Starbucks

Just a picture of the Starbucks that makes me wait five minutes every morning for my cup of "Blue" coffee. 

Looks normal doesn't it?

No Entry Shopping Mall

The mall under work opens at 10am and not a minute later. The whole place is surrounded by paramilitary-looking mall guards and fences. Here's my view of one while I sit outside Starbucks having a coffee. You can see the fencing on the right.

Someone is trying to break into the mall. He looks around, ready to stearnly scold the interloper and direct him to the correct route around the outside of the mall.

Sometimes, if you show your work badge and babble in English, the security guard will grunt and let you through.

At 10am a bell rings, the barriers are removed and people can begin shopping.

Right turn on Red

Much like parts of the US, China has the right turn on red law. If the light is red you may turn right. Of course this is completely divorced from any other law like: "Don't run over pedestrians".
Note the green crossing man light. All the lights on the junction are functional, if merely suggestions.

Colonel Kim Jong Un

Here's a take on KFC we saw in Qingdao:

And a close-up of the Korean dictator all ready to dish you up a bucket of them DPRK drumsticks.

Sysyphus with Cormorants

Here are some birds on little bits of chord diving for fish and coughing them back up on the boat. They can't swallow properly because of the bit of string tied around their necks.

The fishing was not particularly authentic as the fisherman kept chucking the same fish in the river for the birds to retrieve. Over and over again. 

A much better water town

Decided to visit a better water town. We got a taxi in Shanghai and an hour and a half later we arrived in Xitang. Getting out of the taxi I was commenting on the skills of google maps, since we used it to adjust the taxi driver's Baidu directions. Thirty seconds later I realized I'd left my phone in the now departed taxi.

What to do?

John called up Jing, a rigger with Chinese skills. John then passed her to a policeman and he explained the situation.

Luckily I had a taxi receipt, from which the policeman could track down the driver by phoning the taxi driver.

There was a lot of Chinese shouting interspersed with "Laowai" sort of impolite word for westerners.

The policeman was really shouting. I think the just was:

"I am Policmeman"

"You took Laowai's phone"

"Bring back Laowai's phone"

"Now"

Twenty minutes later the taxi returned with my phone

Well that turned out well. Thanks Jing!

Here's a picture of the water town:

They filmed one of the Mission Impossible films here. They are very proud of this so there are many Tom Cruise pictures dotted around.

We stopped off to get scorpion on a stick

Then we stopped in at a terrace on the canal. It was basically someones back yard. 

He brought us many beers. 

This made John Happy.

This is Mike in the same terrace. We paid this man 20 Yuen to play us some Chinese songs.
This made Mike happy.

Here we are having lunch. It was not a good lunch, but there was beer again.

The Catholic Church: First to be in China

Religion is technically illegal in China, but the catholic church has done some sort of deal with the Chinese government. China is the head of the Catholic church in China so it's all okay.

Here's a church in Qibao. 

There were a few stain glass windows with Chinese Jesus

And here's a saint with some hoisting-to-the-roof-garb next to a plastic panda: