Street vendor selling tofu Zibo City includes five districts. Zhangdian district, where I live, has all the modern conveniences. But for picturesque beauty, give me Boshan District. Boshan has more hills, or rather low mountains; it's greener, the air is cleaner and the temperatures are a little cooler. The streets are narrower, the traffic is even crazier, and you can see Old China on every street corner, from the old man selling birds from large wicker birdcages to the little boy in the alley pulling down his pants to take a -- okay, it's all incredibly quaint.
I didn't come to China for glittering shopping malls and designer brands, real or faked. I came for tiled roofs, mosaic murals lining the canal, street markets, leafy neighborhood parks where old men exercise while waving swords or whips, tiny shops selling glimmering lengths of silk in rich jewel colors hanging from bamboo poles, pieces of white and green jade carved into amazing sculptures, wizened old peasant ladies with flowered blouses and gold teeth who seem to regard Life (and foreigners) as a cosmic joke. Boshan has all this, check, check, check and check.
I didn't come to China for glittering shopping malls and designer brands, real or faked. I came for tiled roofs, mosaic murals lining the canal, street markets, leafy neighborhood parks where old men exercise while waving swords or whips, tiny shops selling glimmering lengths of silk in rich jewel colors hanging from bamboo poles, pieces of white and green jade carved into amazing sculptures, wizened old peasant ladies with flowered blouses and gold teeth who seem to regard Life (and foreigners) as a cosmic joke. Boshan has all this, check, check, check and check.
Breakfast in Boshan I was there recently with my friends, the French teacher and her fiance, along with a television crew, for reasons I'll explain soon. The crew took us foreigners for breakfast, which was served out of a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant (which was, it must be said, extremely grimy). It was delicious. Wonton soup and fried flatbread with bits of pork and spring onion. We ate at a low table set out on the sidewalk, sitting on those little folding stools that I don't trust. They make my legs cramp up as well, so I got up part way through the meal to take this picture.
After breakfast, it was back on the bus to visit another district and do some more filming. And not four hours later, we were sitting down to another banquet!
After breakfast, it was back on the bus to visit another district and do some more filming. And not four hours later, we were sitting down to another banquet!
Digression: As we were leaving, I saw a quite elderly-looking man with a pushcart cross the street, sweeping up debris off the road. I didn't get a picture of him, but here's a snap of a woman sweeping the highway to the school. She's wearing a poke bonnet extremely similar in design to those worn by the western pioneer women in America.
Although China's official retirement age is 55 for women and 60 for men, meaning that I'm already past the retirement age, I've seen many street sweepers and gardeners at work who appear to be much older than that. Maybe working in traffic armed only with a day-glo vest and a homemade broom has turned their hair prematurely grey. This article explains that rural Chinese and people who work in the "informal" sector don't enjoy the pension benefits of urban white collar people.
More about why we were gallivanting about with a film crew soon.
Although China's official retirement age is 55 for women and 60 for men, meaning that I'm already past the retirement age, I've seen many street sweepers and gardeners at work who appear to be much older than that. Maybe working in traffic armed only with a day-glo vest and a homemade broom has turned their hair prematurely grey. This article explains that rural Chinese and people who work in the "informal" sector don't enjoy the pension benefits of urban white collar people.
More about why we were gallivanting about with a film crew soon.
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