After going through the many photos I took in my travels over the past several months, I found two that I thought were interesting and shareable. Both images are clickable links to a higher-resolution version; and remember, all content on this website is Creative Commons by-nc-sa.
This photo is a nice juxtaposition of an artery of speeding humanity against the steel-and-glass body of Hong Kong that it nourishes. This was taken from the balcony of the China Club in Hong Kong. The China Club is a members-only affair, and we were fortunate to be there as guests of Liam Casey, aka “Mr. China”.
This was an unusually sunny day for Shenzhen; in honesty, it’s rare to see blue sky due to the pollution in the area, but for several days in a row during that trip there was beautiful weather. Shenzhen’s skyline is growing at a frenetic pace, and it’s a very planned city, as evidenced by the regularly arrayed skyscrapers–it’s almost as if the city planners played way too much Sim City in a previous life. Shenzhen city is slated to have a minimum of 40% “green areas” and so far they are doing a good job of keeping to that. The ever-present construction cranes in the foreground are an indication of the eternally under-construction look of the area. This picture was taken from the front of the new Sheraton Futian Sheraton, a hulking, obsidian black palace of a hotel, a gaudy icon of parvenu Shenzhen. Comfortable rooms, so-so food (but good food can be found in walking distance) and as always, free bottled water and free internet (a custom I wish US hotels would adopt!).
I like the first one – very Bladerunner-ish. Our cities just don’t look like this in Australia. Makes me miss Japan…Kyoto station is a must-see at night for sci-fi style architecture.
Cool Pics! What camera did you use? How long was the exposure on that first one?
I miss Japan too. I need to go back there soon for a visit!
I used a Sony Cybershot DSC-T10. The optics and the sensor aren’t the greatest, but the image you are seeing here doesn’t reveal that because it’s so compressed. The original image is something like a 2.5MB JPEG, too large to serve with my meager bandwidth allotment. I had to use something like a 1-2 second exposure on the first one to integrate enough light to get it to come out well. Very steady hands, good for soldering.
Just kidding, I built a makeshift “tripod” out of some cigarette butts sitting around on the terrace and then used the 2-second timer delay so my hands were off the camera during the entire exposure period.
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I want to visit Japan someday..soon. I love Sci/Fish architecture!!
the first photo is awesome.
[…] […] the scale of some food operations is pretty impressive. I heard that Foxconn–the place that makes the iPods and iPhones–consumes 3,000 pigs a day.” More “Foxconn is where all of the iPods and iPhones are made. It’s a huge facility, apparently with over 250,000 employees, and it has its own special free trade status. The entire facility is walled off and you apparently need to have your passport and clear customs to get into the facility…just short of the nuclear-powered robotic dogs from the nation-corporation franchulates of Snowcrash.” More “I asked her if she knew what the internet was. She said no. I was stunned. Here is a girl who is an expert in building and testing computers–I mean, on some projects she has probably built PCs and booted Windows XP a hundred thousand times over and over again […] yet she didn’t know what the internet was.” More “Shenzhen’s skyline is growing at a frenetic pace, and it’s a very planned city, as evidenced by the regularly arrayed skyscrapers–it’s almost as if the city planners played way too much Sim City in a previous life. ” More […]
Hey Bunnie,
I love the HK pic – I’ve been there twice and that captures alot of the energy that is there. I’ve also been to Shenzhen twice and you’re right on. Very impressive.
Any thoughts on manufacturing moving to Vietnam from China?
SimCity is the best, so damn addicting game. i used to play the original version when i was just a kid:–