I've been back in Canada for two years now, and I still miss the cacophony of GZ. The reverse culture shock has been much more difficult to handle than the initial shock of arriving in China. I live in Duncan on Vancouver Island, which is pretty small, but I travel a fair amount for work. To this day, I still find Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago and other major cities to feel somewhat abandoned. The only exception I can think of is New York City - it feels like Hong Kong with more English.
If any of you have any photos of the area to share, this is a good place to put them.
This photo was shot at the Big Hippo (Da He Ma) Water Park in Nanhu, which was just across the street from my school. These women usually did their early-morning tai chi in the parking lot. I was at the bus stop on this particular morning and decided to take a few shots of the ladies. Just as I snapped, one of the many moto-taxi dudes came ripping through the lot.
In light of the city-wide motorcycle ban that came into effect last year, have any of you noticed a decrease in the number of the motorcycle taxies? I'm not sure if the outlying areas such as Nanhu are affected by the ban.
3 comments:
Hi Len, the motorcycles in GZ are all gone. It's kind of odd to be on the streets and see no motorcycles. I won't go so far as to say I miss them. A motorcycle guy and his buddy stole my bag one time (nothing valuable except for some expensive English teaching books). My daughter nearly got run over by a guy on the sidewalk. But now the traffic seems more orderly and safer. But in Panyu and elsewhere there are still a lot of them.
By the way, nice picture. I don't know why but as soon as I saw it I knew it was you. Nice contrast between the ladies doing their tai chi and the motorcycle guys zooming around.
Hey Dave....Good to hear from you. I used the motorcycle taxis on a semi-regular basis when I lived in the Nanhu area - usually when I needed to make a quick run to Guang Wai and didn't want to get stuck in the traffic with a regular taxi or bus. The motorcycles would cruise through the traffic between the lanes, over the sidewalks and even through outdoor markets to get me there quickly. There's nothing that makes you feel more alive than going about 50 k and hour between two city busses wearing a "helmet" that offers the cranial protection of an ice cream bucket!
Good times, indeed!
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