Nanjing, A man selling sheep from Inner Mongolia

 

At the end of autumn, in the middle of a residential area, a handful of people gather around several sheep carcasses, hanging upside down with their head removed. Blood is dripping from their broken necks and tails.

 

The man who sells the mutton is boasting to consumers the high quality and freshness of his sheep. According to him, all the sheep were transported from Inner Mongolia, constantly in frozen condition.

 

The mutton is sold for 22 RMB per “jin” (half a kilo) with skin and 21 RMB without the skin. Some costumers doubt the freshness of the meat, for the price is quite cheap.

 

This year, the man has purchased 50 tons of Mongolian sheep. He estimates that they can be sold out before the Spring Festival.

 

He is from Anhui, but speaks with a pure Nanjing accent. He explains that he has moved here more than a decade ago. He started the sheep trade a couple of years ago.

 

 

 

 

Nanjing, A Birthday Present

 

On the Baotaqiao East Street near the Yangtze River, stands a man holding a big framed oil painting, which is about 1.2 meter in length and 1 meter in width. The painting portrays one of his female friends, who celebrates her birthday today.

 

He spent almost 3,000 RMB for the painting. It is made by a graduate student from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. He tells that it is hard to have this student paint a portrait for you, for he is already famous and has his own studio.

 

“The girl in the painting is approaching, so why not take a photo of us together?” he suggests. He points to the opposite side of the road. We note that she looks much younger than the woman in the painting. He does not answer us but yells immediately to the girl: “Hey, they say that you are beautiful!”

 

When asked whether he often prepares such precious birthday presents for his friends, he grins and says: “I have few such female friends.”

 

 

Beijing, Newly arrived

 

A little over 10 people from a small village in Sichuan province just arrived in Beijing to work on a construction site. They are waiting for a bus to take them to their dormitory. Around 3,000 people used to live in their hometown, but these days more than half of them work in big cities.

 

We talk with one the female workers. She tells that more and more female migrant workers go to cities for construction work. Just like her. “There is no way out if one stays in the village”, she says.

 

 

She has a 16 year old child studying arts in the high school of her hometown. She felt the child did not need too much care anymore and decided to work in the big city to earn money for the child’s tuition fee in college. Her parents take care of the child at home.

 

Several workers reply, when asked if they carry any personal belongings like photos of family members, that they only brought useful things like a quilt, clothes and some daily necessities.

 

 

 

Beijing, Dog meat

 

 

In Dongcuijia Cun, a village in a rural area of Beijing, we meet a man dissecting a dog. He is from a village in Guangxi province. According to the man, the former owner of the dog, in Hebei province, did not want to take care of the dog anymore and sold the dog for 500 RMB.

 

After dissecting the body, he puts pieces of the meat into a boiling pot, including the organs, to prepare them for consumption. The man offers us the dog meat for sale at 20 RMB per jin ( 1 jin = 500 grams).

 

We came across this scene while we were walking with Shanghai based blogger and photographer Sue Anne Tay. She wrote an interesting post on the same event: http://shanghaistreetstories.com/?p=3554

 

The photos below are presented as thumbnails because of their potentially disturbing nature. They can be enlarged by clicking on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beijing, “Bull Fight”

 

Sound file of men playing the game and bystanders talking:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Between the Silk Market and the Bulgarian Embassy, a group of men is closely arranged around a 4 man gambling. Gambling is as common as it is illegal, so a few man keep watch while others follow the game. It is impossible to make photos of such an event, they would not allow for it. I watched the card game and made a sound recording. Each round at least 10,000 RMB changed owner.

The dialects spoken in the recording are at first a Sichuan dialect and after that all Anhui dialect. From what could be understood, the translation is:

“Tonight…”    “…watch the ball game.”    “That is hard to say.”    “Okay.”     “Have you picked? ” “I couldn’t get one.”     “Okay.”     “Bull fight!”  (Bull fight is the name of the game they are playing; it probably it originates from Anhui) “Ok ok ok.”     “How to play?”     “I’ll call him tonight.”     “Come on, speed up. Why are you so slow?”     “Fight him!”     “Great!”     “He arrived Sanbin, he arrived Sanbin.”

 

 

 

Beijing, The price of vegetables

 

 

A woman selling tomatoes on a market in MaLianDao, Beijing.

 

Following a shortage in vegetable supplies, currently China faces an over supply in the vegetable market. As a consequence a rapid decline in the vegetable prices is having a serious impact on the lives of farmers. It is said that this unexpected decline was the direct cause for some farmers to commit suicide. The Chinese government has taken actions to protect farmers from greater losses.

 

 

 

Beijing, Writings on the wall

 

This photo was taken in Beijing’s TuanJieHu Park. The translations of the readable writings on the wall are:

 

 

 

Liu Guodong (a person’s name)

 

Liu Haitao (a person’s name)

 

Love you my woman.

 

Han Wen (a person’s name)

 

I’m sorry.

 

About love, I did fucking try my best.

— Xiao Dai (a person’s name)

 

Han Wen, I’ll love you for all my life.

 

Zhan TianHao , Class 6 Grade 3 of junior high school

 

Give yourself a chance,

and you’ll be the happiest girl in the world!!!

 

Love

 

I’m looking for a real man.

 

Youth is the erection of the reproductive material.

 

A fast …

 

Looking for a loose woman.

 

Looking for a girlfriend.

 

I love the stupid girl.

 

Gou Dan (dog egg –

many names with “egg” in it are used for scolding)

 

Oriental ability and integrity. DongFang DeCai

(most likely a man’s name) has no bright future.

 

River water

 

 

Young chicks and ducks

 

Young chicks and ducks for sale on a street in an area of Beijing that Chinese call “chengxiangjiehebu”. Literally translated “chengxiangjiehebu”  would be “city-country-combination-part”. It is the name for areas that make you feel you are in a small village in the countryside, except that they are usually surrounded by new modern areas with highrise buildings. In these chengxiangjiehebu you’ll find street vendors, golf plated makeshift buildings for commercial and residential use and many migrants from the rural areas in China.

 

The chicks go for 1 RMB each and for the ducks the offer is: 2 for 5 RMB.

 

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