Am I the only one concerned about the Pleasant Goat-ification of China?  Can't anyone else see the creeping goat menace? Seriously, the expression on this goat's face. It's chilling.  You're seeing it, right? 

More goat ubiquity:

Lurking in a bunch of harmless-looking balloons, the red headed goat, and a delivery truck. 

We haven't done any extensive travelling in China during the summer holidays. The main reason is that I agreed to do some teaching work during the summer, so we are free to travel four days a week but I must be in Zibo for the other three. To my great relief, Ross likes Zibo and the friendly people here so he's enjoying exploring the city. The undeniable pollution is not bothering him. 

In our free time, we have visited the seaside resort of Qingdao, and most recently, the provincial capital, Jinan. Jinan is known as the "City of Springs" and rightly so -- the city is blessed with dozens of natural springs gushing out of the water. Humans must have lived in this area for thousands of years.  Therefore It's not surprising that all the springs and the surrounding lands are completely paved and decorated and tamed, as it were, unlike some of our British Columbia hot springs. Many of the springs are close together in a beautiful downtown park... 

Time for some more amusing pics....  I've got nothing against eating offal of course, but usually we call it something more vague, like "variety meats," amirite?

Below,"Toast" brand fresh bread and "Ethnican Flavor" corn chips.

"I have burnt all my bridges....  I have no money. I have no job. I have nothing. So I'm going to China."
                                                      -- Norman Bethune

This photo of Bethune in China (at the front of the procession) is filched from the Communist Party of Canada website. Since they abhor ownership of private property, I'm sure they won't mind.

I wrote a brief post about Norman Bethune a few weeks ago. I had heard about him before coming to China, of course, but knew very few details. Recently I downloaded Phoenix, a comprehensive biography of Bethune on my Kindle. Phoenix draws on a rich store of oral testimony, official records and correspondence to trace the path of a man born in 1890 to sternly religious parents in Gravenhurst Ontario, and who died fifty years later of blood poisoning in a peasant hovel in the hills of rural China.