bobskoot:
Things are not working right here. Also I cannot access blogger. I think I am being censored by China's watchdog policy of no free speech.
We did not realize that we were visiting during the National Nationwide Holidays where the whole country shuts down and many make their pilgrimage to Tiananmen Square to visit Chairman Mao's grave. Thousands of people everywhere, long waits at all the tourist sites and few washrooms.
We could hardly ever touch the Great Wall, lots of pushing and shoving and one of the group could have gotten pick pocketed, he lost his wallet.
We decided to climb up the other side of the mountain where there were less people; lots of contrast here with old and new, and rich and poor; lots of beggars in the streets and all the slums are covered with high fences so we can't see over, but being in a high bus we couldn't help but notice.
The last photo is the main shopping area of Shanghai, West Nanking Road. You can't believe the people and all the stores. If you didn't see the Chinese characters on the neon signs you could be in New York City.
If this works I may be able to send a few photos when I can. We are staying in a different city each night for the next 8 days.
I just checked, I cannot log into YouTube either.
I think this is the way for China to control pictures and information from the outside world. I was afraid this was going to happen from the information I got before we left home.
I will have much to say about my opinions after being here for a few days. I have video of beggars in the street pestering our bus tour. They are waiting for us to get off the bus and just follow us everywhere. It is hard to say no when a blind man comes up lead by his wife and begging for money to buy food. I almost broke down and gave them some money, but we were told NOT to. One of the other ladies gave some $$ to one and she was pestered by others.
We went to a shopping mall and every six feet when you get to the next stall the girls handling the stalls are calling out to you and offering their goods for sale and trying to barter. I could have gotten a Columbia running shoe for 20 Yuen (RMB) which is around $16.00 CDN without even bargaining. I think these are originals stolen by factory workers. After all everything is made here.
After a short while we couldn't stand it anymore and had to leave the mall, then when we get outside the know we are not locals so again we are bombarded with street hawkers mostly with fake Rolex watches. You could even buy fake Gucci handbags and select the purse model from an actual Gucci catalogue.
Bob
Ask Bob whether he can buy a fake BMW motorcycle too.
ReplyDeleteThey do actually licence build the older F650 there.
N
Thank you for posting Bob's message. Blogger does support an email posting service that works fairly well. It's the easiest way to post from my phone as some features are non-functional using the phones browser. The other way is to use a service such as Posterous which will accept feeds a variety of ways and then feeds other services such as Blogger. I was thinking of mentioning these to Bobskoot because of the Internet restrictions in China but who knows, these methods may now be blocked as well...
ReplyDeleteMy son came back with some stuff including a fake Rolex that ran backwards. He thought that was cool.
Thank you again,
Richard
Thanks Sonja, for updating us on Bobskoot's trip.
ReplyDeleteAll those people...I'm not sure I would do well with that, but the Wall of China - awesome! What a wonderfully rich culture with roots that go deep into history. As to the communication restrictions and such, I'm really looking forward to Bob's opinions when he returns.
Be safe Bobskoot and Mrs. Bobskoot!