Well yesterday's entry seems to be lost, which is no great loss since it was mainly a paean to the joys of technology - it was handwritten on my mobile - and it's loss seems entirely, if ironically, communicative.
I'm starting to spend a lot of time on trains, in particular the Shenzhen-Guangzhou express. It's not a bad commute really, from my front door to the Shenzhen school is 2 hours. Yes, but it's more than 130 kilometers. And I can collapse down in the dining car, pullout my computer, do an hour's work & eat breakfast. All for around $12. It's a major part of business life in the 2 cities, in peak hour there is a train every 7 minutes and the rest of the day it's every 15 minutes. In the evening I can leave work at 7 and be home at 9 having eaten a perfectly adequate dinner. It was supposd to be once a fortnight, but it's turning into twice a week.
I'm not sure if the camera takes pictures at 200 kph, but I will try. If successful I will add them later. It's not, in general, an inspirational journey. Pretty much every item of clothing manufactured in China is manufactured in that stretch, it's the factory run. But there is still a lot of farming going on, on reclaimed land, between factory fences and the railway line, on deserted factory land. The whole area is well and truly in the delta of the Pearl River, so no shortages of water. In fact, the landscape would be rather boggy and sad, except that it isn't. Well, there is one bit that looks like slum housing, but it's a very small bit. And it may actually just be field huts for farmers who actually live elsewhere. If it isn't, then it becomes easy to understand why the dormitory occupation provided by the factories is so popular.
China has just introduced a new Labour Act, which offers vastly more protection to employees than ever before. It will inevitably push the cost of labour up - I wonder what will happen on the factory stretch then? All the factories will move to North Korea...
One of the restaurants in the same building as my flat is advertising for staff - $300 a month plus board and lodging. That would have been a fantastic deal when I was here in 2002; I wonder how it rates now? The fact that they need to advertise at the front door suggests that they're not being rushed for applicants, so I guess it's not such a good deal. Further down the street, another restaurant is advertising for staff. Waitstaff and the manager must be taller than 163 cm. Dishwashers and kitchenhands are not suject to height restrictions - big of them! That's 5 foot 4 in the old money - which means at least several of my university classmates would have been ineligible. (I wonder why I don't know (m)any short people these days? Seems a bit odd.)
If there's a picure visible anywhere, (it's not to me) then it's a souvenir of my first train journey in Guangzhou, to the second last station on Line 3, City Bridge. No sign whatsoever of a bridge. (Later in the day I visted Five Mountains. No sign of them there either. Removed, a local told me, a long time ago.) Anyway, undaunted, I was wandering around sticking my nose in and I found an alley leading to Red Mountain Village. I can never resist an alley, a mountain or a village, so obviously I set off. I learned that "mountain" includes lumps of mainly clay about 100 meters high (at a very generous estimate). But it was a bit villagesque, and as the picture shows (fingers crossed) it has a very pictureque red feature - this is just one tree of many. It also has some very old fig trees - ladelled and protected, no less. I climbed the "mountain" to a newly laid gravestone (unexpected) and brathed in the heavy eucalyptus scent; half the trees were gum trees, small leafed varieties, sorry I can't be more precise. Wonder how they got here?
I should point out that I have omitted the photos of the extremely well fed rat that seem to think he owned the gutter - at midday! - and the rather scrawny cat that looked like it was bitter about somebody stealing its food. I didn't in fact stay for lunch. Still, there's not much point being squeamish about rats. Twelve years in Sydney have taught me that.
Summer is long delayed here - not that I imagine anyone is complaining. The one climatic constant is that the humidity is never less than 95% - today it's not quite drizzle, but the temperature is around 22, so it's quite pleasant. Given that I have to wear a jacket to work, the longer the hot weather stays away the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment