Urban Impression
 

I just got one digital camera. I like take some photos to record the city and life here. It is a big pity that I just had a operation in hospital today. After I recover well, I will resume to take and post here.
I don't know where I should start to take. I think my most time is in my office and cellar, so I shot them. My offcie PC is HP. Thank XOXO for helping me edit the photos.
If you want to see some special photos, please let me know. I will try to take.

Billy, I hope you recover well from your operation.

I would like you to take pictures of places that you like, or things that you find interesting or beautiful ... just scenes of things that you may see everyday, but want to share with others.

I would like to see the neighborhood you live in.

I want to see the inside of your closet ;)

Women! Show us the women! :p

Oh, and I guess I'm curious about your neighborhood too. ;)

Cinema movie. I sometimes go to the cinema to see good movies. There are few good Chinese movies now. The tickets are expensive. Most people buy DVD to watch moives in home. So less and less people go to the cinemas.
There are the popular USA moives. But the casting drops behinds the USA. In the following pix, the first one is I, Robot. I will see it this week. The second pic is Ladder 49, The Bourne Supremacy and I, Robot. I watched the former two.

I live in this building. It was changed into apartments by company dorms. So the room size is very small. Most Chinese don't use dryers to heat up clothes. They put the clothes in the balconies. The windows look like ugly.

Billy, you're company bought that apartment building and turned it into a dormitory for employees? :confused:

Why the bars on the windows?

I guess this means I, Robot and Ladder 49 will be out on DVD soon then? <ducks and runs>

The piratical DVD will be out after the USA new movies come into boxes. So it easy to get the DVDs. One piratical DVD is about 8RMB(nearly 1$, 1$=8.3RMB). One movie ticket is about 60RMB(7$).
China want to oppose and limit the USA movies becaue we think the USA culture would erode our culture. It is a big pity that we cannot make out lots of good movies, such as Hero, to attract the fans.

The bars in windows are made for protecting the things in window. The clothes would fly away if the wind come. Of course, the thief cannot one in from windows.

Ago the company was a sate company. The buliding was built for the employees to live. The apartments were distributed to the old employees after the French Thomson joined. I rent one apartment to live in now.

it's can protect home form thieves' visit :biggrin:

Tree and motor bicycles
 

I don't know the name of trees. I pass the trees every day.

Is it me or does Will Smith look a bit different in that billboard for I Robot?

...I assume that guy *is* Will Smith and not another actor in the movie. I haven't actually seen it.

Make up eyebrow
 

We think the thin arc eyebrow is the best for the women. In Canton the old women used one thread to make up eyebrow into arc for other women. Now some girls still want to to make up the eyebrow.

it's can protect home form thieves' visit

You guys must have some very creative and athletic theives if you have to put bars on the fourth story windows. :biggrin:

I like the motorcycle shot a lot, Billy!

Lots of women in the US have their brows shaped too, usually by waxing or tweezing, although threading is catching on in some of the nicer/trendier places.

Great pictures!

Makes it more challenging if you want to fall out the window.

Jinx, threading?

Eric, It should be "the bars are for protecting the things in the windows FROM (not form) thieves". <grammar Nazi>

Some thieves can and will scale the balconies to get to upper floors. Most are dubbed "Spider Man" or some such silly moniker.

Brian

Yup, removing hair with a cotton thread.

</grammar>

I've seen thieves in vietnam scale a 4 story sheer wall and remove a bolted-in aircon unit while the owners, a layer of concrete away slept, they're good. They did it for a second hand aircon unit. These kind of bars are more for threats from above and the sides than the ground however.

Yup, removing hair with a cotton thread.

Oh thank God. I was seriously thinking he was referring to a physical stitch in the skin, pulling the eyebrow up into an arch like a sort of homemade facelift.

Billy, what's the bronze statue in post #15? It looks like a teacher and student. A famous teacher? :confused:

In the first pic the grandmother makes up the eyebrow for her granddaughter as you see in the second pic. I can treat you to make up you if you reallly want to have the thin arc eyebrow. :cool:

Do you like this woman? :)

Does your girlfriend know you're posting pictures of her on the internet, Billy? :)

I think somebody is playing a mean joke on kid #3 in the dragon dancing sculpture :)

Yes!!! How much do you want for her? :D

She's very pretty, Billy, thank you for posting the pictures. Do you know her?

I don't know her.

The pix were taken in Shan Xi, middle of China. I don't know how to explain. You ask me what you want to know.

Gate lion

courtyard

Wall

well & carve

wood vehicle. My dad has a similar wood vehicle. I cannot pull because it is hard to balance it.

That courtyard is beautiful, thank you very much for taking the time to post these pictures. I may never get to see China with my own eyes, so I really appreciate these. Keep 'em coming! :thumbsup:

You have the chance. Welcome to China. At least your eyes can travel by viewing the pix.

That is very poetic, Billy!

The pictures you are taking are beautiful, and show us parts of China that even if we came to visit we might not see.

What do the signs on the old building say? What was the building used for?

The pix were sent by one my friend.
Ago ShanXi businessmen were rich and famous in China, even in East Asia. Some buinessmen had their banks. The pix were taken from Cao's house. He was a big businessman.

Great job, Billy. :thumbsup: We want to see it all. :)

Yeah,that is China,interesting and historied.
I'd like to say something about the bar on the window:
I lives on the 3rd floor(no bars on the window),1st&2nd floor have the bars on the window,thieves can get to the 3rd floor easily by climbing the bars on the windows on the 2nd floor,coz i had once done it to get the key to the door.
So,who set the bars,the man above will probably be unlucky.

We have different viewpoints from you about the Chinese things as you see the Western things. You can post what you think about the pictures.
The Water Lily were taken in one Beijing's park. We think the withe lily and green lotus leaves are the best in the gardens. Lotus is considered as the Man of Honour since the old dynasties.

1=Water Lily & Frogs
2=Water Lily & Goldfish

1=Beijing Moon
2=Beijing Dusk

Billy, can you tell me how to write my name in Chinese?
 

My name is:

Timothy Ryan Saylors

It may be phonetic, but I would appreciate your help.

thx, BrianR, i always type the "from" to "form"..The two words r so similar ,i am sorry for that .
I don't like the bar completely, it's make the house more like a prison.but we must do that for security and i am very curious how u can protect home if there is not any bar and thieves can break into easily in American, can anybody tell me that?

Hi Eric,

Don't you know? All Americans own a Chinese made Norinco AK-47, and in that way do not worry about home intrusions.

No really, I have a Mini-14 (.223 calibre semi-automatic rifle with 30-round clip, by any measure, a military class weapon, and I love my freedom to own it) and a couple of handguns (9mm and .25 calibre semi-automatics), and I'm in a low crime area (probably because the criminals know we have guns).

Tim

Personally speaking, it is good to be 蒂莫西·瑞恩·赛勒斯. I will post it in Chinese Translation Forums for help.

And you call yourself a Texan? No true red blooded, God fearin', gun totin' American would dare admit to owning a .25 caliber peashooter. That's what the thieves carry.

(Unless of course that's your drop piece for when you blow the otherwise unarmed thieve's head off with the mini when he's creeping through your bedroom window...then it's okay.) ;)

Eric, there are bars on the windows of the toughest city areas in America, but most of the country simply doesn't have to fear burglars. Like Nothing But Net said, there's always the possibility the homeowner has a gun (and legally the homeowner will have every right to shoot you if you break into his home.)

In addition, the stuff in people's houses just isn't likely to be worth enough money to bother robbing it. You can only pawn a television set for $20 or so, and if they think it's stolen no pawn shop will want to take it (because the police will take it away if they find out it's stolen, and the pawn shop owner will not get his money back.)

I've known two people who had break-ins, and both times the thief took only a single, very expensive item, because they knew it was there--they'd heard my friends talking about it or saw them bring it in the house.

(and legally the homeowner will have every right to shoot you if you break into his home.)

I think that'd only be legal in Texas.

Really? I thought for sure any state where you could have a gun in your home (with a license, of course) you would be able to use it in self-defense.

Sometimes, though, it's not automatically self defense if the guy's in your home.

Pretty good evidence, but not automatic.

Louisiana gives you that right in your home as well as for car jacking.

Georgia tried to pass a law four years ago permitting you to shoot anyone who broke into your home, threatening or not, but it failed. Most states, including Florida, don't permit you to shoot someone just for breaking and entering -- your life must be in danger and the burgular must have a weapon and be threatening you with it. I think it really depends on the police investigating the incident, however. In Atlanta five or six years ago, it made the news that a man woke up to find someone trying to steal his car. The car owner pulled a rifle, shot the man from the safety of his home, and killed the would be thief. Police arrived on the scene, looked around, arrested no one. When the chief was confronted by the family of the car theif expecting that the owner of the car should be arrested for manslaughter, he responded, "Well, I guess he would have lived if he hadn't been stealing someone's car."

Carjacking is a different matter because the "castle law" does not apply. If someone is trying to carjack you in Florida or most other states, your first response had better be to step on the gas and drive away or get out of the car and run like hell as you do not have the same rights as being in your home. You may only pull a gun if you intend to use it to kill the criminal and you may only do that if you absolutely no means of escape. Only in a house do you have the right to stand your ground and not flee.

I highly recommend the book Florida Firearms by Jon H. Gutmacher if you have a CCW in Florida -- its an important read and I hope other states have similar books that discuss the law, sample cases, etc. Some of the sample cases are damn scary and show that you can easily have murder charges pressed against you, and be convicted, even if you were properly defending yourself.

All I know is that I'm keeping my car.

There was a legitimate reason that they used to hang horse thieves.

Those of you who live in a major metropolis might be able to get around with public transit, but people who don't live in a city of sufficient size are unable survive without a car.

Texas is one of the few states that allows you to shoot to protect property.

Most states require that you be in fear of loss of your life or grievous injury to shoot an intruder.

Pennsylvania is that way.

Belief that the intruder intended rape, incidently, would qualify as grounds to shoot.

There are a couple of other little niceties to the law that are important to be aware of, including that you can't shoot an intruder when he/she is fleeing.

Some states require that the homeowner make all attempts to retreat before firing. (Basically you have to let the guy who wants to kill you back you into a corner before you shoot so that it's justified.)

The majority of "defensive uses of firearms" don't involve firing a shot.

And I have the crazy Texan Outgunned. (not the mildly weird one, though. I've seen pictures.)

(there is a .pdf document called "Gun Facts" that has a lot of information about firearms and their use in the US. Defensive uses is covered on page 31.

Sure. I do it like this:

http://cellar.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=842&stc=1

It sounds like that your gun protection method is much more dangerous than our window bars. The more protection methods you use, the more stealing tools the thief make, such as "911".