Factory belching smoke in Taishan

Chauffeured home in an Audi A8 last night and another long drive to day to Taishan in a slightly less luxurious Honda.

On the way back to Shenzhen this evening we couldn't miss this substantial factory belching smoke into the sky as the sun was setting. I grabbed this picture out of a fast moving car as you can probably see. Our driver was also tying to take a picture too but I said 'focus on the driving give me your camera and I'll take a picture for you' On the road altogether for about 7 hours to and from Taishan which was a 400mile round trip.

On the drive over I saw some villages with diaolou, which are multi-storeyed defensive villages as this area is quite close to the UNESCO listed Kaiping Diaolou and Villages. I visited Kaiping a few years ago with Bron and Drew who were over from New Zealand it was a very worthwhile journey even though at the time I didn't have DSLR.

Until recently I'd never even heard of Taishan county and if Wikipedia is to be believed: Taishan has a population of 1 million, while 1.3 million overseas Taishanese distributing in 91 countries and regions. It is estimated that over 75% of all overseas Chinese in North America until the mid- to late-20th century claimed origin in Taishan, the city is also known as the "Home of Overseas Chinese." As late as 1988, those with ancestry from Taishan accounted for 70% of Chinese Americans.