A young market vendor sits by his slow "clay baked chicken's", sometimes called Beggar's Chicken, at a small 'open air' market in the north of the city. The chicken is wrapped in huge lotus leaves, packed in cool, wet claylike mud or ceramic clay and then baked for hours in a low oven. When the dish is ready and the hard clay cracked open, the chicken, so tender it falls away from the bone, releases a steamy fragrance that is truly memorable.
It is doubly appealing because it is steeped in the kind of folklore and legend that the Chinese love.
One story tells of the beggar who became the first Emperor of the Han dynasty (202 B.C. to A.D. 220). It holds that this clay-baked chicken dish, a favorite of the beggar, became an imperial specialty when he became Emperor.
photo: mhobbs
Sunday, December 21, 2008
emporers chicken
Friday, December 12, 2008
steam
A vendor steams buns (Bao Zi) in the open outside his small " store", in the Jiancaoping district near 'Taiyuan Institute of Technology'.
photo: mhobbs
Monday, February 25, 2008
having spent the day # 2 - cibachrome # 12
A man crosses a busy street in the Xiangqiao district in the center of the city
photo:mhobbs
Thursday, February 21, 2008
when your friend is behind you - square # 171
A man stands close to his "van" with a ceramics factory 'chimney stack' looming large against the early winter sky. The factory is built close to an apartment "block" complex
photo:mhobbs
Friday, February 08, 2008
lucy - in b&w # 2 - square # 170
And now for something completely different.
Our beautiful daughter Lucy @ two years and three months
photo:mhobbs
when expecting the rain
A woman holding a red and white umbrella, stands at the entrance to a "Hutong" (Traditional Chinese alley dwelling) in a narrow "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong distict
photo:mhobbs
when all you have is a simple gesture
A family - small "street" market in the Qiaodong district.
This may be a very simple image but of all the "square bw" images that I have taken in the last two or three years this one is one of my favorites - It has all the elements that I have tried to capture of 'everyday life' of the 'common person' in China - MH
photo:mhobbs
portrait of a man in the afternoon
A motorbike "taxi" guy stands by his 'bike in the courtyard beside the northern gate to Hanshan University
photo:mhobbs
game # 2 - square # 168
A group of men play a game of pool in a small 'backstreet', on the northern edge of the Qiaodong district
photo:mhobbs
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
hutong courtyard
Turn of the century Hutong (Traditional Chinese alley dwelling) courtyard in the Qiaodong district
photo:mhobbs
when everything you have is within your reach - square # 167
An old man stands by his vegetable stall outside the Han jiang market in the Qiaodong district
photo:mhobbs
when the reach is short - square # 166
A street vendor at her stall near the "northern" gate to Hanshan University
photo:mhobbs
warm
Baskets stacked in a "nong tang" (alley) near the Hanjiang market, glow in the warm afternoon light
photo:mhobbs
Yang Chun Wei - remember - student portrait # 1
Second year business studies student "Wang Chun Wei" (Bill) - Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, China. . His parents are farmers.
photo:mhobbs
far from here
A cyclist rides his bike along Hanjiang Lu (Han River road) in the Qiaodong district in the late afternoon
photo:mhobbs
these are bicycles
Bicycles "parked" outside one of the many teaching buildings at Hanshan University, Chaozhou, Guangdong, China
photo:mhobbs
portrait of a man at night
A 'garbage collector' sits on his "biketruck" in a narrow "nong tang" (alley) in the Xiangqiao district in the center of the city, waiting for his companion to collect boxes from a nearby store
photo:mhobbs
this is a bicycle
An old bicycle with a basket leans against a wall in a "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong district
photo:mhobbs
when sitting alone - square # 165
A motorbike "taxi" guy near the Hanjiang (Han river) market in the Xiangqiao district, sits waiting for his next fare (me)
photo:mhobbs
the only thing that maters
Detail of an old wall painting in a "schoolyard" in the center of the city. Shantou, Guangdong Province China
photo:mhobbs
Looking back on the road just traveled
View from the rear of a "rickshaw" (ricksha) on a busy street near the center of Shantou
photo:mhobbs
Monday, January 28, 2008
when at the market you always see people you know - wide # 19
Narrow "market street" in the Xiangqiao district near the center of the city
photo:mhobbs
Sunday, January 27, 2008
when all you can do is wait - square # 164
Two rickshaw (ricksha) drivers on a central Chaozhou street waiting for the next "fare"
photo:mhobbs
In the morning we do sometimes hear the wind
Bright blue light enters the corridor in one of the many "teaching" buildings at Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, Guangdong China.
Xixin Lu - two squares # 2
A street vendor on the busy "Xixin Lu" (a major road in the center of the city) sits by his stall as the traffic passes by
photo:mhobbs
when waiting/shopping
A woman "squats" by the side of a busy central city street at a "vendors" stall
photo:mhobbs
up
Corner of an old apartment building in a narrow "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong district
photo:mhobbs
he will call you - redux
A young woman "texts" while walking, as a guy talks on his cell, outside a motorbike repair "shop" on a busy street in the center of the city.
photo: mhobbs
when on some days everything you see is at your feet - square # 162
A market vendor sits at his "stall" in a small market in a "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong district near Hanshan University
photo:mhobbs
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
appropriate posture
A market vendor sits at his "stall" in a small market in a "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong district near Hanshan University
photo:mhobbs
when you are ten you can see the horizon
A young boy stands "smiling", standing in the light rain - dressed in only a pair of shorts - seemingly looking into the near distance
photo:mhobbs
han jiang - two squares # 1
the day fades on the Han Jiang - The bridge was first built around 1179, during the "Southern Song Dynasty" 1127–1279
photo:mhobbs
certainty - cibachrome # 5
A typical street scene in "southern China", a busy market street in the Xiangqiao district of Chaozhou, close to the "Han Jiang" (Han River) in the center of the city
photo:mhobbs
when we are free - square # 160
Two men sit "resting" on their "ricksha" (Rickshaw) under the shade of trees on a main street in the Xiangqiao district in the center of the city
photo:mhobbs
at this time of the day
Narrow space between two Hutong (Traditional Chinese alley dwellings) in a narrow "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong district, near Hanshan University - late afternoon
photo:mhobbs
bowls with two bicycles - wide # 18
Bowls for sale "displayed" on the "street", in a small backstreet in the Xiangqiao district
photo:mhobbs
Saturday, January 05, 2008
when the man heard laughter - square # 160
My beautiful partner and daughter walk along a residential "nong tang" (alley) in the Xiangqiao district, in the center of the city, as a vegetable vendor looks on.
We were out walking in the center of the city, - walking amongst the "Hutong" in the shaded "nong tang's" , trying to avoid the heat of the middle of the day - Buying vegetables, yes I prefer to buy from local "markets" not the multi-national "Supermarkets", when my daughter and partner were walking ahead of me I noticed this man sitting alone with his basket of "fresh vegie's", I stopped to take a look at his goods, my daughter (as she often does) laughed, this caught the vendors attention, which is unusual because as you can imagine being a 180cm + bearded European, I usually am the one who "catches all the attention" - I took those few brief moments to capture this image.
photo:mhobbs
skip
Early morning skip - A young girl "skips" along a shaded "nong tang" (alley) in the Qiaodong district, near Hanshan University
photo:mhobbs
with bicycle
A man pulls a cart along a central Chaozhou street, loaded with his broom and bicycle
photo:mhobbs
middle "kingdom"
Intersection outside the busy market in the Xiangqiao district in the center of the city, near the "Hanjiang" river
photo:mhobbs
the road is clear - square # 159
Late in the afternoon three men stop to buy fruit from a "street trader" near the 'gate' of Hanshan University
photo:mhobbs