Zhang Jia Gang

Yesterday, we arrived in dad's hometown of Zhang Jia Gang (张家港). The changes to the place over the past few years are ENORMOUS! It has become a model city of economic development. This used to be a one horse town, now.... there a high rise apartments everywhere, miles and miles of newly developed highways, factories, parks, man-made lakes, high end shopping......totally don't feel like I'm in a small town.

Went horse riding today! My first time. Was pretty fun. I managed to get the horse into a trot, which, in the heeled sandals, that, other than the pretty jewelled jandals I bought yesterday, are the only two pairs of shoes that I have with me, is fairly decent (I think.....).

The riding was done on this little island in the middle of Yangtse River (长江河), called Two Mountain Island (双山岛）We got to see some peasant land, the crops growing on it, ducks, geese and all these little birds that you don't see very often in the cities like egret (白鹭), and swallows (燕子) plus other birds I don't know the names of. Beautiful day today, high of 38 degrees, luckily, we hit the island in the morning, which meant that it wasn't that hot.

On our way back, we saw a cargo barge along the the Yangtse...absolutely beautiful, that gigantic (not that big, but people are small right?) hulking thing slowly embarking on its journey futher upstream... shouldn't be that far up, hitting the dams soon.

This is definately a land of opportunity, if, like all lands of opportunity, a little dark. Still, not as dark as could be. China is more small level dark. Of course, that adds up to large level of darkness, but....I don't know, does that mean that each individual gets ripped off less? Or maybe we are more creative.

Read up a little on Roman Abramovich and his dark money ("abramovich vouchers"). All in the course of life.

You know, I've been thinking today, you know, money is just a way to waste time. We spend time earning money, then spend time spending money, then, we wait for the things that we have spent money on to get old and then do the above all over again. Of course, say that to your average coal miner, risking health, life and limb just to get a few hundred dollars a month to feed their family.

Still............from the high perch of my relatively comfortable life so far, I think you have a real purpose in life if you are in that kind of situation. Like...that bun after you have eaten nothing in the past 24 hours and is close to collapsing. Far, far more meaningful life than your average fat spoiled brat without having to worry about anything in their life ever. In that respect, it's good that I lived in NZ for so long. Wasn't spoiled. Here, I don't have to lift a finger. Food: ready (3.50 yuan noodles better than ever). Dishes: not my problem. Floor: you mean they get dirty? Cleaning up my room: other people. So in the end, living the hard life is a good thing. Those religions were right.......