The Park on the Island in the Lake

Sometimes people ask me why I married my wife. They just use a different tone when they ask, for example: "What attracted you to her?" or "What made you fall in love?" What follows is a partial explanation. My wife has the habit of imparting humorous and entertaining tales when I least expect it. Usually they are bucolic tales from her rural home, as is the following. At other times they might be from the news or internet. Without further ado, I would like to impart the latest one.

Two days ago my wife and I were relaxing at my mother in laws house. I was upstairs reading while she was downstairs chatting with her mother and grandmother. The wife later recounted part of the conversation.

About a week ago there were three migrant workers from sichuan sitting in a pavilion in the park on the lake right across from the inlaws' house. The pavilion in question is the second one from the right, just to the right of the covered hallway. The picture in question is from February when they were burning brush in the field in the background. I had planned several posts of chinese people burning things, esp. garbage; these, sadly, have not yet come to fruition, but I digress.

The workers were sitting in the pavilion relaxing and a local came in to the same pavilion and sat down. The non-locals told him not to sit there, they were sitting in the pavilion. The local said,
"So what if I do sit here?"
"We'll throw you out!" they replied.
"Throw me out then!"
They jumped on him, but the local was strong and the three sichuanese couldn't get the best of him. One said:
"I'm going to get a knife, and when I come back you're dead for sure!"
The local man just ignored him, but sure enough, the sichuanese came back with a kitchen knife and hacked each of his arms to the bone in three places.

At the conclusion of the story my wife's grandmother said,
"Just hope you can find food to keep your stomach full. Finding food to eat for a few more years is all anyone can really hope for..."

drive-by

Yesterday I was on the public bus headed back to my home at the foot of Tea mountain in the desolate university 'town.' The bus was nearing the university town when my wife and I noticed the right rear wheel lurch into one of ubiquitous potholes filled with mud and gravel sending a spray of murky liquid directly into the face of a young man who was riding his moped at close quarters. We both gasped in empathetic disgust, and my wife said she would have stopped the bus and demanded recompense, which is exactly what the young man did. He followed the bus under the overpass, and overtook the us when we had to slow down where the road has not been finished yet. he then stopped his moped directly in front of the bus and the driver opened the door so they could have a shouting match. It is at this point I must apologize to the reader, for this tale is anticlimactic. They just shouted for awhile, and did not fight or even swear at each other. I should have taken a picture, but didn't. Eventually the young man left when he realized that the bus driver was willing to say sorry, but with a caveat, he still blamed the moped rider for not looking where he was going. We saw another person get nailed by a careless driver the same day, but this was a pedestrian, and while he swore the car drove on and there was no fight then either.
I suppose this post is somewhat disappointing, but at least now the reader can share mine and I will feel better.

Chinese Antiterror Unit

Here are a couple of nice pictures I found of a Chinese Anti-terror Cavalry Unit. I guess it would be helpful for chasing terrorists down the runway or any other flat paved area so you don't get tired and have plenty of energy to wrestle with them. Maybe it makes the bad guys collapse laughing and you can just bring them in.

I found these photos on the xinhua website a couple of days ago.

Chinese Bling

I found some pictures I took in Honk Kong the first time I went which I think might have been last November. The pictures are of huge pigs made of 24K gold. (I took them in 2007, which was still the year of the pig.) I am a big fan of Chinese pigs be they gold, stuffed animals or some sort of food product. I am not used to trotters, and hate liver, but anything else goes. Kidney is great, and intestines are even decent if prepared nicely.