Had to travel over to Suzhou this morning, and it was a perfectly lovely drive—except for the traffic jam that stretched forever and forever down the road. That was not so groovy. I did, however, manage to see a lot of interesting things while parked on the freeway—including the construction site photographed below. I believe the work going on there is part of the new high speed rail that will connect Beijing and Shanghai (when it’s done, the journey between both cities should take only 6 hours or so, which is remarkable).
Check out this mother, her son, and their dog. I watched them pick their way across the muddy construction site—perhaps to visit one of the workers, or just to get across—but there was a story there, either way.
Here’s a glimpse of where the construction workers live during the job. This is a tight focus shot, but if you were to see the whole thing, it would look like a long flat trailer, with about six guys or more to each room.
The construction site; or rather, a glimpse of it.
These folks were riding down a road that runs parallel to the site.
This structure was immense and oddly shaped—almost like a tower—and this guy was at the top, and the only one working.
There were all kinds of gardens and fields at the side of the freeway.
Here’s a wider shot of some gardens lining the edge of an old neighborhood.
Finally got through traffic, and was through Suzhou and back to Shanghai in about four hours. Just returned from a good Cantonese restaurant down the street, and now it’s time to write before the jet lag makes me pass out.