A Cold, Wet day with hot tea, WuXi tea shop

We made a trip to Da Sha’s tea shop at lunch time .. after 1 & 1/2 hrs it was time to actually go to lunch.
Da Sha is home in Fujian province with family and friends, her little brother and little sister made sure we had a good time.  
L to R around the table: Hu Qiang, Kevin, James Xu & Dai Tuong
Dìdi makes a brew of: TGY, to get the party started. ……………..
Mèi mei makes some High Quality Oolong… 3,000RMB for 500gms. Dai  likes this tea and makes a significant purchase.  Also he has ordered a tea table (same as the one they have in the shop) ……………………...
Now mèimei makes some: Pu-Erh: ………………………………

Barging around WuXi, part iii

WuXi is basically an uninspiring industrial town/city with a population of approx 6-8 million.
The Jing Hang Yun River at night. As seen from the 21st. floor.
Relentlessly, barges ply their trade, when loaded who needs a: “Plimsoll line” just load it to the gunwales.
Riding high,  an empty barge motors up river, only to return… 
Family living quarters: common on all these family enterprises. 

Sunday in the Nan Chang district, part 1

Go fly a kite: Kids play in the open square: ………..

A pleasant man-made park just outside the Kempinski hotel. That will soon see a change.
Lady gardeners discuss the sate of world economics as they work side by side on common toil

WuXi Life; much the same around the world, part B

Zero degree weather .. the laundry still goes out to dry.
A couple of ladies make a fashion statement: …………….  
Approaching one of the fast disappearing “local areas” : ………….
A slow start to a busy day of haggling price and providing life's necessities:

Florida to Scotland, without leaving China.

Well not quite .. Dongguan is at 30C with relative humidity at 75% .. aka Florida. On Wed. am, I’m off to Wuxi, predicting a sizzling:  5C with rain … aka Scotland!

Dongguan is about 90 min drive north from HK, Wuxi, about 2 hr drive from Shanghai.

Blogging in China .. yes it’s a royal pain

The Golden Shield : 金盾工程;  jīndùn gōngchéng, aka The GREAT FIRE-WALL of China .. what to do?

A few folks have asked so here is my current approach:

I gave up on using “Proxy Servers” too quirky. I now use a Global Edge Card. This provides independence from local server / connectivity foibles.   Expense?  Yes, but worth it when you are on the road a lot.  Verizon wireless is my provider and so far no problems in China and Europe.

For the Geek squad:

Novatel, Merlin XU870 ExpressCard, GPRS/GSM Data, SMS

I use an external model as I switch from National (USA) to Global and find them more flexible than a built-in option.

Dive (SCUBA) ShenZhen???

Most airlines provide a newspaper(s) .. Shenzhen Air, domestic flights: “Sorry no English newspaper” Not to worry, pictures bestow polyglot powers.  A new dive resort to be established near ShenZhen (S. China near HK) to explore the 39 islands that dot the region. (local ShenZhen newspaper)
I’d be rather cautious before I ventured into the sea in this area .. shipping and pollution are my immediate concerns .. I’ll have to try and contact some local adventurists and get first hand info…