Stevo from Asian Ramblings recently visited Zhaoqing, a city I lived in way back in 2002. Even though Stevo didn’t get a chance to check out Zhaoqing, it got me thinking about my time living there and I dug out my old photos.

Stevo is known for his great pictures of China, which really capture life in the middle kingdom.

I’ve never published any of my own pictures. By the time I started blogging (2007), my camera was securely packed away and only brought out on special occasions.

While I couldn’t say that nothing was new to me (no foreigner in China can ever say that), I was in everyday living mode. Carrying a camera round all the time wasn’t part of that. When I did take photos, they were mostly of family, not of the vastly interesting setting in which we lived (China).

Most of my best photos of China are from my early days there, when everything was new to me. I carried my camera everywhere and was always on the lookout for a good shot.

When I looked back on my photos from my time living in Zhaoqing in 2002, I realized that I had some really good photos there. So, I’ve decided that I better publish some of them on this blog. I thought I better start with the following photo, a small version of which has sat in the header of this blog since it was launched.

This shot was taken on the 14th September 2002, just inside the old city wall in Zhaoqing. The photo hasn’t been edited in anyway – it was taken using the black and white mode on the Canon Ixus I owned at the time.

I was really happy with this shot because there’s so much in it. The old man sitting outside his corner store, watching a couple making an exchange, while a women pushes her bike up the ramp onto the city wall, with some young girls walking in the background.

The tree makes it better, as does the shiny car, which is in contrast to the generally rundown surroundings. The inside of the shop is great, as are the Chinese characters. Take any one of these elements away and it wouldn’t have been as good.

For me, it really captured life in China – busy (there’s always something going on), a mix of old and new, foreign to my eyes but strangely beautiful. That’s why it ended up in the header of the blog (it may not be there long, as I want to redesign the site, but that’s another story).

That’s all for this post. You’ll start to see some more photos in future posts, along with some commentary. I hope they’re enjoyable, despite their age.