When they aren’t trying to poison us by serving up cadmium soup instead of drinking water, or stabbing each other for the right to take wedding photographs, the locals are apt to dedicate a lot of their energy to displaying their dismal driving skills and mowing people down on an almost daily basis.
They aren’t shy about publishing graphic pictures either, supposedly as a deterrent (which clearly doesn’t work – China’s roads are the world’s most dangerous).
Last Saturday, a 50 year old man was killed when his e-bike was hit by a truck and he was run over.
50 year old Liuzhou man died after his e-bike was hit by a truck then he was run over.
Then yesterday, a Wuling minivan skidded when it hit a spillage on the road outside the new Exhibition Centre. It then crashed into a bus shelter, and a motorcycle skidded leaving bodies lying in the road.
Walking around the downtown shopping area, you can’t avoid the several “wedding photography” companies touting for business. They all specialise in providing near-identical tacky, cheesy pictures of the lovely couples sitting around in ridiculous poses, wearing clothes other than their own. Then they have their photographs retouched until their own mothers wouldn’t recognise them.
And people pay loads of money for this. So, it’s big business.
Last night at around 8 pm, there were three such companies with their tents set up on Zhongshan East Road, near the five pointed star sculpture, McDonald’s and the Xinhua book store. An argument broke out among staff of rival companies, which then escalated into a full on fight.
Four people, all staff of one company, were stabbed by someone wielding a 15cm long knife. One of the injured was stabbed in the kidney and is in a critical condition. The other three had less severe injuries.
At approximately 3 pm today, Sunday 19th February, large parts of Liuzhou’s internet provision melted. It got slower and slower, then by 4 pm it was difficult to maintain a reliable connection. From 4:30 till about 6:10, it was out completely.
This was on China Telecom. I was able to access the internet via my phone using China Unicom.
I have no idea what the problem was and I don’t suppose any explanation will ever be forthcoming. They don’t do explanations or apologies round here.
Anyway, it is working now, but extremely slowly with occasional dropouts.
Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week, we look at the silkie or black bone chicken.
Silkie
Anyone who has visited a Liuzhou supermarket will have seen these black chickens. It isn’t the feathers which are black, but the skin, bones and flesh. They are a breed of chicken, native to China, known in the west as silkie or silky. In Chinese they are 竹丝鸡zhú sī jī, or 乌骨鸡 wū gú jī, literally ‘black bone chicken’.
Silkies are valued throughout China and SE Asia for their supposed medical qualities and while they don’t have much meat, they do make excellent soups, usually along with ingredients such as wolfberries, tangerine peel, and ginger.
Over the years, I’ve found Yahoo Weather to be the most accurate of the weather forecasts on offer. By far the worst is the SMS service offered by Liuzhou Meteorological Bureau via China mobile. Its forecast is apparently determined by an intern sticking his thumb out of the window, determining the weather at the moment, as far as he can make out, then assuming tomorrow will be the same. Given the highly changeable weather at this time of year, the chances of him being correct are slim. There is more chance of the escalators to the underground shopping mall all working at any one time – and I have more chance of winning the national lotto than that happening, even though I never buy any lotto tickets.
But I would like to think this may be correct. It is Yahoo’s ten day forecast from today, showing maximum and minimum temperatures for Liuzhou.
The Spring Festival weather has been miserable. I’ve known it much colder, but it is the chill combined with the constant rain that gets me down. Of the 15 days of the holiday, there was only one day it didn’t rain and there has only been one other day in the week since.
The rain ain’t going away any time soon, but at last it may be a bit warmer. Or maybe not.
25 Liuzhou residents celebrate Valentine's Day undergoing hyperbaric therapy for gas poisoning
As they do every winter, Liuzhou health authorities are issuing warning notices about carbon monoxide poisoning. This follows a large number of cases of poisoning in the last few days, including one death.
90 cases of severe gas poisoning were reported in one night (13th Feb) with dozens being treated by hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Liuzhou’s hospitals. One 20 year old woman died after closing all the doors and windows in her rental apartment, then taking a shower in an unventilated bathroom.
The authorities are stressing that all gas appliances and especially gas water heaters must only be used in well-ventilated areas. Seven people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Liuzhou since January.
Be safe.
Staff in Liuzhou People's hospital controlling hyperbaric chamber - 14th February 2012.
Random Photograph No. 50 of photographs taken in Liuzhou which amuse, perplex or fascinate me.
Here in celebration of Valentine’s Day is a picture of a tomato!
And why not? Tomatoes were once called “love apples”. The reason is disputed but a strong contender of an explanation is that they were considered to be aphrodisiacs. But then again, most foods are considered to be aphrodisiacs by someone or another.
P.S. After taking the picture, I ate the tomato. The earth did not move any more than it usually does..
In the far north of Liuzhou prefecture lies Sanjiang county. Sanjiang town itself is of little interest, but the surrounding countryside, with its ethnic minority villages attracts many visitors. The area is predominantly inhabited by the Dong ethnic minority whose “wind and rain” bridges and their drum towers are well known, especially the bridge at Chengyang.
Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge
Despite the tourism, it remains a relatively poor area, and while the wooden houses are picturesque, hardly a winter goes by without at least one village being burnt to the ground.
Zhu Xiaoling
French film company, Orient Studio Productions is about to release a movie written and directed by Zhu Xiaoling entitled La Rizière (English title: The Rice Paddy). Zhu, now of French nationality, was born and grew up in Guangxi before studying at the Beijing Cinema Academy and, at the same time, working at the Guangxi Movies Studios. She moved to France in the 1990s.
She describes the movie as “close to the “neo-realist” tradition. It is purely fictitious, inspired by true facts and characters.” The story is narrated in the Dong language by the 12 year old daughter of the family, A Qiu. As in many village families, A Qiu is brought up by her grandmother while her parents are working as migrant labourers in the cities. When grandmother dies, they have to return to the village.
The movie, which is said to be the first in the Dong language, premières in France on May 2nd, 2012.
Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week, we return to the greenery and this oddity, celtuce.
Although it doesn’t look like it, this is a member of the lettuce family. Also known in English as stem lettuce, celery lettuce, asparagus lettuce, or Chinese lettuce, in Chinese it is 莴笋 wōsŭn or 莴苣 wōjù. Lactuca sativa var. asparagina for the technically minded.
The babies in the picture are about 40 cm (15.7 inches) long and have a maximum diameter of 5 cm (2 inches). The stems are peeled, sliced and used in various stir fries. The taste is somewhere between lettuce and celery, hence the name. The texture is more like the latter.
In Nancheng supermarket, I paid 2.88元 for the two in the picture.
At 0:30 yesterday morning (8th Feb, 2012), an express coach travelling from Guangnan in Yunnan province towards Linping, Zhejiang province collided with a truck just outside Liuzhou on the Guilin-Liuzhou (Gui-Liu) Expressway. Four people died and a further 8 to 10 seriously injured (depending on which report you read. To confuse things even further, the coach was bearing registration plates showing it is from Shenyang in Liaoning province.
It seems the Nanning registered truck, which was travelling from Liuzhou to Hunan, had stopped at the roadside to repair a puncture when the coach hit it. Fire-fighters from Luzhai cut free a number of passengers who were trapped.
The coach was carrying 56 passengers at the time. The coach driver was unharmed and has been arrested.
Despite the expressways being almost empty, or perhaps because of it, they are notoriously dangerous. On August 5th 2011, six people were killed and 24 injured when a truck and coach collided on the Liuzhou-Yizhou expressway and in September Qianxi, Guizhou bus heading for Shenzhen also hit a truck resulting a further three deaths with 31 injured.
Police are reminding drivers to use hazard warning lights when stopped on the highway and to take regular rest breaks on long distance services.
