Sam’s Photo Blog

New meets old. The boat people living in Aberdeen seems to be untouched by the changes around them. The wooden boats with their canvas tops move endlessly between the grid-like larger fishing vessels.

Different boats take on specialized roles, some are for tourists, some for transporting goods, and some are use for community gatherings. There is order in this seemingly temporary network of boats.

The people seem to have such a strong bond with their neighboring boats. They gather at the big boats to play mahjong, sit on the decks or gather around a communal TV set.

Some interesting artifacts on the shore, such as these prayers for safe journey.

There are water taxis that take patrons to the Jumbo Restaurant, the world’s largest floating restaurant.

A very beautiful sunset on the way home.

This is the Tsing Ma Bridge and this is the hardest shot I have ever worked for…so far.

This sunday I packed all my gear and was pumped to check out the observation tower located in Tsing Yi. Upon arriving there at around 4pm there were about 20 other photographers sitting in the shade waiting for the sun to set. The view wasn’t even that great so I decided not to fight for the spot and try some a little ‘creative’.

I wanted to get to another hill but there was a major highway in the way. I was stopped by security for wandering in government property (trying to get across). When I asked him about the hill told me how to get near it but as far as he knows there is no official path.

So I had to switch buses a few times and by the time I got to the described stop the sun was starting to set. I started running up the hill carrying all my gear. There was a faint trace of a trail so I followed it. I had to hike through some bushes, climb through a cut fence, and leap from tree to tree to get down a hill to get to the clearing. The worst part were the hairy spiders in between trees.

When I was finally done taking photos it was completely dark, memories of hiking in the dark came back . Luckily I had brought a little hand powered LED flashlight along. Since there was no defined path coming I was literally running through wild grass and heading back in the general direction. Thoughts like blair witch, ghosts, snakes came up but I was more worried about those giant spiders…

I had to shine the flashlight to see if check for reflections from spiderwebs and had to probe around to find the opening in the fence. I fell a few times from stepping on loose rocks but otherwise I escaped with no more than a few scratches and mosquito bites.
It was such a relief to see streetlights and civilization again! I probably won’t be going back there anytime soon….at least not alone!

Even though I have been warned numerous times about the safety in the city, I just couldn’t resist taking a little walk at the Dongquan train station to understand the way of life in this city.

There are a mixture of people in the train station. Some are excited, some anxious, some grumpy, and some are indifferent. They all have their own stories and just happen to converge at the same place at the same time.

In China there are motorcycle taxis, they are not licensed and the prices are often agreed upon before boarding. They were equally curious to see me walking around. With my broken mandarin we managed a short conversation. One driver even offered to take me for a spin but I politely declined.

I learned that the business is highly competitive and intertwined with a lot of underlying politics (protection fees, right to work in specific areas, etc). I was touched by their genuine smiles and respect their hard work to earn a living.

For those that followed the news, there was a major rainstorm a week ago that caused major flooding and paralyzed the cities in the Guangdong province.

They had built emergency bridges in the underground tunnel of the train station. I thought it was really exciting!

A co-worker paid one of these 3-wheeled taxis $20RMB to get him across a flooded street. In the middle of the road, the chain came off and the driver had to go behind to push, when they got across my co-worker saw that the driver had lost one of his slippers in the water….rough day.

Fun fact: Shanghai has a population of over 20million while the population of Canada is 33million.

With the black rainstorm and long weekend the airport was overloaded and after sitting on the runway for a long time we were finally off to a bumpy ride. A 2.5hr flight turned into a 9hr trip from door to door.

Upon arriving at grandpa’s place I was greeted all the aunts and they had prepared a lot of home cooked food. After the meal the cousins took me downtown. This street is usually packed shoulder-to-shoulder but it was raining so heavily that we were the only silly people walking around. hehe.

I had 3 cousins to guide me around the city and eat good stuff. I had asked them to take me to see the old stuff, the older the better.

Mom had told me not to buy food from the street side vendors but I had to disobey her. By the end of the 3rd day I had tried 53 types of local goodies!

Some of the interesting things in Shanghai like the way people walk around with their rolled up shirts (a mating protocol perhaps?!) and a shop that has a tree in the middle.

My cousin’s baby, she is so cute!

She is a solid build and kept asking to be picked up…

Love the customized motorcycle setup and family weekend excursions.

A local market. These areas are being slowly replaced by high rise buildings and indoor markets.

This is my ride in Shanghai, its got the U-shaped handlebars, 1 single gear and a massive basket. The next step is to have the cabin on the back!

In busy traffic the best method is to move in a predictable straight line despite the other moving objects on the radar. If you slow down the other drivers will have a hard time predicting your exact course and that can be very dangerous!

Before going to Shanghai I didn’t have any expectations except to see relatives. It turned out to be a great time to catch up with the cousins, eat from the street side vendors and also see different parts of this giant city. Too bad I had to leave so soon.