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Mark van der Hoek
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Mark van der Hoek in China (Geoff Fors in China)
- I'm in Guangzhou, China at the moment. What's it like? Hot, after Salt Lake. Climate like San Diego, but warmer. Muggy, overcast, bad air, and it stinks. A dirty city, and crowded. It's a city of incongruity. Some places are very nice, next door to squalor. Rich and poor rub shoulders with indifference. Dress is almost 100% American, and street vendors carry large basket of various fruits and other edibles (?) on a bamboo pole slung across their shoulders. Speaking of bamboo, I passed a phone company service truck, loaded with normal tools like you'd see in America. On top was a ladder. A bamboo ladder. With nice molded rubber feet, obviously manufactured just for that purpose. Well, why not? Bamboo is strong, lightweight, and cheap.
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- Scooters, small motorcycles, and bicycles abound. Perhaps half the traffic is scooters & motorcycles. Most are in poor repair, showing rust and hanging parts. Helmets are worn by all, but it's often no more than a construction worker's hard hat. Not really a problem - you aren't going any where very fast. Oh, the motorcycles are taxis, about half the time. Jump on the back, and hold on tight!
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- Street vendors sometimes stake out a small corner of a sidewalk, and wait, playing the numbers game; hoping enough people pass by that someone will need what they have. Mechanical repairs are made on the sidewalk - it's good enough to serve as a workbench or anvil, as needed. Need some welding done? Right there on the street. Hope passers by know enough not to look at the arc. One vendor of used power tools demonstrated a concrete cutting saw right there on the sidewalk in front of his store. Plastering was being done on a wall - by two workmen dressed in slacks and long sleeved dress shirts.
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- I expect to be here until mid January. Where my next project will be is unknown, but I don't expect it to be overseas again. My stomach can't take much of this! REAL Chinese food is a LOT different from what you get in America! I'll take the local Chinese joint on Main Street any time - just give me a nanosecond to think it over! And the beds are unbelievably hard - picture a sheet of plywood covered with an inch of cotton padding. No, that's not an exaggeration. If there were a sporting goods store available I'd buy a backpacker's sleeping pad for the top of my bed.
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- Speaking of shopping, I bought a nice pair of sweatpants for about 4 bucks. Batteries for my camera are slightly higher than U.S. Computer parts are CHEAP!!! A 15 flat panel monitor for $400? But a camera or camcorder will cost you 20% to 50% MORE than U.S. Clothes are cheap - a suit for $90? Unless it's an American brand name - that will set you back a bit. $80 for a Pierre Cardin shirt.
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