10 Shots of China . 5000 . years

Peak time travel is never a good idea. period.
It was quite a relief that in spite of encountering these
'pick pocket hot spots' quite regularly, nothing was stolen...
There is a sad but true similarity between this scene and 8 am Monday morning on city rail.



The red and orange carpet of maple leaves always made a poetic scene,
especially in the Chinese gardens where the atmosphere was dramatically calm and quiet.
It was easy to grasp why these places inspired much contemplation and introspection.
In reflection to some of the texts Stan read out in one of the gardens, solitude in these places would indeed be bliss.



Where's Lucy
Cheap thrills (in this case, a five dollar fluffy ear beanie) entertained us for hours on end. This trip allowed everyone to show a bit more than what they would in the Red centre.



Continuing on, we often embraced the fact that 'no one knew us here anyway'. Jong sun, Kevin, Bart and Will undeniably Asian.

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White signalled money.

These people (Scott- left, James- middle and Chris-right) were used as decoys to lure the salespeople on the street away from us. That way we were granted peace and were not disrupted on our pleasant walk to the gardens.

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Wheres panda, bangle tiger

There were many moments during our travels and independent explorations where we were confirmed that China is at a 'growing' stage. One street down would be a Fendi store. We found it ironic that there were so many beggers in front of big brand department stores and the economic abyss between the rich and the poor was overwhelmingly evident.

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Eman, Scott and Jongsun awing over the hamsters for 20 minutes.

The pet owner lady would scoop up a hand full of hamsters and scatter them on the floor where she would then usher us to quickly choose our favourites.

Discount guaranteed.

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The sheer number of motorcycles parked outside a market/mall did not even match half the number of people we found inside. It was the hustle and bustle of the city, just crammed into one building with bad circulation. We could only take so much and needed to get out within an hour.

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The Woo Mart an Asian version of Wall mart Sold everything from electrical to bags to toads. Environmentally sensitive students should have been cautioned.

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Group shot at Tiger hill. It would start with one person then everyone would jump in making the shot complete. This trip allowed us to experience China as well as build many lasting friendships and memories.

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