Random photos, random thoughts.

Meet the bong bong guys, (named after their stick) originating from and possibly unique to Chong Ching. Because of the mountainous terrain, there is a notable lack of carts and bicycles. Instead, for transporting goods, these men and women abound in the city and will carry your items for less than a dollar, two if it's the better part of the day. It's a bit nerve-wracking at first to have them carrying your purchases around the market as one, I was always afraid they'd take off with them and two, they come right into the little stores and clothes boutiques with you and wait while you browse, even if it's for an hour or more. It turns out they are trustworthy and patient and after I got over feeling like some kind of royalty from a long ago exotic land I adjusted.

Above Yue Li nurses the baby while I shop - our bong bong guy is to the right, his arm on a game board we bought, the rest of our bags are behind that.
Here a pineapple vendor uses the bong bong stick to carry his wares.
We're at Metro, Chong Chings equivalent for Costco, a Belgium company, and Skyler discovers slip-ons. We have a laugh for old time's sake.
Oh whoops! How did this adorable boy slip into the China blog? Well, as long as he's here, let me introduce our handsome grandson, Dylan. Dylan, did you find the pictures of the bugs Papa G took for you?

Guy had me take this. It is for Carlos. I don't know why.
We see these trucks frequently - they're armored trucks that carry cash and the guards are the only people allowed to carry weapons except the military. What is interesting about these is that the Chinese pay cash for most things - including cars and houses. So when they buy a car, for example, they will hire one of these to transport the money to the car dealership.
There's one guy that goes around at these restaurants pouring tea this way.
The money and Sky showing me the finger positions for numbers. The red bill is 100 quay, RMB, or yuan, all meaning the same thing. The exchange is 7 to 1, so the 100 equals just under $14.00. That will buy three or four nice t-shirts at the market. The green bill is ten RMB, about $1.20 (doing this in my head) which will buy a bowl of noodles with meat and vegies and a soda, the purple one is 5 RMB which will buy you a taxi ride uptown.