Construction never sleeps in China
To the editor:
It has been a year of adventure. Learning that the body is not as flexible as it once was. Learning that there is still something out there to learn about. And basically appreciating the fact that I get to see so many things here and at home that I never knew before.
Construction is one of those things that always attracts interest. Start building something and you attract a crowd. Lots of advice and lots of different ways to view that advice. Here in Guangzhou construction on a wide range of projects continues. The first sign that something is going to be built is the erection of a fence around a property. Chinese culture values walls. Every home has a wall. The art of the subtle wall is not known here. Growing up back home it was nothing to stop off at a neighbors field and look at what he was doing. You would be polite and pass the time of day if he came by.
In China, walls rule. After the wall is built, then the worker housing goes up. Perhaps it is a sign of some enlightenment that companies will work to provide housing and housing services to all workers. These are simple structures usually white exteriors with a blue roof and blue lines joining the pieces together. I am lucky in that I now can look out over a new construction site and peer into the gigantic hole that has been dug. Not certain what is going to be there but it is something that is big.
In the morning crowds of workers head over to the site from the dormitories. They leave behind their wives, and children and will spend all day working to build this next member of the skyline. In the evening the second crew comes to work to a chorus of brilliant lights. By midnight the work slows down to a trickle. Almost everyone is asleep.
When the sun rises its back to work again. Tilling the land to grow more concrete for shops, classrooms, homes, and all the other buildings necessary for a community. A few more months and this building project will be finished and the workers will move on to another project. Somebody is interested.
Thanks mom and dad for letting me see this wondrous world that lives and grows around us. The sun is brilliant as it rises in the east.
Orpheus Allison, MLA
Guangzhou, China
orpheusallison@mla.com
