The Okhla Sewage Treatment Plant

I couldn't help but share a little discovery I had on a run a few days ago. A sewage treatment plant is not what most people would consider a discovery, but for me it was pretty cool! Here is a photo tour of the what I could see in the plant. The existing plant was 30 million gallons per day (MGD), but they were also building an additional 12 MGD of capacity. 

One of Narendra Modi's campaign promises is to clean the Ganges River. Since most of the pollution in the river is human waste, Mr. Modi will likely be building a lot more of these plants!  

Here's the sign for all those that want the major details.

This is the primarily clarifier where the thick material settles to the bottom and is removed. 

This is the start of the aeration tanks where the bacteria will break down the organic matter (aka poop). 

They had some really long aeration tanks!

To the right of the blue sign, you can see the black wheel spinning. It's basically a big egg beater that is injecting air into the wastewater. 

More eggbeaters.

And here's a little doggie at the end of the aeration tanks!

I'm not sure what those thanks are for. They could be storage, though I saw canals with what  I believe was treated water.. . Not sure. 

Again a bit uncertain about this, but it could be a power plant for the treatment plant. I don't think you would need a separate power plant, but it is possible. It is also possible that this power plant and the storage tanks above are for something completely different!

This is the new 12 MGD additions. The green boxes are screens to remove big objects like sticks and garage from the wastewater. 

Here are some pipes next to the treatment plant. I think they are carrying sewage to the plant. Looks real sanitary.

A canal that carries the treated wastewater away from the treatment plant.

On an earlier run, I encounter this pool, which is part of the canal systems and may be the part of some injection grounds where the treated water soaks down through the ground and into the water table. 

There is more foam and garbage in the water than I would like, but I'm pretty sure garbage comes from people and not the treatment plant. 

And finally, a man fixing bicycles : )

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the Okhla Treatment Plant. If I had any doubts beforehand, running past huge open tanks of sewage sure convinces you that it is a treatment plant!

I couldn't see all the steps in the process and don't feel the need to explain them here, but for anyone interested check out this link for an introduction to the basic steps of wastewater treatment.

Guangzhou, China － 中国广州

China is such a complex country. Only since leaving China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have I really started to appreciate my time there. 

I have some much catching up to do an sharing my experiences. This post will be an overview of my time in Guangzhou, China illustrated through pictures. 

I started reading this book and it is constantly blowing my mind. Anyone interested in learning more about China should definitely read it. I wish I had started reading this while I was in the Mainland. 

East Guangzhou outside of my hostel. I was lucky in having a little park nearby where I could watch all the old Chinese ladies dance at night : )

And this is that same view a week later after Chinese New Year ended and everyone went back to work. You can see the lake and kind of make out the buildings on the edge. It may seem strange to say, but the pollution in Guangzhou actually wasn't that bad compared to Beijing. 

On one of my wanders, I stumbled upon an old museum and I was taken aback by the ivory carvings.  This shows how they made the layered ivory balls. I think this sort of artwork is fairly unique to southern China.

This is a large ivory ball atop a greater ivory structure. 

It is the year of the horse. My year!! : ) Good fortune for me : )

I just couldn't resist posting this.

I arrived just as Chinese New Year ended. This is a bridge in the park below my hostel lit up during the lantern festival. 

A particularly colorful shopping district in Guangzhou. 

Lots of old things in China. This tree seems to be hanging in there.

I'm kind of like my grandma.  I don't like taking pictures of myself and most of the time there is no one to hold the camera. But when I get the chance, I like to show that I am a star. The (less important than me) memorial behind me is to Sun Yat Sen who is a leader revered both in the Mainland and in Taiwan because he was the first leader of the Republic of China before the civil war. 

This picture captures one of the most common Chinese idioms - 人山人海 - people mountain, people sea - which means THERE ARE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! I have several pictures capturing the essence of 人山人海. 

Hello kitty Jannie at the Guangzhou tower!

It's always so fun when I can meet locals and learn about their culture. I was really fortunate to live with Stefan and Jannie, two on the left, when I was in Sydney. They were in Guangzhou for Chinese New Year and Stefan invited me to meet his family. We went out and had traditional Guangzhou dinner which consisted of sautéed silk worm, earth worm quiche, fish, and veggies. I plan to make a separate post about food and animals in China. Yum : P

The district capital of Shunde (顺德). It is modeled after the White House. It is by far the most awe-inspiring building in Shunde. This is a characteristic shared by most government buildings. 

Guangzhou South Station (广州南站). The bullet train network and stations are really impressive. 

I don't remember where is this. I think it is coming into Shenzhen (深圳).

Down town Shenzhen. 

The high speed rail station in Shenzhen. Massive and beautiful.

I had to go from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and then from Shenzhen to Shanghai. The trains from Guanzhou to Shanghai were all sold out, which was actually quite fortunate. There are no high speed trains from Guangzhou to Shanghai, only slow trains that often run during the night. This really didn't make sense to me because Guangzhou and Shanghai are the two largest commercial cities in China.  There are bullet trains from Guangzhou to Beijing, even though Beijing is farther than Shanghai, and from Shanghai to Beijing.

Instead, I went from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, stayed a night, and then went from Shenzhen to Shanghai during the day, which was much better than taking a 19 hour night train. 

Sunset somewhere in Southeast China. The picture isn't great, but isn't bad considering I took it going 180 mph!

Industrial China fascinates me. On the way from Shenzhen to Shanghai.

China gets 80% of its electricity from coal and is the largest emitter of CO2 in the world.

Many second and third their cities consist of many one story homes surrounding a few towering apartment buildings in the center of the city. It is a really strange site.

China's rich history, secretive government, massive industrialization, rapid social change, and increasing importance in the world make it such an interesting place.

Mazu's Birthday 妈祖生日 Festival in Taipei

I made my transition from Taipei to Hong Kong a few days ago. I was a little sad to go. Taipei was a beautiful and relaxing city, even though my bedroom sat above one of the busiest night markets.

Night markets seem to be a phenomenon to unique to Taiwan. They are fairly old and sprung up to provide services around temples. Even today, they still provide religion objects like incense and gold paper. In the temples, people will burn gold colored paper as a way to provide money to their relatives in the afterlife. The fire is the transition of the money into the afterlife.

I wanted to write a post about some of the religious parades I saw while living right next to the temple. The festival was the eve of Mazu's birthday -  妈祖生日. Mazu is the goddess of the sea in Chinese religion and protects sailors and fishermen.

The pre-birthday party started off with a military marching band

They did patterns, formations, and twirls of their guns. 

The rest of the day was then filled by paraders of different religious figures. With my broken Chinese, I was able to learn the names of a few of them from a lady near the temple.

The first two figures are the guardians of the underworld.

The two figures were generals and best friends. The guy in black is Qiye 七爺. He is black because he drowned in a flood. He knew the flood was coming, but risked his life to not miss his appointment with the second figure Baye 八爺.

Baye has his tongue out because he hung himself in mourning of the death of Qiye. I get the value of commitment to your friend, but Qiye would have been doing both of them a favor is he had just taken a raincheck on their appointment.... The two are commonly found at temples and have something to do with guiding people into the afterlife. 

Not really sure who this guys is, but he looks cool!

The man in front is Tudigong 土地公  - the God of Earth.

Tudigong as the god of the earth is also associated with wealth because he is the god of minerals and buried treasure.  I've always wanted to find some treasure... so maybe I should have prayed to him while in Taiwan. Missed that opportunity! Now, I'll never find buried treasure.

Not really sure about these guys, either. They look scary!

Some more tall guys I know nothing about. 

During Chinese New Year and this festival, the Chinese love lighting fire works. They would string out really long lines of fire crackers and light them. 

I got scared at the end and had to turn away : )

I thought the firecrackers under the movable shrine was so funny. I don't know what it symbolizes, but the cart is supposed to represent a shrine to someone...  I know a lot about Taiwanese culture. 

At the end of the festival, everyone gathered in front of the temple and people put on different performances. They had two dragon dances. The finale of the first dragon dance was to hoist the dragon onto the pole as you saw in the video.  The pole must have been like 20 feet tall!  There wasn't any footholds either - just a big log!

Luckily, I was able to go on my roof and watch all the festivities without having to fight the crowds.