“Now is the winter of our discontent”

“Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York”  Shakespeare,  Richard III

Discontent being “COLD in China” and Substitute “Singapore” for York  and you have a start to January.   On the 4th. Robbie setoff to the Philippines for a 3 week SCUBA safari. Jan 5th has me on a China / Singapore trip.

Landing in HK on Friday (7th) morning and bee-lining to Dongguan the energy sapping stick to your bones cold diluted any fun to be had shopping for tea.  Saturday my Taiwanese friend Tim came over for dinner. This gave us a chance to catch up since his Oct. trip to the US was cancelled.  Sitting in a restaurant where everyone is eating, still clad with their winter apparel, another winter joy in DaLang

Factories will start losing workers this coming weekend and will not restart until Feb 9th. From a 3 Day CNY shut-down to about a 3 week vacation … times have changed.   The dynamic growth in consumer spending is mindboggling  ..  Prices for a typical winters coat in most retail shops are in the 500-700 RMB range unheard of a couple of years ago. (close to months wages for a factory worker)

In Wuxi we encountered a different cold ..An Icy, 5 below, cold that cuts through, coupled with the driest air .. No fun!  I don’t have the ambition to  take photos for this post .. the Great Fire-Wall of China persists and that takes the fun out of blogging.

Friday 1/14/11….  Singapore: equatorial equilibrium, much to be said for this .. arrived about 9:00pm finally thawed out by Saturday morning.