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Around the world in 2000,
via Asia and Madagascar.
China (1 Guizhou)
Bec2004-09-18 12:28:48
Displayed times (last time: )
Shanghai
The weather was great when I arrived in Shanghai in the late morning on the 7th December after flying 18 hours and waiting 8 hours in Newark, Anchorage, and Seoul. I took a city bus from the airport to the city center and walked up Nanjing Lu, shown here, towards the confluence of Suzhou creek with the Huang Po where the Pujiang hotel is located.
Pudong
I was happy to find Nanjing Lu full of people as one finds an old friend. Shanghai had changed again after only three years. There were a lot of new buildings in Pudong on the other side of the Huang Po and a whole section of Nanjing Lu had become a pedestrian mall.
After a few hours of this rediscovery, I went to the Pujiang where, for only 6.75 U.S., they gave me the bed next of the one I had occupied in the same dorm three years ago.
A dormitory is not as convenient as a private room but to find lodgings for so little money in city as big as Shanghai is not bad.
Hangzhou
China still has a long way to go to catch up to the most developed countries but it is working hard at it. It has wisely invested in its human resources starting at the primary school level. Illitteracy has fallen from an estimated 90% fifty years ago to less than 20% now (India still has almost 50% illiteracy!). The young know what they want and they're out to get it!
Kaili
Kaili is about two thirds of the way to Kunming from Hangzhou. I stopped here to visit a nearby Miao village because there are very few Miao in Yunnan province. Miao is the Chinese name for the Hmong tribal people that can be found in China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. I had seen Hmong before in Sapa on the Vietnam - China border in 1994.
Almost everyone in a city the size of Kaili would have a refrigerator but there still are open-air markets like this one everywhere
...
See photographs from:
China Gallery
