Christine's Website

pothole 1

so a coworker showed me these pics in the Shenzhen Daily and even though I'm a bicyclist, I could not stop laughing. This happened in Xiamen City and I'm not sure where that is in China.

pothole 2

so the photographer was accused of being aware of that pothole and waiting for that Kodak moment instead of warning people of the danger. He countered that his photo gave attention of the pothole to the government, which did fix it shortly after.

here's a batch of Cheung Chau Island (HK) pics, then you'll see some Shenzhen (China) pics and then another batch of Cheung Chau.

Cheung Chau, HK 7

Cheung Chau, HK 6

Cheung Chau, HK 5

Cheung Chau, HK 4

Cheung Chau, HK 3

Cheung Chau, HK 2

Cheung Chau, HK 1

other end of living room

living room

I need to take pics of the other rooms. My apartment is huge. I have 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, huge kitchen and an office. It's in a good location, close to downtown. It came fully furnished and it only costs me about $325 USD a month. And yeah, I am earning Chinese dollars but it comes out to me making about the same amount of money I made in Chicago.

front door

mine is on the right

view from stairwell

My building has no elevator so I must climb 7 flights of stairs to get to my apt. Luckily, the stairwell is open air so with each flight I get to see this really nice view and it makes the stairs more fun to use.

close up

my apt complex

It's a big complex, made up of 3 sections and each section has about 25, 7 story buildings. I've only seen one other Westerner in this complex so far.
The complex has a outdoor exercise section, many trees, a swimming pool, school, some shops and a huge farmers market.

another landmark

This tacky building is across the street from my building. Not only is it funny to see but it also helps me to remember where to get off the bus.

Futian, Shenzhen 7

street hurdles

Many streets here have metal gates that separate the opposite sides of traffic. I suspect this is to prevent pedestrians from crossing unsafely in the middle of the road and to prevent cars from driving on the opposite side. It's a pain in the ass because there are times when traffic is light enough to safely cross in the middle and you'll have to go all the way to the corner or climb stairs using the overpass. But as you can see in this pic, the gates are not a good deterrant. I don't try hopping the gates because I am clumsy and there is very little clearance from oncoming traffic.

Futian,Shenzhen 6

These road signs are useful but not all signs here have pinyin (romanized written Chinese) like this one does. All the street signs I've seen do have pinyin in addition to the Chinese characters but the streets signs are small, infrequent, on the sides of the roads and are sometimes defaced or hidden behind tree branches. So sometimes you have to walk practically a kilometer down a street to find out what street you are on.

landmarks

I love these purple buildings. They are located at the intersection of 2 major streets and are very close to where I live. Without these buildings, I'm sure I'd spend even more time lost and wondering in Futian.

mini buses

Mini bus drivers are insane. I think they get paid per passenger so time is money to them. They generally stick to a route and the fare isn't negotiable. Though it seems at night, the route can vary and the driver might decide it'll be faster to drive on the opposite side of the road. The rides are really bumpy and if you're standing, you'd better be holding onto something, even if you're not drunk. Sometimes even before you're done getting on or off the mini bus, it'll start to pull out. My second week here, I saw a rear wheel suddenly fly off a mini bus passing by. It didn't appear anyone was injured luckily.
That said, if you ever come here, you have to experience the mini bus. Depending on the road and if you're standing, it can feel like an amusment park ride. They run much later, more frequent, less crowded, faster and definitely more exciting than taking a city bus.

Futian,Shenzhen 5

Futian,Shenzhen 4

Futian,Shenzhen 3

Chinglish

Futian, Shenzhen 2

Futian,Shenzhen 1

Cheung Chau, HK 43

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Cheung Chau, HK 3

Cheung Chau, HK 2

Cheung Chau, HK

HK skyline from the ferry 2

HK skyline from the ferry