 鲜花( 74)  鸡蛋( 0)
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发表于 2011-9-1 18:31
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We were out at 6 AM, and there were almost no people on the streets. We walked for a couple of kilometers, and made it to a major street - 8 lanes wide, plus 2 collector lanes, and freakishly tall skyscrapers as far as the eye can see - which is still less than 1/2 kilometer.
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I asked the wife if the fog ever lifts around here. She told me that what we are seeing is not fog, but pollution. I looked up at the sun and stared at it, and stared at it, and stared at it some more. If I had done that in Edmonton, my retinas would be burned to a crisp. Not in Jinan though, in Jinan you can look at the sun all day long and you might get a little scratchy around the eyes, but that's it. I could not believe people lived in this environment. Wifey told me to wait a bit, that the rain last night cleaned the air. She was right, by 4 PM that afternoon, we could not see the tops of some of those skyscrapers for the thickness of the pollution.
9 e8 M/ n) T4 ] c# A, lWe started walking back at around 7, and those deserted alleys were now completely lined with people selling every kind of fruit and vegetable you could aver want, selling fresh killed lamb, live chickens, live shrimp, crab and other assorted seafood. Some sold beer and hard liquor, some had freezers with iced cream bars and cones (ours are better tasting - sorry China but Canada rules the dairy world), along with clothing and nick-knacks of all kinds. We had just come by here an hour earlier and no one was here, and now the alleys were filled with buyers and sellers.
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+ c% { p! P" `2 ~; SNow one thing I had been warned about was eating from street vendors, and that it was a quick way to empty your guts through a process called "Travellers Diarrhoea", which I am told is not fun at all. Wifey, who apparently has guts of steel, wanted to eat a breakfast wrap thing which was being made by one of the hawkers in the alley. She used to eat them all the time when she lived in China and was craving it badly. It consists of an egg-flour batter which is spread thinly on a dirty looking pizza pan that sits above a coal fire. Once it is cooked, shallots are sprinkled on it, and it is wrapped and served to you in a thin plastic bag. So she bought one for 3.80 Yuan (about $.60 Canadian). She ate half and I ate half. That could have been a big mistake, but I survived with no ill effects.4 k7 s8 i0 Y+ Q
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We headed home, where ma-inlaw was cooking up breakfast. A traditional breakfast in China consists of making Soy milk, which is soy beans boiled until they are a thick soupy drink, and is served on bowl to drink from. I have experienced soy milk in Canada and I didn't like it there, so I was having no part of it. I found some bread in the refrigerator, ate some of that and had a couple of bottles of water to go with it. I knew that if I was going to survive China I would have to do something about breakfast. More on that later. |
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发表于 2011-9-1 18:29
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发表于 2011-9-1 18:47
发表于 2011-9-1 18:53
Thank you!
