One Face of a Billion

Curious Beggar by cogdogblog
posted 17 Sep ’08, 5.16pm MDT PST on flickr

This little guy was curious about the gigapan I had set up to do this shot
gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=9189

I gestured to take a picture and he smiled, then he stuck his hand out for change. Now I was stuck, except the only thing in my wallet were 100 Yuan bills! I had to comply, so ran to a drink stand to buy some water to get him some change,

He is kind of cute

One of the more fascination aspects of being inn China has been watching people and their faces. Some of the faces are so somber, some so expressive. Without any understanding of the language, it’s fun to try and guess their conversations, as you see people laughing, arguing, chatting, playing games…

Today was another wandering day in the city, taking a cab down to the area close to the “Bund”, the waterfront here with the views of the massive skyscrapers across the river, and area which, we were told was empty of anything until the mid 1990s. I was joined by Clarence Fiasher, Brian Crosby, and Julie Lindsay, who then went on her own mission to buy a saxophone…

We walked down the heavy commercial (like new style) of East Nanjing Street, a pediestrian wide way of store after store of that weird mixed Western and Chinese commerce. It was another area full of people who want to be friends and sell you a Rolex (I am estimating there are 5 billion such watches in this country), bags, shoes, fake iPods, DVDs. Swatting them away ranges from annoying to sometimes fun. Their tactics are horrible but its also sad to see people having this as the best opportunity to make some money.

I got a pretty good Gigapan of this scene of East Nanjing Street
http://gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=9161

One cheery guy in a tan shirt who wanted me to see his “store” I waved off by saying we were going to lunch and I’d see him later. What a surprise 2 hours later as he returned and he was there smiling, and got me in a bear bug greeting. We laughed when I said I did not need anything.

Clarence and I did like another 90 minute wander up and down the side streets, where you are away from the shiny stuff, not haggled, happily ignored by people zooming around on their business, and the “Stores” are really almost stalls of amazing specialty from a hinge store to a caulk store to several wire stores, places selling fresh fish, pig parts, bowls of live snakes…

In the evening we met up with Jeff Utecht and more of the conference gang, getting to meet in person finally David Warlick and David Jakes, and a fantastic chinese dinner followed by what I have heard is the legendary foot massage.

This morning we are off to a local event, and EduBloggerCon Shanghai
http://www.edubloggercon.com/Learning+2.008+Edubloggercon

and the Learning 2.008 conference opens tonight where I and my colleagues are supposed to do a 10 minute “TED” style talk of something “inspirational” to teachers.