Had a day off the blog yesterday. Decided to spend it with our daughter, after a lot of frustration, anger and general grumpiness she has her first tooth.
Herself went to the silk market and had a lovely time ["It was not lovely, it was brilliant. With major difficulty I restrained myself from furnishing the full house with new silk curtains, hisself should be pleased"] I went to the technology/electronics market. This was not exactly a disappointment, the place was huge and piled to the ceiling with electronic goods. Unfortunately the Chinese Governments purge (prior to the Olympic games) on "genuine copies" has been hugely successful and everything there was the real deal. I was surprised to discover that it was only 10-20% cheaper than the UK which corresponds to the vat. I suppose this is good news as we are paying the world price for electronics. I did however get a lot of covers, bags and accessories all very good quality at only 10% of the UK price.
Just over the canal from Shamian island where we are staying is the famous (or infamous) Qinping market. This used to be full of all kinds of birds and live animals, not any more. The bird flu regulations mean no more birds and the meat hygiene regulations mean no more animals leaving the place completely for Chinese herbal medicine. Qinping is the world wholesale centre for Chinese medicine. Believe me I will never ever again eat any Chinese medicine as long as I live. The whole place smells of meat and bonemeal with a whiff of rotting carcase and drying fish. Drying and quality control are carried out on the street next to the sewers. However this area is one of the last bits of old China left.
The new China is just across the street. A blizzard of cash, cranes and concrete is changing this country from a third world to a first world state in front of your eyes. I watched a huge sky scraper add two storeys this week alone. The Chinese people are mostly from rural areas and as such share the same direct and open approach to life. This will change too as the generations change. If you want to see China as it was come now, it will not be here in ten years time.