Photos from China

This is a typical restaurant in GuangZhou. What you see on the right of the picture are cages full of live animals. Everything you can imagine, from chickens and ducks to racoons and even cats and dogs. The customer picks his choice which is slaughtered and cooked. The Chinese feel this insures freshness but sometimes the stench is unbearable and it certainly puts me off eating anything. The red tubs on the floor have cages full of frogs which are piled on each other so they are suffocating.

This is the same restaurant inside. You can see the frogs at the bottom of the picture and the fish tanks and trays where you can pick your choice. The blue crates contain snakes and other critters.
No refrigeration is needed to insure freshness as the animals are slaughtered and immediately cooked before your very eyes.

These next few photos are from a street market called QinPing market. It is a great tourist attraction and you cannot imagine it if you have not seen it. It is more like a zoo as all sorts of live animals are sold and many in different stages of dissection.
This photo is of chickens and you can see chickens with black meat, which I have not seen anywhere else.

The hygienic conditions are awful and the filth and stench are everywhere. There is no refrigeration and the meat just sits or hangs outside for flies and insects to enjoy. You can often see some animal or fish being butchered right on the pavement which is so filthy you have to wear boots with thick soles to feel protected.
Cats and dogs are what most shock westerners but you can see all sorts of animals. The Chinese have no feelings of compassion towards animals and they are kept in the most cruel conditions and often tortured just for amusement.

You can buy snakes which will be opened lengthwise with one long slit and skinned while they are still alive. You can find a great variety of snakes, frogs, toads, turtles and other anphibians. You can also buy live scorpions (to make soup) and roasted insects like grasshoppers and cockroaches which are eaten as a crunchy snack.

More snakes.

Fish is transported in trucks like this. They make a pool by lining the truck box with tarps and fill it with water. You can see it is enclosed by a cage (the doors are open) probably to prevent theft. The guy in the truck, in wading pants, fills crates with fish and hands them down to the guys below.

People who live in the lower floors make a business of their phone lines. They run an extension cord out the window and set up a public phone. They are everywhere.