More photos you ask for, more you shall receive.

Last night was another enjoyable get together, this time in Houhai. This is an area surrounding a lake which I presume, ten years ago, was a pleasant idyll of golden leaves and people ice skating in the winter. Today it is a collection of 50 or so bars, all of which offer pretty much the same loud music, overpriced drinks, with a mix of Westerners and Chinese being pushed and pulled to jump from one bar to another. Loud though it was, it was an enjoyable night meeting some new people and winding down after a hard week in the office. The second bar we went to had a live band, and it appears that I've discovered where 80s camp now resides. Though genuinly talented musicians, I'm not convinced the woman had any idea what she was singing and a pitch perfect rendition of "I can't wiv,if wiving is without you" was a version I've not heard before.

There may be some more photos of the evening to come.

So today, I got some photos of things that have intrigued me for a while now.

It's a strange thought: what would be five floors straight underground with double doors each a foot thick and enough food to last 100 people a good while?

Well, in this case there are three answers. The first answer is that you would clearly put a nuclear bunker forty foot underground with two foot of steel between you and the outside world with food to last some considerable time. The second answer is our local campus supermarket where I go everyday to buy tea, water, fruit etc. The third answer is Pan, one of the guys who came along to the bars with us all last night. He's studying law in Beijing, but that's a three hour bus ride from the bars we were at! Anyway, it amuses me that everyday I buy my groceries in a nuclear fall-out shelter. I'm told it's because the members of the Chinese academy of science are a highly valued lot and they want to do their best to keep them alive in case of, well WWIII!

The next set of photos are something that I walk past every day on my way to work. I guess I was just not expecting this sort of thing in a place with the politics of China. In some parts of society democracy is warmly accepted, especially in the scientific community where of course a healthy discourse between all levels of the hierarchy is a progressive force.







Last and possibly least is a picture of me, standing in -10 with another -5 or so of windchill on top of that doing my best to stop my eyes from freezing in the wind. I'm wearing the warmest jacket I've ever owned which does a stirling job of stopping me getting hypothermia.