We arrived to Lawrance in the morning and the crane still wasn’t there so we waited in Essam’s office til after 1:00 p.m. When the yellow crane arrived we went to the courtyard and spent time finding the right angle and talking to the driver about where to park. After we got situated we climbed into a grey plastic bucket and got lifted up into the air by the crane. Other than the bucket being paper thin and wobbling, the lift wasn’t terribly scary and once we got up there, we snapped our shot and signaled for the driver to bring us down.

We drove to Armanda, went through the same procedures, and were done with our photos for Zaozhuang. We drove through town, which according to our guide was very rapidly urbanizing to sustain all the factories, (there was even a KFC scheduled to open by the end of summer) stopped in a small market, and headed to the airport. Two hours later we arrived and caught our evening flight back to shanghai.

Following 5 hours of intensive photography, we headed to Aramanda to finish off all the interior shots of the factories in zaozhuang.

We entered into an office and through a haze of cigarette smoke, we got introduced to Mr. Muhammad, the CEO of the factory. After talking for a few minutes, we found out that all the factory CEOs went to the same engineering school in Alexandria. Management at these factories consists of Egyptian men, in their thirties and forties, very focused on high number production, but not at all on their health or appearance. The veterans have been doing it for over five years and the newbies can count the days they’ve been at the factories.

Mr. Muhammad is very nice and hospitable to us. He even has his workers go out and buy us 2 pepsi, which is quite a commodity out there. Of course, they were hot…they don’t believe in drinking anything cold in China. Some of these people have never seen ice cubes in their life.

Aramanda is about a quarter of the size of Lawrance and much dirtier, smellier, and the exterior is hideous. The main focus for Mr. Muhammad was how the fabric went through the bleaching process going from a dull cream color to a bright, crisp, consistent white. The process was actually somewhat interesting, but the photo part of this factory was not very fun. Getting anything to look decent took alot of effort and we were glad when the day was over. Looking back, shooting Lawrance and Aramanda was one of the longest days we had in China.

Following a very interesting hotel breakfast experience, which a included a buffet of very traumatizing dishes such raw chicken feet, and other various animal organs, the driver picked us up promptly at 9:00 a.m. and took us to the factory for a whole day of shooting. We entered through a large metal gate into a large courtyard with a fountain in the middle and the main building in the front. We got introduced to Mr. Mohammad Abdul Aziz who took us on a tour of the factory and went over his expectations of the photoshoot. It appeared that his plate was full so he handed us to the marketing director, Essam and translator, Victor who stayed with us throughout the shoot and advised each department to prepare thirty minutes before our arrival. Once we arrived to the departments, the head of each department greeted us and worked with us on what we aimed to capture.

We began in the knitting department, which was the most futuristic of all. It was filled with machines that were surrounded with thread spools that the machines spooled into the cloth material that made the underwear. There were no workers here. Got some great fisheyes of the space.
In another building was the dying department, which was a large room full of large washer-like machines churning the fabric, then machines drying it. This room was very wet, dirty, and extremely hot. Only men workers here, moving large bins of fabric in and out of machines. Also managed to get a few fisheye shots here.
Then came the drying and the pressing machines, which took in the fabric and dried it on hot wheels, so it came out paper thin on the other end.

Then the cutting department. Here stacks of fabric are cut into the separate shapes that make up the undergarments.
Then loose pieces are sewn together in the sewing department which is a large room filled with girls between ages 15 and 30 working 24 hour shifts. lthough the working environment felt very sterile under the bright lights, the workers seemed focused on their tasks and unaffected by their surroundings.

This factory felt like a miniature city. Within its gates were dormatories where the workers lived, a cafeteria, gymnasium, park area. People here spend most of their hours, weekends included working in their posts at the factories.

Took a cab from Grand Palace Hotel in Shanghai to the small domestic flight airport, Hang Chaio. Got checked in and boarded a one hour flight to Xouzhou where a driver with a sign “bill martin” picked us up for a one hour and thirty minute drive to the small town of Zaozhuang, Shandong. The freeways were imaculately clean and landscaped the whole way into town with locals riding smokey two-wheel trucks and bicycles trailing loads of crops. We arrived to the only hotel in town, GuiQuan Hotel at around 9:00 pm and after an hour of hand signals and gestures with the hotel staff we were checked in and asleep.

• Had lunch adventure at dim sum chinese restaurant.
• Tested our fisheye equipment on the 33rd floor of the hotel.
• Checked out Shanhai Tang, then ventured out into the shopping area in the French Concession, where we found the perfect custom tailored shanganese dress.
• Caught a cab and heaed towards old town where we explored little streets lined with all kinds of chinese antiques. Bought a fish sharm and vintage asian posters.
• Caught a cab to the Yuan Garden and market bizarre, which was packed with people. Sat down for coffee, then explored all the little shops, bought a beaded bracelet and took more cool fisheye shots.
• Went home and rested. I did my hair, then we got ready for our anniversary dinner, dressed in bright orange and sky blue.
• Sat on the terrace of M on the Bund , surrounded by the Shanghai skyline and bdirectly in front of the Pearl Tower where I had braissed pig and Paul got a steak.
• Paul presented me with a beautiful pair of ruby earrings to makr our one year anniversary at the end of dinner which was sweetly ended with turkish coffee, baklava, and tasty turkish delight.

• Had a supercharged breakfast downstairs.
• Walked from shanxi to nanjing shopping street where i got cute earrings and slowly found ourselves in shanghai’s urban grib, taxis, buses, bicycles, mopeds, chickens, rolexes, louis vuitton bags and little heads nodding…neeha…neeha.
• Paused at the People Square Park for a quick stroll.
• Somehow we ended up at the local market with streets full of everything from local tee to glazed duck head, to live turtles, and window cleaners, oh yes we were in china.
• Went to the Nikon shop where we got lenses cleaned, batteries recharged, and more memory cards.
• The highlight of the day was peejay the haggler scoring us some great black market quality goods
• After a small break at the hotel, we headed out for a hip dinner at T8 Restaurant in what ended being a very romantic couldn’t cozy dinner in a very lively part of town vibrating with people.
• Lounging in black and white kimonos talking about an amazing 24 hours.

Got to Athens and hung out with Gerakis! Focused on getting better and ate olives. Loved the house.