你好來自中國

The title of this post 你好來自中國, or Hello from China, should give you a clue as to where I've been working recently. Not one to pass up a business opportunity on the far side of the world, I decided to take up some pharmaceutical work in Shenzhen. The pay is good and I need the money to fix the Geo for the trip that got me started on this blog in the first place.

I realize that it's been a huge long time since I've made a post to this blog, probably not since the last time I was in China. There's lots of catching up to do, and I hope to get around to doing that soon, but the problem here is that China has blocked the use of some social media sites like Facebook and Blogger is one of them.

Not to worry though, I found a solution to that, even though it costs me 8 bucks a month and sometimes my hotel connection to the internet is a bit dodgy. Like I said, I'm working in Shenzhen, but I'm not anywhere near the actual city center. Shenzhen is a vibrant and active city with lots to do, unfortunately I'm situated in a somewhat sleepy beach town called Dameisha about 40 minutes away from Shenzhen proper. During the summer months it looks like the ideal place to be near the ocean and do all the things associated with the beach, but in winter it's kind of dead and, well, sleepy. It's about 50F (10C) around here, and have yet to see the sun since arriving. It's a stark contrast to the Southern California town of Carlsbad where I was last working where it was 80 (26C) on January 8th.

It's at least interesting, well interesting to me, and I can usually amuse myself with finding the unusual things in a city or town. It's not that hard to do when you're in another country and most everything here is competing for my attention. As sleepy as the area is where I am, there's still plenty to explore. There's an area up the mountainside that looks like an extreme rollercoaster straddling the top of the mountain. I have only seen it through binoculars, and I want to check it out when the weather gets warmer and the sun is out. I also like going to the grocery store and trying to figure out just what some of the things on the shelf might be. Pictures on the outside might offer some clue, but then again might not. I'll just have to buy a few and find out for myself.

I'm not sure how long I'll be here in China, but now that I've figured out how to get through the firewall that the Chinese government put up to keep their citizens from accessing the cool social media sites, at least I'll be able to post things to this blog.