Black sugar cane

The black sugar cane is everywhere. It seems this delicacy, delivered on tricycles is most popular. The cane is peeled - often in the streets leaving a pile of shredded black "skin" on the pavement. The cane is then chopped into pieces abut 12 inches long, and handed to the customer in a plastic bag, which is used as a "handle" to hold it.

The customer chews off a chunk, chews and chews until the 'goodness' is gone and then the shreds of unwanted cane are spat out onto the road. So small piles of while shredded fibre appear all along the roadway, adding to the pollution.

It is a very popular delicacy. (not for me though!)

Big Umbrella on bike.

I thought I was imagining things as this tricycle passed by. A huge umbrella, fully open, protected the driver and his "wares" from the rain. He was selling roasted sweet potato which was cooking on a contraption on the tray of his vehicle. To see him riding with the umbrella fully open was quite a sight on quite a busy roadway. Other small vehicles would have just had to "duck" and weave past him.

Holding the tyre on!

This bicycle was in one of the side streets in central Shaoxing. It appears that the tyre is being held on by some rag. It may well be that the rag is to hold the rather balding tyres to the icy road early in the morning.

The cart is actually a rubbish cart - possibly one of the Shaoxing council vehicles, though I'm not sure. Rather amusing.

Meat Delivery

Chinese food handling laws and procedures are different to those in the west. Do you believe me?

Would you like your butcher to deliver meat like this?

The meat is transported from the market on a tray on wheels - no wrapping, just sitting on the wooden tray.

Then, with no gloves, the meat is picked up and put into the back of a tricycle for delivery, along with other items for delivery. No covering. The weather is very cold, but still I would have expected some different treatment of the meat

The Wedding Muso's

Almost every day in Shaoxing, there are processions lead by a strange group of six musicians who sit in the back of a unitlity - crammed in, in fact - playing music as they tour the streets of the city followed by a strange entourage of vehicles. The vehicle immediately following the musicians is a black car with a person holding a movie camera standing up though the skylight.

The next car - usually decorated with flowers often held on with sticky tape, is the car with the bride and groom. Following - and there are always 6 or 8 cars (never 5) with various family members.

This happens rain, hail or shine (although I've never seen it hail here!)

On this occasion, it was raining and miserable. The muso's had stopped - which was good to take a photo, and they were playing Oh, Susanna - click here to hear it. Although our brass band on the back of the "ute" did not sound like this.

Soon we three Aussie English teachers were having an impromptu dance on the footpath, much to the amusement of the band and the passers by. At the same time a tricycle and a bus passed, and then the street cleaners gathered laughing to see what these strangers were doing in the midst of Shaoxing.

In the end we were all laughing!

Overload?

It is not uncommon to see one of these three wheeled cycles travelling through a city in China, loaded, or overloaded with strange things. I've posted many here, but find that I can not always get my camera ready in time to take the photo, and often I am passing in a crowded bus with no hope of getting the photo.

This laod was empty plastic crates of some sort. I have no idea what might have been in them. There was no sign of the cyclist. He was probably behind a bush!!!

Sugar cane time

At this time of the year the local Chinese people eat lots of sugar cane These great stalks of cane appear in fruit and vegetable markets. They are cut into pieces about 1/2 meter long, the outside "skin" is peeled off, and the students and others hold the base of the remaining stalk with a piece of plastic and bit off pieces of the cane.

They chew it and then spit out the hard whitish strands - onto the road or the footpath. The whole process leaves quite a mess but no one seems to care. The roads are covered with the peeled skin, and the chewed over and spat out dregs.

The photo is near Anchung, where the vendors sit with great piles of the cane, and peel and chop it to hand to customers.