Huangshan mountain and other reflections

We got back from Huangshan mountain this evening after a couple of days out there (incidentally, it is another of China's AAAAA rated sights - 66 or so of them I'm told).  The scenery is spectacular but the weather is more than a little unpredictable.  It absolutely threw it down yesterday as we got off the cable car.  Reassuring ourselves that it was easing off, we stepped out on to the trail.  Sadly, we were a little optimistic and ended up sheltering between two toilet cubicles for 15 minutes before again deciding that it was easing off - hey presto it started throwing it down again and rumbles of thunder could be heard from the distance.  Thankfully, it cleared up and we could take in the cracking scenery.  The mist rolls in and out on a regular basis and the peaks jut through to create a fabulous painting-like views.  The weather today, however, was beautiful - gorgeous blue sky (coupled with the mist).  I am sporting a lovely lobster red tan this evening.

I thought I would throw in a few more reflections on what we've seen so far.  Despite the rampant pollution, there does seem to be a recognition that measures to tackle it are necessary.  Almost every motor bike I have seen around the towns and cities has been electric (which creates its own dangers as they are whisper quiet and the driving is somewhat unpredictable).  There are also solar panels everywhere.  I don't whether this is a measure to tackle some of the driving excesses, but the traffic lights have countdown clocks on them to tell you how long it is until the lights are going to change - perhaps to convince people that there's no need to jump the lights if they are going to go green in 30 seconds.

May be those countdown clocks are just there to create jobs.  There is an impressive level of technology and overemployment here.  Take the museums where one person sells you the ticket, you then go through security, then (as you you approach the automated ticket barrier) someone takes your ticket and puts it through the barrier for you.  Nothing is left to chance.  Marketing is presumably another overmanned department: our hostel in Shanghai proudly boasted "windows" as one of its main selling points.

One further thing which has only occurred to me since we've been here is that Tony Blair's reference to Diana being the "People's Princess", which sparked a whole number of "People's" prefixes, was being used in China for years before that.  Obviously, the country's name incldues it, but there are also a whole stack of "People's Parks" and "People's Squares".  Turns out that New Labour was more Left Wing than it appeared.

My final one for now is that nappies are not that regularly used in China, so you get the curious sight of toddlers wandering around with big splits in their trousers around their backsides.  Yan mentioned that they are trained to go to the toilet in response to a whistle (some form of Pavlovian response).