street snapshot

Even I'm a native in China, I do find things incomprehensible in my normal daily life. They're not the "mainstream" but I suppose they reflect something at some point. Well, instead of a judgemental person, I regard myself as a conscientious one about life.

Location: Beijing


This is the sign for a roast duck restaurant. As you may find, a part of it is missing. And now it's just a "roast bird" reataurant. Or it's a kind of publicity?

Location: my hometown


The local government is trying to popularize English to the salesmen. They chose the most effective way to do it - mark English with Chinese Characters as phonetic symbols. You may ask "Can it work?" No worry, because there's barely any foreigners there in this small town.

[ more about my hometown ]

Location: Shanghai


It was just some light rain, but this metro(from 353 to People Plaza) seemed flooded. I blamed the drainage system in Shanghai.

Location: Nanjing


I saw this catchphrase around Fuzimiao and got very confused. Let me translate it literally "Supporting the army is building a Great Wall. Loving the army is loving the national defence." - What the heck is that?

Location: Meilin, Shenzhen


This is a Police Bike! It's convenient to carry and to chase offenders at back street. At the critical moment, it can even be used as a weapon! (I'm laughing.)

Location: Bao'an, Shenzhen


This is a security guard booth, without any security but a giant police cap. It can surely be frightening to those criminals. Yes, right.

Location: Dongmen, Shenzhen


Remember my "Kappo" classmate? She's not alone. Check this out! "Backcab" and that hideous brand - just another Shanzhai product.

[ more on Shanzhai Kappa ]

writing up on Shanghai

Beijing is worth visiting and blogging.You could write millions of posts about every detail.In other words,Beijing is somewhat not bloggable because you could never pack it up in one or several posts.So let's move on to next station - Shanghai.

- Beijing -

- Shanghai -

"Nothing is so necessary for travelers as languages."I can't quite remember where I picked up this sentence but it spoke my mind when I arrived in Shanghai.It was the first time I realized how hard it could be for those Northern Chinese who first came to Guangdong and encountered jiggly Cantonese.Yea,I have to admit I couldn't understand a word when talked to local Shanghai citizens.It's a shame that I didn't pick some dialect from them.

Three days are too short for me to go through this big city.But I'd like to be outspoken about what I saw.The first one is,Shanghaiers are not so hospitable as Beijingers.I don't know whether it's because the language(I mean,I asked them in Putonghua and they didn't speak it well,so the conversation was disfunctional),but I could feel it in their eyes that "screw you".

As we know,specialties of Shanghai are not popular,even the local people would agree with it.But I reckon there's a reason for it - Shanghaiers put apparel first.Young people are dressy in Shanghai and Beijing but Beijingers also spend time and money on food.I come up with this expressionto discribe Shanghai girls and guys which is "pockets are cleaner than faces",if you know what I mean.But well, everyone has eccentricities and I did focus on their good qualities and minimize my annoyance at their odd ones.I appreciate Shanghai for its history,elegant old buildings and its local yet influential fashion style.