Downtown Canal

Downtown Canal
Originally uploaded by paulbrockmann.

This lovely canal winds through an older section of downtown Nanning

— narrow, winding streets on each side, and this canal running

through the middle. It’s quite lovely, and as you see the trees are

currently in flower…though the water’s no picnic, and I hate to

imagine of the folks in the next shot are fishing. 🙂

In the shots after, you’ll see a bit more street scene on an old

shop-lined street next to the train station. If you look closely

you’ll see I was sort of following a woman who was lugging tons of

bananas on one of those traditional balance-on-the-shoulder things. My

heart really went out to this woman: it seemed the bananas she was

carrying on this blisteringly hot day must have weighed nearly as much

as she did.

I wish I’d had the guts to take more pictures on this street: the guy

walking across the street carrying some large firm sheet of something

odd-shaped, which when he slapped it down on the sidewalk a few paces

away from me turned out to be the dried skin of a shark. He slapped it

down next to piles of things that looked like they might be dried

pigs’ noses, but based on the taxadermically-mounted very large dead

white shark sitting in the storefront, and the shark skin that was

added as I watch, I deduced this shop sells various elements of dead

sharks. Sort of brings all those articles I’ve read in environmental

magazines to life in a new way.