Photos

One minute your economy is booming and is one of the fastest growing in the world ...it may still well be......but at such a lower rate that all that rapid urban development - cities built on the vagaries of economic sand and massive shifts in rural populations to the cities to work in construction and factories- is now looking more and more fragile.

Estimates vary but I recently heard that somewhere around 20,000,000 people may be re-locating to the countryside in the current climate - as always with China mind boggling numbers! Chongqing is a prime example of this drift currently.

This shopping centre In Chongqing sells the world's designer best - conspicuous consumption and a cool haven from the sun and heat of 'The Cauldron' for the window shopping masses.....but why buy inside when the copy at a tiny fraction of the cost can be bought in the small shops surrounding this emporium of delights.

The title of this picture was originally Vertigo.......but somehow the speed with which the international finance situation has whipped the ground from beneath our feet talks of an inexorable slide to the bottom of whatever structure we find ourselves in.........the saving grace has always been the knowledge that there are stairs to climb back up again.........it's when some analysts predict things other than stairs in the future that real nightmare potentials arise...........vertigo.....do not stare for too long into the abyss! Have a nice Sunday!