Pic o' the Day #19

The Night The Lights Went Out In Mianyang

There was a blackout tonight. I found my trusty green flashlight in it's special
emergency action spot. I dug up some candles from the back of the junk drawer and brought a little light to my happy home.

It was dark out, but still too early to call it a night. I tried to read, but I'm no Lincoln. I gave up pretty quickly.

So, I went outside the school gate where all the shops and restaurants are. I was hoping to find one open restaurant. Well, I found that every shop was open and running by candlelight. And they were doing great business. It seems that every student in the school had the same idea.


Up and down the streets, the students were buying all the great street food--baozi, bingzi, doufu, fruits, little cakes, naicha (bubble tea), smoked meats, and some things I still don't recognize.


A year ago, the power would go off sometimes in the afternoons for a few hours. Mianyang, like many parts of China, depends heavily on hydro power. When the river is low, you can't run the generators. Mianyang is also home to Science City, called the Los Alamos of China. Their work, as well as that of Changhong, China's largest TV producer and Mianyang's largest employer, take precedence over the needs of my part of town. To keep them going, we used to get shut down from time to time. It almost never happens any more.