Putuo Temple

Last Monday, Liz and I took the #26 bus to its very end to see the Putuo Buddhist Temple in Northwest Zhuhai. It is pretty out there, beyond the wide avenues and concrete abutments of New Xiangzhou and past some fairly provincial hamlets and dirt roads. Mind you, the temple's setting is not a wholly pastoral one: there's construction equipment and mini-mountains (some call them hills) of excavated dirt all throughout the area, as well as what appears to be the nascent groundwork for either a lightrail or raised highway.

There's plenty of construction going on inside the temple too, with contractors, carpentry stuffs, scaffolding, and concealing tarpaulins in many of the temple buildings. In my pictures, you can see piles of roofing and wall tile, ceramic adornments, and the aforementioned scaffolding, etc.

The Wet Market

Not too much to say on this post...here are some photos (complete with captions) that I took of the Wet Market a little while back. Called thusly because the entire first floor is a veritable seafood emporium, the Wet Market also has lots of produce, eggs, dried goods, and Chinese women wielding meat cleavers in poorly lit areas. As always, click through to see the full slideshow.

I've got some more photos to put up in the next few days, so sit tight.

Obama got next

I would like to thank Americans for voting with their heads and their hearts, not with their hate and fear. I'm glad to have a balla for president, even if he is a Bulls fan.

Wake's back

Photo courtesy of Boston.com

Tim Wakefield, my favorite Red Sox pitcher of all time, will be back with the team next year. Wake currently has 164 career wins. If he is healthy and can put up his standard 12 wins a year for the next three seasons, Wake will surpass the immortal Cy Young and that scumbag from Texas for the most wins all-time in franchise history (both have 192). In addition, his 1,907 career strikeouts are tied for 77th all-time in Major League Baseball history. He already has more strikeouts than Ron Guidry, Bret Saberhagen, Frank Viola, one of the Niekros, and anybody nicknamed "Wayback" (groan). If he gets about 110 strikeouts next year (which is below his career average but probably a pretty good bet, judging from the last three years), he will surpass Whitey Ford, Al Leiter, Catfish Hunter, and Orel Hershiser. Much love Wake - keep it up for another 10 years.