Dahutong Lunch

I was at Dahutong and I had lunch at a little ad hoc side cafe where they had great noodles. I watched the guy make them and he did not use any machine. He just stretched the noodles until they pulled into strings and tossed them into the boiling water to cook. I thought that was so cool!

Dahutong

I went to the most fabulous place today, called Dahutong. It's like three malls of wholesale stuff crammed together in one great spot. I had to pick up some more work clothes as I will be running low before long. The dry cleaners takes about 4 days turnaround and there is no such thing as a rush. I purchased a pair of sweet trousers, a nice sport coat and two dress shirts for a whopping total of USD54!

Tianjin City Tower

I had the opportunity to inspect the new Tianjin City Tower, which JLL is managing the leasing, property and project itself. I went up to the 13th floor and the support system to access the outside lift struck me as interesting.

Beautification

I was walking over to the Xiaobailou Area (one of the 3 major CBDs in Tianjin) and I happened upon a beautiful display setup for the Olympics. I had not seen so many flowers in such a space, so I stopped to see what they had. A plethora of pansies and chrysanthemums, but they were all in 4 inch pots and looked like they had not been watered for a few days. I see a trend emerging here; put forth enormous amounts of energy to attain instant results with absolutely no thought of sustainability. It was not the flowers which brought forth this epiphany, but they are merely an example. I marvel at the vast inefficiencies with appreciation of the very worthy effort.

Starbucks

I had the opportunity to walk through one of the projects which is managed by JLL here in Tianjin at the basement of a building. It is going to host a Papa John's, Starbucks and some other stores when completed. Some things struck me as odd while I was touring. For example, people were walking through the construction site from the subway to gain access to the upper floors as if it were nothing, and nobody cared. The picture to the right is going to be a Starbucks, but you may notice something missing...like safety equipment. The guy bending over was jack hammering the floor and I walked by other people who were shaving metal with large Dremel tools sans goggles. I asked the project manager about contractors supplying safety equipment, but his reply was not encouraging. Even if supplied, nobody would want to use them.

Not so Forbidden City

Apparently the Forbidden City is not forbidden to underwear hanging out on a line. This is a portion of the city which has been apparently allocated as barracks. It comes complete with laundry facilities and a workout area (if you look carefully, you can see the Bowflex machine to the left of the clothesline).

Forbidden City

I now know how the Forbidden City got its name...it was forbidden to tall people.