Friday Night Lights, Guangzhou, China

Guangzhou is a big city in southern China just a few hours drive north of Hong Kong. Because I had to wait for my Chinese visa to be issued in HK I had a very limited amount of time in Guangzhou, but the thing that is really striking about the city is the way it is lit up, as though the entire city takes part in a celebration of light when the sun goes down.

I’ve been told that Guangzhou is very a-typical for Chinese cities and that it is a very new city, in fact the part I was photographing was less than a decade old and partly still under construction. Perhaps this is a testament to China’s relatively new foray into capitalism and they want to shine a beacon on it.

In the very short time I was in Guangzhou, I learned very little about the city or the Chinese people. But one fact was unmistakeable: the road between Hong Kong and Guangzhou is about 170 km (105 miles) and what I thought might at least partly be a ride through Chinese countryside was one solid mass of humanity. A megalopolis of manufacturing, mid-rise offices and tenements stretching from one huge city to the next.

Hong Kong Saturday Night

This is only my second time to Hong Kong but I love this city. It has a heartbeat like no other I’ve been to: it’s an electric, 60 cycle hum. You can feel it through your feet as you walk on the streets or in your hands as you lean on a railing looking out at Victoria Harbor.

The Funicular railroad that takes you to the peak that overlooks the island is an interesting ride, at one point accelerating while climbing at a 45 degree angle, trundling past the buildings alongside the railroad. Being Saturday evening, the cars were packed and standing in the aisle can be challenging at best. Most people in Hong Kong know this so as soon as the doors open, getting into the train is a free-for-all that is mostly elbows and attitude. But once you get to the top you know that whatever it took to get there was worth it.

Hong Kong at Night from the Peak
Hong Kong at Night from the Peak

The road to Delhi

I spent 48 hours in Delhi India which is a world of contradictions. Overcrowded and loud, traffic zips by you at breakneck speed, or is at a complete standstill. Driving seems tactile: all flashing headlights and blaring horns mixed in with a little dare-devil-may-care attitude. Brand new, high tech architecture rises out of dirty, broken-down streets. And yet there are moments of complete serenity.

Red Sari and Blue Door
Woman in red sari and blue door

A mosque in my home town, Berkeley, IL

I moved away from my home town of Berkeley, IL over 30 years ago but still have family there and visit a couple times a year. Oftentimes, when I’m visiting I like to wander around and take pictures of the place, though some of it has changed drastically.

A mosque in my home town
Before the dome or tower, I went to grade school here

I attended Field School in the 1960’s from K through 3rd grade. Sometime in the 90’s the school was sold to the Albanian American Islamic organization and is now one of their midwestern mosques. Of the 330,000 houses of worship in the United States, about 2500 are Mosques and of that number, only 200 were built for that purpose. The rest have all been converted from buildings originally designed to be something else…like a grade school.