Hangzhou Road Cleaners

In Hangzhou there are many workers - men and women - working on the streets at any time. They are very busy in Autumn and Winter as the leaves fall from all the trees in the streets and they are swept up along with all the other flotsam and jetsam that is discarded on the roads.

These blue carts with workers with their home made (or made in a local village) brooms sweep non stop, and load the carts with the rubbish which is in due course collected by a large rubbish truck.

Hangzhou is a clean city - so much better than Shaoxing, although there are workers in both cities cleaning non stop.

The people that do these jobs are often poorly educated, and even disabled people earning a small income from the government for the work they do. As well as clean and sweep, they must dodge the cars and bikes that run rampant in the streets. Once again Hangzhou is much better organised - for a start the streets are wider, but regardless the traffic is much more orderly.

However, you would get the impression that taxis do not have to obey road rules, and they seem to drive through red lights without any concern.

I love it that despite all the plastic things that are used - they still use the stick brooms that are in fact very effective and I am sure much better for the environment in more ways that one!

There are whole villages where the people are employed making these brush brooms and you see them everywhere.

Sweet potatoes are very popular right now, and these carts roam the streets selling freshly roasted sweet potato. The are roasted in the 44 gallon drum, and opened up to reveal the hot sweet yellow flesh, that is somehow scooped out and eaten.

New plantings for winter

It is time to put in new plantings around the City Square in Shaoxing - neat rows are already planted by the hard working gardening teams.

Tricycles arrive with the seedlings in individual pots, and the workers get too and plant. Soon the plants will flourish and the flowers blooming. Pansies are being planted, as well as other varieties of seedlings.

Here comes Postie!!!

This is the postman delivering mail in the narrow streets of Shaoxing. It is hard to tell he is a postie - but I saw him delivering China Post mail into the boxes along the lane way.

Rickshaws?

We have been told that these are not rickshaws - rickshaws were the carts with seats that were pulled by fit and healthy Chinese men - usually in more traditional clothes with a straw "triangle" hat, and their hair in a long "pigtail" or queue.

When I first saw these carts in Shaoxing, I immediately thought of "rickshaws" but I'm told they are called "tricycles". In any case they are familiar especially round the city streets of Shaoxing. I've not yet ridden in one, as I have not had reason to. They are quite a challenge in traffic which is chaotic anyway, and these guys (oh, and there are some ladies who ride them) are usually used for short rides around the city.

One day I will. I promise. But so far I have had not real need to.

These were all lined up near the markets - where my favourite dressmaker, and coffee shop can be found!

From this story it appears that they are called rickshaws in Beijing.

Wheels in Shanghai

One always has to have the camera ready - and it is not always easy to do that! The photo above was taken in the streets behind old Shanghai Town, the man on the left was deliverying flour in huge bags. He had white flour all over him - his clothes, and his hands and face. Looked quite odd really as he weaved his way through people on foot and on wheels.

Cardboard cut out.

Very little that is recyclable is wasted in China, methinks. This man was loading cardboard cartons onto his vehicle right in the midst of busy Shaoxing city. If you have ever wondered why the cardboard boxes that you see items for some shops as being a little battered, you will understand why! Many smaller goods for export are packed into these boxes that have probably done a few tours around China before they left for overseas.