[Leica] Hong Kong & Shanghai

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

Neela & I have just returned from our maiden trip to China, which kicked
off in Hong Kong and ended in Beijing, following the tourist trail about
which a friend of mine, who travels often on business across the length and
breadth of China, calls "Showcase China". In many ways I found China
fascinating, and full of contradictions. The infrastructure is amazing, but
quite a bit seems wasteful - Chongqing, for example seems to have a modern
suspension bridge across the Yangtze every kilometre or two, and all the
cities I visited had many unoccupied completed residential skyscrapers, and
plenty of half finished ones where no work was apparently going on. The
cities are spotlessly clean, but the air pollution has to be seen to be
believed - we did not see the moon and stars during the whole trip save for
the first night in Shanghai. Amazingly, there are no birds or even insects
visible in the cities at all -  dead from the air pollution, I suppose. In
fact, I just saw two wild birds on the whole trip - which included four
nights on a boat on the Yangtze! Again, the way the historical sites are
preserved and protected, and the same time designed to be tourist friendly,
in places like Xi'an and Beijing, is just very well done. Local guides
spoke surprisingly frankly to us about the pros and cons of life there, and
gave valuable glimpses of personal history to emphasize the points made,
and were not scared of criticizing Mao, the wasteful infrastructure
spending or laws like the "One Child Policy" either. Most were college
graduates who had majored in "Tourism English"!

Anyway, here are some pictures from Hong Kong and Shanghai. All photographs
with the Fuji X100S or Fuji XE-1 with either the 35mmf1.4 or the 56mm f1.2
lens mounted:

*Hong Kong*

Occupy Central - the few days we were there, the students seem to have gone
home - the protests restarted the day after we left:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141008-034.jpg.html

Bird Garden:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141008-079.jpg.html

Conversation:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141008-572.jpg.html

Shopkeeper:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141009-626.jpg.html

*Shanghai*

Pudong (Grain deliberate) a three vertical frame panorama:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141010-190.jpg.html

The Bund at Night:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141010-165.jpg.html

The Bund in Sunlight:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141011-716.jpg.html

Cigarette Break:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141011-718.jpg.html

Smartphones:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141011-721.jpg.html

Selfies:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141011-743.jpg.html

Eye Contact:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141011-875.jpg.html

Pei Pei:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/China/China-20141011-797.jpg.html

Please see LARGE

Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome

Cheers
Jayanand