I can't help myself

Guangzhou (Canton) China Railway Station (I figured out how to link to these pics so those of you without Google Earth can enjoy them too.)

This is the scariest place in China for me. China has a relatively low crime rate, but at this train station, people have been cut by knives...not by people trying to stab them, but by thieves trying to cut their pockets to get their money. It's also probably the single most crowded place in China, except perhaps Nanjing Road in Shanghai on a Saturday.

Let me show you how crowded it is.

Down in the lower right corner you can see a bunch of buses jammed together. They are actually parked, I think, not a traffic jam. But look in the middle, where there is the big square that looks like a patchwork quilt of pink, yellow, purple, and white. There's a smaller rectangle just like it off to the right. Now look on the ground around that area. See all the clumps of gray specks? Those are people, mostly migrants who have come to Guangzhou because it's such a rich area for China. Some of them will try to get to Shenzhen, an even richer area, and some will even try to sneak into Hong Kong (even though it's officially part of China again, you still have to have special papers to get in).

See how big the crowd is? I had to walk through that both times I arrived in Guangzhou as I left the train station. Having heard the stories, I made sure I was extremely aware of my surroundings, believe you me.

I'm going to try to figure out how to actually post the satellite pictures to my blog so you don't have to click away. Don't worry, I'm not going to do this every day. But I'm having so much fun with it, I may make it a weekly thing! Google Satellite Fridays!