Two More Boat Scenes in Hengyang

I hadn't planned to continue yesterday's boat theme, but life had its own plans. So here is a night scene of two men fishing in the Xiang River:

And here is another man fishing in the Xiang River at night:

The first photo was taken in June last year and the second last night in Hengyang. It wasn't until recently I realized I had captured fishing scenes with contrasting boats at nearby locations, as indicated by the buildings in the background. In both cases, no other boats with people fishing were around.

A Hengyang Return

A boat in the Xiang River as the sun was setting one day in June last year:

A boat not far away on the other side of the Xiang River one day in April this year:

This is my way of saying I am back in Hengyang, Hunan, though for a much shorter time than the two months I spent here last year. I have already experienced and captured so much during recent days it could occupy my blogging for at least a month or two. That doesn't even count what I still have from last year.

As usual, more soon . . .

Perfect for a Wedding: Purchase a McDonald's French Fry Costume From China Online

As I mentioned before, a recent set of photos from Shenzhen, Guangdong province, could inspire a number of questions. Some of the questions I had were about a McDonald's french fries costume in one of the photos.

The person wearing the costume in the above photo was standing near a McDonald's in Huaqiangbei while another person was handing out McDonald's coupons. It appeared the costume had seen better days. Fortunately for the restaurant and anyone eager to be a box of McDonald's french fries, the seemingly same costume is available for purchase online. One Guangdong-based store sells a complete costume through China-based AliExpress for US $206.

The costume includes a helmet "strong and hard enough to avoid breaking and sudden striking" — a valuable feature since you never know when this costume might provoke an attack. The seller's list of settings where the costume could be appropriate includes "wedding ceremony".

I don't question the authenticity of the McDonald's restaurant, but, as far as I can tell, the costume doesn't represent an official McDonald's character. The closest I found were the Fry Kids, formerly known as the Fry Guys. Although they have an affinity for fries, they are not fries themselves, which has its advantages.

So I am left wondering whether the McDonald's Corporation has approved or cares about the use of this french fry costume for promotions. I would also be interested to learn whether they have approved the public selling of the costume, which includes their registered trademark.

One thing I am not questioning, though, is whether there are any opportunities for the costume in a wedding. In Hong Kong, which borders Shenzhen, McDonald's offers wedding parties.

From the wedding party page of the McDonald's Hong Kong website

12 Photos From a Quick Trip to Shenzhen

My recent visit to Shenzhen lasted less than 48 hours before I bordered a high-speed train. Below are 12 photos shared in the spirit of "some of what caught my attention and interested me in addition to monsters and huge mobile phone markets during a brief period of time in Shenzhen". In one manner or another, each photo captures a part of Shenzhen's culture and environment. But there is certainly much, much (much) more to this rapidly changing city which fascinates me every time I visit. And even as I look at the photos now, they continue to inspire new questions.

So here is traffic on a road:

Traffic in an alley:

Traffic on a pedestrian street:

Signs for sale:

A sign on clothing:

A sign on a young woman's arm:

A sign for vocational training:

A sign for a skin whitening creme:

A message on the front:

A message on the back:

A promotion for mobile phones:

And last but not least, a promotion for McDonald's french fries:

Any questions now?

More from other lands soon . . .

Genuine, Fake, and In-between: A Visit to Electronics Markets at Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei

Several days ago I spent part of one afternoon in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei (also known as Huaqiang North) commercial area. According to ShenzhenShopper:

Theres over 20 shopping malls located in the Huaqiangbei area which provides about 70 million square meters of business area. Annual sales reaching over 20 billion, and there’s something like 130,000 people employed in the area. Yep, it’s large.

Huaqiangbei is most known for being one of the biggest electronics markets in the world. For many first time visitors, especially those already familiar with typical consumer electronics chain stores in China, I would agree with the suggestion on PIXEL to:

Skip [the consumer electronics shops] and spend your time in the buildings dedicated to Android tablets, “Shanzhai” phones (copies), phone accessories, components, LEDs, various gadgets, etc.

Just one of the shopping centers on its own can be overwhelming to those not accustomed with their scale, density, and intensity. Charles Arthur shared a gallery of photos on The Guardian. As prelude to another gallery of photos on Tech in Asia, Paul Bischoff wrote:

Within lies stall after stall after stall of nearly every gadget, component, and tool imaginable. Over half a dozen city blocks are filled to the brim with crowded marketplaces, each ranging from four to 10 floors high. Photos hardly do it justice. The place is immense.

For a variety of reasons, I kept my photo-taking activities to a minimum this time. The photo above is of an alley on the outskirts of Huaqiangbei. On both sides are huge electronics markets which aren't labeled even on Seeed Studio's detailed Shenzhen Map for Makers (free PDF download). The several markets I visited on this block mostly focused on mobile phone products — from components to complete phones to accessories. Here is just a small taste of what I saw in these markets where the line between genuine and fake can be blurry:

• Thousands of mobile phones with cracked screens, some showing clear signs they were from the U.S.
• Screens for various brand name phones for sale.
• Workers fixing and cleaning phones.
• Workers affixing brand name labels to unmarked batteries.
• Workers packaging iPhones to appear as new.
• Foreigners making purchases, reminding me of what I learned at a fake stuffed toy wholesale store in Guangzhou.

There is much more to say about Huaqiangbei, but I will leave it this for now. It can be a fascinating place to visit, even if you don't need to change an iPhone 5c into an iPhone 5s.

A Monster in Shenzhen

Part of a promotion at the COCO Park shopping center in Futian District, Shenzhen

Time to Go in Hong Kong

I have seen many "stop" signs in the world. The other day in Hong Kong, I was reminded I have seen far fewer "go" signs.

According to Hong Kong's Transport Department the green sign in the above photo is a "manually operated temporary 'go' sign". Since nobody was operating it at the time and it was standing upright near a "stop" sign facing a similar direction, I could understand if passing drivers experienced some confusion.

As for myself, after pondering the scene, I decided to just follow the sign's advice.

A Feline Minibus in Hong Kong

It isn't a Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro but instead a minibus in Hong Kong with a veterinarian ad:

Trams in Hong Kong aren't the only form of transportation offering a platform for creative advertising.

Chairman Mao Wants More Change

A Hong Kong bookstore sells the perfect item for anyone who believes that no matter how much money they save, they will always need Mao.

Little By Little: More Expression at a Hong Kong Pier

Where there was a temporary Tiananmen memorial in Hong Kong earlier this week, today the pedestrian area was back to its usual state.

Nearby, also as usual, several musical groups were performing — including Poco A Poco.

Next to their sign was a QR code to the Poco A Poco Facebook page which expresses:

Positive Message x Hong Kong!
Spread Love
Spread Smile
Spread Happiness

Although their goals differ from those who built the memorial, Poco A Poco's use of Facebook, popular in Hong Kong but blocked in mainland China, is also a sign of how there is less censorship and more free expression in Hong Kong than almost everywhere else in China.

A Temporary Tiananmen Memorial in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's Kowloon Public Pier offers a stunning view of Hong Kong Island and is a popular destination for tourists, including many from mainland China. When I walked by this past Sunday afternoon on a traditional Chinese holiday, Qingming (Ching Ming) Festival, otherwise known in English as Tomb-Sweeping Day, I saw displays about the violent crackdown which occurred around Beijing's Tiananmen Square nearly 26 years ago. There was also a monument for those who died and posters advertising the yearly June 4 Tiananmen candlelight vigil held in Hong Kong. It was organized by The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China. Their website at www.alliance.org.hk does not appear to be accessible at the moment, but a Wikipedia entry describes their goals as:

. . . supporting patriotic democratic movements in China, putting an end to the current one-party dictatorship established by the Communist Party of China, and building a democratic China. It has become the largest grassroots pro-democracy advocacy group in Hong Kong, comprising over 200 base-level members from labour, councillor offices, religious, students, women and political commentary interest groups.

While I was at the pier, the displays caught the eyes of numerous passersby, some possibly from mainland China where such information is heavily censored. Here is a bit of what could be seen:

Sneaking a Peak at The New York Times in China

The above sign currently appears near a newsstand at the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier in Hong Kong. It caught my eye since since The New York Times is not easy to read in mainland China, especially since it is blocked online.

Despite the challenges, here is one way the Times has tried to reach people in China as described by Heather Timmons:

Every time a new article appears on the Times’s Chinese language website, three or four copies of it appear on “mirror” sites scattered around the internet. While these mirrors, like this one of the company’s home page, are often quickly made inaccessible by censors, new ones crop up constantly, often made or sanctioned by the Times. The recent hacking attack on GitHub targeted a “mirror” of the New York Times’s Chinese-language site was not set up by the Times itself, but the strategy is the same—create a webpage that points readers in China to New York Times’ Chinese language content, and circumvents censors.

For more about the situation and other methods used by the Times, read the full article by Heather Timmons on Quartz.