The bridge in Tianjin that leads into Italian district. The river is called the Hai He or Hai River, and runs approximately from the northwest to the southeast with plenty of curves. Mandi's apartment is about a ten minute bike ride south of here.
Me standing on the bridge. Looking at the background, I think riverfront construction might be a big deal these days. Since I walked along the Hai He in 2006 this part of the city has changed completely - from old buildings in various states of decay and demolition with lots of open rubble piles to either new construction or the various new riverwalks. Sweeping away the past, but I'm sure it's hard to argue with a wide, attractively landscaped future.
The old and the new. At one point riding back into Beijing, I realized that every single skyscraper that I could see, covering my entire field of view through the window, was grey and green like this one - an entire skyline under construction.
The famous bicycles of China are becoming less common, though there are still plenty. Mandi and I have become reasonably competent at riding two to a bike on hers over the last couple days.
A statue of Beethoven (bei duo fen) headlines this small, music-themed sculpture garden at the south entrance to the Italian district.
Mandi’s self-photography skills have not lessened in Asia.
Mandi’s sweet bike on the promenade.
We biked through the Italian district, which is to say that Mandi lugged my chubby self for about 10 blocks. Didn’t really stop for picture time, but here is one with both some typical Western-style residences and the ubiquitous “no dropping things with your chopsticks while eating” sign.
The requisite pedestrian retail street. Not quite Shanghai but good for a stroll.
The world’s most intensely fat baby. Sorry she’s a bit blurry - Mandi was pretending to take my picture. The noodles were good but the chicken had a bit too much bone for us newly-arrived Westerners.
10 comments:
THE FAT BABY PICTURE DOESN'T BLOW UP!!! >:(
Indeed, none of the last three do. And what a shame - that baby is so fat. Blogspot is pretty terrible with the image handling it seems. I'll try to poke at the HTML but I don't really know what I'm doing.
Yes I'm up late.
Dude, Chicken with actual bones is not the worst scenario. Try actual fish with actual bones (unlike those boneless fish you get in a U.S. supermarket)!
Now it is good time for you to get some practice. When you need to improve quickly on how to skillfully eat fish (with bones), you need to practice at lunches and dinners with the girls you want to eventually impress (sorry you no longer have this option). Why? Because the potential danger of leaving a bad impression and the pressure to improve quickly will give you extra motivation to be careful and think more about how you can handle the fish better next time.
The above paragraph is apparently only for those of us who are still available for all those beautiful Chinese girls out there in the world. Unfortunately for those girls, and fortunately for Jackson himself, he has no need to impress them.
--Ruo Chen
Man, that baby is rather fat! I wonder if it's because her parents overfeed her or if she has some endocrine imbalance . . . far from me to speculate from all the way over here. XD
I second Ruochen. Chicken with bones aren't so bad. Fish with bones, much worse. I've learned to pick the meat off the bones with my chopsticks/spoon before consuming. Sometimes, depending on the fish, it could require some finessing.
Yeah! Albert sided with me! He's really Chinese!
Well, in my defense this wasn't like KFC bones. This was like shattered bone fragments that were impossible to avoid. Like they had been cut in half and then the missing half distributed throughout the chicken while the remaining half sat, fragmenting, in the middle of the piece I wanted to eat.
The chicken tasted pretty good though.
Neat pictures! Is that the "smog" everyone talks about or was it a cloudy day?
Its good to see mandi is getting along just fine. How is she doing with the language barrier?
I could try to put together a blog site for you if this isn't working out.
Or try f-ing squid with the kerotin beaks still in tact. Awesome... anyways, those were two incredibly well written blog posts. Epic ( like your beard / goat thing ).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S42pu26WlBQ
J - tell me how you did the picture thing, I keep trying but it keeps kicking me off.
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