Spent the whole day exploring this fascinating city. It is a large modern metropolis which is still being rebuilt. Will took the Truck to the Vehicle testing centre to get a Chinese MOT and also obtain a Chinese Driving License.
Electric scooters are everywhere and have their own traffic lanes – they are silent except for the constant horns to warn pedestrians and other road users about their presence. The centre is a mixture of small shops and very large stores – one hypermarket I walked through is one of the largest I have ever seen – you could not see the end when you entered – it was really a mini underground city and sold absolutely everything. The city really comes alive after mid morning to late evening and the centre is based around one main road with the old town and bazaar to the north of that road. A statue of Mao still dominates over a park and lake. In the side streets local manufactures and traders dominated – it looked as if some things had not changed in a century – whereas the main road was definitely a 21st century shoppers paradise. A complete melting pot of ethnic backgrounds mixed on the streets with large expensive limousines fighting for room with small scooter trailers.
I changed some dollars at the main branch of the Bank of China (other branches and banks did not provide exchange facilities) – as expected the rate was slightly better than we got at the border. ATM’s were common although some of them did not take MasterCard or VISA.
Internet and Wi Fi in particular are scarce unless you have a Chinese mobile account. The Chinese appear to block many of the sites we use (e.g. Blogger, Picasa, Facebook) so it is difficult to update our blogs and diaries etc.
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