Chasing his own tail

Motorbikes, or more precisely scooters are such a common sight in China that I couldn't possibly not include one in my record of my trip. This is the same bike shot twice from a moving car, the two images being overlayed to create the final effect. A fairly lazy day as Cary and Luke had to go to the hospital at 09:30 for a parenting class, leaving Diana and I to wonder the streets for a while taking pictures, then we had a spot of lunch lunchbefore heading to Cary's mother's house for dinner.

Several more revealing facts about life in China:

~ There is not national health service and they are having to pay for all of Cary's pre-natal care. This will amount to 2000 - 3000 pounds by the time the baby is born, and they are required to attend all clinics, classes etc. A failure to do so can result in further treatment being denied, or more likely, the state denying any responsibility should anything go wrong with the pregnancy
~ We saw a primary school with two uniformed guards out front. They were wearing stab vests and had propped against the wall, a long pole with a 'U' shaped end which cn be used to hold an attacker at bay. This is now a common sight in Chinese schools due to the number of knife attacks on school children. There is clearly something very wrong here

Dinner with Cary's mum this evening. She lives in a one bedroom apartment that we would consider to be very small. That said, with the help of some neighbours who all contributed a dish or two, we had a wonderful meal and a great time. These people have little by our standards and yet are so happy and welcoming of strangers, it almost puts our country to shame. This is a back blip, and I have to say that the miserable gits that I had the unfortunate pleasure of sharing a mini bus with back to the parking lot could learn a lot from these people.