Astounding

It is monsoon season and the colors are deep at sunset. As I look east the sky is a dark blue behind the reddish brown mountains, freckled with green. The clouds are out of focus. They are dollops of color and I can't say where they begin or end.

I turn west and the clouds are sharp in the final glare of the sun. There is a dim gap where there are no clouds to catch the light. The scene doesn't add up. It's hard to resolve against the bright sunset, but there are clouds up in that dark patch. The darkness lies between two sharp lines radiating out from the sun. The lines converge just short of the western horizon where the shadow is as jagged as a mountain top.

It's a shadow cast upward onto the clouds. It seems so obvious now. I must have stared at such a shadow a thousand times before without comprehension. How could I have missed this arm of the night, grasping ahead into the fading daylight?

China Pictures: Xiamen

Our Hotel

Call Housekeeping - If You Dare

The View

"Mao's" - Cultural Revolution Themed Chain

No Car Horns

A Surprising Menu Item

Hits the Spot

Xiamen Software Park

The Bay (as seen from the Xiamen Pizza Hut)

Colonial Sights

Seafood Anyone?

China Pictures: The Beginning

The city of Hong Kong is an island

Colonial Hong Kong

British Style: Double-Decker

Entering Shenzhen from Hong Kong

"Hello, we are communists."

Even McDonald's is worth eating at these prices (8.2:1 USD)

Cultural Differences: Every gate has a fishtank at the Shenzhen airport

The Images Among the Rice Patties

Rain on the Rice Patties

Reckless Driving

Documentation Before Safety (just before the second mudslide)

Back the Way We Came

Work is Play