A Taste of Home

Sure, this country has a lot of great vegetable and fruits that we can't get back at home. Peaches, lychees, and bitter melon are in season right now.

However, I always see these beautiful bright red apples that are 3x the normal price on the imported shelves of the fruit stands. Look closely and you can see the bright red sticker with "Washington" written on it. It makes me nostalgic, and so sad that the price is so ridiculously high to eat one of those here. But my buddy took sympathy over my Seattle-pains and brought back a nice juicy one for me from Hong Kong. It was the BEST apple I've ever eaten in my life.

As much as I hate Snow White and her insanely annoying singing voice, I now have an understanding for why she so foolishly accepted that poison apple from the wicked witch. However, her taste in dwarves and princes is still questionable.

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Byron Yee
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Men's Fashion in China

Only in China have I seen men bold enough (and pretentious enough) to flaunt a Louis Vuitton belt and matching murse (man + purse). This is a country which is famous for it's copied/generic products, however, I'm 100% this man spent lots and lots of money for the real thing.

However, after exiting the fancy executive business building, I saw a beggar on the street with the same bag, but I'm equally certain that one was a knock-off.

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Byron Yee
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Foreign Policy

I remember growing up in California and hearing people complaining about how illegal immigrants were taking over jobs and flooding the workforce. Ironically enough, these immigrants they were complaining about were the same Mexicans they were paying to mow their bright green, baseball field quality lawns.

Recently, China's expat population has started to boom, both for higher end management jobs and also for those interested in the wholesale and commercial trade of cheap Chinese products. Quite a few of these expats, many from Africa, are here illegally, and the government is starting to really crackdown on these expats.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/03/world/asia/china-foreigner-crackdown-florcruz/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

I'm not worried because I have a legit visa for work, but even those are getting more difficult to obtain. I'm not sure why the immigration office is deciding to make this an increasingly difficult process, but that's how it works. So, wish me luck as I'm currently Hong Kong right now trying to sort out my new visa...

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Byron Yee
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China