They are rabbit ears. When I first arrived in China, I thought it was a copy of the famous Tricky Dick Nixon and his double v sign for victory. So it is not the peace sign but rabbit ears. People copy what other people do in all cultures.

My post was intended to pass along some interesting information I learned when living in Japan and thought if some UHH member came to Japan and wanted to ask a sales person or someone about Nikon, they said it the same way as the Japanese do. In my post I included pictures of Japan and a picture of some prices for Nikon cameras with that in mind.

Living and working in south China for five years, I have never heard that variation of ni hao, although there are over 50 ethnic minorities in China so some group may say it but not many. It is spelled ni hao because that is how it is spelled in pinyin, which is the written language the Chinese use to enter Chinese characters using a QWERTY keyboard. It is also the way non speaking Chinese learn how to read Chinese when they can't read the Chinese characters.

My post was intended to pass along some interesting information I learned when living in Japan and thought if some UHH member came to Japan and wanted to ask a sales person or someone about Nikon, they said it the same way as the Japanese do. In my post I included pictures of Japan and a picture of some prices for Nikon cameras with that in mind.

For anyone who has never traveled to Japan or other countries in the world, the correct pronunciation for Nikon is with a long e like in knee instead of the short i as in night as most Americans say it.

So the correct pronunciation is kneecon. Con is the same in both American English and Japanese.

It is the same pronunciation for All Nippon Airways. Nippon means Japan for the UHH members who do not know that.

HSR is great for distances less than 500 miles. In China, Japan and Italy where I have lived and worked, high speed rail is better and more economical for distances less than 500 miles. Considering the time you have to budget for security for checking in which is about an hour or even 90 minutes, that time is not wasted on train. When I lived in Italy I flew from Rome to Sicily and here in China I take flights if I have to go more than 5 hours by high speed train.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin and GE are all subsidized in a way with government contracts for defense weapons that are over priced. It would be better if a company would produce high speed trains for use in the US and also to export to other countries instead of exporting weapons.

On a recent warm sunny day, I decided to head over to the high speed rail station and see if I could find a spot to take some pictures of the high speed trains. I was lucky to find a small mound of earth that was slightly higher than the tracks and took pictures of four trains that rolled by in less than 40 minutes. Since the trains were traveling in both directions, the pictures include trains coming towards the camera and away. If the the end of the train has red lights as in picture two, the train passed me from left to right and was traveling south. Other pictures you can see the headlamp of the trains traveling north.

For people who are unaware of the Chinese high speed rail network; it is the largest in the world and has the total amount of track of all other countries combined. Train fares are very low compared to Japanese and European high speed rail operators. It costs less than $30 to travel second class three hours to Shanghai.

The station and tracks I was photographing is on a north south route on the east coast.

It is a wise investment of state resources and has helped the Chinese economy and has also helped the people become more interconnected. Just imagine if American politicians became more concerned with the well-fare and long term interests of the American people and created a nation wide high speed rail network like all other advanced economies. It would create and sustain millions of good paying jobs, give people the ability to travel without a car between major cities and create a whole new manufacturing industry. Instead politicians in America spend billions of dollars bailing out the politically connected bankers when they take too much risk and waste billions of dollars on politically engineered aircraft like the ill performing F-35 at over $100 million dollars a piece that no average American will ever travel in.

Politically engineered- designing an aircraft for politicians in Washington where parts are made in 45 states which makes killing the ill performing and over budget program almost impossible.

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Took a few pictures of a local mom and pop operation making cereal cakes on a recent photo walk. I usually get a lot of attention when taking pictures and it always give me an opportunity to get a nice portrait shot like I did with the woman. She told me she was 83 years old.

In China, the bride and groom will rent high end luxury cars for their wedding. While the bride and groom ride in the lead car, friends and family ride in four or five other cars. While the lead car is usually a Porsche, Maserati or even a Rolls Royce, the caravan of cars are usually Audi A8s.

Here are some pictures I took when I was on a photo walk when a wedding car passed by me and went into an old apartment complex.

A photo walk on my way to a big box retailer to buy some groceries and I passed through a small apartment complex next to a canal that people had some small plots of land they were growing vegetables on.

Although I did not include the picture, a man cut off a piece of an aloe vero plant and gave it to me after I said hello to him as I was taking pictures of his plot and land and also a picture of him. It was a very nice gesture on his part. I was humbled to think of how much I have compared to this man and he still offered me what little he had. The new president elect in America and his supporters should walk in my shoes for a day to learn about empathy, tolerance for differences and being open minded.

I have an OTG adapter for the tablet.

I was recently able to photograph people picking oranges during the orange harvest season which I had been wanting to photograph for a long time.

Located on the road to the high speed rail station there are a few small orange groves and I was lucky to find an elderly couple working in a small grove I happened to choose to explore. They were very friendly to me as I photographed them working and immediately offered me some oranges as soon as they saw me. After a while, I put the camera down and helped them out by carrying the baskets they were putting the oranges into and put them into a larger container a few yards away.

I switched between by trusted 18-200 travel lens to my new 11-16mm with some good results and a variety of angles. The shooting conditions were ideal with temps in the low 80s and the sun at the ideal position for a mid autumn day. Although my focus point was a little off in slide 6 and I cut off a part of the basket in slide 7, I am pleased with the overall results.

Does any one have any experience on how to transfer pictures from a Nikon D7000 to a Samsung tablet. I am planning a one month trip and do not want to bring a laptop but still want to back up and store the pictures I take.
I shoot in JPEG mode so transferring RAW files is not an issue.

Thanks for any suggestions on how to travel light and still back up and save the pictures I take.

Obama (Joe Biden big supporter of rail) requested funds for high speed rail but congress denied. Also a high speed rail line between Las Vegas and LA was approved but then was stopped because the trains were going to be Chinese made trains. Oil, car companies and auto insurance interests will all fight high speed rail

Here are some suggestions on how to make America great again. Reinvest in rail lines and stations across the country running on American engineered and built trains. Mr. Trump can start in his own backyard and help NYC upgrade its decaying and obsolete subway system by upgrading and installing safety barriers like the stations have in China and Japan. Here is a glimpse of what subway stations look like in China if you have never seen or been on one.

Stop playing corporate welfare to defense companies for weapon systems that don't work as advertised like the F-35 and spend those billions of dollars making trains for Americans to use. More Americans really have to ask what they get for their tax dollars. In China, Japan, and a host of European countries, their citizens get to use things their government spends money on.

Had to include a pretty bride taking some wedding photos.

Not far from the busy Bund area of Shanghai is a quiet area that presented some nice photo opportunities for the discerning photographers eye.

I used my 11-16mm lens and the spiral of a nearby bike rack to get an interesting perspective. I included a picture of the bike rack to show what "non-photographers" see.

The peacocks and the flowers were also a good opportunity.

On my way back to a subway station near the Bund, I saw a line of Chinese soldiers helping out with traffic control and while waiting next to the soldiers, I saw a good photo op.