Day 9: Dongguan

I had some time in the morning to enjoy a walk around the grounds again. I’m getting spoiled, two mornings in a row where I can take a morning walk with such nice scenery. I love that it is warm enough for me to open my balcony and have some ‘fresh’ air. This resort is so tucked into the property that I never hear any traffic or another noise and distraction that usually accompanies any city.

Of course the bloody sun decides to come out on the day that I have to leave the resort and go spend my entire day inside. This was a beautiful morning.

Some people have very strong opinions about that ‘cheap crap from China’, but what people don’t understand is that it is only cheap because when someone orders something from a factory in China, they invariably tell the factories to make them cheap.

The can actually make some incredibly very good stuff, but like everything else, it would cost. I hear people argue that those are jobs that are costing someone a job in the US.

All I can offer is that you don’t know the kind of conditions they work under. Take a look at this guy. He a welder, but he’s got a laminated piece of paper attached to a Groucho Marx plastic glasses, I’m impressed they gave him gloves.

A Chinese worker works 6days a week, lives in a dorm room that is probably shared with at least another worker and they are fed 3 times a day. This is the life of a migrant worker. This a picture of one of the better dorms.

It looks like every single apartment has open balconies. I was told that is because they all need that room to hang and dry their clothes.

This young lady is sorting out little pieces of metal that will be positively charged or negatively charged. 

Then another girl puts those metal pieces together and another girl will glue them until they become these parts that you will probably never ever see since it’s tucked away inside a motor.

Another thing you probably don’t know about China is that any building 5 floors or less does not require elevators. So I’ve climbed up and down over two dozen buildings already and it’s just the start of my 2^nd week.

 I can’t go away without sharing another lunch story. I ordered another bento box and I actually got to take a picture of it. So going from top left to right, that is grilled tofu and spices. The next box is the pork, they haven’t caught up to the fact that eating actual FAT really isn’t good for you. It’s a pork dish, I can recognize that, but it’s a lot more fat and maybe a sliver of actual lean port. The center spot is pickled ginger, almost sweet. That’s just some sautéed bok choy. Then the ubiquitous, asian servings of rice.

Oh, I forgot, that brown round thing in the port section? It’s called a soy egg. It’s a boiled egg cooked in soy sauce, it tasted just like a boiled egg and didn’t need salt.

I'm still in Dongguan, this is the nicest hotel I've stayed at in China, I will hate to leave it tomorrow. I spent my last night strolling the grounds one final time.

This is that little area below the service road.

This is the service road.







And this is the prettiest shot I could get, let me tell you it took me forever to get this shot because of the lighting. But it made me really homesick!