When local television CTV9 forcast this snowstorm the announcer added "hopefully this will end the drought".
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| This was only the second snowfall in Beijing for Winter 2011 after a long drought. The Anhui Li area, where I habitually stay, was bone dry. |
Fresh frozen chicken - not in the freezer but sitting on the footpath beside the delivery van. |
Council workmen tidy up the sad-looking garden outside Coffee Language. Notice the dust raised by the activity. |
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| Everyone wants to be a star! - one of the team of ladies who keep the Hoa Yi She Inn clean and tidy is Pu Fang Ping. |
A forgotten, perhaps once treasured cap awaits its owner on a fence in one of the many small backstreets of Anhui Li. |
The snow fell so slowly it settled like a soft, white blanket on every surface in the open, to gradually fall off as the temperature rose. |
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| Anhui Li; this is my Chinese village - quiet, safe, friendly and, in it's own special way, beautiful. |
A poster in a chemist shop in Anhui Li signalled the beginning of the Chinese Government's anti-smoking campaign. |
This attractive piece of tea-making equipment is to allow you to heat the pot and sterilize the cups with boiling water without spilling. |
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Summer 2011:
In and around Anhuili...
The Sisterhood: "Oh no! He's going to take our photographs again! You distract him while I knee him in the balls." |
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| As the evenings get warmer, entire families move onto the footpaths - taking advantage of fast food outlets and late night shopping. |
The all- night convenience store of my friend Mr. Wang who keeps me supplied with essentials like milk, coffee and sugar . |
Zhang Hui doesn't mind the photo as long as he can be sitting on this cool-looking bike with a cool-looking friend... |
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| But posing with Li Gui the hairdresser is another matter entirely. |
My mate Chen Shu the fruitseller was here selling quality fruit when I first visited in 2002. Now he has a wife and child. |
Shoulder-length black hair is still the default for young Chinese girls, but their older sisters are not so defiantly old-school in style. |
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| This year's home away from home: The Hanting Hotel, still right next to my old haunts in Anhuili. |
I found the Capitol Museum's John Portman "Art and Architecture" show not as appealing as this elegant little model..near the toilet. |
Another "spot the stars" blockbuster to celebtate the current 60th anniversary is "The Great Cause of China's Foundation" |
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| !.A modern Chinese couple - but how can you tell they are Chinese? This generation are no longer the skinny, bony waifs of the past. |
2. As they walk past the hairdresser notices them and then notices the little demo the fitness and beauty girls are about to give. |
3. Many street-side businesses regularly organise their staff into such public exercises. First position.... |
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| 4. Second position. The next day all the boys in the hairdressers gave their own street demo to disco music. |
5. The next day the male hairdressers seized their opportunity to steal the show. |
The most common Chinese pet is the small dog that sometimes seems more like a small child to its owner. |
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| My hotel room. You might get annoyed here by car horns and yapping dogs but I slept just fine. |
Typical apartment block near my hotel. Some how it reminded me of a coral reef with various natural growths adding to it's character. |
This Summer these little denim shorts edged out even the light, flesh-pink summer frock as God's gift to Mankind. |
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| "Coffee Language" was a haven for laowai like me. Now it sells more tea than coffee, no-one speaks English - but I often sit there all day. |
Before I get too old to enjoy it I want to drive a little Dong Feng truck like this around my property. Just mail it care of Grove Post Office. |
Two years have passed but a workman told me renovations had begun inside the old Tibetan Bathing Hotel - then tried to sell me drugs. |
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| The China Tibetan Research Office boasts new resources including a Tibetan culture shop and gallery. They own that hotel too. |
The bicycle lives on in Anhuili - despite competition from some very flash looking electric scooters and actual motorbikes. |
If my friends in Tasmania should admire my DVD collection I have these two to thank: Xiao Yang and Tong Ling. |
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| NOT posed I swear... just life imitating art: the media loves young love only as an innocent heterosexual ideal. |
Many ladies make appointments to meet outside Coffee Language and watching them through the darkened glass is irresistable. |
Please Mr. Important Local Bureaucrat, ensure the preservation of these historically important relics of the 1990 Asian Games! |
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| Streetlife for youth in Anhuil, like everywhere else, seems to involve a lot of waiting - but appearances can be deceptive. |
Fornet Laundry where Bignose Laowai take their holiday clothes for cleaning and, I must say, get excellent care. |
You can't win! The government restricts smoking in the workplace - you sneak outside for a puff and there's some bugger with a camera! |
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| Does he fix cars or just park them? - either way ***** believes we should have no worries about it. |
No longer the passive recipient of the male gaze, today's piaolian directs it and largely determines the effect. |
I don't only look at girls you know - the modern use of ceramic tiles in architecture is pretty interesting too! |
