT, it's is mostly to warn cars, bikes, pedestrians, etc. that they are coming and to move quickly out of their way. There is no anger or annoyance, just lots and lots of honking!

Unfortunately, because of the new year, the sports center was closed but we did get to see a quite remarkable structure. Defeated, we hailed another taxi and too a whirlwind ride to the commercial center for a little window shopping. Again we were thwarted by the holiday and gave up in disgust to return to the house only to be greeted by more bad news, Nancy had the keys to the house and she and David were off having lunch with more friends and family!

Since we were at a loss we took a walk through the neighborhood and Jeffrey pointed out all the abandoned homes, the homes half completed and those undergoing renovations only as time and money allow. Otherwise they stand completely unused and mouldering. At Nancy's insistence (via a phone call) we went to the bowling alley where we played a couple games. Shockingly, I did quite well as I am normally an appalling bowler!



After our little outing and recreation we returned home to rest and relax after a late evening yesterday and an early morning today. That's when I took the time to finish preparing the photos for yesterday's blog post so I hope you'll excuse it's later-than-normal publication. Dinner was scheduled for 6:30 so we had some time to ourselves.

Our dinner companions were to be the Chen family who are David's son's (Patrick) girlfriend Patricia and her family as Patrick is leaving to return to the US tomorrow. They're such great people, even though they don't speak English they tried to include us in their conversations and Laura and I had a few good laughs when we could tell that Patrick was getting a lecture and all the parents were giving advice and poking a little fun at him. I think one of the most enduring memories of Zhuhai is going to be how much people laugh and enjoy themselves. As for the food, it was the same traditional meal as we had this morning with a few added dishes. Just went we thought the meal must be finished they brought out more food and then more food and yet more food!



Completely stuffed, we said our goodbyes to Patrick and the Chens and headed home. With our planned departure to Hong Kong tomorrow we need to pack a bit before we can go to bed so I am off to pack!

Not many pictures today as there was little in the way of sightseeing, maybe tomorrow but I'm not sure because we're dining with a few more people and then, apparently, doing a little shopping, before heading to the big city so who knows?

Day Five in Zhuhai - Chinese New Year's Eve

Today is Chinese New Year's eve, which means that we are going to a big celebration with Uncle Po. I also found out that Uncle Po is Andy's older brother so he is a Yuan! Being the eve of the new year, we didn't have much planned for the morning although Laura and I were treated to a different breakfast than usual. It consisted of rice dumplings with a sweet peanut filling cooked in tea and banana leaf-wrapped rice dumpling things filled with sweetened coconut and peanuts. They were taste but it was a lot of sugar early in the day!

After breakfast Nancy showed me some of the photos that she has taken on her travels. Most were of Szechuan, high in the mountains and they were pretty impressive. Since her recent travels have included her boyfriend David she commented on one picture in which she said he looked like Chairman Mao, which was funny initially but then I realized that it's true, he's just thinner than Mao.

During the course of our show-and-tell Nancy asked if we had fun yesterday and I commented that while the New Summer Palace is beautiful I really enjoyed going to the market with Aileen. She asked me if I would interested in seeing the fish market while cautioning me that it isn't a very clean place but that the fish is really fresh (and in most cases still breathing). How could I pass up such an offer? I enthusiastically told her that I would love to see it and fetched Laura for our adventure.

Shortly after setting off for what I thought was to be the fish market Nancy said that we should have lunch first so we stopped for dim sum and were met by David and Jeffrey. I wish I had a picture because I think it's great that cigarette holders are relatively common here (the guys at the next table were all using them). Enough of a digression... Dim sum was great and Laura got to try pigeon for the first time. During the course of the meal the topic of suitable attire for the evening's socializing came up. Nancy wanted Jeffrey to wear a fur-collared 3/4 length evening coat but he insisted that it is too formal. She then asked if I had brought a suit, which I did not, but Jeffrey offered to loan me a Batman suit that he has which, while generous, I declined, insisting that my own clothes would be more comfortable. We also discuss hair because Nancy thought that Jeffrey should get a haircut (which sounds familiar seeing as my mother says I need one every time I see her and often I have just had one) for which she gave him money but then decided that there was not sufficient time for, to Jeffrey's relief.

Once we were crammed full of dim sum we headed to the fish market. Nancy had a length of hose she wanted to return so she set us loose on the market with the car being our meeting point. As you walk in there are tanks and baskets and bowls and basins everywhere filled with all manner of aquatic life and crouched amongst the various vessels are people cutting, scaling or singing the praises of their goods. We found turtles, eels, snakes, ducks, geese, chickens, and even crocodiles alive and awaiting your dinner table.


















Our adventure in the fish market complete, we returned to the house to prepare for our New Year's eve banquet arranged by Uncle Po. We asked Jeffrey how many people we should expect and he said ten to fifteen but when we arrived there were probably about sixty people and Uncle Po had reserved the banquet hall in a nice hotel. Although Laura and I are very important ourselves we were probably not the most important people in attendance. The Chief of Police was there as was the Mayor of Zhuhai amongst other notable people. We were presented with dish after dish of food prepared especially for the new year and many many people came by to wish the table happiness, health and wealth in the coming year.



Uncle Po is the third from the left and the two men to the right of him are the Mayor of Zhuhai and the Chief of Police, at the far right is Cousin Christopher, Uncle Po's and Aunt Helen's son.



Surprisingly, the dinner lasted only an hour and a half because there is a four hour television show that they broadcast every year, a kind of variety show, that Uncle Po's company helped sponsor so we were all told to go home and watch. Being the good Chinese people that we are, we went home and watched until we got sleepy and went to bed, or tried to because Nancy house is not far from the ocean and they light off all the fireworks along the waterfront so it was quite noisy but sleep finally came...


Nancy and Jeffrey with Lily by proxy.


Nancy with her boyfriend, David.