Yesterday we vowed to eat local and I vowed to drink local. As a result, we ate well, I drank functionally and we spent very little money. My meal of 5 pan fried pork dumplings and a bottle of Snow Beer (an insipid, ubiquitous pale lager) cost 12RMB or AUD$1.82. Snow Beer is even more commonly available than Tsingtao. What’s been disappointing is that I haven’t been able to find a local Nanjing drop. Hopefully better luck in Xi’an.
The girls did even better with a bowl of noodles, prepared in front of them, a spinach filled bun and two bottles of orange drink costing 13RMB. They rated their noodles, despite not really being able to identify the three sauces added to the bowl and mixed in.
We had a good chuckle when we saw this bloke. We thought he must be an expat, but no he was Chinese. This is the first push-bike rider we’ve seen wearing a helmet and wearing bike clothes. Far better suited to sipping a soy piccolo latte at Bacino Cafe on the Corso at Manly than the rough and tumble streets of Nanjing.
The other 999,999 cyclists look more like this woman who almost became a hood ornament of the taxi she rode in front of. At least she wasn’t on her mobile phone or carrying her extended family on the rack at the back. Actually, she’s hardcore or poor because she’s on a push bike as opposed to the 90% that are on electric bikes, which have pedals and a throttle.
Lastly, I can’t resist throwing in this photo. Bikes are still very much heavy transportation vehicles for some.
back of the ferry 
love the mega haul bike, reminds me of the 7 seater postie bikes in Thailand