Photos

I love wandering around local market places, there is always so much going on there. I came across this scene in Xiamen, a coastal city beside the South China Sea. The best thing about coastal cities is the abundance of seafood, and this place was no exception, it was bursting with it. Just about anything that lives in the South China Sea was available here. My favourite was the crab. It was still alive when I purchased it and it was then cooked right in front of my eyes for just a few Yuan. Now you can’t get it any fresher than that.

But the lanes and alleyways here are far too narrow for your regular Ford Transit or Toyota Hiace type delivery vans, so the Chinese have developed a faster, cheaper, and more efficient delivery vehicle. This bicycle has tiny electric motor fitted to it, and is able to negotiate these congested neighborhoods with the greatest of ease, although how the rider manages to keep his balance with a load like this is nothing short of amazing.

There is never enough light in these places and not wanting to use flash I had to push the ISO up to its maximum (1600), then use my widest f-stop (3.5), and then just hope that I could get a reasonably sharp image. And even then, I only got in one shot before the scene was lost.