Life and Travel in China

Happy Christmas! Everything went according to plan for me, it was Christmas Eve with Polish dishes, and now it's time for a proper Christmas breakfast.

The Chinese are hard-working, but when they take time off, you can only envy them. A year ago, most companies had January 1 and 2 off to celebrate the usual New Year. This time some people are off until January 4th! Who celebrates the New Year like this in Poland? And in 5 weeks it will be Chinese New Year and they will have 10-14 days of relaxation. Just envy! And the best thing is that they don't care much about this ordinary New Year, they don't party, they don't drink champagne, some people just go to sleep, so what right do they have to have a New Year's holiday?

How many Poles are there in Shenzhen? I think more and more every day. Right now maybe about 30 people, with gusts up to 50 people. Some in groups, some as individuals. It is different with our compatriots. Personally, I have Russian and Filipino friends, and of course many Chinese. That suits me.

This Sunday I met with my fellow photographers, our Chinese internet forum for photography. About 80 photographers, me, my wife, 5 models, my Filipino friend. As someone funny called it in Poland: 'a small Chinese photography circle'. Those who could met, because I assume that the entire group may consist of about 200-300 people. We took about 300 photos, I chose several dozen of the best (according to us) and decided to create a new group in the gallery - MODELS. I invite you to watch.

You have no idea how badly damaged banknotes are in China. 100 RMB is still OK, but about 10 RMB, 5 RMB and 1 RMB fall apart in your hand. There are several reasons, one is that the banknotes are simply old. Second, and probably most important, many Chinese do not use wallets. They fold the banknotes into four pieces, carry them in their pocket all day, crumple them up, and at the end of the day they pay in a store somewhere. And then I get the change, and I either immediately ask for a banknote in better condition, or I carefully put it in my wallet and pray that it doesn't fall into pieces. Smaller denominations are also destroyed on buses, because here you pay immediately on public transport. You know, in a hurry, they move coins and banknotes from pocket to pocket and simply crumple them terribly and tear the edges. Putting money in your pocket has its disadvantages. They lose this money, and I have already found 50 RMB, 20 RMB and 10 RMB. If they had bought themselves a wallet or a purse, there would not have been such problems.