May 22, 2011

Picture Dump: #12


Not two minutes from the front door of my building there's this weird little shanty town. The families all live in tiny one-bedroom apartments that double as stores- there's a small restaurant, a convenience store, a tea shop, a metal recycling center, a tile cutter, and some other stuff. It's pretty crazy that people can live like this, surrounded on all sides by sprawling high-rise apartment complexes and shiny university campuses and within spitting distance of what will be a metro station some day.

Eileen's theory is that they're all holding out for some day when a developer or the city government will buy them out. Given the location, even their tiny little street should be pretty valuable, so maybe that's it. Until then, the 'China miracle' is leaving them behind.

May 21, 2011

Picture Dump: #11


The other day we had a really hot morning, that turned into a really rainy and cool afternoon, that turned into an extremely foggy evening. Just as the sun was setting all the fog cleared out, leaving this sunset. The picture doesn't really capture how red it was.

May 20, 2011

Picture Dump: #10


Hong Kong Island, taken from Kowloon

May 19, 2011

Picture Dump: #9


Prayer flags on a nice windy morning. Can hardly call it a proper balcony without a few of them around.

May 18, 2011

Picture Dump: #8


View from my balcony, facing south-east. Wuchang just keeps going, all the way to the horizon.

May 17, 2011

Picture Dump: #7


The view from my balcony, facing south-west. There's a driving range in the foreground, with South Lake behind it, and Tangxun Lake a barely-visible sliver beyond that.

May 16, 2011

Picture Dump: #6


My building used to have a nice front street access area, but the subway construction cut it off completely. Now you have to step down that ledge to get to the front door of the building. This taxi driver apparently didn't notice the ledge and went right over it- he spent about an hour underneath his car building a ramp behind his front tires before he could finally back up and get away.

May 15, 2011

Picture Dump: #5


Back in Wuhan, the new apartment building. Taken days after I moved in, back in early March. Some nice Wuhan Metro construction taking place right in front. My room is on the 29th floor- the very top!

May 14, 2011

May 13, 2011

Picture Dump: #3


On the mainland, 150 RMB will get you an enormous room at a comfortable, cool hostel. In HK, it gets you a filthy tiny little closet of a room in the shabbiest building imaginable.

May 11, 2011

Picture Dump: #1


A street in Hong Kong, back in February.