Well, from my balcony, anyway. If I open the sliding windows, lean over the railing, crane my neck a little.The architectural style is quite distinctive. And these twin watchtowers - just inside what would have been the main north gate of the old Imperial city - are quite a famous local landmark. This is a great neighbourhood to live in, only three-quarters of a mile or so away from those towers, and from the trio of small lakes that lie to the west of them (my regular jogging route).
Does anybody recognise this? Was anybody sharp-eyed enough to decipher the name of the city on the GoogleEarth photo I posted yesterday?
Oh, all right, all right, I'll come clean. In a minute.....
8 comments:
Needs more people on bicycles. Every time I see a pic of your town there are lots and lots of people on bicycles.
And chickens.
(I was able to read the photo easily, but I'm disqualified from guessing)
chickens? hmm... I seem to have missed that view. what I do see in this town is cars parked/driving on the sidewalk, people walking on the streets (both of which Froog has mentioned in his posts), and an abundance of tropical fruit sold on every corner, at ever market, and from the back of several 3-wheel carts and farmer trucks in the MIDDLE of winter.
It could be below freezing 10 degrees and snowing, but nothing comes in the way of these people's year-round demand for watermelon and pineapple....
Apparently, back when the economy was first opening up in the mid-80's, one of the first private businesses allowed was fruit and vegetable markets - and those who entered the business made a pretty penny. This led to massive conversion of any available farmland to Greenhouses that would produce the high-in-demand fruits and vegetables. Today, we are literally eating the benefit of that movement.
I could never get this variety or quality back home in the States - even in the Southern states.
Georg, I wonder if you've been seeing too many OLD library pictures on US TV. I mean, yes, there are still quite a lot of bicycles compared to America; but nothing like as many as there were 10 or 15 years ago.
People on chickens? A disturbing image! No, I've never seen that.
Tulsa, thank you for the information about the year-round pineapple mystery - but in general, I prefer not to ask where the food in this town comes from.
During my moot court days I was once instructed to never ask a question for which I didn't already know the answer.
Not asking from where the food here comes is usually a good policy.
but I figure with Fruit - how bad could the answer be?
Don't go there!
Have you ever seen the opening of the film 'Leolo'??
No. And not having seen it, I can continue to live in my happy oblivion, thank you. In fact, I'm so determined to continue in happy oblivion that I will definitely probably think about not googling Leolo to read all about it.
Oh, yeah I'm confident most of it is stock footage from god knows when. I'm pretty sure there are many more cars than the footage I get to see. Probably the most recent footage from China is the Anthony Bourdain show where he explores eating in China. The impression one gets is China is a filthy Japan, but neither country would be flattered by that, and it's more complicated than that, I'm sure. It's like hearing I'm from NY and assuming I live in NYC, which I most definitely do not.
For some reason, I can just really imagine Anthony Bourdain (and ain't 'Kitchen Confidential' a GREAT book?) - at least in his younger, drunker, druggier days - re-enacting the opening scene from Leolo.
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