A few scenes at the fair…

I almost titled this one “Sleepless in Guangzhou.”  About the time I’ll get used to the 13-hour time difference and I get on a regular sleeping schedule, it will be time to get back on an airplane to California, and then I’ll start the sleep adjustment sequence all over again.  Ah, that’s the way it goes, I guess.  It’s worth it.  I’m having fun.

We’ve had rain ever since I arrived in Guangzhou, so I had to settle for this photo going into the Canton Fair complex yesterday…

I was hoping to get a bright blue sky in the background, but hey, you go to war with the army you have.  The one shot I show above is just a tiny, tiny corner of the Canton Fair complex.  It’s enormous.

The crowds and the action here are incredible.  The Canton Fair is not just motorcycles.  It’s everything (literally including the kitchen sink).  Motorcycles, consumer electronics, household goods, building materials, you name it, and everything new under the Chinese sun is here.  My focus, of course, is motorcycles, but that’s only a very small part of what’s on display this week in the Canton Fair complex.

It takes me a good 20 minutes once I arrive in the morning just to find the motorcycle area (I keep forgetting to leave a trail of bread crumbs, or maybe the janitorial staff is so efficient they clean up whatever I drop within seconds of it hitting the floor).   The place is huge, it’s in multiple buildings, and each building has several floors.  Remember that string of restaurants I mentioned?   This is the action at lunchtime…

There’s even a GS-themed coffee shop at the Canton Fair..

One of the things that’s conspicuously absent are the female models.  At any US motorcycle show, young ladies model the motorcycles at nearly every booth (except the CSC booth, of course; all you get there are me, TK, and Steve).  There were only two models at the Canton Fair’s many moto booths, and I photographed them both..

The Zongshen booth is very busy, and it was grand to see my good buddies Robbie, Tracy, and Hugo there.   Robbie is our main man in Chongqing.  Tracy rode with us on the ride across China.   Hugo (aka “it’s okay, it’s okay”) rode with us on the Western America Adventure Ride…

One thing that has been a little disconcerting for me is the number of people who start talking to me as if we know each other.   I keep thinking I must have met them before and I am embarrassed because I can’t remember their name.   Hugo told me it’s okay (of course it is, and he actually told me that twice), because they know me (and Joe Gresh) from the Zongshen posters and videos.   Don’t believe me?  Check out the action in the Zongshen booth, and check out the poster that’s upper left.  Dajiu and Arjiu ride again!

There are a lot of unusual vehicles on display here, including this Chinese version of the Oscar Meyer weiner mobile…

Some of the paint jobs were pretty cool.   Animal decals are in, I guess…

And that Monkey-Davidson I showed you yesterday?  The folks who did that also have one that looks a lot like a Gen 1 CB750 Honda.

You know, the scary thing about the Monkey-Davidson and that CB750 monkey bike is there are actually people out there riding around on them.  Think about that…