Watchlords

There will be more shots and details tomorrow night (or so) regarding Tianjin as a city, because Tianjin is pretty cool in the daytime too...but for now, here's just a selection of night shots in Tianjin, which I think is a spectacular city at night.

No comments...just photos that speak for themselves...























































































































































































I'm headed back to Beijing tomorrow for my final couple of days. I already know it's not going to be easy to leave China.

great pics..

TRU-LYE wrote:great pics..

Plus one.

And now, the most important question about any city... Is it possible to get really jaked relatively cheaply?

Looks like they have a very reliable power grid.

Great pics - thanks for posting.

D

I already know it's not going to be easy to leave China.

Yeah if I was you i stay there and never come back.
Those pics are smoke and mirrors. Why don't you go to the slums and take pictures there that's the real china. Looking at those pictures remind me of north Korea propaganda city. Fuck china

Slowpo wrote:

I already know it's not going to be easy to leave China.

Yeah if I was you i stay there and never come back.
Those pics are smoke and mirrors. Why don't you go to the slums and take pictures there that's the real china. Looking at those pictures remind me of north Korea propaganda city. Fuck china

Perhaps you could take those slum pictures for us the next time you're over there.

Nothing like a little first person perspective - it's ever so much more satisfying than simply searching Google images for stuff that comports well with your prejudices...

Unless, of course, you're just blowing smoke out your ass and have never been there, never will, and base your assumptions on what other people have told you to think.

I await your trip report and pics.

It is hard to accept, for me anyways, the "paradise" that is shown in this travelogue. It is contrary to all I have heard and understood that communist society really is.
I'm not saying AT is reporting only the rosie picture...it just seems to "nice".

Why don't you shut the fuck up hawk. Everybody know that Alberta always had an agenda so fuck all this thread. If china is so fucking great why don't stay there Alberta?

Slowpo wrote:Why don't you shut the fuck up hawk. Everybody know that Alberta always had an agenda so fuck all this thread. If china is so fucking great why don't stay there Alberta?

So...

You're saying that Slowpo doesn't have an anti-China agenda?

Weak, dude, really weak.

As to the question at hand, I guess I might be psychologically incapable of STFUing in the face of blinding stupidity and prejudice. Once upon a time, in the dim and distant past, there were members of this forum that believed (or pretended to believe) that you weren't an unrecoverable bigot. My bet is that their numbers have dwindled.

How about you try not being a moron and I'll try not responding to your tiny-fisted, brain-damaged little rants?

Fair?

Kumbaya!

Oh hawk, you love watching yourself talk. In all your post there's a bunch of blah blah with little substance.

I don't hate all Asian I just hate the Chinese for their practices. If that makes me a bigot then fuck it.

Slowpo wrote:Why don't you shut the fuck up hawk. Everybody know that Alberta always had an agenda so fuck all this thread. If china is so fucking great why don't stay there Alberta?

Fuck Yea. Occupy Beijing!

Slowpo wrote:Oh hawk, you love watching yourself talk. In all your post there's a bunch of blah blah with little substance.

I don't hate all Asian I just hate the Chinese for their practices. If that makes me a bigot then fuck it.

We are agreed.

You hate Chinese and you're a bigot.
Fuck it.

I love it when compromise is so easily achieved.

A hint to the wise: don't start comparing your posts to mine for substance. You may not like the outcome.

I will never compare my post to yours hawk Because you are a bitch riding the Alberta wagon.

Alberta is certainly getting the glossy, "made for Westerners" tour. Don't mistake the tip of the iceberg for the whole thing.

Slowpo wrote:I will never compare my post to yours hawk Because you are a bitch riding the Alberta wagon.

And you are a bitch riding the uniformed opinion of people without knowledge or context.

You are sad and bereft of the fortitude that it takes to re-examine your outlook.

Your credibility is nil. Your knowledge is lacking. Your opinions are those of your betters, parroted without insight or thought.

Get your sorry wrinkled ass over to China and take some pictures - otherwise you're just another twit repeating whatever bullshit you've read that appealed to you.

No knowledge, no experience, just blind-ass prejudice.

Try as I might, I simply can't generate any sort of respect for that sort of perfunctory "thought process" - it's much like watching an earthworm regenerate - oddly compelling but nonetheless creepy.

Great night shots Ron and thank you for taking them. I liked the back Allie shots that you already have taken and posted elsewhere. People need only look to see a lot of pic's from all over China that you have been putting up every day with a lot more joy than from people seeing them here.

You saw many little puppies playing with happy children . It won't be long til the dog's are being "wokked"

Looks like a great city. I can't wait to visit China. An amazing country, no doubt.

The dogs for human consumption are farmed, so you won't see them in the streets. I saw some dog meat in a market in Vietnam and it looked superb. Deep, rich red, with fine marbling, not dissimilar to high grade wagyu in appearance. I wasn't game to try any though!

Falstaff wrote:Alberta is certainly getting the glossy, "made for Westerners" tour. Don't mistake the tip of the iceberg for the whole thing.

Well, in fairness, a few hundred photos of anything in China is only the tip of the iceberg, and while I admit that this particular post was only lights-flashing pretty stuff, it's possibly useful to keep in mind...

One: I've wandered any place I in China wanted to...and I've chosen where to go, every single minute of every day. At least so far, I've never been stopped or turned away. In every city I've been in, I've wandered at least 7 hours a day with no fixed itinerary (sometimes 10 or more hours, just on my feet, walking, camera in hand, turning left or right based on nothing more than my whims and curiosity.

It's not like Soviet-era Russia where I'm constantly accompanied by an Intourist government "guide/handler". I've walked all by myself, essentially always, while I'm here unless it's been one of the very few times I've spent actively with friends or at the SGWG facility. Solo time (not including sleeping etc) has accounted for roughly 80% of my stay.

Two: This is not an arranged tour, except for the Tianjin/Sea-Gull facility visit. I picked the cities, and I picked the hotels, and although I have friends here, as I said, I travel alone, including between cities. Well, by myself; lots of Chinese folks are travelling around China all the time, so they ride with me ;-). I can't afford a personal limousine.

Three: No one who has read my all reports (including about Beijing's hutongs or Shijiazhuang's back-alley market areas, for two examples) can reasonably accuse me of just hanging out in the glossy tourist areas. And I'm not finished yet with my posts. Just as I had photos of the rural areas between Shijiazhuang and Cangyanshan, I have similar photos of the rural areas between Shijiazhuang and Tianjin, and I'll be posting those too.

Four: North American or European or Central American slums are every bit as much the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to those places, as well. So???

And even in my pretty photos of Tianjin, or my photos of everywhere else I've been, in both upper or lower scale neighbourhoods...did you notice that all the folks around me are Chinese? They're not odd Chinese, Falstaff, they're normal.

Would you (and/or Slowpo) prefer it, perhaps, if I photographed some panhandlers or drunks on the street, or a tenement or two? After all, I can very easily find slums and abject poverty in most countries (every country?) of the world, including Canada and you know it, or ought to. And I can do it just as easily in China, that's true.

But why should I feed those shallow stereotypes; they seem firm enough already without my help.

AlbertaTime wrote:

Falstaff wrote:Alberta is certainly getting the glossy, "made for Westerners" tour. Don't mistake the tip of the iceberg for the whole thing.

Well, in fairness, a few hundred photos of anything in China is only the tip of the iceberg, and while I admit that this particular post was only lights-flashing pretty stuff, it's possibly useful to keep in mind...

One: I've wandered any place I in China wanted to...and I've chosen where to go, every single minute of every day. At least so far, I've never been stopped or turned away. In every city I've been in, I've wandered at least 7 hours a day with no fixed itinerary (sometimes 10 or more hours, just on my feet, walking, camera in hand, turning left or right based on nothing more than my whims and curiosity.

It's not like Soviet-era Russia where I'm constantly accompanied by an Intourist government "guide/handler". I've walked all by myself, essentially always, while I'm here unless it's been one of the very few times I've spent actively with friends or at the SGWG facility. Solo time (not including sleeping etc) has accounted for roughly 80% of my stay.

Two: This is not an arranged tour, except for the Tianjin/Sea-Gull facility visit. I picked the cities, and I picked the hotels, and although I have friends here, as I said, I travel alone, including between cities. Well, by myself; lots of Chinese folks are travelling around China all the time, so they ride with me ;-). I can't afford a personal limousine.

Three: No one who has read my all reports (including about Beijing's hutongs or Shijiazhuang's back-alley market areas, for two examples) can reasonably accuse me of just hanging out in the glossy tourist areas. And I'm not finished yet with my posts. Just as I had photos of the rural areas between Shijiazhuang and Cangyanshan, I have similar photos of the rural areas between Shijiazhuang and Tianjin, and I'll be posting those too.

Four: North American or European or Central American slums are every bit as much the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to those places, as well. So???

And even in my pretty photos of Tianjin, or my photos of everywhere else I've been, in both upper or lower scale neighbourhoods...did you notice that all the folks around me are Chinese? They're not odd Chinese, Falstaff, they're normal.

Would you (and/or Slowpo) prefer it, perhaps, if I photographed some panhandlers or drunks on the street, or a tenement or two? After all, I can very easily find slums and abject poverty in most countries (every country?) of the world, including Canada and you know it, or ought to. And I can do it just as easily in China, that's true.

But why should I feed those shallow stereotypes; they seem firm enough already without my help.

While your point is well-taken, AT, Falstaff's point is also valid. By conservative estimates, there are 700-800 million Chinese who live in abject poverty, while 200-300 million luckier souls are what we'd consider middle- or upper-class. While poverty is a serious issue in the Western World, and getting worse by the day, these are incredible numbers that the Chinese have to contend with.

conjurer wrote:And now, the most important question about any city... Is it possible to get really jaked relatively cheaply?

Yup. Easy. Cheap. Tasty.

Priceless.

conjurer wrote:

AlbertaTime wrote:

Falstaff wrote:Alberta is certainly getting the glossy, "made for Westerners" tour. Don't mistake the tip of the iceberg for the whole thing.

Well, in fairness, a few hundred photos of anything in China is only the tip of the iceberg, and while I admit that this particular post was only lights-flashing pretty stuff, it's possibly useful to keep in mind...

While your point is well-taken, AT, Falstaff's point is also valid. By conservative estimates, there are 700-800 million Chinese who live in abject poverty, while 200-300 million luckier souls are what we'd consider middle- or upper-class. While poverty is a serious issue in the Western World, and getting worse by the day, these are incredible numbers that the Chinese have to contend with.

No argument here.

That said, the Chinese, by everything I've seen, are working very, very hard to address the problem, and it's every bit as huge as you describe. The Chinese aren't ignorant of the issue and they aren't avoiding it.

They don't have the luxury of prattling philosophically about it from countries across an ocean; they have to deal with the complicated reality of the situation, which they are also quite willing to admit has not been helped by their own political decisions in the past. But poverty for the majority has never been unusual in mainland China, regardless of regime.

In fact, a very strong case can be made that better and more equitable living conditions for a higher percentage of the population has never been previously achieved under any Chinese government.

AlbertaTime wrote:

But poverty for the majority has never been unusual in mainland China, regardless of regime.
In fact, a very strong case can be made that better and more equitable living conditions for a higher percentage of the population has never been previously achieved under any Chinese government.

For those not old enough to remember either pre WWII China or to have seen movies and photos of it, the chinese of today are far better off then when Chiang Kai-shek ruled with an iron fist and coolies as they were called were nothing but dirt to corrupt officials. Not to say that there have not been major issues with the iron hand of the old guard communist leadership who have slowly slipped away since the Tiananmen Massacre in 89 or so. The new leaders may not be the best choice we would vote for, but they are tech savy, many are former members of the Red Guard. For the record here, there are only about 60 million members of the communist party in china. A pittance compared to the population.