Saturday, February 20, 2010

China - Out of a Tour Bus Window - Part 2

Yes… the photos continue!

Lets hit the road…. Toyota Hiace

After spending a night at the Hot Springs Resort – fabulous chinese dinner, buffet breakfast combination of east and western foods…. we hit the road towards Dongguan area, to a Tourist Theme Park called OCT East Theme Park

Our tour was a 3-day tour, with two days spent at this theme park, since it was pretty big.

I saw a lot of major infrastructure, mainly large highway construction though the countryside. Sometimes, it even went through and over peoples houses.

New Bridge piers.

Approach roads, and major earthworks.

Buried concrete pipeline…..

Precast Concrete Yard.

A billboard – presumably promising a brighter, better future…. in the city. That Pagoda and man-made lake we saw on our first day at Hui Zhou – Mainland China people want to be Westernized somewhat, or at least have first world living standards.. i.e – Live in an apartment, in a city, bright lights and entertainment…… The good life?

Pretty?

New Condos – not small either, and in the middle of relatively no where….

I think this is the start of another MEGA condo/living area development… and i think the NEW BIG HIGHWAY I keep seeing is in the background….

Lots of Land – in some ways, China could be the next US – since it has so much land, and just PUMP out urban infrastructure…. more strip malls, franchaise, same but same everywhere?

A house, right next to the highway…. and another motorbike.

The typical shop-front-come-residential-house-one-stop-shop. It’s not a house, it’s a home.

Same again….

Rubbish Collection?

The new concrete road built over the old one….

… and I’m presuming all the aggregate for the concrete came out of THAT mine site/quarry. Pretty awesome chunk taken out there! Great planning, having all your materials close by…….

…and all these concrete batching plants dotted alongside the road you are building. Go big brother!

Home-made incinerator.

..another batch plant, not that far down the road… :)

Pretty Big

Workers.

…and back to market gardens.

I think this plaque was for the highway.

Concrete Piers…..

Modernized Motorcycle. ;)

Irrigation Ponds

Lovely Pastels….

Concrete Crew – oh yeah! Love the skirts boys.

The Shed.

Men running the errands. Hold on…. to your bags.

.. the landscape of future development.

The boarder between the factories, and the seemingly endless land available.

Here’s one they prepared earlier. Highway – Almost reminds me of the US Interstate Roads – lots of it!

Green Roof.

A factory

…. you’ve probably noticed that a lot of these photos are rather hazy, overcast, grey-washed and not the usual blue-bird, crisp and clear skys that I’m usually used to living in Vancouver and New Zealand.

Accommodation blocks – for factory workers…

..more grey-washed landscapes of factory sprawl.

These photos were taken on the outskirts of Dongguan…. a really prosperous area, stacked with factories.

Like everything else, I’m not sure what this place is, does etc!

US Interstate? Or Chinese Expressway….. ;)

…. yep. Expressway.

Toll Booths. At least Big Brother is getting something back for building all this.

Damn – that is a long, long building…

…pumping out factory after factory. It’s a “wonderful” recipe. Build factories, fill them with cheap labour from the middle of nowhere, produce, export and supply goods to the WORLD – a bottomless pit of commercialism and consumption. Can-do attitude…. What can’t the Chinese do. Yes – they’ve been doing it all day Ref.

More developed areas.

..Laundry!….. All that order, wonderful.

How about these for some more pumped out condos? Where does the money come from? What sort of people live in here?

What I haven’t touched on is that there is a very apparent gap between the rich and poor. Some Mainland Chinese are becoming increasingly wealthy, not surprisingly since they are the manufacturers to the world.

These factory blocks impressed me – brand new, and EMPTY. Ready for some entrepreneur to pounce with the next big thing, or the next small piece of junk at the dollar store.

Nothing inside, but the potential to manufacture ’stuff’.

..over a bridge and down in the valley is a string of market gardens…. Very pretty.

Tunnels.

These shocked me a bit. Imagine being the rich property developer – “I want to build my big condos on that ridge line!!” – hell, go ahead build them wherever you want!! Awesome……

Some slope stability works – for my geotechnical friends….. :)

That’s one big slope!.. Check out the people half way up.

Drainage provisions, toe buttresses…. bridges, tunnels. This is right by the Yan Tian International Container Port.

This place was hard to find of Google Maps – Port and OCT East Theme Park

This was impressive….. so many container cranes!

I thought Oakland Bay (across from San Fran) was impressive…. but that is nothing compared to this.

This new roof was taken in Da Mei Sha (Dameisha) – a very touristy bay where OCT East Theme Park is located. Impressive.

Tourist City, Built for tourists – both international, and the Chinese Tourists!!…. The good life. The NEW life… for those that can afford it……

….and those that are living in the developing countryside…. ;)

[Via http://ginman5.wordpress.com]

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