What has the World Come to?

This all happened after we came back to China for a long stay. First it was the snow disaster in January when all the people were rushing home for the biggest holiday of the year. Less then two months later, the riots in Tibet and the suppression of it made Chinese in China and around the world feel that they were misunderstood by the rest of the world. Another two months later, the Wenchuan earth quake shocked the world.

Right now, floods have turn mid west US and south China into water town. California became a furnace and lightning sparked wildfires.

In Beijing, I cannot help but wonder if this was the same Beijing I left before I went to Canada. Snow disappeared in the winter to cover the wrong ground in the south. Now in the summer, umbrella became a daily necessity like the southern town where I grow. The broadcast calls it “cloudy” but I cannot see the clouds or I see no sky. Every day for the whole week, it’s been turning dark before the night come. The lightening lit up above from where the sky is. And Sienna all of a sudden becomes afraid of the thunder.

My friend H took me for a ride to an antique furniture market. This is even a bigger place than where I got my four pieces. The whole street is lined up with shops. I could easily fall in love with the stuff there, especially the ones that marked the basic practicality of the times and minimal design. I met a vendor there who is from my home town. She told me the whole family asset worth of a few million US dollars is in the shop. Every piece they sell, they use the money to buy more. They live in the shop wired with security alarm and barking dogs. These are few cabinets for Chinese herbs.