Liupao

Bits that I forgot or are cause for reflection.

I discovered that it is possible to make potatoes into an unpleasant food... One of the street food options was spicy potatoes but they managed to make them gelatinous urrrgghh.

Air quality is awful. When it is really bad you can taste it. Most power stations are coal and it has huge reserves so they are burning it with little or no clean air tech as far as I can see. However electric cars, bikes and scooters are very much in evidence so change is probably coming.

Very security conscious our rucksacks have been scanned at least once at every place we have visited.

The parks were beautifully maintained. There were armies of people tweaking flowers moving them in and out, creating displays etc. Litter pickers and street sweepers with huge straw brooms were much in evidence.

Seeing the general attitude and massive capital investments I am not at all surprised that China is wanting to make its presence felt in the global political arena. If it marshals its resources I would think they are unstoppable. Larger than the US by far and more outward looking it will be interesting to see what the next 10 years brings.Read more