For my first couple of days back here in Beijing, I had difficulty connecting to my WordPress account, but have at last found a way to do so, and can catch up on my digital thoughts. The contrasts with my visit in the spring:
- the cacophony of sound from invisible animals/insects in the trees in the evenings – amazing walking around Weiming lake
- it is so much hotter (temperature today around 30 C) and more humid (only currently around 62%; data thanks to Weather Underground)!
- I’ve never seen so many people using umbrellas as parasols to protect themselves from the sun
- almost half the people on the subway/underground/metro seem to be using their mobile ‘phones, albeit often for games (somewhat more than I reckoned in the spring)
- bicycles and motorised tricycles as ever carrying a diversity of goods across the university campus
- very, very few people seem to be wearing watches – how do they tell the time?
- last time I had not noticed all of the trackways for blind people crossing the city, but all too often they are blocked or eroded and I have never seen a blind person using them…
Tim Unwin's Blog 
great pictures! people now use cell phones to tell the time. 🙂