Like so many things, it came out of the blue. I was kind of aware that there was a Chinese holiday this week, but being self-semi-employed I am often a man of leisure and the holidays make little impact on my life. This one is in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 and although […]
For reasons they will probably regret, Liuzhou’s finest fire fighters have taken to posing for beefcake shots. No rationale has been provided. Now, I don’t know about you, but should I ever have need for fire fighters coming round waving their hoses, I prefer them to be more sensibly dressed. In fact, just dressed would […]
I’ve declared war. All over Liuzhou (China) are loads of bollards. These are erected to prevent the more idiotic citizens who have somehow managed to obtain a driving license despite displaying no discernible driving skills from inserting their vehicles into spaces where no sane person would think of so doing. Said bollards are fixed to […]
Never again will I buy a Samsung phone. I am no newcomer to cell phones or mobile phones or whatever you call them. I bought my first mobile phone back in 1988 – a Motorolo brick which weighed the same as well fed baby and was equally shitty. Over the years I have upgraded and […]
Tomorrow, March 30th sees Guangxi close down for 6 days. The 三月三 ethnic minority festival is an officially recognised public holiday, but only here in Guangxi. This year it coincidentally abuts 清明，the ancestor worship festival which is a national public holiday. 三月三 is also sometimes known as the Zhuang Song Festival, but the festival is […]
Miraculously, for the first time in living memory all four escalators on 五星街, the offshoot from the main pedestrian street, have been functional over the holiday. So you are now able to rise to the second floor in comfort when you really have an overwhelming desire to examine abandoned shops, cafés and restaurants. The place […]
Liuzhou’s domestic and industrial water supply is controlled by Liuzhou Veolia Water Supply Co, Ltd which is a joint venture between Liuzhou government and the French trans-national Veolia Environnement S.A. Liuzhou government holds a 51% share but the actual management is carried out by Veolia. They are responsible for everything from water and sewage treatment, […]
While we are finding it difficult to breath, it has been unseasonably warm recently. 24ºC at the moment. However, don’t get too comfortable. If the city’s weather bureau have got it right, and they are much better than in the past, then temperatures are about to plummet next week. They are looking at a “high” […]
China Mobile, one of the two large cell phone service providers kindly sends each subscriber a free weather report/forecast which is updated throughout the day. Here is what is showing at the moment. What I particularly would like not to highlight, but feel obliged so to do, is this: Yes, the place is trying to […]
This has been a historic week with colossal implications for the future of mankind. Tragic, too. Yes, after 18 years I have lost my cell phone number to vagaries of chance, thereby causing an international crisis. It’s a long story. The day after the USA “elected” a deluded, offensive, egotistical, narcissistic, misogynist, racist, lying, fascist […]