We had a great day on Saturday. The weather was clear and comfortable and we could see blue skies. Some colleagues were visiting from the US so our team decided to entertain them on Saturday with a tour around China. Check out the nice shots of the Great Wall and of Potola Palace during sunset in Lhasa, Tibet:

(above: a section of the Great Wall and Potola Palace at sunset…we had to hurry to see ‘em both)

Hyuh hyuk! Actually, our team decided to visit “Splendid China” as our afternoon activity. The park is huge and features many acres dedicated to miniaturized versions of famous sites in China. I think everyone enjoyed it more than we were expecting; I got a kick out of watching the Chinese folks excitedly explaining the various sites and their histories to the American, including myself. We arrived around 3:30 PM and stayed until sunset. Part of the park closed at 6pm, the other part at 9:30. So, we stayed later to enjoy the sites at night. The only problem was that they didn’t turn on hardly any lights. So, we left around 7pm. The US folks wanted to try a foot massage so I took them to one of the spots that I’d been to a few times. It helped me to sleep well that night.

We started the morning by going to Mix City, the high end shopping center in Shenzhen. We arrived around 9:30 AM and the stores hadn’t opened yet. After ambling around just to get a flavor of the place, we decided to walk down to Dong Men, about a 15 minute walk from Mix City. So, within 15 minutes by foot of each other you have the most expensive shopping in Shenzhen and then the cheapest. I still say that Dong Men is the best though – lots of high quality fun junk to be purchased.

(above) On the way to Dong Men from Da Ju Yuan, one crosses this fetid creek. The workers were watering the trees by hand from the creek. I guess it’s got lots of nutritious organic matter in it.

(above) Dong Men from high above (66th floor of Di Wang) and from below.   There’s hardly anyone here early in the morning (around 10:15 AM)

(above) More fake copies of Vista, Photoshop, etc., The big DVD store (had to sneak the picture really fast – they don’t like having their picture taken), Dante posing next to a funny sign near another fake DVD store. Hey, their fake quality is better than that of the common street rabble, foo’!